Handling Drill

Because of a sore Achilles tendon, I decided to skip training in Cheltenham this morning and instead took the dogs to a huge, mowed field off MD-108 where we've never trained before. I'll call the field Brook Knolls, after the small adjoining development. Today, we used the field for a single multiple target drill (MTD), as described in recent blog entries.

This morning's set up:

• Lining pole at SL
  
• 110 yards along the BL: a surveyors flag and five white dummies (P2: NON-HANDLING)
  
• 20 yards further along the BL, another lining pole as a salient target for the long send-outs
• 400 yards further along the BL, a white utility shed as a further salient target
• 30 yards to the right of P2: a surveyors flag and three orange dummies (P1: HANDLING)
• 30 yards to the left of P2: a surveyors flag and three orange dummies (P3: HANDLING)
• 10 yards along the BL, with dog waiting at heel: one duck thrown 20 yards to the right (Q1: DIVERSION), another thrown 20 yards to the left (Q3: DIVERSION)

I ran Laddie first, then Lumi, the other dog sitting unsupervised to honor the running dog. To spectators, this is often the most impressive part of the drill, especially — for those who know Laddie and his belief that he owns everything — watching him honor Lumi.

Today's MTD raised the criteria from previous sessions in two ways: the distances to P1-P2-P3 were 10 yards longer than we've used on this drill before, and this is the first time we've used birds for the diversions.

Both dogs had similar performance, except that Laddie's speed was higher.

Both dogs were highly distracted by the ducks and had trouble lining past them on their send-outs down the BL, but both did well when I cued Back several times as soon as the dog would begin to slow or swerve. Once the dogs were well past the ducks, they'd pick up speed and continue on line. Other than the extra Back cues with the dog's back turned, neither dog required handling on the send-outs to P2.

As a reminder about the design of this drill, for P1 and P3 in the MTD, the dog is sent toward P2, then stopped and cast on either a left or right angle back to P1 or P3. This is why the MTD provides a guaranteed opportunity for handling, no matter how easy the dog might otherwise find the set-up.

Today, neither dog slipped a whistle nor refused a cast, though Lumi's casts tended to be more accurate. For example, at one point I cued an angle-out and Laddie, knowing where the duck on that side was, interpreted it as an angle-in, toward the duck. However, neither dog became frustrated nor unresponsive when I had to use a quick whistle to sit the dog back down and recast.

To reduce wear and tear as we get into longer blinds, to help the dogs continue to learn that blinds are at variable distances in a single series, and to help the dogs learn the concept of driving past a diversion such as an old fall or a throwing station, I think that for our next session, I'll use an indent configuration, placing P2 at 80 yards from the SL, P1 at 100 yards, and P3 at 120 yards.