Another super mornings field training with Matt of Dorntanza. Took Faith along for a couple of hours work and she didn’t disappoint, bless her she never does.
Worked her on various beats, emphasis was on my ground treatment and planning ahead which for me went well overall. For Faith it was about looking to me for direction less, we have this to work on as I’ve always over handled, this isn’t due to our obedience work although yes of course that does reinforce being close but more because I’ve over handled her from a young age when beating. I have no concerns regarding this though as I had done the same with my old lad Kodi and within a few sessions he came to realise that this kind of work wouldnt see me giving him input and that he was free to follow his nose far and wide as long as he listed for recall and stop whistles the world was his oyster!
Faith loved her morning, followed her nose more and more and confidence grew, she followed track of deer and as the birds were sitting tight and had gone to ground she tracked them through her crops and out and back in again really nicely. She did put up one bird and that landed again further up which she picked up again which was lovely to see.
We finished our day with some lovely long memory retrieves out of site and around bends etc. The first was left behind on the edge of some crop and we walked out of the field up through the forest edge then onto a track, up the track and stopped there. I turned her and as soon as I sat her I knew she already knew what I was going to ask and she didnt fail me, lovely retrieve brought to hand. Did a couple more and called it an end to a really great day! Looking forward to bringing on her field work this year and my ground treatment too.
