My Duck Dog Training A to ?

We trained at The Farm today with Anna, Eden, Martin Pinder and Bob Tolles.The set up was an over under mark with both birds thrown left to right and then a medium length gun station off to the left out of the picture.

Tucker ran the short over mark first and was sucked out to the long gun before he set up a good hunt. The gunner gave a ‘hey-hey’ and he re-established a good hunt and collected it. The long under gun was collected without incident. The left hand gun was run as a retired with the go bird as a hand throw near the line. Tucker set up his hunt too soon and didn’t dig back far enough. When I read that he was about to leave the area I cast him to the AOF where he hunted it up.

With Artemis I was eager to run a double to reinforce the work we had done the night before. I ran the set up left long then short (over mark) as the go bird. I had the long right (under) gun station retire so it simplified the double for her. My main concentration was on her line manners - making sure she had locked on and stayed locked on for as long as I wanted (a count of 5). She ran the double well.

Then I had the short (over) gun retire and ran the long stand out right gun (under) as a single - expecting her to drive past the old sent of the previous short mark. She showed me that she was not comfortable running the same line twice and she flared right away from both the old fall and the retired gun station, in order to run the mark. She busted through some thick cover to emerge on the other side. The gunner had stood up to ensure she did not get lost on this mark. Success but by running it I taught her to flare the old AOF instead of increasing her comfort running under the arc of the short gun.

The next set up was a double blind with a gun station half way out to the right of the blinds. Tucker ran only the short 200yd blind and he ran the mark as a poison bird thrown before he ran the blind and collected after the blind was collected. He had difficulties on the blind and it turned into more of a handling drill. The poison bird on the other hand was run well.

Artemis ran the blind and then the gun station threw the mark as a Bull Dog on her return from the blind. She too had difficulties on this blind - the distance was the largest factor in her non-compliance in taking casts. I issued 3 indirect pressure nicks and she responded well but it became apparent that she was becoming confused as to where I wanted her to go so I closed the distance to complete the blind.

We finished off the day with Tucker running a channel blind - poor initial line - but I did not want to correct him for fear he’s misunderstand it as a correction for getting into the water.

Artemis did some de-cheating work with Anna throwing. She did well and is beginning to show an understanding of the concept. She also illustrated that she fully understands the channel blind and down the shore concept of ‘stay in the water’.

I managed to get out with Lee Woodhouse and Greg Larden at Tiny Marsh after work. We set up three guns in the field - Right gun short at 60yds, middle gun long at 200yds and left gun at 170yds. The right and middle gun were pretty tight.

I had discussed my concern with Artemis’s pop at Kingston on the last mark so we could be ready to help if she began to pop. She did not…BUT…she broke down in the go bird AOF on her route back to the long memory bird. Bird boy help got her back to it.

I had expected to run the left hand bird as a retired ‘on route’ introduction to retired guns but seeing as she had trouble with the double I decided to run the left mark as a stand out memory bird and hand throw a go bird out to the side of the line. SHE BROKE DOWN AGAIN IN THE AOF OF THE GO BIRD, ONLY FEET FROM THE LINE! I recalled her and had the memory bird re-thrown. I sent her with a LOUD ‘Artemis’ and she collected it without incidence.

After all the other dogs had run this series of marks we set up in another field a similar configuration - double long, short, fairly tight. She collected the go bird well and set up a good hunt for the memory bird - no pop, no break down - success.

Tucker ran the left and right birds as a double long, short with little difficulty. He then ran the left bird as a retired gun with a hand throw to the side as the go bird. He did very well.

We set up a double blind in the second field (same field that Artemis ran her second set of marks). Lee suggested to me to run the blinds long and then short - opposite the way I would normally run them. Reason: if running the long blind turns into a hack job, the short blind will be therapy. The long blind did indeed turn into a hack job with two indirect pressure nicks which he reacted to well. It was the suction of the short blind that caused problems. The short blind was run much better.

I actually got Artemis out of the truck and was in the holding blind when I came to my senses! She had just ran two marks amongst these blinds - the lesson learned on the marks would only be muddied by running these blinds with VERY LITTLE TO GAIN. So, I put her back up on the truck and called it a day.

I had hoped to hook up with some trainers near Barrie while on a business trip down to the city but it didn’t happen. It was all for the best - seeing as it was my bride’s birthday and if I had trained I’d not have gotten back to the house before 11pm.I had both dogs along for the trip in hope of training so on my return home I decided to stop at a local residence to ask if I might use their pond for training. They enthusiastically said yes! The pond is about 3 minutes from my house and is just under 2 acres in area with a point and 3 small yet deep bays. SCORE! I immediately got Artemis from the truck and ran a de-cheating drill with her across the corner of one of the bays. I have been reluctant to use collar pressure for Artemis’s casting mistakes. WHY - because it was using too much pressure on Tucker that cooled his enjoyment of training.

All of Artemis’s initial lines to the fall were excellent! Her returns were less so. Using only attrition she began to understand that her return was to be in a straight line. As we increased the distance from the line to the water’s edge she began to challenge my insistence to return by water. After about 6 casts back to the AOF and having her fail to enter the water I gave her a sit-nick-sit (2 medium) and she acknowledged the nick with a flinch. She then eagerly entered the water! The second indirect pressure was a similar occurrence and she responded equally as well to the pressure.

Perhaps it is time for me to hold her more responsible for correct casts both in the water and on land. One attrition cast before indirect pressure or 3 attrition casts (before indirect pressure) if at a distance or a suction factor is influencing her decision.

I have been unable to get out much with the dogs. In the back yard I was able to run a small breaking drill with them. Heeling them on either side of me I threw a bumper out for a retrieve. Each throw I increased the excitement, enthusiasm and motion on the throw. I corrected for any motion on the line.At first Tucker was lifting his butt off of the ground and moving one paw. This was met with a sit and a slap on the butt - then Artemis was sent to collect the bumper. As the drill progressed Tucker became more motionless and Artemis began to break. She didn’t move on the line like Tucker had, but she made a clean ‘my turn to get the bumper’ break. This was corrected with a no-here and a sit slap sit correction.

By the end of this drill I was dancing out in front of the dogs and flailing around like a mad man before the throw. When I returned to the line I yelled many other random words to entice my dogs to break. This is the point where Artemis could not control herself and broke. In the end both of the dogs learned what the ‘game’ was and they remained steady on the line until sent. The excitement that existed in this drill pales in comparison to the excitement found at tests/trials but it is a start. Next I’ll add in ducks and a gun with a remote gunner. Tucker’s foundation in line manners was shaky at best (illustrated by his test results). I want to instil a much better understanding of the standard with Artemis.

Yesterday I attended the Lake Ontario HRC event running Artemis in Seasoned and Tucker in Finished. Event was great, good tests, good people, good eats!Artemis passed her event and has accumulated enough points to earn the Hunting Retriever (HR) in front of her name. She was in great form on the water but in the afternoon on the land she had a problem. She completed the walk up without incidence. She ran the blind well. On the return from the blind the Bull Dog (distraction bird) was thrown and she sat to flush without my blowing the whistle. She returned the blind bird dutifully and then was sent to collect the Bull Dog. She ran to the area of call put her nose down briefly, glanced back at me, and then decided that this couldn’t be the correct location because it was too close to the line. She turned down field and went deeeeeep. One of the judges leaned to remind me that the Bull Dog is NOT a mark and that there would be no deduction if she needed to be handled - I was waiting to see if she would check down and discover her mistake but she did not. I preceded to handler her to the bird.

The double mark was an 80yd down hill first bird and a short 40yd go bird about 90 degrees apart. She seemed to mark them both well and collected the go bird easily. The memory bird she over ran set up a brief wide hunt and then POPPED. This is the first time in my recollection that she has popped on a mark and I was concerned. She sat facing me, I stood on the line with my arms at my side…moments passed…then the judge leaned in and said something like, “I believe she is waiting for you to show her where the bird is”. My reply (smiling) was that I was hoping she would un-pop and work it out before I had to handler her. She did not. I handled her to the bird and she came in proudly carrying the last bird of the test.

Artemis has completed her HRC HR title and will not be ready to run Finished before next year. However, I expect that in the next few years we’ll concentrate her efforts in the area of Field Trials - beginning in two weeks at Long Point.

Tucker ran in the Finished Stake and although he’d run in Finished last weekend with Jenni, this was my first experience holding the whistle in this stake. His line manners (creeping) need to be attended to. On the land he marked the first bird down and crept a full body length in front of me - which kept him from seeing where my body and gun barrel were pointing. H caught a glimpse of the second bird down but the far left bird his back was turned when it came out.

I sent him to collect the first bird out (only one he truly marked) first. Then I sent him towards the blind concealing the wingers that threw the Flowerpot marks. He ran out and past the blind, winded the right hand bird and collected it ALMOST like he knew where it was. For the final bird I false lined him to the down wind side of the mark and kicked him off of the line. He faded to the right pulled by the suction of the previous fall and the direction of the corn stubble in the field. ¾ of the way out I decided that I’d better cast him before he gets determined to return to the old AOF. One sit whistle one over cast and he put his front paw on the bird - we were still alive but haemorrhaging badly.

On the water he was able to stay by my side (aided by the platform we were running off of) and he marked and collected all three birds. It was the water blind that was his undoing. Only 6 of 14 dogs passed this Finished Test. 5 of the 6 were HRCHs and the 6th earned his 4th pass and titled that day. All in all I was very happy with his effort BUT we’ve got manners to clean up before we run another Hunt Test.

Last night I slipped down to tiny marsh and The Farm to do some training. Although it was raining we managed to get in some good work.At Tiny Marsh I ran Artemis on two channel blinds. The first was a short 50yd swim run off of a point to the end of a bay. The entry was easy, the re-entry after picking up the bumper was the training part. She attempted to cheat to the right of the bay. I cast her back to the pile and gave her a come in whistle, she launched herself into the water with great enthusiasm. I ran this blind a second time - this time from a location 15 yards from the water edge. She took a good line both there and back.

The second blind was run the full length of the main pond, 120yd swim out of one narrow bay, past a point, down another narrow bay on the opposite side of the pond. The pile location for all three of these blind sends was the same - a known location. She needed a cast to stay off of the point, then another cast to get her swimming in the correct direction following the first cast. On the return she needed no handling

Tucker was run on the shorter blind 50yd swim but I reversed the direction and was able to give him a 30yd entry into the water. He attempted to cheat to the right and it took one cast to encourage him to enter the water. A second cast to get him on line and a cast at the end of the blind to put him on the bumper. I thought this solid performance with good effort.

I then ran a few hand thrown cheating singles for each of the dogs. Artemis took some time to understand the concept. Tucker only needed a reminder. It is fun to see the dogs ‘get it’ during this drill. This drill used to frustrate me but now I enjoy the ‘teaching’ aspect of it.

I packed up following the water work and headed to The Farm to meet up with Greg Larden. To my surprise, I found that Mike Millward, Lee Woodhouse and Howard Simpson were already on site and running an All Age three peat blind. It sure is fun to watch a dog and handler team that work well together.

Greg and I declined the offer to run the blind with our dogs - see I am learning to teach instead of test

We set up an ABCD drill with an over/under component. We ALL ran this set up as singles. Collect the short bird then run under the arch of the short bird to collect the long bird. Then repeat this concept on the other two birds.

Tucker backsided both of the long guns, and had difficulty in collecting the second short bird. Better than half of the dogs running overran the second short bird - they were pulled up the hill to the long stand out gun station. I’ll have to repeat this concept in the next week or so to see if he learned to focus on the bird down instead of bailing out to the long station.

Artemis was about to backside the first long gun when Lee threw another bird to remind her where the mark landed. She had no difficulty in collecting the second short bird (surprised me) and then back sided the second long gun - lots of factors pushing her there. All in all I liked the effort that she showed. I need to begin to handler her more for line during marking set ups.

To finish the day we set up two blinds for Greg’s dog Suzy and my two dogs. Both were set at about 115yds and were placed to allow the old marks to influence the blind. Tucker ran them in good form. I had to hack Artemis to both of the blinds. They were too much for her at the level of training she is at.

Lee gave me some instruction: Tucker, don’t handle him within the first 30yds of the line. He still exhibits momentum problems - kick him off and let him run! Handle him after he gets up his head of steam. Artemis, since she is just learning to handle in the field - especially with multiple factors - use attrition (I do), and when she takes the correct cast LET HER RUN even if it takes her off the line to the blind. I need to make sure that she knows when she has taken a cast correctly and reward that by letting her run.

I arrived home at 11:00pm - maybe Jo is right it is an obsession…

We attended the Kingston Area HRC test last weekend. I had registered Tucker to run in the Finished Stake and had thought that Artemis was only along for the ride. I discussed it with Jo and we felt that one of the reasons we brought another dog into our home was to increase the amount of line time and enjoyment when we went to events like this one.I registered Artemis to run in the Seasoned Stake - one water double, one land double, one water blind, one land blind, a walk up (steady to wing), and bull dog (distraction bird thrown while returning from a mark). There were 3 holding blinds set up to line up the dogs about to be run. It was some good training we accomplished here. She was wound up and I was able to get in some good noise corrections (light wining). As we approached the last holding blind I began to think that I had made a mistake in entering her - I would be unable to correct her for poor behaviour in the test. However, once we arrived at the holding blind and I removed the leash it was ALL BUSINESS. She focused and sat stark still. She earned a pass easily on day one which prompted me to enter her in the Sunday test. On day two she worked just as well and earned a second ribbon. The highlight of the weekend was her lining BOTH water blinds!

My son Andrew participated in the Junior Handlers event - a single doken retrieve. He insisted on running Artemis. This made me a little nervous because while Andrew had run Tucker a number of times in the past, he’d never handled Artemis. Both my boy and his dawg did an excellent job earning a ribbon.

Tucker and Jenni ran in the Finished Stake both days. Tucker showed that he could do the work - they put on a passing performance on all 4 blind retrieves. It was Tuckers line manners both while the birds were coming out and again on his delivery that failed the pair. It was crystal clear to me that if Jenni wants to run Tucker in the Finished Stake at Georgian Bay in September, she’ll have to put much more training line time in and earn Tuckers respect. He abused her.

My entire family had a good time at this event!

This coming weekend I plan on attending the LOHRC event with both dogs - this time without the rest of my family. I would like to title Artemis (one more pass) in Seasoned and run Tucker to see if he shows me more respect than he did Jenni. It should be fun.

One of the most enjoyable training sessions this month was with Greg Larden and his chocolate lab Suzy - out at Tiny Marsh.We were preparing our dogs to run at the Kingston Area HRC event. Suzy has developed a habit of making noise while watching the marks come out on water. Tucker has shown a propensity to creep badly especially on ‘in your face’ marks referred to as breaker birds or wiper birds.

So, we set up a water triple with the last bird down thrown very close to the line with a huge splash.

Despite our efforts, we could not get Suzy to make noise nor get Tucker to creep during this set up - disappointing because we wanted to elicit this behaviour so that we could get a correction in - too bad.

For Artemis I ran her on a channel blind that she attempted to cheat once at the send and twice on the re-entry return. She certainly showed me that she learned during this drill. Following the drill she retrieved an easy water mark as therapy.

The next set up was an ABCD drill. All 3 dogs ran it as two sets of doubles. The older dogs ran it with the long guns retired. Tucker did great. Artemis did great. Suzy had some difficulty on the first retired gun then on the second double she began to switch from the short to the long bird before it was retired. Greg handled her to the short bird then put her up for the day. We discussed the job that all three dogs did on this set up and made plans as to where we needed to take each dog in training.

As it happens every spring, life seems to get busier. Since my last post I’ve been out training on a semi regular basis. Unfortunately I’ve not kept up my training journal - I plan to make a better effort to document progress from today forward.Shortly after we got back into the water up here, I returned Artemis to the pond in which she completed her swim by drill late last fall. Her memory of the drill absolutely astounded me! Four trips to the back pile and one trip to each of the side piles and we were done. She completed the ‘swim by’ portion of the drill as well as being cast off of each shore back into the water - all without a single refusal.

Next we went on to channel blinds - to date we’ve completed 4 to 6 retrieves each in 4 separate channels. All have been identified piles - no cold channel blinds. We have also done one set of three peat cold blinds. The blind was set across an open water of about 50yds then down the shore about 15yds. The first of the series I hacked her back to the blind. The second one she took about 3 angle backs to get to the blind, refusing to take a proper verbal back to go straight back. On the third blind she seemed to say to me “oh, now I get it, you want me to go BACK”. She was VERY happy with herself after the third blind.

Of course I’ve mixes in some no-cheating water marks to keep her training in balance.

Tucker and I have been working on team building. We’ve done a few wagon wheel drills to improve his moving at the line with me. I’ve also concentrated on having him focus on birds of my selection while doing doubles with 4 gun stations in the field.

The water temperature is still a little cold but the air temp was 23 today.  I’ve been taking it slow with Artemis due to her cut pad recovery.  But, it is looking very good.  When she was allowed off leash today first place she headed was the water.

So, with Andrew gunning for me, we ran two water singles followed by two land singleswith each dog.  The marks were non-cheaty and only about 60yds (20yds swimming).  They both had fun and would have liked some more.  Perhaps early next week we can begin real water work once again.