Out on one of the farms this morning with the spaniels.

I realised that I've not really been mixing things up with Newt lately, we've been working on his hunting and have done naffall retrieving/stop whistle/hunt whistle work. With that in mind the first exercise I wanted to use the hunt & stop whistles, as well as some steadiness.

The little man did really well, especially considering his biped set the dummies up the wrong way round! By that, I mean the 2nd (and hardest) dummy was put slightly downwind of him but he coped well.

We haven't really worked on straight lines when retrieving so I put my hat down as a mark, and a slight distraction the mark was intentional, the distraction a bonus! Either way, he went on the right line and stopped when asked, winner.

Picking the cap up also provided another steadiness lesson. After that we did some hunting, not quite into the wind but fairly close, followed by a second double retrieve to incorporate sit/wait/hunt whistle/going out & stopping.

I managed to put the dummies out more sympathetically this time (!) but initially didn't leave the cap as a mark and he struggled alittle. Once that was corrected all went well.

Then a memory retrieve to finish. Yes he isn't always holding the dummy for me, but, we can work on that.

We swapped dogs at that point so Newt could chill in the car but after Baloo & Martha had done thier training I decided to try a couple of blinds for Newt. I put the post out as an obvious mark for him and a dummy infront & one behind. Although the distance wasn't far (sucess is the aim after all) it wasn't as close as it looks honest!

Regardless of distance, he got two genuine blinds under his belt and got sent back to the same area after a successful retrieve.