Field November 2012 - Page 5 - Golden Retrievers : Golden Retriever Dog Forums

sterregold · #41 (**permalink**) 11-25-2012, 11:40 AM

Awesome, awesome seminar yesterday. Mitch focused on the handler side of the partnership, and the mental aspects of the game--your psychological prep, reading the tests, working out a strategy, adapting to unexpected events, etc. it was definitely worth the 5 hour drive!

hotel4dogs · #42 (**permalink**) 11-25-2012, 03:44 PM

I would love to go to one of Mitch's seminar's. He was one of the judges at National for the SH test, and I really enjoyed him. Especially after he had some very nice things to say about Tito

!

sterregold · #43 (**permalink**) 11-26-2012, 02:59 PM

Mitch is a terrific guy. I met him when I started running AKC, so he has seen Breeze run from JH right through MH, and was one of the judges on one of her MH passes. A friend and I are making arrangments to get down for a few days of private training with him over the summer--a bit of a training vacation for us. Keep an eye on his website (gamekprs.com) as they will be posting info for their July 4th camp soon. Unfortunately it conflicts with an important test weekend up here for me, which is why we are going to go the private route.

**Claudia M** · #44 (**permalink**) 11-26-2012, 06:39 PM

DH is hunting Bambi so our hunt training has come to a brief halt. We are just working on obedience for now. Hope hope hope that in spring we can start Rose on more serious hunt training. Until then I will just indulge my eyes with your posts. She has an amazing soft mouth - but she has recently started the keep away game and have to be quite stern and serious for her to bring whatever it is she thinks is valuable back to me. I am so not happy about that.

KathyG · #45 (**permalink**) 11-27-2012, 08:43 AM

I'm certainly no expert, but in our training group with the pro (with all but the most experienced dogs), we would run all the marks as singles before putting it together as a triple. If after that, a dog that had to be handled on any mark, they get to do it again....until they can do it right. Same thing with blinds. On the repeat, they are expected to line the blind. Obviously if they lined it the first time or took a great line with one or two whistles, they don't need to repeat.

And your training partner sounds like they have the identical problem I have with my very talented, very cocky toller. At about age 5 he decided I was only good for driving him to events. It is a CONSTANT battle of the wills. Usually not very pretty. More pressure is not the answer with him. He wants to do it his way, thank you very much. Usually he is right, but when I need him to cooperate with me (give up control, like on a blind)and he would rather not, his behavior is down right irrational. He would rather put up a fight. He spins, gets incredibly agitated, jumps on me. If I'm setting up for a blind and he does this, I just keep walking forward with him carrying on. And then the switch flips and he sits down, locks on and usually runs a nice blind. I tell my friends he needs a psychologist.

I passed zero tests last year (he has a MH and HRCH) because he would not sit on the whistle on blinds (give up control). Sounds like something easy to fix.....or not. I try to manage it and some days are better than others. We do lots of control exercises (he also is working on his UDX), wagon wheels etc where he is very cooperative. Realistically, I doubt he will ever be 'normal' again. The trainer calls him a leaky boat. I 'fix' one problem and something else pops up. Its basically a sit problem which I created.

Kathy

Quote:

Originally Posted by K9-Design

Trained today, only time available this week.
Next weekend is our local HRC test and I have both boys in Finished.
A trend in Finished tests down here is to run a long go-bird past in your face short memory birds. So today we set up such a triple on the water with real short memory birds and a long (100+ yard) go bird over two points of water, very tight to the middle bird. Blind up the middle going through a pinch of water between a point and an island.
I ran the go bird as a single with both dogs first, put them up and ran the triple. As expected I handled on the go bird to keep them from falling for the short bird they had to run past. Both took 2-3 handles then were like, OH YEAH and booked it out to the long one. Not perfect but I'll take it. Both dogs did very nice on the blind.
Later on I did a long single through a bunch of mud/cover/lunging water with Slater, he had a blast and came back not only with the bumper but a big clump of lily pads complete with roots and dirt! LOL I posted the pic on FB

My training partner didn't have such a good time of our setup. I'm not sure how to help him. Well, back up, we have trained together for many years and have helped each other a LOT. I couldn't do it without him. However his dog has many bad training habits that get him in lots of trouble, mainly due to inconsistently correcting the dog and really sending mixed messages. The dog has a lot of drive and wants to do it but has trouble communicating with his handler. My friend goes and trains with the dog's breeder, a very experienced trainer, about once a week. The trainer always tells him "don't worry, don't correct, he's confused, make it simple" etc etc, then when it gets so bad the owner can't do anything, the trainer takes the dog and board & trains for a few weeks. The owner thus hasn't learned how to dig the dog out of problems. Today the dog had a complete meltdown on the triple, totally blowing off all attempts to handle to the long go bird in an effort to get the short marks first (TWICE), then when we finally just decided to run the go bird as a single, he no-goes with a lot of barking and spinning. A complete conflict of control -- dog wants to do what he wants, owner not forceful enough to convince him otherwise. OY!!!! I just don't know where to go with it and how to help. Anyways.....

gdgli · #46 (**permalink**) 12-01-2012, 10:29 AM

We will be pheasant hunting tomorrow. We will alternate working Buffy and Rebel, a Boykin Spaniel.

I just love that pheasant hunting!

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The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to sterregold For This Useful Post:
Claudia M (11-26-2012), gdgli (11-25-2012), General V (11-25-2012), GoldenSail (11-25-2012), hotel4dogs (11-25-2012)

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to sterregold For This Useful Post:
hotel4dogs (11-26-2012), K9-Design (11-26-2012)

The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Claudia M For This Useful Post:
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The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to KathyG For This Useful Post:
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