At gundog training this morning we were teaching the dogs to ignore a thrown dummy unless we instructed them to fetch it. We did this by having one person and their dog in the centre of a circle while the other seven threw a dummy towards them, the person in the centre then picked up all the dummies and threw them back over the dog’s head, all to be done off lead if possible. Fletcher managed to keep still for the exercise so I was proud of him. Following this I was in the advanced class with my other dog Nuala who played up as much as she could, running off with dummies and refusing to bring them back, I was on the point of bringing her home when she did two perfect retrieves, the second was a blind retrieve from heavy cover so she redeemed herself in the end. Now they are snoring gently on their beds.
Art by David 