Quartering

[Mig]

As some of you may have read I'm having teething problems with quartering. Mainly because I don't know what the @**@ I'm doing. Anyway, after having a lesson, a session in a spaniel meet, a few kind words from members of this forum and a good think. I decided to bring things a little closer to home, so instead of starting in a field, (where she and I were out of our depth) I moved to my back garden and then tonight instead of being in my back garden (because I ran out of daylight before I could have a go) I moved to my front room.

I set up a couple of my best cushions on the floor, got a couple of tennis balls. I made two separate heaps of cushions, put a ball inside one. Inde was already excited as we had been having a couple of retrieves in the front room. I then quartered her only from one pile to the second pile, where she found her ball!

Now I admit this is small time, a little unorthodox, BUT, it worked for us! And from small acorns etc We did it a couple of times and both times she found it fun and she also got the chance to begin connecting the idea of the whistle calling her the other way (with hand signal).

Tomorrow the cushions might find themselves on the garden! (If I'm entering this dog in trials by the end of the year - you'll all be using the cushion technique!)

I'd be quite happy if any of you have any other ideas as to good ways to progress quartering. I would appreciate more food for thought re quartering.

I will however, continue to post on here as to how we get on.

Mig

[Polmaise]

Well congratulations!!!
What a novel way of thinking 'outside the box'.
Using Cushions? brilliant.

[tresallier]

i have read a French book where the author suggested putting tid bits of meat out and working the dog across the field to each of them.

i saw a video of a spaniel being trained to 'work its ground' by hiding the retrieve under loose straw piles.

[Judy]

Scatter kibble across the lawn and hunt the dog upwind towards them. Good excuse to let the grass grow a bit ~ its better for dog training 'cos the dog has to get its nose down.....

[Snicklefritz]

Mig, I"ve reinforced all the 'casts' I've taught my dog in the field, right in my living room. It works, IMHO! Keep on keepin' on.

The only concern I"ve had about teaching 'quartering' is that I've delayed that training until my dog was solid on running straight lines away from me for blind retrieves. I've heard, and it does make some sense, that doing both at the same time could confuse the dog. Don't know if that's true, but that's the way I did it.

Just recently, we've been secretly planting feathered bumbers, real frozen birds, and 'dokkens' out in a zig-zag pattern running up the length of a field. It took exactly one trial for the dogs to 'get it'. Now, their crazy about 'huntin' em up'. Since, I taught casting first, getting the dog to cast in another direction is no problem at all. It's fun for everyone.

My Chessie may turn out to be better at upland game than on waterfowl. OK with me. - Snick

[trekmoor]

Hi Snick , back when I had labs I had no trouble at all when teaching casts to retrieves. With the H.P.R.'s and now with spaniels I find that I have to make a special effort to teach casts. Many dogs will quarter the wind instinctively anyway but the hunting breeds - or certainly the H.P.R.'s - are taught and /or encouraged to always quarter into the wind. That is fine for hunting purposes but switching this ingrained habit off when teaching casts towards a dummy can be very difficult - to put it mildly !!! The better wind pattern the dog has the more difficult it can be to have that dog go directly into the wind when directed to do so.

I think the spaniels have it a bit easier if their quartering to the wind is less than good because they don't have to detect game by scent and then point it. A spaniel can " find with its feet" if it works a very tight pattern - even if that pattern isn't making best use of the wind.

In theory a spaniel that hunted a very tight pattern wouldn't need a nose .............

Wullie

[Snicklefritz]

Yeah, I hear ya wullie. When I first started my Chessie on retrieving real bird blinds, I to run the blinds straight down wind so he would handle more easily. If I ran upwind, he honored his nose and ignored me and became self-employed.

When we started quartering he was a real 'bootlicker' - wouldn't get out far enough in front. Now, I have to call him back in, or run like hell to stay in gun range. What a difference.

[gdunc]

I've heard the phrase that a spaniel should be able to quarter a in a car park. I think that if the dog has too 'good' a nose it's more likely to pull on game and have you working much harder to reign it in.

If you had a spaniel for hunting only and not retreiving having no nose and a good tight pattern would maybe work quite well

[Mig]

Thank you.

Can someone please explain to me what you mean by a cast. Is it simply sending the dog in a certain direction? Therefore, when I'm quartering I'm casting left and right, whereas, if I was sending for a blind or a seen retrieve I would be casting in a straight line (with any luck ).

Also thanks for the replies, good to know I'm on the right track. Went into a field today and initially all Inde wanted to do was eat grass! Then out came the tennis ball and as I 'cast?" her in each direction I put the ball in that hand. Meant I got a little nip every now and again but at least I had her moving in the right direction and I could use voice and whistle comands to turn her. I also, last but one cast, dropped the ball in the long grass so that when she came back round again she got to find it in the grass before we had a little play of victory at her finding it.

To be honest when she was chewing on grass I was megga disappointed and started wondering if I could even get her interested, in fact I just stood there at one point and wondered if I was hitting my head against a brick wall , but by the time we finished I was much more positive.

Will have another living room session tonight (just a quicky) as she enjoyed it soooo much last night. (well to be honest we both did. )

Mig

[marlycocker]

Found this really interesting, I'd never thought about how to get Marly to work better for me, and only today was thinking about it. I've been told to use treats, throw one then pip your turn whistle and throw another in the other direction. You know what i'll be doing tomorrow night!!! And following this thread to see what else people suggest.