Private Training: Bail-Out Drill

Today, son Eric offered to help me train, which gave us an opportunity to throw marks, but I also thought it would be valuable for each of the dogs to retrieve at least one duck. Above all, I wanted both dogs to run Alice Woodyard's bail-out drill for the first time.

I set up a series to work on all of those, ending with the bail-out drill. It's possible that dogs contemplate what they've learned after a training session is over, and if so, that was the experience I wanted freshest in their minds.

The series was as follows:

1. 30-yard poorman mark to a duck
2. 200-yard single to a white dummy, thrown after "hey-hey"
3. Bail-out drill

On the narrow ballfield:

• #2 was 75° to the left of #1.
• #3 was merely 10° to the left of #2.

The bail-out drill was set-up as follows:

• Three poles were placed in a straight line (separated by 30-30 yards).
• The pin of pole 3 went through the eyelet of an orange dummy and then into the ground, pinning the dummy and holding it in place if a dog tried to retrieve it.
• A white dummy was placed 15 yards to the left of pole 2 and under the high branches of a conifer. The white dummy was not visible to the dog from the line of the poles but was readily visible once the dogs got within 10 yards.
  

Conditions: High 30's, drizzly, wind calm. We worked at a ballfield where the grass was wet, cold, and had standing water and mud in places.

I ran Lumi first, then Laddie. Both dogs were nearly identical in their performance, so I'll refer to both of them as "Dog" in the following description:

I walked Dog from the van past poles 3 and 2 of the bail-out drill, giving them a chance to notice the orange dummy at pole 3. We set up at the start line, which was pole 1 of the bail-out drill.

I walked out and threw the duck, then sent Dog to that mark. I didn't auto-whistle and Dog returned immediately without a whistle and with no hint of resource guarding the duck.

Next I called for the long mark. Again Dog did great without an auto-whistle.

Finally, we ran the bail-out drill, as follows: I sent Dog from heel to pole 2, whistled sit, and cast Dog on an "over" to the bail-out dummy to the left. Dog took a step in that direction, then looped back toward pole 3 and the orange dummy. Before Dog could get to pole 3, I whistled Dog to sit again, then called Dog toward me with a recall whistle. As soon as Dog was even with pole 2, I again whistled Dog to sit, then again cued "over". This time Dog took the cast, ran to the white dummy, and picked it up. As Dog did so, I auto-whistled and Dog came racing back to me with it.

I used food when I returned from throwing the poorman mark (to reinforce waiting) and at the completion of the series as we ran back to the van (to reinforce accompanying me back, and also as a positive association with the overall training session).

Minor differences in the way the two dogs ran:

• Lumi does not like sitting or lying down on cold, wet ground and won't maintain a sit. She puts her butt down, then immediately lifts it again. I tolerate it, because I know that she only behaves that way in those conditions, and she remains steady and focused.
• Lumi was tentative on the second "over" cast until she spotted the white dummy. Then she accelerated to it. Laddie only has one speed — overdrive — so that didn't happen with him.