Buck did his first cast today!!!

Very excited this morning. Buck did his first "right" back and left back casts!!! I know its not much, but for us it was a success. Going to work some more this afternoon.

Started with a fun drill for remote whistle sit, got him to sit, threw the bumper directly over his head about 10-15 feet past him, then I moved over to the right a few steps until I saw him lean that way, gave the hand signal for right back, and away he went. Did the same thing for left backs. Got about 3 successful casts for both directions and called it for the morning.

Very excited, can't wait to move to full land T and start doing overs and am REALLY excited to get him on water T.

Congrats, thats awesome. I remember when bo did his first cast, ud think we figured out quantum mechanics and won a nobel prize. Its something when you accomplish those milestones when your not a pro.

Good job to both of you. One little tip, while you are here on three handed casting make sure you work on making the dog look at you through the entire cast. Restrain him with a check cord or verbal sit. Cast SLOWLY. This will pay off huge later.

Great news about Buck!

So I've done about 4 sessions now and moved to a Land T set-up without 1st and 3rd base, just using the centerline right now.

I'm sending him about 45 yards to the pile (2nd base), my pile is about 15 yards behind my pitchers mound.

I am stopping him on every other send off on the pitchers mound (to prevent popping) and casting him from there. We are strictly doing left backs and right backs, I don't even have bumpers on 1st or 3rd base yet (I don't want him even looking over there yet). I plan on working this another 3-4 days at 2 sessions a day and then move to mini T to start working overs if things go well.

One small issue I am running into that I don't know how to fix, he doesn't always spin around all the way when I blow the remote sit whistle (I'd say 2 out of 10 times he doesn't spin all the way around so he is square with me). Most of the time he does, but sometimes he will do it halfway. When he does this, I've been casting him whichever direction he is facing so he turns the right way and doesn't get confused. If he spins around all the way and sits, he'll take the cast perfect and spin the correct way, depending on the cast. So I need to clean that up before we continue.

Slow down. It takes a while to get this right (land handling series of drills). Tweet the dog in and then stop him again. Get the sit right in the yard because you will have sit issues when you go to field work. This is a process that doesn't happen quickly.

Tony,

I'm trying. The first few times I did the fun remote sit drill I'd pretend like I threw it and he would haul [censored] out there about 20-30 feet. I'd blow the whistle and as soon as he turned around, sat, and looked at me I'd throw the bumper. Now he watches my every move with that bumper and he no longer runs out when I pretend to throw it, he just automatically sits because he's figured out that is when the bumper gets thrown (that's why I switched to using the centerline of the land T).

I'm completely on board with not rushing this process... but I needed to get him further away from me somehow and the only way I could think to get him out far enough was by forcing him to the pile and then stopping him.

I'll try the whistle drill again tonight and see if I can get him charged up enough to run out there a little further without actually throwing it so I can sit him... but he literally won't take his eye of the bumper while it is in my hand. The other thing I thought about doing was calling him back to me a little if he did not spin completely around on the sit whistle, then stopping him on his way back to me, then sending him back to the pile once he is squared, but I'm worried that might confuse him.

All the research about sit whistle, and Land T is to NOT screw this process up because it is a basis for everything that follows. So I do understand NOT rushing anything, but I definitely want to clean up this half turn he's doing about 20% of the time.

Thanks again for the advice, it is always welcome and I'll continue to work on it.

I reread your post and I see what you are saying to do now :-) I'm going to put this to work this evening. Thanks!!!

Thanks Tony! Just to let you know, he did a halfway turn this evening while we were working. I called him to me and whistled him to stop after a few feet, which squared him up so I could cast him correctly. Helped out tremendously :-) I'll keep working a few days on it until he is sitting and turning on the whistle correctly every time.

Nice!!!!!