Field set up for Devon

Today was heaven and hell for Devon. Her heaven was she got to go get ducks. Her hell was her handler doing a less than stellar job of helping her out. The last time this dog ran marks was probably the WCX test in October. That didn't occur to me until after we'd run the set up the first time.

As usual Steve and I set up marks that were harder than we expected. I can't tell you how long these marks were, but I'm guessing the "go" bird was at least 100 yards away. The fall was on the face of a hill, but the dog had to charge through a section of heavy cover, then charge up the hill once they cleared the cover. All the dogs thought the bird was closer to the cover than it was, and they had problems getting up on the face of the hill. The second mark was probably 70-80 yards out. Most of the run was in short cover with the bird landing in heavy cover, forcing the dogs to charge into the cover.

It would have helped if I had run this as two singles, then put them together as doubles. Nope, I ran Devon cold on a double. Bless her for hunting up both birds. She never gave up, although she buzzed the gunners stations to say hello to Steve and Janet a couple of times. I'm sure in her nicest way she was asking for a hint because her mother was such an idiot!

I remembered to set up a sight blind for her to run after the marks. I set the blind in heavy cover to the right of the second mark. I knew it was long, but it looked straight forward to me. Boy, was I wrong!

I didn't take into account the blind was less than 45 degrees off the line of the second mark. Devon wanted to mark the second fall instead of the blind. I finally got her to settle in and mark the blind, so I sent her. She got halfway out and pulled left toward the mark. She responded to my whistle to sit. I started to do a right over, but she popped and took off to the mark area. I blew another sit whistle, but it didn't matter.

I called her in and she ignored that too. I hated to do it since the whole thing was really my fault, but I knew she wouldn't come in without a collar nic. I blew the come whistle and nic'ed her and in she came. Good girl!

This time I walked up on the blind about halfway to diminish the influence of the mark. It worked. Devon settled in and lined the blind. Later I walked it off and once I walked up on it, it was a 50 yard blind. I'm thinking it was at least 70 yards from my initial line.

The second time I ran the set up, I did it as two singles, then a double. This helped Devon's marking. I also didn't ask her for the long blind, but again walked up to where she was successful the last time. She lined it again.

I asked Devon to honor several times, and she did a fine job. She watches the marks and occasionally flinches with the dog is sent, but she isn't even thinking about breaking for the bird.

Devon did a great job today, in spite of her handler. I really do think she'll be successful in senior even with her handicap of a green handler. It's a good thing she's a really great dog!