The Party Crasher

August 15, 2009
Jersey, GA

Another training day, but not a successful one. I blame the both of us.

Not knowing how hot it would be that day, I had not ordered any birds for her, so except for a few runs through the empty fields, we watched others hunt up birds, with Tessa on the check cord, and that didn't sit well with her. I used the situation to practice "whoa" and heeling but it was tough. In the end I had to take her back to the car as she was over-exciting herself.

We proceeded to the pond. Things went well at first with just us and a few puppies at the pond, and Tessa fetched every dummy I threw. But then others showed up and Tessa turned out to be quite the party crasher, leaving her dummies afloat in the middle of the pond to swim over and grab the other dogs' bumpers, decoys, dead birds. Even those she would only bring halfway before she went after the next one - she wanted all of them! We were obviously disrupting the others' work so back on the check cord she went. I always end each training session on a positive note but today it was really hard to find one.

I like to think she still benefited from the 4-hour outing, getting some good exercise at least, and more exposure to gun shots, but overall, we were not where we should be and I was at a loss. So back to the yard work we go, obedience, controlled fetching exercises, more check cord work and no ponds for now.