More Birds

Training for a new sport is so interesting!  Maybe I'll never take this stuff very far but learning new foundations will always captivate me!

Vito has been the most fascinating.  When the pigeon I was using got a little torn, Vito turned into Savage Toller!  In this session I learned that I needed to stick with holds before re-progressing back to short retrieves.  I also eventually realized I needed to make the release cue very calm to prevent Vito from wanting to re-grab the bird as his "reward."  Fascinating stuff!

Later I got Vito back to the duck.  His first non frozen duck.  And interestingly enough Vito was a bit more hesitant again.  Not sure if it was due to the difference in size, taste, or just general conflict in knowing that I didn't want him to eat it!  I ended up having better luck with the bird on the ground again and doing short retrieves than doing holds.

Today's session I just focused on short retrieves.  Skipped the holds until the very end when I would ask him to sit after he picked it up.  A bit more wanting to pluck feathers came out but still pretty minimal overall.

And Zumi has continued to do great working with a real duck.  No issues at all picking it up and only occasional issues with holding it.  This last weekend was the first time we added in diversions while retrieving a duck and also introduced doubles with a duck and a dokken.
Biggest issue right now is her ever lifting butt!  Some sessions she remains insistent on completely standing and I have to go out and retrieve the duck myself until she is capable of remaining in a sit.  Thankfully she's never actually completely broken the stay and left without a release.