Mark and Connie work Gunner and Tommy on Thing 1

  On  Tuesday the 16th of this month Mark, Connie and I met at a  beach on Camp Pendleton. I brought Gunner and Tommy to work with. There were some very interesting obstacles to work around, on and under. There was the standard issue picnic table to walk on, a few wobbly telephone poles in the sand to try to stradle [not an easy behavior when you have 4 legs] and a road side parking lot to practice LLW. And the road which had many distractions! Columns of soldiers and noisy tanks paraded up and down for the first hour we were there. The dogs took almost no interest in either.
  Connie worked Tommy on LL in the parking lot. He behaved very well for her taking into account all the distractions. The biggest distractions for him, in the first hour, were nearby seagulls and a rock on the pavement, that held his keen interest all morning. Connie was very relaxed with both dogs and is a quick study. The dogs visibly enjoyed working with her.
  We moved onto the sand at one point, where 2 multi-piece structures sat jutting out of the sand. They consisted of a main circular pediment about 20" in diameter, with 4 poles of varying heights stationed at varying distances from the center structure. Mark couldn't resist! He asked Gunner and Tommy to stand on the center obstacle and then to touch the ouside poles. Which they did willingly on the 2 shorter, closer poles. The 2 other poles were considerably farther from the center obstacle.With Mark's gentle coaching both dogs repeatedly made furtive attempts to reach the 2 taller of the 4 poles. Mark used  the "touch" signal to encourage them. The distance was just to great...Gunner tried so hard he lost his balance a couple of times and jumped to the ground.