Standing their ground

At a recent training session, all of my dogs were running well, handling and stopping, hunting hard and generally being very pleasing. However, the ground was a little different to what they’re used to. Most of my ground at home is either relatively flat or gradual inclines. Water tends to be either simple streams or larger ponds and lakes.

The ground I was on was much more unforgiving. It had small gullies, ditches and banks, which made straightforward lines extremely difficult. An easy marked or memory retrieve was not as simple as I first thought. The way the ground fell meant the dogs were being pulled left and right.

As I sent them each time, they were veering and running with the way the ground fell. For a shorter retrieve, this was not usually an issue as they were not too far from it once they got the distance.