That's the whole point of doing everything at close range. The minute the dog makes the wrong decision you stop it on the whistle &/or move in & intercept the dog or the dummy, before the dog can get to it. It's no use blowing the whistle when the dog is halfway out to the dummy. As always, timing is everything. Then wait until you have its attention & redirect it onto the correct dummy, moving closer if needs be to assist it until it understands what you are trying to teach it. Start at 10 yards from the dog if necessary. If the dog ignores the stop whistle & beats you to the dummy then just take the retrieve without saying anything, chuck it back out, take the dog back to the centre-spot & try again, but this time put yourself in a position where you can easily stop the dog if it goes wrong again.Merlin wrote: One question though, if at sometime he's sent for one of the dummies and he goes for, and gets to, the wrong dummy, what do I do??
Does he get praise or what?
Not sure about that...
If you're having problems with the dog wanting to go for the last dummy thrown or the one upwind of it &/or not being 'handy' at going to whichever dummy you direct it to, even when you are beside it or close to, then you've not done the basics correctly. You should go back to sending it for double marked retrieves to right & left in random order, first from the side & then gradually move out to 10-15yards so the dog learns to take your left/right directional signals from a distance. While ever the dog shows any inclination to go for the wrong dummy simply persevere at close distance - within a yard or so of it - until it has learnt to go where directed. Only then try increasing the distance you stand from it. Once its getting the hang of it, you can intermittently toss out the retrieved dummy back into position while the dog is going for the other one so it also learns to go out blind on command. Then do the same with a single dummy thrown over its head to teach it the 'go back' command. Once it does all this without any anticipation glitches you can put it all together into the 3-card trick format as described earlier. By now you shouldn't have any problem in stopping the dog in its tracks if it makes a mistake, & this will have benefits when you begin to handle it in more natural exercises. If the dog is hair-triggered then you should also spend time teaching the dog not to anticipate the command. When the dog can handle onto any of the 3 dummies in the trick being placed blind against the distraction of the other 2 retrieves being thrown out & marked, then you can begin to take the show into more naturalistic settings, but start close & increase distance slowly & go back to shorter retrieves whenever the dog begins to lose the plot.
Naj
But it will be of no help at all unless you put it into practice with daily repetition over weeks & months, while trying to make it exciting for the dog. It's no use doing a few lessons & then thinking that will do & jumping fast forward to the more exciting/advanced stuff. And if you see a potential problem developing then fix it before moving on. If the dog is a bit too quick off the mark then you have taught it to be that way, so re-train it if its beginning to cause a problem. 
I moved up closer and again signal left, chin goes onto floor. ("Dunno why you're waving yer left arm Ma the dummy is quite obviously the other way, I know these things cos I can smell better'n you"). I move forwards again, signal, chin remains firmly fixed to ground. 
) Stop whistle ignored so I chase out and get to her before she finds the dummy, take her back to the track send her from a foot away for the dropped dummy. On the third attempt I finally get myself dog and dummy connected and back where we started. 
