[SRW]

The Fuller's "Auggie" made it to the last series. He had trouble with the middle retired. I could not see but heard he had a hunt on the flier which would have made the memory bird tougher. A very nice dog though with plenty of talent and drive.

Also, Auggie cannot walk past a round bale without climbing on top of it.

 

[SRW]

The Fuller's "Auggie" made it to the last series. He had trouble with the middle retired. I could not see but heard he had a hunt on the flier which would have made the memory bird tougher. A very nice dog though with plenty of talent and drive.

Also, Auggie cannot walk past a round bale without climbing on top of it.

Auggie got Reserve Jam at the Chippewa Valley Open. The fourth series was a monster of a triple with a 450 yard memory mark up the middle (probably over 300 yards of water), a 300 yard flier and a 275 yard "short" retired on the left. Finishing that test alone is impressive.

 

[myluckypenny]

I saw Roger's post that showed the last series and wow! Super impressive effort by those that finished the test!

 

[SRW]

I saw Roger's post that showed the last series and wow! Super impressive effort by those that finished the test!

For those that have never been to the grounds, it is even more impressive than can be seen in a photo.
You have to see the terrain to appreciate it.

 

[Abeille]

Well, I don't get to do a lot. We work on marks in my backyard here and there. His signals in Utility have been a focus right now. (Had someone give me excellent advice yesterday) Apparently, our work on tiny short doubles has gone further than I thought! Yesterday, my GR club had a get together and he was doing doubles! And with real ducks! I'm thinking we might work on field in the spring so he can at least get a WC.

 

[SRW]

The last blinds of the year.
A google map photo, snow on the ground and no leaves on trees.
Wind was light from the south. Long blind about 350 yards, the other a little over 300. This is hilly terrain.
This would be a very good double land blind for an all age stake. I was very happy with Jake on these blinds.

The last marks of the year, decade actually.
All thrown to the right, my black lines are kind of hard to see. A slight cross wind from left to right.
The left mark was thrown into the strip of heavy cover and the middle bird landed about 15 yards behind directly behind a round bale.
I ran it as a triple, middle first then left and the longest bird on the right as the go bird.
The middle and left guns retired, picked up left bird 2nd and middle bird last. Jake finished the year in style with a perfect series.

Happy New Year to all.

 

[myluckypenny]

I made a new years resolution that I'm going to at least 10 cold blinds a week with Rio. One nice thing about it being so dry here is that the water on one side of our training grounds is 90% dried up. Which means I can run blinds over where there is normally water so he is getting lots of land blinds that will be very similar in picture to his water blinds come spring. I'm also lucky my training group still gets together every weekend, because while I can run blinds by myself I really need lots of practice running in front of people.

 

[FTGoldens]

Last weekend, the training group got together (the first time in about a month due to COVID scares and the holidays) and did a few "set ups."
On Saturday, the first set up had a short mark on the right, and tight behind it was a middle length mark thrown hip-pocket to the short mark, and finally the go bird was on the far left as the longest mark sort of out of the picture of the other two marks. All guns stayed out. It wasn't pretty .... most (maybe all) of the dogs retrieved the left mark just fine, but when sent for the short mark they wanted to go to the middle distance/middle mark ... factors involved: longest mark picked up first, the hill side was such that the dogs started squaring up the hill before getting to the short mark which put them both upwind of the short mark and on a direct line to the middle mark ... these factors did not seem like they should have been so strong as to cause them to miss the short mark, especially with the short gunner staying exposed. Nonetheless, some pretty decent dogs screwed this up!
So on Sunday, we simplified the set up by running the middle mark as a single, then (after all dogs ran the single) we set up the triple again ... better results.
So then we moved the line and set up the mirror image of that set up ... for most of the dogs (not all), it was ugly again!
This is a MUST KNOW set up (plus, this is as simple as "go where sent"), so it will be retaught and revisited as necessary.
As the saying goes, "Amateurs work on it until the dogs can do it right; pros work on it until the dogs can't do it wrong!"

 

[K9-Design]

<As the saying goes, "Amateurs work on it until the dogs can do it right; pros work on it until the dogs can't do it wrong!">

Ugggg good one -- and unfortunately, true

I've started to learn on these concepts be it mark or blind, if I say OK dog we're gonna do this every day until you get it right....
they often start doing worse the more you try to hammer it in
But if you show them the same concept over and over again over time (say, we do this concept three times a month rather than three days in a row) they have a more relaxed and open attitude to it.
The problem is remembering to set it up and remembering that they made the mistake and to help or do whatever it takes so they don't just make the same mistake again!

Also...for years with my earlier dogs I ran memory birds as singles first. This past weekend I watched two very novice dogs have trouble on the memory bird of a double even after running it successfully as a single first. Starting to wonder if that's really the most effective way to help the dogs. It's starting to seem like just a good way to burn some energy rather than teach anything...???

 

[Alaska7133]

The thing I think we all need to remember is that often the person that ran the series right before us, may not have a job and/or a young family, and have all the time in the world to train. They may also send their dog off to a pro for the 6 months of the year they aren't running trials/tests. I think all us am's with jobs and/or families, need to give ourselves a break. I was training with a newbie a couple of weeks ago and she was really beating herself up on how her dog wasn't doing very well compared to the other dogs in her field class. I had to remind her and myself that we have jobs that can be very demanding and don't allow us the time off to spend all day training. So give yourself a break about not training those concepts often enough that we think we should. As trials/tests have gotten more and more difficult, us am's with jobs, have an even more difficult time keeping up with those that don't have the commitments we do. Those of you with young kids at home too, I have no idea how you get in the time to field train at all. Sometimes it's hard to find time to walk the darn dog! So pat yourself on the back for getting done what you do get done. Be happy that your dog enjoys the field work and the time you get outdoors together.

 

[K9-Design]

I gotta say, that is not how I think at all. I push really hard to train as smart and hard as I can. Nobody is going to give me a ribbon because they feel sorry for me. I've chosen this game and these dogs so I'm not going to settle on mediocre training. The only thing pros have over us is know-how. The crazy thing is, they are willing to share it. Could you imagine with their knowledge but just one dog, how far we could take our own dogs!? Don't settle because it's hard. If it was easy, everyone would do it.

 

[FTGoldens]

Also...for years with my earlier dogs I ran memory birds as singles first. This past weekend I watched two very novice dogs have trouble on the memory bird of a double even after running it successfully as a single first. Starting to wonder if that's really the most effective way to help the dogs. It's starting to seem like just a good way to burn some energy rather than teach anything...???

K9-D,
Is it the mark that the dogs struggle with or is it the mechanics of how a double works?
A training buddy of mine acquired a dog that was a little over a year old which was supposed to have had at least a bit of training on doubles before he got the dog. But the dog had no clue as to the mechanics of a double, so we had to start with that. He caught on to the idea pretty quickly once we figured out what the problem was.

 

[K9-Design]

FT - with one of the dogs I do think he has a little communication issue with his handler, the other dog plain old succumbed to factors and sucked toward the go-bird. Two different issues, clearly, but neither were helped by the single first.
I'm starting to utilize gunner help for this sort of issue a LOT more than in the past...

 

[MillionsofPeaches]

FT this setup sounds interesting. I was wondering what way the guns were shooting and also I was wondering do you think it had anything to do with all guns standing out? Were they all thrown to the right or were they split up and the go bird thrown right and two others thrown left??? We ran a set up last month and it was a quad but all guns stood out and boy they struggled way more than I'd imagine. Just a thought.

 

[FTGoldens]

MOP,
Frankly, I'm not sure ... and my (very experienced and successful) training partners were equally surprised with the results.
The short right mark (thrown to the left) and the middle mark (thrown to the right) were pinched, so it's unlikely that the dogs were pushing off the short gunner.
It's possible that since the go-bird was long, the dogs simply didn't think that they should go short, which is a big problem ... I must get them used to doing that, whether the gunners are stand-out or retired.
Yesterday (training alone), I ran an interrupted inverted double and the pups did fine on it ... I'll repeat that set up today (if I have time), then tomorrow run a set up like the one which gave them so much trouble.

 

[SRW]

I was training with a newbie a couple of weeks ago and she was really beating herself up on how her dog wasn't doing very well compared to the other dogs in her field class.

One of the first things a newbie must learn is not to compare their dog to others. Train and teach each dog based on what it needs.

The only thing pros have over us is know-how.

The biggest advantage a pro has is seeing more dogs in a month than most amateurs see in a lifetime.

 

[SRW]

This is training in the winter in the upper Midwest.
I ran it as a full triple. Left bird thrown 1st to the right, middle bird 2nd sharply back to the left, right bird as the go bird.
Middle gun retired as soon as I sent on the go bird. Left gun retired after the middle bird was picked up.
A lot of challenges in all three marks. A light wind was at the handlers back. On all three marks the dogs have to make decisions in route with bales, trees, cover and terrain. The middle retired required the dogs to cross the frozen pond, go over the pond dike, angle back up hill and dig in to the tree line for the bird. To create even more pull out to the open field, the left gun stayed out until the dog was returning with the middle bird.

I was extremely happy with Jake on this setup. He stepped on every mark.
Entered the Open and Am at the Red River Trial, the end of the month near Bonham TX. Want to win both but so do a lot of other handlers.
I'll just try to keep him running relaxed, confident and happy.

He is kind of lazy this morning.

 

[K9-Design]

Great looking setup!
We had an amazing training day yesterday. Was 40º when we started at 10 a.m. but warmed up to 60º in the afternoon. Land triple with flyer first, then two whopper water marks with a nice crosswind. Fun day.

 

[SRW]

The view from my door today. More snow, sub-zero temps and 30-40mph wind coming.

 

[FTGoldens]

SRW,
Great photo of a very nice set up. Let's get some discussion going on it:
1. Why did you shoot the marks in the order of left, middle, right?
2. Why did you make it a point to throw the middle mark sharply angled back to the left?
3. Why did you have Jake pick up the middle mark second?
3.a. Was the middle mark shorter than the right mark/go bird?
3.b. If so, why did you set it up that way?
4.. Give us a little more explanation as to why you left the left gun out until Jake picked up the middle (retired mark)?
4.a. What would you have done if had Jake swerved over to the left mark after you'd sent him to the middle mark?

[That's a pretty high level set up for a very advanced dog.]

FTGoldens