The Chance to Swim

Lumi and I often train near water, because I've found that nothing reinforces a behavior more for Lumi than the chance to swim afterwards.

Today, we worked on a variety of skills in a new location we've never worked before, with a pond giving us the special opportunity to set up a water retrieve as the reinforcer for correct responses.

TRACKING
I started the session by leaving Lumi in the van and laying a track for her, about 120 paces. Besides meandering a great deal, the track also contained some challenges: it went over a pile of rocks, through underbrush, and across and then down an old gravel road, in addition to stretches of weedy grass. I baited most of the track, but had a few stretches as much as ten paces, always on curves, with no bait.

Lumi did fine with this track, and gave a good down indication when she got to my wallet. I'm not sure if either of us learned anything new, but we both had good practice. Lumi continued to learn persistence in the face of challenges, and I continued to learn what Lumi looks like when she's off-scent. I feel that's a key skill for me, so that I'll be able to recognize it in case it happens someday when we're testing on a track where I don't know where the turns are.

After the track, we ran to the pond so that Lumi could swim a little before we started our field exercises.

RETRIEVING IN A "T"
For our first field training, we worked on whistle sits, backs, and overs using a "T" formation. I set it up so that as Lumi was completing the retrieve, I was running away from her and toward the pond. She would race to catch me and give me the dummy. Then I'd send her into the pond, cue "left", "right", or "go out" (straight), and throw the dummy to reinforce her response. When she'd return to me, she'd swing to left heel, I'd take the dummy, cue "shake", then toss the dummy on the grass or offer it for tug or both, and finally toss it near the pile of "used" dummies so we could head for the next rep of what we were working on.

That game may sound simple, but for Lumi, it seems to be an exciting sequence. As a result, she can hardly wait for the chance to make her next retrieve in the "T", knowing what's about to follow.

We set the "T" up with three dummies at left, three at right, and four straight ahead. The whistle sit was always in the middle, of course, and we used "back" spinning half the time to the left, half the time to the right. I tried to make the sequence as random as possible. In previous sessions, Lumi has begun to flag after a smaller number of dummies, but today, she was high the entire time. I'm pretty sure it was the swimming at the end that made the difference.

CASTING
Next, we worked on casting, that is, straight retrieves out and in, rather than bowed paths. We worked both in the water, and also across a little inlet of the pond with Lumi swimming across the inlet, retrieving the dummy on the land on the other side, and then swimming back. Because the inlet wasn't very wide, she could get to the dummy faster by running around on shore, so the challenge was to train her to take the straight path.

We made progress both in the water and across the inlet, and since we've been only working on casting for a few sessions, I'm pleased with where we are on this. At our last field training day, I had the opportunity to see a very experienced Lab doing this kind of thing, so it's given us something to aim for.

LONG RETRIEVES
Next we did a number of long retrieves. Since I wasn't familiar with the area yet, I had trouble finding a good place to set up a 200+ yard retrieve, so we started with two 100 yarders, one through the woods, and one over grass and then across an old gravel road. Lumi always seems most motivated by retrieving through woods, so I try to set those up when possible, but it's harder to find a place to set up long, straight distances.

At last, we walked about 200 yards down a mostly straight section of the gravel road, and where it curved, I threw Lumi's dummy straight ahead into the meadowy area in front of us. Then we walked back to the starting point and I sent Lumi to the retrieve. After a few seconds, she disappeared around a bend, and then she was gone from sight. But judging by the interval, she must have been at a full run the entire time, because soon she came tearing back around the bend with her dummy in her mouth, and I turned away and ran to the pon. She caught me before I got there, and we ran the rest of the way together. Then I sent her out into the water and threw the dummy out beyond her, leading her straight out into the middle.

Great fun, and a great way to end the session at our new pond.