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Week of July 28, 2008
Here's a collection of some of the setups we did this week. Temperatures were not hot by North Carolina standards, but the high humidity make it feel as though I was much further south this week.
I changed the format of the summary by putting the most recent updates at the top of the page instead of at the bottom. Sorry I have been thin on details, for the past few weeks. We have been training hard and just not enough hours in the day to get the other stuff done.
As a matter of interest, I have been calling most of the marking setups "water". Closer to the truth, they are all land/water marks. For those keeping track, the MalcolmS site you see referenced in many of the daily summaries in a fantastic property that allows any combination of land-water marks. It has 5 main ponds numerous smaller potholes. I decided to run only marks on this site, even though any of the marks would make excellent training blinds. The nearby Modeller's site has been used mainly for blinds, it has a large pond and good shorelines that allow several hundred yard blinds.
July 28
July 29
July30
July31
Aug 1
Aug 2
Water Blinds Planned For Today.
Week of June 2
After an uneventful trip north, training restarted on June 5 with some conditioning work. I took a new route north from Reidsville. The first day brought me to Scranton, PA. Day 2 was the boarder crossing at Gananoque, Ontario and finally stopping at Trois-Rivieres, Quebec. The third day brought me into Sydney.
Photo's will follow. I'm playing with a format to use for the updates, for now I'll keep a running log of the setups. I will skip the yard work descriptions, the day starts with any or all of the following: Obedience, Force Fetch, Pile work or Single-T.
June 6 - Land Double, Land Blind at Behume2
June 7 - Land Double, Land-Water Blind, Marking Drill at Modelers Mound3
June 8 - 3-Peat Land Blinds at Modelers Mound2, Rain Delay!!!
Test Picture
Week of June 9
The big theme for this week is to prepare for the Sunpoke Field Trial at Minto, New Brunswick. The Sunpoke club is this year's host club for the 2008 Canadian National Open. I've run trials on this site several times but this year I'll really be watching for any new areas the club has opened up. The Sunpoke club owns a fantastic water property that was used for the 10 series of a previous National.
June 9 - Land Triple w/ Short Retired, Land Blind @ Behune3; Water Cheater @ MalcolmS
Order: M1 Middle, M2 Short Ret Left, M3 right.
M1 Thrown Right at 220yds; M2 Thrown Left at 120yds; M3 Thrown Right at 190yds
Blind: Deep between M1 & M3
June 10
Land Triple @ Behume1
This is a very tight set of training marks with a middle distance hill and a steep hill at the M1.
Order: M1, M2, M3
Water blind @ Malcolm S
There are 4 pieces of water enroute to this blind. Add in the angle entry/exits and 2 roads and you have a great land-water blind.
Marking Drill and Wagon Wheel Lining Drill
June 11
Water Triple with Long Retired Gun @ Malcolm S
M1 Middle Retired is tight to M2 Left bird thrown onto island, M3 thrown off a small dyke to flatland below
Water Blind at Modelers
Angle entry, over small island, cross point, parallel shoreline
Obedience/Steady Drill
June 12
Water Triple with Long Retired Gun at Modelers Small Pond
Land Triple with Long Retired Gun at Airport
Run on terrain very similar to a favorite spot used at the Sunpoke trial grounds.
June 13 - Today will be a travel day to Minto, NB Field Trial.
June 14-15 Click Here For Coverage of the Sunpoke Field Trial
Week of June 16
June 16 - Travel Day back to Sydney, lite conditioning work in the late afternoon
June 17
Land Triple @ Behume2
This setup has allot of terrain. The marks are thrown up on 3 separate hills, each line requiring an angle across a road.
Water Double at Malcolm S
Very tight double, both marks required 3 pieces of water, angle on/off point and angle across two roads.
June 18
Indented Water Triple @ Malcolm S
This one requires some explanation, I was able to indent the middle bird by using a roadway that has pond on either side. The order was M1 Left, M2 middle indented and M3 right. M1 required 3 pieces of water, M2 was thrown on the backside of the road on the same line as M1 and M3 was right across two pieces of water.
Water Cheating Singles
Singles were throw with the same concept; cross two points and take 3 pieces of water.
Marking Drill
June 19
Water Triple - Indented Middle Bird @ Malcolm S
Land Marking Drill
Land Blind
June 20
AM - Water Blind - Down the Shore over first point past second point@ Malcolm S
Mid Morning - Travel day to Charlottetown, PEI Field Trial.
June 21 - Click Here for Coverage of the PEI Field Trial at Charlottetown, PE.
Week of June 23
June 23 -
AM - Travel Day back to Sydney
PM - Walking Singles
June 24
Land Triple with Blind @ Behume2
Water Blind @ Modelers
Marking Drill
June 25
Land Double at Behume3
Water Triple @ Malcolm S
Training marks, working on indented concept making use of a road that separates the large pond from the small pond.
Will repeat next week with one retired gun.
June 26
Water Triple
This training setup was a repeat of a setup we did last week prior to the PEI trial. I changed the order and picked up the middle indented bird first. Previously, most dogs had problems with the middle gun so it was re-taught as singles and a different order (middle first).
Water Blind
Not too nasty, pass the first point, cross the second and third points.
June 27
Tight Land Triple
This training setup was tough. The 3 marks were very tight and thrown and singles. The key bird was the middle bird, which was thrown into the stand of cat tails with open land and the long gunner behind. If the dogs did not check up with the "easy" queue, they punched through the middle mark and ended up going long. Only one dog (cudo's to Max) did this setup without handling.
Next week we will try this as a triple, then add a retired gun at a later stage.
Land Blind
Mostly a down the shore blind but did have one point to cross.
Water Single
June 28
Land Triple with heavy cover @ Modelers
Marking Drill
Cheating Single
Week of June 30
Week of July 7
July 7
Water Blind at MalcolmS - 165yds
This water blind is a minature version of a blind I expect to see at the National Open. It requires a good entry, and stay in the water between the island on the right and the point on the left. Further along the left shoreline are 2 smaller channels to provide suction, esp. with a right to left wind.
July 8
Land/Water Marks at MalcolmS
We are starting to build on this setup. M1 is the key mark. The area of the fall is behind several small optional pieces of water as they can not be seen from the running mat.
July 9
Land Marks
Here's a new set of marks run at the MalcolmS site. This was put together as two singles for teaching purposes, but will be expanded into 4 singles then multiples with retired guns. The Key Bird in this setup will be M1, the line crosses a road in 3 locations, and the bird is thrown accross a 25ft wide water-filled ditch.
For future marks, a pond exists in the area between M1 and M2, with several small points and coves. A large network of ponds, islands and channels is immediately to the right of M2, you can just barely see the start of the water complex on the right side of the picture.
Water Blind
It was a long stay in the water shoreline blind, approx. 300yds
July 10
This was not a very productive day. The big truck had to be towed to the shop this morning with a suspected bad starter. The problem was less severe than anticipated, all the bolts holding the starter in place were either sheared off or missing. Once the starter was reinstalled, everything was working again!
Maintenance - Obedience tune up and force fetch for the youngsters.
Water Blind - A shoreline water blind at Modellers, 280yds over two points.
July 11
Land/Water Double at MalcolmS
This is a set of marks that I ran for the first time this year. As with the overall theme this week, these two marks will form the basis of a larger 4 mark setup. These two marks were run as a double instead of two singles. The left mark (M1) will become the right-middle mark when the full setup is run. M1 required two ponds seperated by a road, M2 required dogs to take a point and before re-entering the water for the mark.
Water Bind at Modellers
This was a crosswind blind (25km/hr crosswind) blowing onto the shoreline with a point that they must swimby. The wind was the major factor, everyone got tuned up on holding a line with the very attractive shoreline. I wish this was a test day instead of training, everyone did very well with only a few requiring minimal handles..
July 12
Water Marks at MalcolmS
The prevaling wind finally switch around to allow this set of marks. They are the same marks thrown in the indented triple last week but run from a different angle.
M1 required a good watery outlook from the dogs as they skirted the edge of two phone with small channels and coves. M2 was thrown in a tough to find location.
Pictue to follow.
Week of July 14
Week of July 21
July 21
Water Blind
Water Triple
July 22
Land Triple with Retired Gun
Land Blind
July 23
Water Blind
Water Cheaters
July 24
Land Quad
Land BLind
July 25
Land double
Water Blind
