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Good luck this weekend. I'll be cheering for you!

Hunt test this weekend and the forecast is 95+...IN SEATTLE, IN JUNE...we are going to melt!!!!
Where are the gray skies and rain?
 
When we went to the National in St. Louis I realized that there is, in fact, one place in the country that has even worse weather than the Chicago area!


They are in Missouri....we have had rain all Spring! It is raining now and it rained yesterday. The weathermen/women cannot even get it correct. Forecast for yesterday was like 91 with no chance of rain. It clouded up in the morning and rained all day. I wish I had a job where I could consistently make forecasts with an accuracy of 50% or less.....some job?

It is either 90+ with scorching humidity or damp and raining....very little in between, all Spring!
 
When we went to the National in St. Louis I realized that there is, in fact, one place in the country that has even worse weather than the Chicago area!
River cities can be the worst! I have had the same experience in St. Louis and l lived in Memphis for 10 years....OMG! You could not work outside in the summer after 11am, it was downright Painful if you did!
 
You all win, because we will not have 90+ humidity to deal with along with the heat.
Stacey please send a cool breezy from the north, the prediction is now 98. Pop up, silver shades, fans and extra batteries at the ready. Oh and there will be ice lots of ice.
 
Ok here's your cool breeze. Last summer's July hunt test 45 in the morning, got up to 50 in the afternoon. Woollies, boots and rain gear in July. Last weekend was the same. Summer woollies.
 

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Discussion starter · #89 ·
Ok here's your cool breeze. Last summer's July hunt test 45 in the morning, got up to 50 in the afternoon. Woollies, boots and rain gear in July. Last weekend was the same. Summer woollies.
I wish I had a picture from our last year July hunt test. 90+ degrees, we had to actually put up tents for the holding blinds to keep the dogs cool before running. Fans running, cars covered, tents over the cars; Gatorade and Endura Cool have become my best friend.
 
first for the distances every dog would run the same distance marks


for a junior hunter i would do like we did with proof just one gunner in the field. and most definitely have the gunner hey hey or blow a duck call before the shoot and throw.
Also my best gunner out there who can wgive the least amount of help get them out. It would range from a step to a hey to a double throw. Good gunners are worth there weight in gold.

a QAA or master dog most likely how belle ran it. but the gunner would have just a shot and a throw and paying attention to head swinging. if they head swing sit stick sit and re throw the mark.



for an All Age dog tighten the outside guns to the middle guns get those tight lines past a short gun or to check down with the mark landing inline with a longer gun. i might not have the gunner make any noise or shoot and with the tighter guns i will be watching the dogs eyes to see if they are head swinging with out swinging their head and hold them there for an extra sec or two before releasing for the mark, with the same correction for head swinging as the QAA/MH dog.
I'm kinda new at this but I'll play.

JH

Also my best gunner out there who can give the least amount of help get them out there if needed. It would range from a step, to a hey, to a double throw. Good gunners are worth their weight in gold.

MH/QAA
I run HT's and usually train with only one other person so I would have holding blinds out at the marks. For my dog, because picking out the long gun has been a issue, we would start with the long gun. I would come to the line telling her way out and as she sat at the line I would be working hard to get her to see past the close holding blinds and out to the long gun. I use the same cues as I do for my lining drill. When I got the lock I would signal my partner to step out and throw.

I also correct for head swinging but she usually only needs a tap on the head and "mark" to get it buttoned back down. I also run a ton of singles to keep it at bay.
 
Ran an ABCD drill with Millions of Peaches today it was hot and the dogs were beat when they were done. both dogs did well considering the humidity but Proof won the training day today he put his face on 3 of the 4 marks one of them being the long mark. Proof can MARK no questions asked, but he was also holding really good lines to all the marks. G1 110yrds G2 75yrds G3 142yards G4 175yrds.

There really isn't a "correct" response except that you would tailor the guns/factors to work on an individual dog's tendencies according to their level.

By definition, an ABCD drill is singles to teach interrelationship of the guns. You can run an ABCD drill on a flat field to teach, then incorporate more advanced factors such as in this set with a ditch crossing and some rolling terrain.

As thrown in the pic, if I were setting this up, I would loosen the left hand bird up to the left and not give a young dog the push off the left gun to end up at G4. It's a funnel to the bird, coupled with squaring the ditch and negating the wind fade. You're kinda negating the factors as it's set. I would also tighten up the right hand bird to provide a draw to the short middle check.

For a young dog, I would throw long left middle, then left hand bird, then middle check, then long right hand bird.

For an older dog I would throw the same order, but throw G4 the opposite way l-r into the hip pocket of the short middle check bird with the right hand bird tightened up to provide a draw.

Hope this makes sense.
 
Discussion starter · #94 ·
I have done some just AB throws for Belle in the back yard. What I was looking for was the concept of passing A (closer) gunner and fall to get to B (farther) gunner and pass the throw and vice versa. Unfortunately it is not often that I have 4 throwers available. I do not like the gunners moving in the field. I would have to take the dog in the car and back out for each throw.
 
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I have done some just AB throws for Belle in the back yard. What I was looking for was the concept of passing A (closer) gunner and fall to get to B (farther) gunner and pass the throw and vice versa. Unfortunately it is not often that I have 4 throwers available. I do not like the gunners moving in the field. I would have to take the dog in the car and back out for each throw.
Claudia, there is nothing wrong with the dog watching the guns move. In fact, I think it helps a young dog develop focus.

Stickmen are a great help. I wouldn't worry about the movement from gun to gun.

We commonly throw a mark and then walk away from the throw (stickman in place). It teaches the dog to bear down on the mark and not pay attention to the gun moving.
 
Or just use a holding blind at the line and wait behind it. I've also observed that having the doc watch the gunners move helps build intense focus.
 
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"Stickmen are a great help. I wouldn't worry about the movement from gun to gun."


I had one of my trainers tell me that using a folding chair with a T-Shirt draped over it for a 'stickman/women' works well. I use them all the time and my dog reacts, just like when in a hunt test. I put my double shooting Bumper Boy behind one of them, so she never knows where the next throw is coming from. Of course my greatest 'bird-gal' is my wife.
 
A folding chair with a t-shirt works very well and gives the dog a slightly different look from a standard stickman. I think it's important to shake it up a little and constantly challenge the dogs with different looks, even something as subtle as a different type of stickman.

One of the things I've noticed over the years is that individual trainers and training groups tend to fall into training ruts by running the same type of sets, or blinds, etc. I think it's important to bring in fresh ideas.

For example, I trained with a HT group about 6 months ago and noticed they tended to throw "clean" triples. By that I mean they always seemed to have a relatively clean mat. Always on flat ground, always with short cover from which to send the dogs from. Nothing up front that the dogs had to deal with.

So....after a few of their vanilla sets, I politely asked if I could construct the next set. One of the members got pretty rude and she directly accused me of intending to set up a "field trial" with long marks.

Surprise! I simply constructed a Master set, but running off the side of a mound with some branches on the way to the marks. Almost every dog fell off the mound and flared the branches to put them off line to their birds.

It was a simple thing, but threw those dogs a loop.
 
Discussion starter · #99 ·
I certainly appreciate the importance of walking singles. But for an ABCD scenario we have always done it with four helpers in the field. Dog (young or otherwise) needs to learn to go past gunners and past previous falls IMHO. With the gunner there it makes it even harder IMHO to go past a previous fall.

We have done triples this weekend. Depending on what and where is planted on the farm we work around it thus always changing things for the dogs. At the last JH test the judges put a log couple feet in the water at the line. I sweated the entire test with both dogs. Since it as a double JH I was not present for the test dog (who refused to go past the log) and did not realize we were allowed to move the line. Since then I have been looking at putting as many obstacles in the way.

Belle did all the triple marks as singles. Little peanut is getting it. Did some nice long marks thru the flushing timber with the older gilrs and then had some pigeons shot in the yucky mucky flushing timber for the puppies followed with a longer duck. What do you think Belle did! Nailed the pigeon. Second was a duck further out. She went and got the duck and on her way back she let the duck go and went for the pigeon feathers in the water. A strong "Fetch it up" got her back on track.
 
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