Monday, October 6, 2008

Land-water-land Retrieves, Drills, Blinds

AM: Twin Ponds

Series A. LWLWL blind with duck (Laddie, then Lumi), along a bank and with an L-shaped peninsula also inviting bank running on the other side. Both dogs required some handling and did fine.

Log-climbing drill. Laddie had no difficulty climbing the log both directions on a short water retrieve. Lumi reluctantly climbed over on the way out, but ignored my cues and swam around the log on the way back. I tried twice more and she did the same thing. After the third time, I silently and gently slipped on her lead and walked her to the van. Lumi is almost never on lead, so this unusual procedure hopefully helped serve as a n0-reward-marker. Lumi then spent about 15 minutes in the van while I worked alone with Laddie.

Series B. LWL poorman mark with duck thrown onto small island, the SL on a mound (Laddie only)

Series C. LWL blind with 70-yard swim (Laddie only)

Series D. LWL blind with 70-yard swim (Lumi, then Laddie)

Log-climbing drill. This time Lumi climbed over the log both on the swim out and again on the return. Yay!

Series E. LWL blind with 110-yard swim (Laddie, then Lumi). The longest LWL that Laddie has ever run. After picking up the bird, Laddie tried three times to run the bank, but each time responded to a WS and cast back toward the blind. Finally, he responded to a come-in whistle by coming down the steep embankment and entering the water with the duck, then swam back.

Lumi has swum much longer distances and seems to have little or no trouble entering the water after a return (though she did when she was younger), but she had a different problem on Series E that Laddie didn't have. The line to the blind crossed two logs, and Lumi would not take a cast over either one in either direction, whereas Laddie had climbed over both logs in both directions. I decided not to call her back in this case and let her skirt the logs, with the intention of continuing to work with her on the shorter log-climbing drill for several sessions as habituation before again trying her out on a repeat of today's Series E.

Log-climbing drill. Lumi again climbed over the log in both directions like a good girl.

Midday: Laytonsville Park

I often let the dogs run around outside while I'm setting up courses, and I often have one dog honor while the other dog runs. For today's blinds, I decided to keep both dogs in the van while I set up, and then to keep each dog in the van while the other ran.

Series F. Triple blind, 160-60-220 yards, ODs with no markers (Lumi only)

Series G. Triple blind, 150-70-220 yards, ODs with no markers (Laddie only)

Series F and G were run from the same SL and the lines to the blinds were interspersed, left to right as F1-G1-F2-G2-F3-G3.

The terrain was well-maintained lawn and the wind was calm, but a few factors were in play:
  • The lines to F1/G1 threaded among a softball fence, spectator benches, picnic tables and grills, and a dozen shade trees.
  • The line to F2 crossed the visual barrier of the softball infield and skirted the other end of the softball fence.
  • The lines to F3/G3 included a 10' elevation drop down a grassy embankment, and ran past a variety of poles and goal posts.
Both dogs handled well. Laddie showed zero suction toward the lines Lumi had run, showing good progress from yesterday morning's blinds at Cheltenham when I first began experimenting with running Laddie on a different but nearby triple blind from one that Lumi had just run. Today's was the first time I interspersed the lines, which I expected to be more difficult for the second dog (Laddie in this case), but he had no apparent difficulty with it.

PM: Oaks Area 2

Series H. Triple blind: 80-150-170 yards, ODs with no markers (Laddie only)

Series I. Triple blind: 80-140-170 yards, ODs with no markers (Lumi only)

Series H and I were run from the same SL and the lines to the blinds were interspersed, left to right as H1-I1-H3-I3-H2-I2.

Laddie lined H1 and handled well on the others.

Lumi had difficulty with all three blinds. Before taking the dogs out of the van, I had discarded two ducks in the woods to the left of the field we were running on. Although the wind was calm, Lumi apparently found the scent irresistible and repeatedly veered toward it, at times turning nearly 180°. However, she was responsive on her WSs and took at least a few steps in the direction cast each time before once again veering.

Seeing Lumi's difficulty with this situation reminds me of her unsatisfactory handling in the land blind she ran on the last Senior test she took. The line to the blind went past a mound, and the blind setter was positioned behind that mound. Lumi exhibited similar body language that day, trying to veer around toward the mound, though on that occasion she became unresponsive to cues, unlike today. Today's responsiveness may represent improvement, or it may be that the event conditions raised Lumi's general distraction level too high to cope with the added distraction of scenting the blind setter's cache of birds.

I guess it's time to begin running blinds with poison birds planted in the field on our blinds, meaning that the birds are there as distractions and are not to be retrieved. I believe dealing with poison birds is considered an advanced skill not required for a Senior-level dog, but given the difficulty Lumi had in that test, it may be that in Lumi's case we can't wait to begin that distraction-proofing, and if I do it with Lumi, I'll do it with Laddie as well.

However, I want to rely only on handling to keep the dog away from the bird. I don't want to train the dogs not to pick up a bird they've arrived at, even if I didn't intend for them to get to it, so if the dog does manage to get to a poison bird, even though it's by refusing casts, I think I should let the dog retrieve that bird. Of course, in follow-up sessions, I'd place the poison bird further out of the way. Or perhaps I'll place the birds in bags.

In addition, if the bird is not in a bag, I think that I'll follow the practice of sending the dog to pick up the bird after completing the blinds, although I don't think that happens in competition when a poison bird is used.

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