It isn't all work and no play

 

We are back up in Harrisvlle, Michigan again this year for the Blind Challenge. The pros place all kinds of blind retrieves out and for two days you pick and choose which ones you want to run. It is very stressful on the dogs as well as myself as it takes a great deal of teamwork as these are very hard blinds. If you can run these well you should ace any hunt test blind out there. Both dogs came out with the worst attitudes I have ever seen either dog display. I really feel they remembered from the start what they were in for and were not happy. Very slow running (mostly walking) and tail down pretty much saying this sucks as there are only dummies, no birds. However, they did execute the blinds and took handles from me almost flawlessly!!! On Sunday they both did a very very loooooong blind and the trainer said they were the first to complete them!!! Wasn't sure Chiloe would pull it off but wasn't shocked either......after all, he is my partner to the end. Chase....another story LOL....I thought I would just try to run him to the middle dummy which in itself is a very tough blind but as he got near it I saw he still had some confidence so I thought what the hell and kept him going. It was not as nicely done as Chiloe but he got it done!!! I was very proud of the little guy. It took guts and most of all trust in me to get him to the bird. A very big step in the right direction for both of us. As the pictures show, at the end of the day, we walked across the street to the beach. The boys got their swagger back quickly as we just swam around and crashed some waves to get rid of some stress. We all loved this!!LOL