ARGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

That's really all I have to say about team training tonight.

I've been so happy with Z's progress after the crittering incident and then tonight, when D is flanking for us on runaways, that silly dog from weeks ago reappears. *sigh*

C ran for us as our victim and did a great job revving Z up as she ran off and granted, Z did have good enthusiasm upon release, but D wasn't happy with her refinds. Runaway 1 was nice, runaway two she dawdled and I had to call her back, and runaway 3 she did ok, but not at a speed I'd have liked. So, given what D saw, he says we need to keep working runaways. Grrr. And he and I had a little tiff over how to recall a dog (he uses a word said one specific way and I either use Z's name or her recall word said differently than D - I don't think he appreciated my difference of opinion).

At least he did say that the woods we were working in are pretty heavy on animal scent compared to others and we can go ahead and add some distractions to the runaways.

Since we had fewer dogs to work than usual, I did get to do another set of runaways with Z using Sm as our victim. Sm hasn't worked with Z much so we had some bobbles on rewarding and communication, but nothing too major.

Runaway 1 was pretty, though Z hesitated on the jump alert part of the refind. I'm guessing this was due to the heavy leaf cover in the wooded area we were in.

Runaway 2 was also nice, though we had the same refind alert issue.

Runaway 3 was ugly: Sm ran further way this time (about 70ft vs 50 as before) and Z didn't see where she stopped to hide. On release she raced off but got confused, looped around twice, then went snifing off after something in the wrong direction. I called her off and she came quickly. Once she got back to me and I resent her she got back on task and found Sm. Her refind took a bit too long and she again missed the alert initially, but we did eventually get things accomplished and Sm rewarded her for her efforts.