A multi-breed training session

Everyone gets a pre-training run

Drahthaars, an English Setter, English Pointer, Labs, and my Spinone made up the collection of dogs involved in Saturday morning’s training session. It was the first session of the year with my trainer and I was interested in seeing how Doc and Mia did, particularly with honoring.

Working on a Drahthaar pup’s steadiness.

We let the dogs out for a 10-minute run to take the edge off their energy level prior to training, then began the session with a Drahthaar pup. The pup did a very nice job for the amount of time he’s been training and I videoed the session to be sent to the pup’s owner.

Mia on point

We worked Mia next, bracing her with an English Setter. She was very steady on both point and honor, and was rewarded with a retrieve. Upon sending Mia out for the retrieve, the bird took off flying with Mia on it’s tail. A couple hundred yards later she ran it down and made a very nice retrieve.

Mia on point with a setter pup honoring

Mia retrieving a pigeon after a long chase

Mia honoring the setter pup

A Chocolate Lab pup was worked next on his whistle-sit command and was rewarded with a couple of retrieves.

Working with a Chocolate Lab on the whistle-sit command

Next we braced Doc with an experienced English Pointer but after an extensive hunt, neither dog was able to find the planted pigeon. We hate losing a carded bird but there was no finding it, and we assume that it must have flown off, perhaps into a nearby wheat field.

Doc on point with a Drahthaar pup honoring

After the pointer, we braced Doc with another Drahthaar pup and both dogs did a nice job of pointing and honoring. After working with them, we sent Doc out on a blind retrieve. Perhaps it was our earlier work on honoring, but Doc only brought the bird part of the way back before dropping it. He seemed confused about retrieving it so I walked with him towards the bird; he then ran to it and retrieved to hand.

Doc honoring the Drahthaar’s retrieve

Doc and Drahthaar pup on point

For his second bird, Doc did a very nice job of pointing and was rewarded with the retrieve. This time when I sent him out, Doc chased the bird down and made a very nice retrieve.

Doc retrieving a pigeon

In all, I was very pleased with both Doc and Mia, who were both very steady on both pointing and honoring. The only real issue was that they need a lot more aerobic conditioning.

Bota bags are perfect for watering dogs

After returning home, I took Elvis to the snowmobile races, but that’s another story.