Private Training: Blinds, Handling, and Diversions

I've decided that at least for now, Lumi and Laddie need different kinds of work, so beginning today, I put them on different tracks. Lumi will be working on cold blinds and diversion drills, while Laddie will be working on handling drills that reinforce high quality whistle sits, alternating with retrieval drills that do not depend on a solid whistle sit for the training to be useful.

Today, we had two outdoor sessions, one in the morning at the Needwood Park's archery range, and one in the afternoon at Sundown Park with Nate helping.

The sessions were structured as follows:

Series A (morning, Laddie): a diamond drill.

Series B (morning, Lumi): a triple blind.

Series C (afternoon, Laddie): another diamond drill.

Series D (afternoon, Lumi): a diversion drill, with toward-the-line thrown birds, and dummies at the pile.

Descriptions of the series follow:

Series A. Laddie's diamond drill:

• Pole P at the "pitcher's mound", 20 yards from the start line ("home plate")
  
• Pole 1 at "first base", 20 yards from pole P
• Pole 2 at "second base", 20 yards from pole P
• Pole 3 at "third base", 20 yards from pole P

Initially, I pinned birds (dead pigeons) at poles 1, 2, and 3. Later, I unpinned one bird at a time in random order. Also later, I replaced the bird at pole 2 with an orange dummy, sometimes pinned and sometimes unpinned.

Each rep was identical. I would send Laddie from somewhere on the line between the start line and pole P to pole P and whistle sit when he arrived. If he sat "correctly", I would then either recall him or cast him to an unpinned article at pole 1, 2, or 3. If he took the cast correctly and brought me the article, I'd reinforce with praise, hey-hey throws, and food. If Laddie was incorrect on his sit or his cast, I dealt with it in two possible ways:

1. Twice, I allowed him to reach pole 2 and try unsuccessfully to pick up the pinned bird or dummy. He'd quit after a pull or two, I'd call "here", and he'd come back. I'd then line him back up again for another send out.
2. The other times, I'd call out "no here", he'd come back, and I'd line him back up again for another send out.

My standards for "correct" allowed for slower sits in the earlier reps. As Laddie improved, I gradually raised my standard to faster sits, though never reaching the immediate sit we'll ultimately aim for in this first session.

After a few reps of Laddie not stopping at pole P, I made three adjustments:

1. I moved our start line closer to pole P, since Laddie is more responsive the closer he is to me.
2. I used a longer, more piercing whistle.
3. I whistled before Laddie arrived at pole P so that he could decelerate in order to stop at pole P.

Laddie's responsiveness to whistle sits, and even some casts, was inaccurate at the beginning, as I expected based on recent sessions. But he made steady progress over about 15 reps, and by the end, his whistle sit was noticeably better and his casts were reliable. By the last few reps, I was confident that Laddie would not attempt a retrieve if I stopped him with "no here", so I unpinned all the articles and sent him one by one to retrieve each of them. In that last group of three, his whistle sit and casts were all quite good. His motivation remained high throughout the drill.

Series B. Lumi's triple blind:

1. 100 yards to a visible (at least to me) orange dummy; sighting by means of a white utility pole next to the dummy
   
2. 120 yards to a dummy on the downside of a ridge and therefore not visible from the start line; sighting by means of a particular tree in the woods behind the blind
3. 140 yards to a duck behind cover and not visible from the start line; sighting because #3 was in the same line as #1

#2 was 60° to the left of #1/#3. The field was mostly open lawn, but had occasional trees and kiosks for archery targets on either side of both sight lines.

Because these were all easy blinds, I kept Lumi on a tight line for all of them. Lumi required two casts for #1 and two for #2. She went off line on #3 and took several casts to get on again: "That can't be right, I've already picked up that blind." But once she got back on the line, she continued past the white pole and even past the bird, turning back and picking it up when she caught its scent.

I reinforced each retrieve with praise and food, and Lumi's motivation was high the entire session, with one exception. During the return on #3, I decided to sit whistle twice. Lumi responded immediately but was a little slow starting again when I called her. The feeling was, "What did I do wrong, Daddy?" We played when she finished her delivery and her spirits were buoyant as we returned to the van.

Series C. A second diamond drill for Laddie, virtually identical in dimensions and performance to Series A. One minor difference was that I started pole 2 with a pinned dummy rather than a pigeon.

Laddie's performance on Series C was almost the same as Series A, although we did not need to move as close to pole P to prime the pump. In other words, he did not pick up where he had left off, but rather reverted to a less skillful level and then re-learned the skills again. I'll expect that to continue for the next few sessions, until a day will come where Laddie will be responsive from the first whistle. At that point we can begin to gradually increase distances.

Series D. Lumi's diversion drill:

• A pile of white dummies at 80 yards.
• Nate, wearing a white sweatshirt, throws all marks as pigeons or ducks, using a gunshot before each throw.
  
• Lumi does a total of five retrieves:
  
• With Nate sitting in a chair 30 yards from the start line and 15 yards to the left of the start line, I send Lumi to the dummies.
• Nate throws a mark halfway to the center line, which Lumi retrieves.
  
• I send Lumi to the dummies.
• Nate moves his chair to 45 yards from the start line and throws another mark, which Lumi retrieves.
  
• I send Lumi to the dummies.
• Nate moves his chair to 60 yards from the start line and throws another mark, which Lumi retrieves.
• I send Lumi to the dummies.

Lumi had no difficulty with this drill. She ran to each mark and each "blind" on a straight line and brought back whatever she was sent to. Granted she ran faster to the birds than to the dummies, but aside from that, I saw little to work on.

While we could continue Lumi's work on this drill in a thorough progression — throw from both sides, throw away from the line, throw over the line — I think it might be more beneficial to raise the difficulty level so that Lumi at least occasionally takes a detour and needs handling. Possibilities I have thought of include:

• Reversing the drill, since Lumi did try skipping a thrown dummy once when we tried that last week and might try it again from time to time
• Increasing distances
• Using true blinds where Lumi does not know where the dummies are
• Introducing poison birds, that is, marks that are thrown but not retrieved until after a dummy is first retrieved from a pile

Hopefully Alice and Jody can give me guidance on how they feel it would be best to proceed with Lumi's diversion proofing.