Sunday practice

Out of happenstance, I did our practice exercises out of the usual order to very good effect.

Our first step was "the drill."  In that step, I sat Larsen and walked out about 30 yards, bringing Shoni along with me.  I planted a chukar and stood about 20 feet away.  I called Larsen.  He came a bit tentatively, and put the bird in the air.  I hit the whistle and he sat.  Shoni shot the bird.  I let Larsen sit a minute and sent him.

The second plant likewise was successful.  Larsen came in with vigor this time and flushed the bird.  I sat him, and then pipped him to a heel.  Then I sent him.

On both retrieves, Larsen set the bird down about 6 feet away and started playing, so I have to get him back on the table for some GFF (gentle force fetch using the Joe DeMarkis method).

Larsen's second turn was devoted to quartering.  No birds in the field.  Larsen quartered and periodically Shoni fired a shot and Larsen sat to the whistle.  Once or twice I tossed a dead bird, Shoni shot, and Larsen sat.  Larsen's quartering was crisp and vigorous.  Only at the end did he start to wise up as to the source of the bird tosses and start to hang around me.

The happenstance of all of this is that when I practice with Tim, we normally quarter Larsen first and then do the drill.  Larsen can be a little lackadasical on his quartering, because he's grown used to the fact that the birds come out of our pockets and not from a ground flush.  Doing the drill first and quartering second must have gotten it into his head that there were birds on the ground.

I was very pleased with his progress.  Very pleased indeed.  The next step, when it's time, is getting him to sit at the flush in a less-controlled situation.

I want to see if I can get a sit from him in a real hunt test.  That would signal that we are making genuine progress.