Well, now that we have bare ground here on the North Shore in MA, I've been able to get at it with my Katy dog in terms of breaking her out, steady to wing, shot & fall.

 Katy is a female GSP who will be turning 2 years old the end of April.  I almost broke her out last summer, but decided to give her a full year of Derby field trialing and she didn't dissapoint- winning 3 times last fall (1 Puppy Stake in the spring as well) along with 3 more placements in horseback & walking stakes.

 Anyway, We resumed training about 2 weeks ago down on Cape Cod one Saturday- I ran her with a checkcord on as this was really her first time on birds since December and her injury in January (another story altogether).  She did better as the day progressed, but on her first bird she had to be reminded what "whoa" meant ....... Second bird she did better, just repositioning a tad to mark the flush..... third bird Katy stayed absolutely still through flush & shot. 

 Since then, I've been putting her on birds every other day while running her every day.  Yesterday she worked a covey stop to flush and then we managed to pin a single that she worked steady to wing & shot (all this with no checkcord.) I'm training by myself during the week & with my great friends from the Mayflower GSP Club down at Crane's in Falmouth, MA on the weekends.  I certainly like it alot better when there are more eyes & arms to help me out!   :lol:

 My travel schedule for work is going to get a bit hectic for about 5-6 weeks, so I'm going to be handing Katy off to a friend of mine for "finishing".......... honoring, steady through delayed second flush, multiple shots, birds flushing over her head, allowing another dog to honor her point through flush & shot..... etc.....

 Hopefully, when I get back from FL the end of April, I'll have a dog I feel comfortable running in broke dog stakes.  She's getting there though- that's for sure.  All the time I've put in with her as a pup & young Derby is paying huge dividends at this point.

Rob