Had a bit of a panic that might even be a stretch but the lady said we could drop down to beginners if needed.
I shouldn't have worried as everyone was pretty much to the same standard as us with all sorts of HPRs.
First exercise was a heel off lead, stop the dog, throw the dummy out, walk half way back, stop the dog then send him back for the retrieve.
Chester heeled nicely (surprisingly!), sat to my whistle and stayed steady when I threw the dummy. We heeled back and he stopped again to whistle. Then came my problem - how would I send him back if I haven't taught him that?! Through various hand gestures and all different words he eventually went back and bought the dummy back to my hand. Overall I was pleased with his heelwork and the delivery as it's what we've been working on this week. I should've made sure he marked the dummy when I threw it. I was too busy worrying about making sure he didn't run in.
Second exercise was a heel off lead a lot further, throw the dummy over a small log (effectively hiding it), heel back and send him. The heelwork wasn't as good this time round with a cock of his leg (grrr) but I got him back on track. I was easily able to send him for the dummy as he was sent from heel and we're used to that. On the downside he didn't bring it completely back to me, dropped it just before.
We then had to do a split retrieve. It proved really difficult for everyone with dogs running all over the place, swapping dummies not retrieving etc. I said we'd have a go because even if it went wrong I wanted to practice the stop whistle. Walked to heel over to the left, lay the dummy down, walked back. Dummy thrower shouted from the woods on the right and dropped another dummy. I sent Chester for the left one and he got it. YEY. I then tried to send him for the right one but again because I haven't taught him a command he sort of just wandered off. I put in a stop whistle, he sat and I just recalled him back.
We then went off for a hunt in the forest which I thought he would be good at. He wasn't .....!! I still don't know what I am looking for in hunting/quartering but I knew he wasn't on usual form. The lady said he was just puppy hunting and sniffing around. I agreed and I knew there wasn't the usual enthusiasm. No excuse but by this time it was mid afternoon, we'd been out since 8am and it was pretty hot! However, she asked me to stop my dog. I did, he stopped. She threw a dummy, he was steady and then went in for a retrieve and bought it back to hand. Again, I was pleased with that bit. I did note that we've never really hunted in the woods, it's always in an open field so I need to put some time into this.
Really good day, I learnt loads including it's going to be very difficult to get to working test standard!
Chester got some well deserved chicken wings at the end :)
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