Our visit to Lake Country Retrievers on Wednesday was inspiring. Charles continues to progress with Luther on his Mike Lardy fundamentals. Luther is now doing patterned blinds. Patrick hides a pile of dummies on both the left and right sides of the field. Charles “aims” Luther towards one of the piles and sends him. If Luther deviates from the line, Charles blows a quick hard whistle and Luther wheels around and stops. Then, depending on the directional cast from Charles, Luther takes off in the given direction to find the blind retrieve. Plus Patrick is stationed in the middle of the field and throws ducks to both sides for retrievals. Luther was quick and accurate to get the blind or duck as directed. Jimmy and I were in awe of Luther’s accuracy. Sometimes the progress is less visible but this week it was huge.
After the foundation lesson, Luther got on Jim’s trailer and headed out with the other dogs for the wide open fields. Jim had Patrick set up a pile of dummies out of sight at the top of the hill. Luther had never been sent on a blind retrieve in the field before but managed it perfectly. In fact, Luther did this blind drill several times with total success. Between the blinds and running long duck retrieves through cover, it’s like Luther has been promoted to a higher grade at school.
It’s amazing to watch the progress in Luther’s training over the last 2-1/2 months. This week a number of lessons came together to create a big visual result. Jim, Charles, Prentice and Patrick have all worked together to give all the dogs first-class training. Luther is one lucky dog! 24 August 2011
