A wonderful days training was had by all the attendees, at Wyredale Park, for our first session of the season. Although its was cold the weather was kind to us and it didn't rain.
The puppies went first, and this class was taken by Tim Merrill. Tim started off spending quite a bit of time on heelwork, and had pups and handlers in a large circle, in turn weaving in and out of each other. Then they had to do it again, off lead if confident. Next thing he covered was steadiness, whilst pups in turn had a retrieve, then they did it again with a longer retrieve.
For the Novice class Tim was joined by Mike Nelson. The novice dogs and handlers formed two lines facing each other, about 100 yards apart. In turn each dog did a retrieve in front of the opposite line, then through the fall behind the line. They then did a hunting excercise using a tennis ball following on from a blind. Each dog did this in turn and then got another turn as the blind and hunting area was lengthened.
The Open class was split into two areas. Tim took two dogs at a time and shot tennis balls out of a launcher into cover in two different areas, and dogs were sent in turn to retrieve them. Then they did it again over a longer distance. Mike took his group up onto the hill and they started off with a long marked retrieve. Then they did a blind with a marked distraction, at quite a long distance. Mike finished off with a hunting excercise. Dogs had to hunt up an area containing shot and to be kept in that area, then they were recalled and sent back in for a dummy that was placed there.
An absolutely fabulous days training and we are already looking forward to the next one at Dalton Hall.
Thanks very much to trainers Tim Merrill and Mike Nelson and also to Mark Palmer for throwing dummies.