Private Training

Although Laddie did not participate in the group training (see today's "Holodeck Training" post), he did accompany Lumi and me to Rover's Content today. Both before and after the group training, I set up wagon wheels for both dogs to practice their lining, whistle responses, and in some cases handling.

I ran the wagon wheel series in a variety of locations, all characterized by rolling terrain, low clumpy cover, small pools of standing water, and strips of high grass. I used whistle sits and either casts or recalls if the dog went off line, and an auto-whistle after every pick-up.

We used all hard dummies, four white with ropes and streamers, four orange (except for Series A). In each case, all dummies were 20 yards from the start line in the center. The white dummies were at the four points of the compass, while each orange dummy was midway between two white ones.

When orange dummies were used, the dog was sent to all the orange ones in random order. After all the orange ones were picked up, the dog was sent to all the white ones. The dog was sent from a sit on either side of me, and asked to deliver on either side, in random order. If the dog saw me place or throw the dummy, I sent the dog with the dog's name. If the dog did not see me place the dummy, I sent the dog with "back".

Today's five series represented a progression of increasing difficulty:

Series A: Laddie. White dummies, watched me throw them.

Series B: Laddie and Lumi. White and orange dummies, watched me throw first the orange ones, then the white ones.

Series C: Lumi and Laddie. White and orange dummies, watched me throw first the orange ones, then the white ones. Two of the orange ones were invisible after landing.

Series D: Lumi and Laddie. Orange dummies planted, watched me throw white dummies. One orange dummy was in plain sight, other three were partially or fully invisible from start line.

Performance. Both dogs picked up every dummy uncued and were 100% responsive to every sit and recall whistle. Lumi was also responsive to every cast. Laddie did not take the casts accurately so mostly I just called him back and resent him if he went off line. A few times, I also walked him closer to the target dummy before sending him again.

Plans for Future Sessions. Next time, we'll repeat Series E until both dogs are confident. After that, we'll make the following increases in criteria:

• We'll try replacing the white dummies with dead birds. That will increase their distraction value, and will also raise the excitement level of the drill and give the dogs pratice returning with birds after they've picked up the dummies.
  
• We'll place the orange dummies at 30 yards, then throw the white dummies to 20 yards.
• We'll place the orange dummies at 30 yards, then throw dead ducks to 20 yards.
• We'll add a third ring of eight dummies at 40 yards for the dogs to retrieve first.
  
• We'll try using one or more wrapped live ducks in combination with white dummies and/or dead ducks for the ring at 20 yards.
  
• We'll try using one or more shackled live ducks in combination with white dummies, dead ducks, and/or wrapped live ducks for the ring at 20 yards.
• We'll try increasing distance. This will not necessarily increase the difficulty of lining; in fact, it might actually make it easier, since the articles will be further apart. However, it will give the dogs practice with whistles and retrieving real birds at longer distances.