Training Day

Cheltenham

Today we participated in a training day with our local Golden club. The weather was frigid enough to have everyone bundled up, but at least we had no precipitation.

One of the trainers, who sometimes judges HTs, set up four land series for us: a triple mark, a double blind, another triple mark, and another double blind. Each trainer selected a particular way of running the triples courses, for example as singles around the horn, or as a remote triple with the handler standing in the holding blind while the birds were being thrown. In this journal entry, I'll describe the series the way my dogs ran them, though none of the other handlers used the courses the same way we did.

SERIES A. Single Mark Followed by Hip Pocket Double (Laddie, then Lumi)

For Series A, all three birds were ducks, and all three birds were thrown from behind holding blinds.

First the thrower on the left, using a winger, threw at 80 yards , throwing right to left from in front of a tree toward a road that ran on the left of the course, and the dog was sent for that mark. Next, the thrower on the right, using a winger, threw at 100 yards, throwing left to right so that the bird crossed in front of a tree with the fall in heavy cover. Then the center thrower hand-threw at 60 yards, throwing left to right from in front of a tree so that that fall was also in heavy cover. After those two birds were thrown, the dog was sent to the center as the go-bird, and to the right as the memory-bird.

The angle from the left station, where the single was thrown, to the center station was 30°. The angle from the center, the go-bird of the double, to the right station, the memory-bird of the double, was tighter, so that the line to the center fall if extended passed near the throwing station for the right bird, making the combination of the center and right birds a "hip pocket" double.

In addition to the cover that the right and center falls were in, the dog ran threw several diagonal strips of high cover, at various lengths and angles, to each of the falls. The terrain went downhill as the dog left the SL, with the center fall at the lowest point. The terrain then went uphill again, with the right and left falls on the uphill slope.

Laddie had no difficulty with the left bird thrown as a single. When the double was thrown, the center go-bird's gun didn't fire. With the bird hand-thrown on a low trajectory, from between a tree and a holding blind and into high cover, apparently Laddie didn't see the go-bird thrown and when I sent him, he ran straight to the right bird and picked it up. When I sent him again, he headed on the same line and again ran past the center bird. As soon as I saw that he had overshot the center fall, I called for help, and when the thrower called "hey-hey", Laddie came back and found the center bird. I think he benefited from being reminded that there is a geometric relationship between throwers and falls, but because the center gun didn't fire and Laddie apparently didn't see the throw, the hip-pocket configuration was wasted.

When Lumi ran the same configuration two dogs later, all three guns fired, and she seemed to have no difficulty with either the single or the hip-pocket double, pinning all three marks.

SERIES B. Double Blind (Lumi, then Laddie)

Series B, a double blind, was run from the same SL as Series A and with the holding blinds from Series A still in place. Dummies were placed on a mound at 70 yards to the left of the leftmost station from Series A, so that the line to the blind ran diagonally across a road and slightly uphill. Ducks were placed in front of a tree at 90 yards to the right of the rightmost station from Series B, on a slope that ran downhill away from the SL and toward the right and thru several diagonal strips of high cover. After the blinds were planted, the six dogs running blinds took their turns, all dogs being sent first to the left and then to the right blind.

Though the visibility of the dummies on the mound to the left, and the placement of the ducks on the right in front of a tree, made both blinds look relatively easy, none of the dogs lined either of them. Both Lumi and Laddie were responsive on all WSCs when they took their turns.

SERIES C. Three Singles (Lumi), Triple (Laddie), Indent Configuration

In Series C, all throws were ducks thrown from behind holding blinds, and a winger was used for the right and left birds, while the center bird was hand thrown. The right bird was at 100 yards, the left bird was at 80 yards, and the center bird was at 40 yards. The right bird was thrown from in front of a tree, right to left into high cover. The left bird was thrown from next to a tree, left to right over a strip of high cover so that it landed in the open just past the cover but hidden from view until the dog ran thru or around the cover. The center bird was thrown from in front of a tree, left to right into high cover.

Because I've heard that running singles is better for improving and/or maintaining a dog's marking skill, I ran Series C as three singles for Lumi. An additional reason for running a multiple as singles in Lumi's case is that she has had a tendency to look away from throws too soon, which I believe is called head-swinging. For Lumi, I therefore sometimes, as in this series, use the same line mechanics as if a multiple were being thrown, showing her the would-be go-bird and intermediate memory-bird before showing her the longest bird last, and cueing "sit, mark". Then I have the longest bird thrown first so that the picture is the same as the memory bird of a multiple. But I send her to that bird immediately instead of calling for another throw, so that she learns to keep her focus on that bird rather than turning to look for another throw. In this series, I used the same strategy for the second bird, presenting it as though it would be a double of the left and center birds, but sending her to the longer right bird immediately rather than calling for the center bird to be thrown. That seems to have been an effective strategy in nearly eliminating Lumi's head-swinging over the last few weeks. The center bird was thrown as a final single mark. Lumi pinned all three marks.

Because Laddie had not run a good multiple in Series A, I decided to have him run Series C as a triple. I had the birds thrown right, left, center. Laddie has not developed a head-swinging problem, and showed good focus and steadiness as the marks were thrown and a number was called by one of the other handlers acting as "judge". He pinned the go-bird and the second mark to the left, but needed a short hunt for the last memory-bird bird on the right.

SERIES D. Double Blind (Laddie, then Lumi)

Series D consisted of a double blind, run from the same SL as Series C and with the holding blinds from Series C still in place. For the left blind, ducks were planted in front of the same tree that had been used as the second blind in Series B, though now the tree was approached from a different angle. The line to the left blind ran between the left and center stations from Series C. For the right blind, ducks were planted in front of a gun rack used as lining pole to the right of the tree from which ducks had been thrown right to left at the rightmost station from Series C. Again none of the six dogs running the blinds lined either one of them, and again Laddie and Lumi were responsive on all their WSCs.

SERIES E. Offline Drill (Laddie only)

After group training, I decided to take advantage of the outstanding training property to run Laddie on an offline drill with 50-yard segments, in hilly terrain, across several roads, and thru multiple diagonal strips of high cover.

I set the SL on a mound. The first, 50-yard offline blind (OD) was to the left, across an intersection of dirt roads and just in front of the treeline to the woods, with a nearby stand of trees further to the right that Laddie got into when he overran the blind. The second, 100-yard offline blind (OD) was to the left, diagonally across a road and on a slope that dropped off from the BL.

On the 50-yard offline blind, Laddie responded well to every whistle and cast, but it took several WSCs to direct him to the blind. On the 100-yard offline blind, he stopped on the WS and took one Over cast to the blind. He then lined the 150-yard retrieve of the canvas dummy at the end of the BL.

Although this offline drill was not as easy for Laddie as those we run close to home because of the cover, trees, and rolling hills, I think it was easy enough for him that next time we run an offline drill on this property, possibly tomorrow, we can try lengthening the segments.

Steadiness on Today's Series

Both dogs ran off-lead from the line all day at today's group training, and both dogs honored on-lead for Series A and C. I've been using the new cue "just watch" for honoring with both dogs for several days, and have been having both dogs honor from a sit.

Because of the two dog's different preferences, I used two different approaches to reinforcing the honor. For Lumi, I threw a duck on the ground midway between the SL and the van before we started each honor, and when I cued "just watch", she took little interest in the ducks being thrown for the running dog and was anxious only to be released so that she could run to "her" bird. We then ran together to the van, and I made several happy throws for her with the duck. Since Laddie seems to like dummies somewhat better than birds, we ran to the van when I called "here" after each honor, where I grabbed a 2" dummy out of the van and we played a high-energy game of happy throws and tug.

Neither dog attempted a break today, though Laddie did stand up when a bird was thrown for the running dog while he was honoring on Series C., and might have broken if not on lead.