Should I pause general retrieving work during hold conditioning.?

[Naj]

I’m pretty sure Nick is meaning the downwind side of the dummy, him being a landlubber and not privy to the finer points of nautical terms and so requiring a bit of leeway by those who do. But I do agree with you, Judy, that dogs will naturally drift with the wind to the downwind side of the line/dummy. I’m always bemused by trainers who insist they should take a straight line.

[Nickheref]

Been there and got half a dozen of those t-shirts. I would love to know what is going through the dogs mind as it watches us search though

Crikey, how on earth did I end up being lumbered with this landlubber of an idiot who didn't think sailing was a good way of spending time when you could be fishing! I will just have to keep pointing out when he is wrong on an almost daily basis, the sooner he accepts that I am in charge the better!

[Nickheref]

I’m pretty sure Nick is meaning the downwind side of the dummy, him being a landlubber and not privy to the finer points of nautical terms and so requiring a bit of leeway by those who do.

I will have you know I know port means left, but that is only because in my view left should always take precedence over right in a civilised world and everything should be made for lefties with a few more expensive versions available for those not so blessed! .

[Nickheref]

Whilst mentioning wind, I was stood in a wood yesterday afternoon and there did not appear to be a breath of wind, it was uncannily quiet (I even stood for a couple of minutes thinking this is the sound of silence) but it was very obvious that there was a bit of air movement at ground level judging by the dogs reaction to finding woodcock.

[SoupDragon]

If I'm sending the dog out on a blind retrieve and within yards I can see she's not taking the line that ive set out to send her on, am I correct in stopping her straight away, resetting her, and sending her again? Sorry for all these questions but I have no one else to ask except YouTube Also I for some reason use my left hand to line the dog up, who is on my left side, no one else seems to do this, is there a disadvantage to this, is it to do with the holding of the gun (I dont shoot) and would it be penalized in a trial?

[PRH]

Hi,

If you like using the left arm and the dog is used to it keep at it.

Re the dog deviating from the line, of it was within a few yards I’d call it back and send it again. If it is 20 yds away I’d stop it and then go and send it from that spot. If you call it back to you it will (you’ll see from the body language the dog won’t be happy with being called back). They get it, just persist.

Good luck .

[SoupDragon]

Thanks for the clear answer PRH, and thanks for the "20 yds" advice, it puts the pieces together in my head.

[Naj]

Just wondering if you’ve done the preliminary work on training handling skills for blind retrieves. The very basic used to be what we called the three card trick, not sure what it’s called now! But there are also T drills and wagon wheel drills that teach the dog the necessary cues, both vocal and physical, to go out where directed. Place boards are also popular. You can break it down even further by refining a straight outrun using marker posts and rewards, and introducing dummies when the dog knows the routine. And you might look up bucket training which is another effective way of developing a solid outrun. Another good ploy is to develop retrieving hotspots where a dog expects to find stuff and then send it blind to the area from different positions, always starting easy and working up to more challenging, as always. But it’s essentially about developing the dog’s confidence in you that it is going to find something if it follows your directions.

[SoupDragon]

Just wondering if you’ve done the preliminary work on training handling skills for blind retrieves. The very basic used to be what we called the three card trick, not sure what it’s called now! But there are also T drills and wagon wheel drills that teach the dog the necessary cues, both vocal and physical, to go out where directed. Place boards are also popular. You can break it down even further by refining a straight outrun using marker posts and rewards, and introducing dummies when the dog knows the routine. And you might look up bucket training which is another effective way of developing a solid outrun. Another good ploy is to develop retrieving hotspots where a dog expects to find stuff and then send it blind to the area from different positions, always starting easy and working up to more challenging, as always. But it’s essentially about developing the dog’s confidence in you that it is going to find something if it follows your directions.

Thanks for the advice, I'd done the T drills and one or two others (although I looked up the Wagon drill and liked the look of it, I needed a couple more dummies and that has prompted me to send for some) I was trying on probably 30 a 90 and a 120 degree seen retrieves and she was sometimes running the wrong line, to the line I had lined both myself and her up on. I could tell within a few yards. She is though getting better. The problem is the dog's knowledge is increasing more quickly than I'm learning to teach her. I never expected such rapid gains. I think I'm addicted