I took yesterday off. The day started off cold but warmed up pretty nice but I didn’t train dogs. That’s the good part of being retired. If you don’t want to work, don’t. I cleaned the garage and shot skeet.
Today Don brought his pointers, Kate and Annie, over to work on backing and he worked them on my whoa barrel. I set the backing dog out, with a pigeon in a release trap, where, when the dog came around a cedar tree the backing dog was a surprise.
Don put Annie on the chain gang and started to the bird field with Kate on a check cord. About half way to the backing dog Kate pulled the check cord from Don’s hand and was getting ready to show her heels when she rounded the cedar tree, saw the backing dog and slid to a perfect back. Her head was up, staring at the backing dog, with a 12 o’clock tail. I walked in front of her, flushed the bird, and laid the backing dog down. Don said she new that she was supposed to honor a dog on point but she didn’t think he knew.
Don put Kate back on the chain gang and brought Annie around on the check cord. When she came around the cedar tree and saw the backing dog she slowed but didn’t stop until Don stopped her with the check cord. I was watching her and her tail went straight and rigid as soon as she saw the backing dog. When Don stopped her she backed up, then moved to the end of the check cord, then backed up again. Finally she stopped and I flushed the bird, then laid the dog down. She knows whoa but isn’t totally whoa broke.
Don took her back to the chain gang then put her on the whoa barrel and I put a pigeon on a string on a heavy duty rod and let it fly close to her. Time after time she came off the barrel and Don put her back. I started about 10 yards away from her and when she stayed on the barrel I moved closer. She was really hyper and continued to come off the barrel. Then as we watched, I moved the bird in close, and she was no longer hyper. She pointed with intensity but the hyperactivity was gone. I put the bird in a bag and Don put Annie back on the chain gang.
He brought Kate to the barrel and she showed us she had been on one before. She never came off the barrel once. I worked the bird closer and closer but she knew not to move her feet.
I put out 2 birds for each dog. We worked Kate first and she pointed her first bird with her head level with her back and a 12 o’clock tail. She is staunch on her birds. Her second bird was almost a carbon copy of the first.
Then Don brought Annie out for her 2 birds. She was on the wrong side of the first bird so we decided to go to the second and come back to the first. When she got close she pointed with a lot of class. Both of these dogs have 12 o’clock tails. She stood for a while, then took a step and I flushed the bird. Then we worked her back toward the first bird. The wind was swirling around and she was too close when she pointed. Don picked her up and set her back. When she moved I flushed the bird.
We had used all the pigeons I have and they were setting on my house instead of flying back to their home. We decided to shoot some skeet and the pigeons would be home by the time we came back. We spent too much time at the skeet range and Don had to leave to beat the rush hour traffic.
He’s going to work Annie on whoa and the next time he comes over I will use one of my dogs to see if Kate will back a real dog. We still need to work Annie with backing dog silhouette a time or two. But if she really gets whoa down good she will get backing down pretty fast.