The last couple of days have been a break down Kirby's attitude and get him back to respecting me as a trainer. I took him to the point yesterday where he wanted to quit working, but I forced him through it and made him finish the task at hand. It all started with him being hard headed and thinking he knew where the blind was planted better than I did. He started blowing off sit whistles and started auto casting. This is where he doesn't wait for me to cast him a direction, getting him closer to the blind, but decides he wants to go on his own and not work as a team with me. So, I broke him yesterday and really hounded him for every little bit of defiance he gave me while he was supposed to be sitting rock solid. His blind running will be horrible for the next week or two but it needed to be done.

On the other hand, his marking has been exceptional and he has been one of the top 3 dogs on the truck. This is exciting to me because marking is what wins trials. Blinds are usually pass fail and Kirby is a consistent and very good blind runner. His marking needs to be on point for us to win. And if he keeps this up, we will win before we head back to Minnesota.