TK Goes to School: Our 5th Visit!

This week's update is a little different! Sadly, I was unable to go because I had a big test to study for, but it was special too! Since I wasn't able to tag along, and I didn't experience the visit first hand, I asked Matt, my brother, to write up a post for today! 

What you may not know about Matt is that he is wonderful with words. I can't wait for you to read about him and his little buddy! 

So, here goes! 

{from Matt}

This visit with my little buddy was special for more reasons than one. My grandmother "Mimi" got to go with us to see him for the first time since he left for the trainer.

Like we all had, Mimi had grown very close to TK when he was still a small puppy. This was very different because Mimi has never really been a pet lover, but from the first time she saw TK she embraced him basically like a great grandchild just as I had embraced him as a child. She would just come to my house without me there for no other reason than to spend time with TK. Like I said, this was very out of the ordinary behavior for Mimi, but seeing her love him seemingly as much as I do makes my heart smile.

As you can imagine, TK has grown considerably since Mimi last saw him, so it was shocking to her, I think, to see how big he had gotten.

She also expressed the concern on the ride over that he had probably forgotten her. My mom got to go back for the first time in over a month and she too was concerned that TK had forgotten her as well, but of course he had forgotten neither of them and was so excited to see everyone, as usual.

Of course, everybody wanted to see what he had learned since they had last seen him. Trainer Matt was not there on this visit due to an evening scheduling conflict, so it was up to me to exhibit TK's knowledge base for the eager crowd, and I was ready for the challenge.

TK performed his "Sit", "Heel", "Place", "Down", and "Over" (right and left commands) nearly flawlessly and, of course, his crowd was stunned and he was rewarded with abundant applause.

After some play time we pulled the retrieving bumper out. This is where we had gotten a little stuck in a rut on the last visit. Force fetch had been a challenge for TK. He was not wanting to "Hold" on the last visit under any circumsances.

After releasing the bumper down range, I looked to see that TK had a good mark, and I released him from heel by calling his name. He took a good line to the mark, just beyond some duck decoys set out for distraction, and he found the bumper and came back for delivery. This is the point where the problems were pronounced on the last visit; he would come back to the handler and drop the bird at the handlers feet or 5 feet out front or really where ever he pleased. On his first retrieve of the day he came all the way back, I gave the heel command and he obeyed, bird still on hold, I gave the sit command and he held until I took the bird from his mouth. A flawless retrieve was achieved and again the crowd went wild. You could tell he was very proud of what he had done, but he was no prouder than his owner, without a doubt.

Over the course of the rest of the rest of the visit he continued to display his skills and continued to show everyone that he indeed would "Fetch Up" anytime the command was given and assured everybody that he was just taking his own time to get thru force fetch.

We had some more play time before we departed and you could tell that he as still very excited that we were all there, and he of course had to go ahead of us back to the kennels to tell his sister and all of his buddies that are in training who we all were and make sure they saw how good he did, not to mention the fact that he was out and they weren't. Hah!

He has also started e-collar conditioning since our last visit and has  gone well through that step thus far. Trainer Matt said that he is nearly through with that now and is still showing that drive that everybody loves and continues to reassure me that he is on the straight and narrow to becoming a very nice hunting dog, and, also, that he is very confident that TK is headed in the right direction to take it to the next level and get a hunter title behind his name, which is good for me to hear.

Overall, in my opinion this was one of, if not THE, best visits that we have had since he went started his training. Partly due to progress but partly due to the company prevent, as well.

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I have to say, just seeing the photos and watching videos has astounded me. TK has come SUCH a long way in two short weeks! It's amazing what Trainer Matt can do. Not only can he do it, but he does it with more than just TK at a time. He has anywhere from 9 to 11 dogs! It's nuts that he's able to put forth this much effort into each one that they have the drive, potential, and success rate that they do when leaving. 

I love to hear Matt talk about TK. I joke {sometimes more seriously than others} about wanting him to come home, but I know that TK is benefiting so much from all of this, and he clearly loves it! He's so proud of himself, and he knows when we are proud of him.

Until next time!