Who would have thought we could be so cold?

There are no photos of today's water training.  Close your eyes and picture this . . .
50 degrees, pouring rain, just a light breeze.  Yes, we were freezing our collective rear ends off today.  We kept wondering, are we just that dedicated or our we out of our minds?  Perhaps both.  Despite the chilly weather, we had a good turnout and the dogs did seem to enjoy the day and even the elements.  Nella is doing a much better job waiting before she is sent out to a task while maintaining that terrific enthusiasm!  Birdie beached the boat today.  Yeah!  She also was making progress on taking the line the first time we tried but totally rejected the idea later.  Ah well. . . that's why they call it training.  Nellie did an awesome job learning the triple rescue off the boat (thank you for taking me back to the boat!) and the rescue under the capsized raft.  Bruin not only towed the boat but also smooched up the calling steward when he got back to wading depth.  Lilly got some practice swimming out to multiple people.  Tyler put on his life jacket so that he could build a little confidence and stop reaching for the bottom of the lake with his back feet.  That seemed to work very well.  I think he will sleep good tonight.  Gabby did a great job retrieving.  Xena was learning to retrieve her paddle and come back to the boat.  Baby Tabitha got in a lot of swimming and even towed me to shore.  At that point we were all shivering and ready to go home.  My feet have not yet warmed up.  This is June, right?

Water Training Season is Just Getting Better and Better!

We had a great 3rd weekend of water training on Saturday.  All of the newfs and their handlers made some amazing progress.  Thanks to Kiko for joining us and helping with some wonderful training tips.  Nella is learning to curb that awesome enthusiasm until it is time for the exercise to start.  Gabby is doing a great job on the go-outs.  Xena is learning to board and jump off the boat.  Birdie loves the tow a boat and take a line but still needs some work on the hold so that she doesn't drop them prematurely.  She is having a good time though so that is terrific.  Fiona is still our master at beaching the boat.  Lucky had her debut in the water and liked swimming around with Mom.  Tyler is a smart boy and likes to feel for the bottom with his long legs.  We did lots of swimming practice keeping his top line level.  And we have a new newf in the group.  Welcome Luna!  Your first day was great!  We can't wait for next week!  Thanks to Sharon for all of the photos.  Click on the link to the post for the rest of them.  We will add more as we get them from all of the photographers.

Got a little lake surf going here!