An evening swim

There is a lot to love about my two Gaylan's girls, and one of the top things on my list is their work ethic. These girls are always up for another adventure. After leaving the house at 12 noon, working for an hour or more between them at the kennel club, running errands with me, waiting in the van while I laid Page's track, we finally got home ... for 20 minutes. The stop at home was only for dropping off the boys and a potty break for the girls. Plus I had to switch vehicles and get my field stuff for Devon. Then we headed back to run Page's 437 yard track and do a "short" field drill for Devon.

Devon did a nice drill. I set up a 110 yard sight blind for her; I didn't realize it was 110 yards when I set it up, so as usual I set up something harder for Devon than I intended. Unfortunately I forgot my nice sight blind stick, so I tried to use small flags. That didn't work and Devon struggled since it wasn't really a "sight" blind if she couldn't see it. I realized my mistake quickly before I did any harm, put Devon back in the SUV and took a white bucket out to mark the blind.

The look on Devon's face was remarkable when she came back out. She was much happier and worked the drill for me. We still had problems with coming in on overs. I fixed that by throwing some orange bumpers to her right and sending her to them. She also kept turning the wrong way on a right back. I had to tell her to sit 4 times in a row before she got that one right. But we got out of it without any battles and I think it was a positive, learning experience.

So after all that work, I decided to take the girls to the back of the property where I knew there was a small pond. I haven't been back there in a couple of years, but I hoped the water level was better with all the rain we've had recently. We were in luck! The pond looked great.

I took two bumpers with me, but I didn't hold any hope of Page actually retrieving them. After her last swim when she almost went under retrieving a ball, I figured she'd wait a while before doing any more water retrieves. Boy was I wrong! She charged right into the water and swam. And when Devon swam out after a bumper, Page went right after her and stole it.

The next time I threw two bumpers, knowing I could send Devon after a bumper left in the pond on a "back." I didn't have to worry. Page went right out after her bumper. It helped that the pond was very shallow; to the left Devon never swam and Page was touching bottom most of the way. But to the right both girls were swimming.

I had to go back and get the camera to capture the fun these two girls had, especially Page. Here are Page's first bumper retrieves in water!

Make sure you watch closely as Page exits the pond ... she trips and her head goes completely under!

Apparently the head dunking didn't affect her much!

Later, I sat Devon on an honor and just threw for Page. I see the first stages of a flashy water entrance here! And yes, each time she came out of the water, she curled up and dropped her bumpers in her "spot" in the grass. She didn't bring them back to me, but she was close and she never ran away with them! I'll take it!

After more swimming, the girls took a short walk to dry off. We went home and had dinner. After all that work today, it shouldn't surprise you both girls are already fast asleep with Page in "bed."

And Page was really something as I was downloading the clips from the camera to the computer. Page, who never wants to be held, kept asking to come up on my lap at the computer and watch that cute Golden on the screen. She was fascinated first by the clicker that she could hear on the computer, then by hearing me talking to her from the computer and finally watching that very smart Golden who looked like her.

Page sat for more than 15 minutes on my lap watching videos. I guess she had just as much fun as I did today!