Land Blinds, Pivotal Return Failure

Stadler's Nursery

With limited time this morning, I took Lumi and Laddie out to run a triple blind with ODs on a field behind Stadler's nursery we hadn't previously used. With the dogs in the van, I placed an LP at the SL and planted two ODs at each of three blind locations, all in the range 170-220 yards.

I ran Laddie first, then Lumi, keeping both dogs in narrow corridors. Both were responsive on all WSs, and generally responsive on casts. Lumi tends to dig back more than Laddie, meaning that I'll cast her one direction and she'll spin that way and take a step or two that way, but will then quickly scallop back the direction she'd been going, and she'll do that on one cast after another. I don't know whether it's something I should try to fix or not. My assumption has been that Lumi would eventually realize that, once she's responded to the WS, it's more efficient to simply take my casts as given, and would eventually stop digging back on her own. Perhaps that's an incorrect assumption.

In any case, I don't expect to be a problem in Lumi's Senior-level tests because the blinds are so short compared to most of those we practice on. So I wasn't too concerned about it.

On the other hand, Laddie's performance was disastrous. He did fine on his first two blinds and on handling on he outrun of his last blind, but he then went OOC on the return. The field was dotted with holes from where trees had been dug up in the past, and many of them were filled with water. Laddie decided to lie down in one of them, and did not respond to whistle or verbal recall. I began to walk out to him, calling him the whole way, and he did not respond until I got within 40 yards.

Since Laddie had run the series before Lumi, I quietly brought him back on lead and attached him to a tie-out so I could run Lumi. I then loaded him into the van without praise or recriminations.

Time for a Change

I have given much thought to this incident, especially in the context of previous similar incidents that seem to be occuring with increasing frequency. I have concluded that at this time, Laddie is ruined for competition, and practically ruined for group training as well. It is a deeply unhappy state of affairs, and with his second birthday coming up tomorrow.

The unanswered question is whether he is permanently ruined, and if not, what action is now appropriate.

One possibility I considered was to get professional guidance and re-train Laddie's recall with an ecollar. Although that would end his role in our 2Q experiment, it might enable Laddie to continue his career, and possibly go farther than he'd ever be able to go as a 2Q dog. In considering that scenario, another advantage I saw is that I might gain experience running a dog in Field Trial events, and that might better prepare me for training my next dog.

However, at this time I have my doubts as to whether I'll ever have another dog. The costs in time, money, and family conflict might create more strain than I can afford. So switching Laddie to 2Q+ER (meaning 2Q plus ecollar-for-recall) might well produce no value in attempts to test the limits of 2Q retriever training.

There are also significant other questions: whether I could handle the spiritual transition to using an ecollar on Laddie, whether even with high-quality guidance I could do a competent job of collar-conditioning Laddie, and whether it might not be too late in Laddie's development to overcome this serious flaw in his behavior even with the use of an ecollar for training.

For better or worse, I've decided instead to go a different route. Despite the fact that Laddie is capable of advanced work on his outruns, for both marks and blinds, he is severely crippled in his ability to execute even simple returns. Every time I run him in a situation where he blows up, he has an opportunity to self-reinforce on errant behavior, and the hole is dug even deeper. I don't think it's an illusion that these incidents are becoming more frequent.

Therefore, I think it is time to stop running him on retrieves where I cannot feel 100% certain that he will execute a high-quality return. For now, I think that means that I need to keep all retrieves at 40 yards or less, and I have to intentionally introduce diversions such as puddles and build reinforcement history for Laddie successfully resisting those temptations. Somehow, despite all the other training objectives that will come to mind, I need to keep his potential problems with returns uppermost in my mind. No more development of Laddie's other skills except on miniature courses where I can maintain control of his returns.

Ideally over time, I'll be able to find venues that enable us to proof Laddie for a sufficiently wide range of diversions that we'll either cover all the ones needed for competition, or he'll generalize to those we don't specifically train for. Ideally, too, I'll be able to gradually build his distance up for various levels of competition.

In reality, I recognize that a practical limit may exist. It may be that no amount of proofing, no matter how gradual, will ever enable him to resist particular temptations at competition distances. Or it may be that by the time he is able to perform at those distances, it will be too late to develop the other skills he needs for success.

Obviously, I'm not entirely confident with the path I've chosen for Laddie. But at least for now, it seems to be the best I can come up with.