Outing at JL Lester

I met Sue and Gary R. at JL Lester on Sunday morning to steady Larsen a few times and to help Sue birdie up her puppy, Freckles.

We had to manage with only two pigeon.  With the first, I quartered Larsen and let him flush the bird.  The pigeon flew off,  Sue shot the blank pistol, and I hupped Larsen.  Larsen's quartering and flushes are not particularly pretty, but people have told me that that is to be expected while Larsen continues to figure out the new game.  What's probably more important is that Larsen sat and did not give chase to the bird.  I pipped him to me, sat him, and then quartered him again.

Once or twice, Sue shot the blank pistol and I pipped Larsen to a sit, which he did.  Larsen did not cheat much and I did not have to make too many corrections to his positioning, but his sits need to be a little quicker.

I tossed a clip wing pigeon here and there and Larsen sat or stayed sitting depending on the scenario.  I decided he was a little bored, so we quit and went in.

As Vicky D. has done, I dropped the pigeon behind me as Larsen and I walked toward the cars.  At about 40 yards, I halted him, turned him, and did an impromptu hunt dead.  Larsen took the "back" direction well and returned with the bird.

A good outing.  Larsen and I will continue seeing fly-offs until he starts to treat them as routine.  I also will start working with Larsen on directions.  He can do the "back" command.  He now needs to understand the "over" commands.