
Gea and Pretty worked together (one was an honouring dog, the other had to retrieve, and then they switched roles). 1st exercise was single mark with the dummy launcher (and the 1st launching of the PVC dummy ended very awful - see picture on the left), for each girl 2 times. All following exercises were with rabbit dummies, one like a standard dummy, one with very light and small dummy inside the huge rabbit sock. The 2nd exercise was 90o double mark, 3rd exercise 180o double mark. They did everything perfect or at least there was the progress (delivery to the hand (Gea was perfect, Pretty close to perfect - for their current level), run there and back again, nice straight line and search; just Gea did "a sound" in the beginning, but then she was silent again).
The only thing I have to do is to replace small light dummy inside the rabbit sock with a standard dummy, because they do not shake the big one, but the small one is being constantly killed.
Šejk was the last among retrievers. Because he makes "fun" from his handler here and there, he had to earn the working time with his handler (i.e. he had to watch from the car other two retrievers working with the dummy launcher... - he did not understand why he had to wait and was probably afraid that he will not be able to have fun). He (and Drobižek) were barking and having not a very nice time in the car, but after a while they "relaxed" and got quiet. When he got out from the car, he finally got his chance. 1st exercise was obedience i.e. walking on the loose leash. The FT retriever leash was replaced for a textile collar and a normal leash. He started to work much better (because he did not get the modelling from the leash, but he had to think and cooperate with the handler from whom he got also the rewards for the nice heel work). The 2nd exercise was the recall in a completely new way for him (he likes to be chased, so we had to put this to end and turn his way of having fun upside down). He was held when his handler was running away from him (he did not know this territory), calling him until she was hidden. Šejk was immediately sent to find her. In a way it was very difficult for him, because he used just the ears (his handler had to recall him here and there with the whistle recall, because he did not know where to go from the certain points on - he did not use the nose). When he finally found his handler, he was Rewarded with a big R. We repeated this exercise for 4 times, when he got the point of the exercise and was really happy. Every time was the starting point the last finding point. The new finding point was always a new one. The recall worked perfectly (whistle) and he was always fast. Then he was let to relax, run around us, when we were walking towards the working place, where Gea and Pretty worked. He had to visit all the orange flags (we used for our easier sending), smell them - he did not pee on them (it could happen, you never know what goes on in boys' heads). When we got to the working ground, he came to the hander immediately to start working. The sending point was near the forest, that the handler could hide when the recall started. His 1st exercise was single mark, where he run to pick up the dummy and he also retrieved it nicely (not with handler chasing him, but with him chasing the handler). The exercise was such a big success, that his next exercise was 45o double mark, where the 1st mark was further away and guarded by the "bird boy", the 2nd mark was on the left and it was the 1st to be picked up (the handler could send onto this mark with blocking the 1st mark already in the line). He picked up the mark very nicely, wanted to go shopping for the memory, but started to chase the handler, when he realised that the handler is going to hide again in the forest somewhere. The retrieve was perfect (and also the handler did not take the dummy from him too soon, but has shared it with him for a shorter time). The 2nd retrieve was also very nice, just because the handler was at a certain point running in the pasture, Šejk was not enough "scared", so he took time to pie a little bit and then to come. In general, he has also shown a huge success in all aspects. And we know now in which direction to work.
After Šejk it was Drobižek's turn. Barbara bought preboiled tripe for him (she could not get any other), let them in the fridge for more than a weak. They were smelling so bad...
Justina had the only one proper shoes for tracking, so she had to make 3 trails for Drobižek of different lengths. Tripe were being lost from the pieces on the rope, and at the end, it was just a small piece.
When Drobižek came to the track, he peed on the 1st piece of the tripe, the next piece he just smelled... but his nose-work was absolutely perfect.
Barbara did not want to do with him the 2nd and the 3rd trail, because Drobižek peed on the smelly tripe. But after he started to lick the bowl where the tripe were, she took him to finish the 2nd and 3rd track. He worked nicely, was completely concentrated on the smell on the ground, but at the end of the 3d track, he ate just few pieces of the tripe, not the whole pile. They really smelled, and they must have been disgusting, because even Drobižek did not ate them.
All dogs went with this training level up i.e. they did not perform the mistakes they were usually doing.