7-25-2022 "Our first trip to pond for water work with Roxanne’s dogs. What I learned." by Kim, owner of Decker Rat Terrier, Kara

Here is 17 week old Ruth doing what she was bred to do. Going out getting that bird/bumper and bringing it back. Such a natural act for her. Such a strong swimmer! She does not have any of the training polish but, she knows what she is suppose to do! It is fun and she obviously loves it.

Here is Kara before her big plunge. Just wading at the edges. So to see if she would jump in Roxanne sent Ruth out farther and I threw bumper close. Kara launched like a champ and sunk like a ROCK! She did not just bobb up paddeling. Seconds passed, I say where is my dog! I'm heading towards water going to go in after her. She bobs up, starts paddleing towards the far shore. We call her she turns and comes to us. She did not want to go after bumpers in the water after that, she just waded and played on shore. So I don't know if she is going to be water shy from now on or if I can be worked with and made comfortable with deep water. I wish I had handed Chonnie my phone for a first swim video but I had not. All the mechanics that we are learning in the RC I saw put into action when Roxanne worked Pre and Boaz in the water. She used heal of course. Boaz came out of truck to almost heal position, to far forward excited, wining. She used comand MOVE, to get him to back up into heal position. He was too excited and would not calm down so PLACE back into truck. After several tries he would not calm down and mind so he got time out in truck and she worked Pre instead. It was my first time seeing a well trained working retriever in action in the water. She was amazing! The taking directions from middle of pond, the one whistle, which for us is the sit, in the advanced form is check in for directions on the retrieve. So all the things we are learning now SWING,the SSIF, SIDE, all are used in this practical application.