Page's "field" training

Right now Page is in the pre-force fetch puppy fun marks stage of field training. I throw marks for her on land and water whenever Devon trains. On land I keep the 40 ft. tracking line on her just in case she decides to "trieve" (and keep the bumper) instead of "REtrieve." So far she's been very good about bringing the bumpers back in my general area. I make sure I praise her a lot and pet her with the bumper in her mouth.

This week Janet has been nice enough to throw some bumpers for us, and Page has done well with that. On Friday when we got together as a group and did marks, I walked Page over to where she could hear the duck calls and gun shot, get a good view of the duck in the air and see Zoe and Archie explode out for their retrieves. Page watched intently the first couple of times, but then fell back into the 4 month old puppy ways of finding something more interesting to do (like tearing grass up by the roots).

After the "big dogs" ran, I walked Page very close and had Janet step out from the blind and throw Page a mark. She got the complete duck call, gun and bumper, and she loved it! She flew out to get the bumper! And when she picked it and we cheered, she decided to go see that fun lady that threw for her! Ah well, puppies! I threw the bumper and she got interested in it again. And a second throw by Janet went much better as Page went out, grabbed it and came back to me with the mark.

I'm sure this is just the beginning of a great field career!