Private Training: Diversion Drill

Today, we ran Alice Woodyard's diversion drill with a better understanding of the set-up. We trained on a large ballfield. Conditions were cloudy, cold, and windy, with the direction of the wind constantly changing. Whenever I ran one dog, I had the other dog sit behind us to honor.

The steps we followed were as follows:

1. I placed a pole as our start line, and a second pole 75 yards away.
   
2. I placed a pile of white dummies at the second pole, and periodically replenished it with more white dummies.
3. I ran Laddie to the pile.
4. I had Nate stand 40 yards from the start line and 10 yards to the right of the line to the pile ("the center line"), and ran Laddie to the pile.
5. With Nate in the same position, I had him fire a dry shot and ran Laddie to the pile.
6. I had Nate set up with his chair and a bag of birds 30 yards from the start line and 20 yards to the right of the center line.
7. I had Nate throw a bird for Lumi. His throw was in the direction of the pile, but remained to the right of the center line. I did not have him fire a shot.
8. I ran Laddie to the pile.
9. I had Nate throw another bird for Lumi, but this time with a shot. As before, his throw was in the direction of the pile, but remained to the right of the center line.
   
10. I ran Laddie to the pile.
11. I had Nate throw the same mark for Laddie that he had just thrown for Lumi, again with a gunshot.
12. I ran Laddie to the pile.
13. I had Nate move his chair and bird bag to a point 45 yards from the start line and 15 yards to the right of the center line.
14. We repeated steps 8 thru 12 at the new location.
15. I had Nate move his chair and bird bag to a point 60 yards from the start line and 10 yards to the right of the center line.
16. We repeated steps 8 thru 12 at the new location.

In addition to the diversion drill, I also did some pile work with both dogs at another location in the same park:

1. With Lumi on my left and Laddie on my right, I sent them alternately to a pile of birds 15 yards in front of us. The order was Lumi, Laddie, Lumi, Laddie, Laddie.
   
2. Then I had the dogs switch sides and sent them alternately to another pile of birds at the same location. The order was Laddie, Lumi, Laddie, Lumi, Laddie.

Notes on Performance. Unlike yesterday's attempt at a diversion drill, today's session went exactly as Alice had predicted it would go. The drill was not so easy that the dogs breezed thru it, but not so difficult that they couldn't succeed and learn in the process.

Laddie's runs to the pile did not get better or worse during the diversion drill. About half the time he ran straight to the pile, the other half he veered, usually to the right, sometimes to the left, and I would handle him as soon as he got off line. I saw no pattern as to when he went offline and when he didn't. In all cases where he went offline, he was immediately and enthusiastically responsive to every whistle sit and every cast, and in every case but one, a single cast got him to the pile. One time he got past the pile and I used a recall whistle and an "over" to get him to it.

While Laddie didn't show improvement or decline in his lining to the pile, he did show improement in his returns with the dummies. He snaked around a bit on his early returns, prompting me to use multiple recall whistles to bring him back. By the last few retrieves from the pile, he had stopped doing that.

Neither dog had any difficulty pinning the thrown marks. But both dogs displayed low-grade resource guarding, possibly because Nate was throwing pigeons in most cases rather than ducks. When we ran the pile work at the end with both pigeons and ducks, both dogs' performance steadily improved, and their last several pick-ups and returns were excellent.

Next time, I think we should run a pile drill before the diversion drill as a warm-up, hopefully resulting in higher quality pick-ups and returns during the diversion drill. If that doesn't work, the next time after that, we might do the pile drill before the diversion drill with a long line.