quick update

Training update #1: well, I was pretty much wrong. I didn't have to use Momo's e-collar at all. Admittedly all we did today was a bunch of 'Take', 'Hold' and 'Come' with a frosty, frozen chukar... which is to say he was lunging to take the bird from my hand on command, held it like a champ, and if I walked away after calling 'Stay', he brought it right to me on 'Come.'

Now, again, with only one minor blink on his part readily corrected with encouraging words, I deliberately kept things light -- and broke everything down into two 10min sessions in the middle of a walk with just him. I wanted to take out any residual stress of being put through a strict training ritual and try to make things fun (and more realistic) by having him take and hold a bird at random points out in the woods. That seems to have worked. There's a long way to go.

Will be out of bloggery for a couple of days. If you can decipher my DOPPLR widget, you'll see that we go up to Saugerties, NY, this afternoon to spend two days at a lighthouse!! Because we wanted a weekend and because we have dogs (and therefore need to rent the whole thing), we had to book this 14months ago. Joey, Kerry + Jas are coming up tomorrow to spend the night... and as we all know now, Joey = beer. So hopefully we'll have some nice pics to share of the whole shebang.