Sunday at Danny's

We practiced on a cold day that got progressively clearer. It warmed up in the sunshine, as you might expect in Alabama, but remained cold under the trees.

We had a nice group, with Marilyn's Graham, Shoni's Sunny, Mary's Caden. Another group included Susan's Tatum, Betsy's Spike, Adrean's Cobbie, Coralie's Rowdy, and Roger & Kristie's new little dog (name unknown to me).

Larsen ran without a check cord, and he took off several times for fly-away birds. His recall was very good. Very good indeed. But we are working on being steady. Larsen's quartering on the first go-round was sloppy. Marilyn thought he was anticipating the game. On the second turn, it was much better. He hunted with true verve.

I will have to ask Joe DeMarkis on how to run that drill. Those long run-offs clearly did not help with steadying. I may have to retreat a step or two and just toss the birds about him and whistle him to a sit.

As I reconsidered the day, I wonder if having skipped the bird toss on our second turn was a mistake.

At day's end, I decided to do some water work with him. The others decided to head out, so we went to the pond by ourselves. We did a little landwork. I planted some very long hunt deads, with him watching me from a hupped position. He loves hunt deads and delights in showing me what a smart dog he is. He sits patiently while I head out across the way and hide the bird (in his full sight) out in the woods somewhere. When I return and send him, he takes off at full steam, finds that bird, and heads back. He is so smart.

We did a few hunt deads and then decided to do a water blind. This is, in fact, a hunt dead that crosses water. I sent him across the rivulet, and he found the bird without any direction. We then did a full-fledged pond retrieve and one more hunt dead for fun.

During this, Larsen's returns were a bit short, but this changed when I changed. It was just Larsen and me, after all, in the waning afternoon. I looked at the blue sky and felt the new chill as the sun tipped down and I relaxed. I decided just to look away from him as he came in. I let Larsen hold (but not pluck at) the retrieved bird. All was right. As you might expect where this is going, his retrieves were right to hand.

A happy end to a day when otherwise there was not a lot to show. Maybe we made some progress after all.

Larsen finds a spot in the front car seat after a tough practice.