Retrieval Work

Today I took Vito to a school yard for the first time to work on some retrieving stuff. I'm still toying with the idea of getting his JH eventually so figured I better start training something.

I first got him used to the place by walking him around on a loose leash, treating him for staying near me and ignoring everything on the ground. I really have no clue what I'm doing in terms of retrieving work, but thought I would start with a few "happy bumpers." Then I worked on Vito getting used to a thrower, his Daddy, but still bringing the bumpers into me. We haven't done a ton of work with that yet, but Vito seemed to be doing just fine with quite a lot of encouragement from me. I threw only 3 doubles, which Vito kind've screwed up on the last two. I held his harness to make sure he wouldn't go after the first mark, and released him as soon as I was throwing the second. But apparently Vito didn't even see my hand with the 2nd bumper as he rocketed straight towards the first bumper. So this was my fault as I should have made sure he was paying attention to the second bumper before throwing it. (Properly done, Vito should have retrieved the 2nd bumper first, and then gone out to bring me the first one).

I switched to using a tennis ball after a couple throws since Vito seemed to be getting a little bored with the bumpers and I want to quit on a good note with them. With the tennis ball Vito goes insane, so I made sure to lightly grab his harness and not release him to "get it" until he was in a sit without any pulling forward. I definitely heard some toller screams!
Oh, Lance is feeling better today. Waking up this morning he seemed to have no hint of pain when being touched or even picked up. So who knows!

And apparently corgis CAN fly! (I just wished I was zoomed in closer, this is already cropped!)
I know Lance probably shouldn't have been cleared for take off since he was in some pain yesterday, but he really wanted to come and I just couldn't resist that face :)