Standing and Running "Over" Practice

Depot Street (Greenville Junction, Maine)

SERIES A. Standing "Over" Practice (Laddie, then Lumi)

With dog in a sit/stay at 60 yards from the SL, I walked ten yards to the side and down a slope, and dropped an OD there, where the dog would not be able to see it until she was near the crest. I then walked ten yards back and dropped another OD there, where the dog could see it the whole time. Finally, I returned to the SL, leaving the dog in her sit/stay, and cued "Over".

I repeated this from both sides, so that each dog did one "Over" left to right and one "Over" right to left, both at 60 yards.

SERIES B. Running "Over" Practice (Laddie, then Lumi)

At another location, I set up a running version of the same drill:

1. I planted two LPs 60 yards apart, one as the SL, the other as the equivalent of P2 in a double-T drill.
2. I dropped one OD on the downslope of a hill 10 yards from the line between the two LPs, 45 yards from the SL.
3. I dropped a second OD on the upper level, 60 yards from SL but 10 yards to the side of P2 on the same side as the first OD.
4. After making sure that the dog was watching this last step, I tossed a WD in front of the LP at P2.
5. I ran the dog from the SL, lining the dog up on the LP at P2 and cueing "Over".
6. When the dog was almost 45 yards from the SL, I blew WS.
7. When the dog turned and sat, I cued "Over". The dog ignored both the WD and the second OD, and instead did a straight "over" to the crest of the hill, when the first OD came into view. The dog retrieved that OD to enthusiastic cheering.
8. As reinforcement, I sent the dog back out for the other two dummies as non-handling retrieves.

Again, we ran this drill to both sides. In this case, we used the same course but used one of the LPs as the first SL, then went to the other end and used the other LP as the second SL.