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Field January 2013

6K views 72 replies 12 participants last post by  Claudia M 
#1 ·
Cheers!

Should we all do an update of what we will be working on in the New Year???
 
#2 ·
Do you keep a training journal? I don't plan very far ahead because you never know what may develop along the way. By reviewing my journal I can plan my training for the specific areas my dogs need most. If there are no special maintenance needs, there's always the Flow Chart!

EvanG
 
#3 ·
Training journal? You're reading it right now :)

I've gone back to basics with Slater. We are on a steady diet of singles and cold blinds. We have to get on the same page and confidence strong and then I know everything else will fall into place.

Fisher is doing great in training, I run him on about 75% of what we run the younger dogs, he is knocking it out. If I have the extra cash I will enter him in the same master tests as Slater and the Jacksonville qual. It is such a relief to have him be sound after training.
 
#4 ·
This is our training journal, too!
We, too are on a steady diet of singles, but no blinds at all. Haven't run any for ages, except for one a couple of weeks ago to be sure he remembers the concept, and he clearly does. We have done a couple of casting drills in the yard just to keep him in balance, but blinds are totally out of our picture until we fix our popping issue on memory birds.
Also working on being steady to flush. That's a lot of fun!
Planning to head to Dan's today, the weather is cold but clear. Normally we go on Thursdays, but today's weather forecast is better than tomorrow's.
 
#5 ·
Great! So, based on those journal entries, how will you plan your training to best benefit each dog?

EvanG
 
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#6 ·
With both guys I am doing nothing but singles, on mowed grass (hay field that they've baled), 50-150 yds and the gunner is hand throwing a small white bumper so it goes a long way from the gunner. I noticed that Slater was tending to run AT the gunner then hunt off of him rather than going to the mark. I am reinforcing steadiness with a pinch collar & tab, as I realized that Slater was starting to leave as I put my hand down..."tie goes to the runner" -- not a good habit to ignore. I don't want to correct him with the ecollar or by calling back so am letting him correct himself with the pinch collar. We are doing water work too, just looking for interesting marks that we haven't run before. Blinds are actually going quite well, can't complain.
Both of my dogs know how to count to three, run some technical blinds, diversions honor and all that jazz, so sticking to basics is our plan.
 
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#7 ·
...I realized that Slater was starting to leave as I put my hand down..."tie goes to the runner" -- not a good habit to ignore. I don't want to correct him with the e-collar or by calling back so am letting him correct himself with the pinch collar.
Have you considered a heeling stick?

EvanG
 
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#8 ·
Haven't used a stick yet as the pinch collar is working quite well. You know now that you mention it though, I have used the stick in the past for exactly this situation except I started with hand thrown bumpers in the yard rather than marks, to keep any poor attitude from creeping into marks. Anyhow thanks for the reminder.
 
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#47 ·
Something else you might try is a tidbit a friend brought back from a Bridget Carlson seminar. Bridget apparently uses it in both a field and obedience context. She teaches the dog to scooch back an inch when the it command is repeated. So not only does sit mean plant your butt, it also means, you move, you twitch, you move away from your desired bird, you have to move back--a little negative momentum to counter that self-sending/nearly breaking trend. And that is something you can use on the line in a test once you are released!
 
#9 ·
The grounds here are still covered in ice so we have not been able to do much outside. It is even worse at the cabin (can't even get there). So we have been practicing with the paint roller (Evan's great DVD). Also we have been doing marks around the house with the bumpers.
Haven't done much this past couple weeks since everyone has been sick with the nasty flu.
 
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#10 ·
I worked Lucy yesterday on doubles. She's having trouble remembering there is another item. When I use bumpers she seems to be doing better. When I use treats on top of a bowl, she just comes back to me and doesn't remember the second item. Not sure why with food she has more trouble on memory. I'm trying to do better with my body language so she understands what I want. I think I need to spend time with her every day for a few minutes at a time on short doubles. I'm working on hand signals and learning how to communicate better. My Reilly boy is just fine with doubles and seems to be working better on distance. I'm super happy with his progress. Our hunt trainer is turning our group over to another trainer for obedience work. So she won't have to do both obedience and hunt training. So we'll do an hour of obedience class on Wednesdays and a couple of hour of hunt training on Saturdays. I think spliting it up with make best use of hunt training time. Both trainers specialize in goldens and have trained for both hunt and obedience. We are so fortunate here to have such great golden trainers in town. By the way it's all women in both groups and trainers. Isn't that interesting?
 
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#11 ·
Back from a c-c-c-c-c-c-old training session at Dan's. 20 degrees, a bit windy, and about 3 inches of snow on the ground there.
Started with some very, very hard single marks. Which of course Tito didn't mark correctly, but that's okay, our focus was to get him to put up diligent hunts and he did. Very pleased with that.
Then on to upland, working on steady to flush. Hmmmmm.....he's getting REALLY good at catching birds as they take off. That was not exactly what we were hoping for today! He caught 4 of the chukkars/pigeons today! But he also clearly understands the concept of putting the butt on the ground when the bird clears the cover, and also understands that some of them are going to get away and there's no point in going after them (a HUGE relief for me for pheasant hunting!). Hurrah for using homing pigeons in training!
 
#12 ·
20 degrees!??? That is mental. WOW
It was overcast and 73º here today.
Found a new field near an office park and ran blinds with the guys today, they did well and had a good time.
 
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#14 ·
The real problem is that we don't have any snow (60 miles north of Dan), so I wore regular tennis shoes!! If I had known he had snow on the ground, I would have thought to wear my boots. Needless to say, my tootsie were frozen!!!
 
#15 ·
Try Icebugs :: Welcome to ICEBUG :: they make a nice variety of metal studded winter running shoes and boots. They are insulated too. I wear mine to about -15F then I switch to insulted hiking boots. Cold feet is no fun it will really ruin your day. Be good to yourself! If you train when it's cold just think how much better you will be when it is warm. Now if it would ever be warm up here I'd be so happy.
 
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#16 ·
wow, those icebugs look really great! I have to look into them!
 
#18 ·
Hey we only made it up to 70 degrees 3 times in 2012! I've never lived anywhere else that you can wear a heavy wool sweater in July.
 
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#19 ·
Anney you need a smack ! ! !
:slap:
:p:
 
#20 · (Edited)
I don't have much to say since it's like 9 degrees with 4 inches of snow and ice and what feels like 1 hour of daylight here; but since I'm killing time while my files upload, I'll sketch out my training plans for this year.

We left off doing singles, doubles, steady, honor, diversions, running pattern blinds, sight blinds and starting simple cold blinds, and doing all kinds of drills in dog skool, culminating in "run by" - which she did! albeit with a very confused expression.

Gladys should be back from nursing her puppies at the end of January. We'll get her readjusted to our routine, the usual obedience, and hopefully go back to dog skool mid-to-end of February session, to get back in the drills groove. Then at least these 4 areas to focus on:

a) As the pattern field conditions allow, back to pattern blinds and back in the collar groove. Then incorporate concepts w/ the pattern blinds

b) run by then swim by (in the spring)

c) sight blinds, simple cold blinds, then ramp it up

d) singles, doubles, diversion birds, honor; mix it up, alternate with drills and blinds

Addendum: I forgot, she was starting to do triples and delayed triples too, we'll build back up to that. Keep it mixed up.

We're lucky we have dog skool teecher to tell us what to do and make sensible training setups; plus one of our training buddies has surpassed us to starting to train for Master, so he makes good setups. Looking forward to spring :)
 
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#21 ·
LOL - our bird-y dog. Ever since Barb posted the pheasant pictures I was simply craving pheasants. For New Years we ordered two pheasants and the beef brisket from nbsmokehouse. Since I was bed-bound with the flu we were finally able to have our New Years dinner yesterday. Wow Wow Wow - I should have videotaped Rose.

She really really wanted to "fetch" those pheasants. I was amazed at her restraint not to jump on the counter.
She has tried every trick possible, around, sit, down, high five, shake voluntarily to show me how much she deserves them. She even went and found her favorite toy "chicken" and brought it over to trade.

Still hoping for the ice to melt. It is pretty dangerous in the back yard. Bunch of snow footprints that are now frozen. Maybe I am too much of a mother but I told DH that if she breaks a foot or gets injured running in the back yard he is the one to take her to the vet.
 
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#23 · (Edited)
Yes, I keep a training log (besides GRF). The drawings of some of the setups are unrecognizable and initially I wondered at the value of the exercise. However, I now like it even though my artistic talent has not improved. It's helped me see trends. For example, in our mark blind drill Winter was not having a problem with under the arc or backsiding the winger, but with whatever side she ran second. She would ignore the holding blind hiding the winger on the first side we ran (either under arc or backsiding) but would lock on to the holding blind on the second side. Drawing it out helped me see it.

We have a steady diet of singles going on here too, but throw in multiples about once a week. All of these setups have blinds that are long or have suction/factors or both. We run our lining drill and the mark blind drill about once a week, but not on the same day. Since until last week to was in the 40's during the day, we were running splashing water blinds and short swim marks, sandwiched between land marks or blinds. But now the temps are around 30 so we are out of the water until it warms up.

I'm wishing for an early warm spring so we can get back in the water.
I hope to give Finished a try this year and tackle Master next....
 
#24 ·
Yes, I keep a training log (besides GRF).
It's encouraging to see trainers keeping journals. Even if it's an Internet post now and then, it's better than most trainers are doing, and you've seen the value. All Weather Retriever Trainer's Kit. $44.42. There are several others. This one is a good one and much like what I use.
The drawings of some of the setups are unrecognizable and initially I wondered at the value of the exercise. However, I now like it even though my artistic talent has not improved. It's helped me see trends. For example, in our mark blind drill Winter was not having a problem with under the arc or backsiding the winger, but with whatever side she ran second. She would ignore the holding blind hiding the winger on the first side we ran (either under arc or backsiding) but would lock on to the holding blind on the second side. Drawing it out helped me see it.

...I'm wishing for an early warm spring so we can get back in the water.
I hope to give Finished a try this year and tackle Master next....
I keep my drawings simple, but make sure they show important factors like wind direction, ditches, logs, hay bails, ponds, etc. I usually only draw the portion of the shoreline that affected the running of a route.

Good job!

EvanG
 
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#25 ·
I used to keep a training log but haven't in a long time.
I also like to draw pictures, especially of drills, because that's the only way I remember anything! If someone hands me a picture I probably wouldn't understand it, it helps me to draw it myself after doing it.

Actually writing and drawing helps me commit items to memory. I wonder if typing will have the same effect, if so, this forum will help me :)

Sometimes when we go to obedience our friend Sunrise has a written out plan of what to work on with each dog that day. I think that'll be a good idea for me going forward because I have like 4 sets of things to be worked on that need to be mixed up so it would help to plan, what to do when and how to move forward with it.


Although I agree adjustments need to be made. Like if bad habits or problems creep in.
 
#26 ·
Today we focused on water blinds. There are several blinds available at the place we train, that are quite difficult (mainly, down the shore with an island off the shore, big angle entry). Every new set of judges they bring in for the tests here, sees them and goes, There's our water blind! The last master test I ran there, last year with Fisher, he one-whistled the one they picked out and everyone thought I was a genius. To Fisher it's basically a pattern blind, we've done them so many times. So anyways we worked on those same blinds (3 different ones) today with Slater & Millie, and they did GREAT!!! Really happy with everything.
A funny thing happened though...lining up for the first blind, which was down the shore to the left, down a channel formed by the shore and an island, instead of facing forward Slater is air-scenting to the right and clearly indicating he wants to go that way. Well, 100+ yards across the big pond (big open swim) is the OTHER blind with bumpers I had placed. The wind was blowing right at us. Great opportunity to do a big water swim, so I turned, lined him up and BACK. Out he went!
The last blind we set up I taught it like a pattern blind, with rather mixed results with Slater. I won't try to describe it other than to say it was huge, over two points and they ran it as the open water blind last year. Anyways Slater did a pretty good job as I built it, when I finally got it to full distance, he was being really weird lining up, bugging at me, I finally did a heel-burn-heel, and then he was off like a shot. Came back, repeated it, this time he lined up fine, no bugging and went 100 miles an hour off the line, as he's about 2/3 the way out there I'm blowing my whistle trying to get a cast and he's completely blowing through it. Now, that same strong wind was coming at me, and he knew the destination and trying very hard to get there quickly, but geeze!!! Once he was coming back I look at my transmitter, and my FREAKIN COLLAR WAS OFF. So he totally "faked" a correction for bugging and no wonder why he blew through the whistle. Hmmm...
Slater came back from that one like he had won the lottery, even though I felt it wasn't that great, he thought it was.
Fisher was up next, I ran the same blind from about halfway, took 2 casts to it, then backed up immediately to the full distance, and he one-whistled it. Fisher was on, and fast. Maybe if I run the qual again they'll pick that same blind :)

Lastly we went up to the hay field and again ran singles with white bumpers and really launched them. After a few corrections for breaking with the pinch collar the other day, Slater has been solid as a rock. These big singles have worked WONDERS for his focus and marking. WONDERS.
 
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#27 ·
Yesterday in hunt class we admitted a black lab. Wow what a difference in energy. This new pup comes from total field lines and is super hard core. The rest of us goldens have been working together for a few months now so it was fun to see a new pup work. We still are working only inside for class. Our trainer doesn't like it when it's cold and icy. So I work my girl outside with my husband. We worked on getting the pups to retrieve with only a hey hey and hand signals. No come or back or any other verbal commands. Some pups did better than others. We also worked on heeling and honoring. My girl just has a hard time honoring. Maybe because its her siblings? Wednesday we start obedience with another trainer. We will still be hunt oriented, but this trainer only competes in hunt and field and doesn't train dogs for it. So obedience on Wed. and hunt on Sat. The pups are doing great!
 
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#28 · (Edited)
We trained hand thrown walk away singles and blinds the last couple of times out. It was a mixed bag. One day the long mark gave her trouble. It was a long low arcing throw that landed behind a hill. The next day a short inward thrown mark that landed on the backside of a hill. She charged up the hill and blew over the top of it. I believe Miss Winter has a lot of hand thrown singles in her future, she may have been seeing too many marks out of wingers.
 
#29 ·
Holly that's exactly what we've been doing and wow what a difference. I am loving the results. Since it's winter the cover is down (cows eat it or they've mowed/baled) so even small white bumpers are easy to find. But I really felt our dogs were so used to a hand-thrown duck (which as you know, doesn't go real far) or a duck out of our little winger. We show up at a test and those big wingers really launch the duck and the dog ends up running where the mark "would be" thrown! Ugg. I also felt Slater wasn't marking it well and rather, running toward the gunner then hunting. Not good.
Anyways we've trained the past, oh gosh I think 4 days in a row, maybe 5, things are going well. Just singles but even twice I ran singles on a multiple setup and neither of my dogs headswung, gee funny how that works. Anyways things are good.
 
#30 · (Edited)
Yes, lots of ducks or dokkens out of wingers lately.
The first day I trained with my friend Sandy. We both wanted to do hand thrown singles and I asked her what she wanted to throw. She said "let's throw small bumper I need to work on marking". Wow, was she right. It makes me laugh, we had two cars full of equipment, wingers, electronics, holding blinds, dokkens.....and here we are hand throwing 2 inch white bumpers and getting in great training. I think I will be backing down multiples to once every couple of weeks and doing hand thrown singles, like Annie. I was worried about Winter not marking the last mark of triples. She too seemed to be using the gunner (or winger) to pick up that third mark. We are throwing very easy triples right now. The last couple of times she stepped on them so I'm encouraged that we can build them. She even gave her little quick head turn glance to the 3rd mark when she was running back with number two. This has been her tell that she knows where the next bird is and I was glad it see it. It may take us awhile but I think we can get there.
I don't know if I have mentioned that in my training group there are 3 women in their 70's. All three of them have dogs that are training at the Master level. They have done it all, bench, obedience, tracking, field. They're very encouraging and a riot to train with. Plus they know where all the bodies are buried. ;)

I believe I will have the pleasure of training with a Fisher grandpup soon.
 
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