Drills

AM: Oaks Area 2

With limited time, I decided to set up a drill to help the dogs get comfortable with straight Back cues, an area that seems to have confused both of them at times lately. I set up a pinball drill in the shape of a crankshaft, with five SFs and an OD at the last one, which was 130 yards from the SL. Both dogs did fine.

The advantage to drills like this is that no matter how well the dog lines, the dog still needs to handle well to complete the retrieve.

One possible disadvantage is that it might be demotivating to be sent the wrong direction, but I haven't seen that with either dog. In fact, I think it's a valuable lesson, because sometimes the dog thinks the direction chosen is the correct one even if it's not the one I intend, so the dogs need to learn to stay in control even if they're certain they know where they're going.

The other disadvantage is more certain, and that is that the dogs always spot the target that I'm handling them to almost immediately, which presumably teaches them only to handle toward a visible target. It's unfortunate that the SFs are not less visible to them. I think I can address that problem by stretching out the distances and plan to do that next time we work on this.