Water Work

I have briefly resumed our hunt trial training to begin water work!  It had been awhile since Zumi's last work with the real duck, and of course it was too cold for water practice then.  She has done plenty of toy retrieves in water last summer but nothing with formal rules about delivery (and really Zumi does zoomies with her toy!) and zero work on a retrieve being on the other end of the pond.

Luckily we have a small pond just behind our property.  Not the greatest pond, but if you're willing to walk through long grass and lots of ticks we can practice without ever having to get in the car and go for a drive!  

This past Saturday I took Zumi and her dokkens for practice.  Started out by throwing them in the water and then gradually progressing until it landed on the other shore.  Zumi needed lots of encouragement to get back in the water and not "run the bank" but she was successful!  I also learned she needs lots of practice with successfully keeping her mark after swimming.  If it landed anywhere at all in the long grass she had no clue where it was anymore after her swim.  

Day #1:

On Sunday I returned and this time took her dokkens and a real duck.  Her first throw of the dokken she was back to needing encouragement to swim back to me vs run again, but then she was solid!  And it's a pretty tiny pond, so easy to just run around!  I brought Adam with so he could drop the duck as I knew I couldn't throw it across.  Just a little bit of encouragement and then she rocked that too!

I think the biggest issue with her still is going to be willingness to immediately pick up a brand new duck in a new location.  We need to take her show on the road!