Another day on the rope

I teach one day a week at the local community college here on northern New Hampshire, so Wednesdays I don't have much time to work dogs. I did manage to get Veronica and Mariah out for some yardwork. I felt like I wasn't making any progress with Mariah and needed to get her attention. I attached a spike collar -- an old leather one with dulled copper spikes -- to the end of the checkcord. It didn't take long for her to stop pulling and to turn and come with out so much pressure on the line. She actual stood still and let me pose her up a little bit when we got to the barrel. Veronica is also progressing. Today when she was on the barrel I was able to walk all the way around her. Tomorrow, I'll see if I can pose her up and get a picture. Tomorrow will also be a day when I try to work the derbies in the bird field. Trey is the furthest along as we were able to flush and shoot birds for him last fall. His littermate June just wasn't ready to start pointing on her own last summer and still needs a checkcord in the birdfield. She did point some birds in Texas last winter. Trip who joined us late last fall hasn't had the bird exposure that the dogs raised here have had and is still pointing mice and tweetie birds -- I'm sure she'll outgrow that as we get her on planted birds -- once she is staunch enough I'll probably shoot a pigeon or two for her.