One for two

Larsen was one-for-two at Tim's on Sunday.  I'm talking about a sit-to-the-flush without a check cord.

The first unfolded perfectly in the sense that his birdiness enabled me to move up on him, and the flushed bird shot straight over my head, so that the geometry was Larsen, Frank, bird.  Tim shot the bird, which fell at the tree line.

We continued hunting Larsen, not letting him bolt to the tree line.  Only after a number of casts, pulling Larsen back in, and some sits while Tim and I talked, did Tim think it was time to send Larsen for the dead.

Larsen did not forget where that bird was, and he fetched it quickly.  His retrieve was notable for its sloppiness, and we took some time to work on it.  I could tell that Tim was warming to a project dog insofar as Tim would like to have as one of his training calling cards dogs with clean, professional retrieves.

On the second, unsuccessful flush, the bird shot out away from me, and low, suckering Larsen into a chase, which he did with his customary vigor.  We've come far, but we still have an awfully long way to go.  I maintain hope that these drills will synch in his head and he will suddenly become steady, but hope is not a very good training method, and I know that, so we'll go back to the field and try something old and something new once again.