The truck is fixed and running well. So it was back to the training grind again today. We ran a cheaty water double and worked on having the big dogs swim down the shore. This means the dog will swim parallel to the shore and not cut out early to run the bank. This is a pretty difficult concept to teach because it is obviously quicker and easier for the dog to run than swim. Kirby did great on this double. A had very small hunt on both birds but he was quite honest and stayed in the water the whole way through the swim.

After running our marks we set up a double blind. We ran back across the same location we ran marks for influence to get the dogs to try to cheat the water and catch them with their hand in the cookie jar to get a good teaching opportunity in. Kirby has been running crummy blinds this last week or so because of the battle I had to get in with him. Today, he looked a little better. He ran well on the first blind. It was a land blind about 100 yards long and through a tight keyhole between a couple of trees. He lined this blind and had good momentum. The water blind was a sharp angle entry, and they had to fight through running water before they go to the swim down the shore. Most all of the dogs faded right towards shore while in the running water. Kirby was the same. So I had to handle him back into water. He tried squaring the bank, so I handled again. This was a good teaching day for the dogs.