Well our little bit of backtracking seems to have paid off as I took the boys for four – and five- point drills last week and I did not have the issue with Q mouthing and dropping the bird or bumper which had started to become a thing, he did drop it coming out of water one time but he only needed reminding.

I was just really impressed with their five point drill – five cold blinds set up in a random order around a field – and them taking directions. They do not have much trouble sitting on the first whistle but sometimes they take the wrong cast if they are committed to a different path, that is where I do a nick + cast repeat and this is working really well. I had thought Prinz might be losing his hearing so I need to keep an eye on this.

My favorite technique I am learning for an incorrect path on a marked retrieve (like going around an obstacle) is light nicks for the wrong way then repeat it the right way and let them see how much more fun it is to go the right way. We’ve done this just enough that they’re understanding what the light nicks are for and self-correcting, it is really fun to see.

Well I think our biggest challenge is still going to be the whole sensitivity to the group environment and then any weakness that exists will come out, mostly water. For my water training I am doing the opposite of last year where I gave them all this difficult angle entries and I would stop them if they went the wrong way around the bank and resend, this I think messed up their muscle memory so now I am (for now) giving them only retrieves that are straight in no angles, until with muscle memory they are just super strong at going straight in, then I will gradually start adding some angles back in before we have our first senior test.