Directional Commands in Handling

[CockerCanuck]

With our waterfowl season starting in about six weeks I have been training with my Chesapeake Hamish almost every day. I really enjoy going out with the retriever group which is great for working on long marks. Hamish is doing very well at this but his handling needs work. I decided to just work on my own with handling drills the next few weeks. I started with a quick review of the sections on handling in the retriever training books I have. There are a lot of different approaches so I am just trying to develop a program that fits his and my personality.

I noticed something in one of the books that I don't remember reading before but it makes a lot of sense to me now. The near universal way people here send a dog left or right is with a large arm movement in the direction you want the dog to go with the command "Over". This is also how I do it and it works fine as long as the dog can see you. It is why in NA trials where they handle dogs over great distances handlers wear white coats so the dogs can see their arms. However in actual waterfowl hunting conditions are often very different. We wear camo clothing, hide in blinds and high cattails and send dogs into near impenetrable vegetation. Often the dog has a very hard time seeing you to take a directional signal.

This author recommends using the commands "left" and "right" from the start of training for waterfowl hunting dogs. It makes a lot of sense to me. In my youth I remember teams of draft horses who responded to the commands "Gee" and "Haw" for right and left. If it is possible to teach a horse this it should be dead easy with a dog. I have decided I am going to give this a try and may even use the old "Gee' and "Haw" commands.

Has anyone experienced anything similar to this over there?

[chrokeva]

Yes dogs learn left and right easily.
When training herding dogs we taught a "come by" and "away to me" which was clockwise and counter clockwise. We taught by voice and then whistle. If you drew out yhe whistle or voice you could make the dog do wider casts.
Even the very young dogs caught on quickly.

[ips]

Yes dogs learn left and right easily.
When training herding dogs we taught a "come by" and "away to me" which was clockwise and counter clockwise. We taught by voice and then whistle. If you drew out yhe whistle or voice you could make the dog do wider casts.
Even the very young dogs caught on quickly.

Sounds like our sheep dog commands in uk, cant see how it wont work

[Cass]

I'm an arm guy. But I know "left" and "right" would work great too. Dogs are quite smart and adaptable.

[trekmoor]

I think I have only once seen this tried here. The handler was running a bitch he'd bought from me as a pup in a Novice field trial and he used a shepherds mouth whistle (a sort of plastic thingy that goes completely into your mouth) to handle his bitch. He got chucked out of the trial. The judges told him he sounded like the " f-ing dawn chorus !"

I often thought about teaching dogs to go left or right to that sort of command but never actually did it.

Wullie

[Gundogs11]

My retrievers are trained with an "out" and "away" for right and left. It is very handy when the dog stops out of sight.

[Blackjaw]

Dang! this makes sense to me. I am going to begin to incorporate it in to my directional training.

Thanks for the idea CC

[crackerd]

I'm an arm guy. But I know "left" and "right" would work great too. Dogs are quite smart and adaptable.

So long as you ain't a "nuclear arms guy," Cass - i.e., giving your directionals the thrust of a karate chop.

But with dogs "quite smart and adaptable," does that mean when you say "left" with the dog looking at you for taking the cast, that it then turns to its right, having deciphered your left for the dog's right? Or is this a canine-umdrum that only Naj can delineate by calling on a dog's ESD (extra-sensory direction)?

As CC obliquely alluded to, NA trialers do wear white coats for handling retrievers at great distance, and most of those casts at great distances are silent (made only with outstretched (or not-so-outstretched) left or right arms - the not-so-outstretched hinting at the degree of precision casting required for "angle backs."

MG

[AlandJake]

Over here you'll see a lot of (retriever) trialling and test folk hold white hankies or the day's printed running order (on white card) in their hands when handling their dogs.

Some ladies will roll back their shirt cuffs or wear white wrist bands for similar effect, to allow the dog to see at least some contrast and movement.

I guess if you are tucked away in a hide or your dog is in the thick of it, a "yee!" or a "hah!" could definitely be a help.

[crackerd]

Over here you'll see a lot of (retriever) trialling and test folk hold white hankies or the day's printed running order (on white card) in their hands when handling their dogs.

Some ladies will roll back their shirt cuffs or wear white wrist bands for similar effect, to allow the dog to see at least some contrast and movement.

I guess if you are tucked away in a hide or your dog is in the thick of it, a "yee!" or a "hah!" could definitely be a help.

Interesting, Al - the competitive counterpart for "minority" (non-white attired) handlers over here - minority actually being the great majority known as hunt testers who far outnumber field trialers - used to be wearing black gloves with their requisite camo outfits, so the dogs could get better focus when looking back at them for handling.

Also - with respect to CC's description of handling by verbal command on the marsh when the dog is out of sight - there was sort of a "twixt-and-'tween" version used in the past for hunt tests, too. A handler would not be told where the blind retrieve was located but would be given a landmark that was within distance of the blind, and where, when the dog reached that destination, it would be stopped by the handler and given an "over" (silent right or law/gee or haw/get out or away) hand signal with the verbal command to "Hunt it up!" Meaning the dog was on its own (but not out of sight of the handler or judge) to pick the blind retrieve - as further handling was not allowed. In my neck of the river, when wildfowling wasn't such a prohibitive shooting sport, that essentially how it was done, too - handle the dog to the general area where a wounded duck was seen (by the wildfowler if not the dog) to fall before it swam away, then command "Hunt it up!" or the more pedestrian "Find it!"

MG