Private Training: Single-Dog Diversion Drill

Since I plan for both dogs to train with Nate as our helper this afternoon, I decided to leave Lumi at home to rest while Laddie and I went to train with Barbara and Deuce at Needwood Park.

Conditions were overcast with winds calm and temps in the low 20s. We ran Deuce, then Laddie, then Deuce again.

Deuce is making nice progress on Hunt Test-style marks. In home training, Barbara is working on getting him able to give up desirable articles, and when he's ready, we'll start working him with birds. He's also developing a nice whistle sit. Probably the highlight of the day for training Deuce, who loves dog play, was when he went out for a mark just as a pedestrian walking two Airedales showed up about the same distance from Deuce as Barbara. Deuce picked up the dummy and looked long and hard at the Airedales, but eventually he responded to Barbara's repeated recall whistles without ever taking a step toward the Airedales. Good dog!

Because I didn't have Lumi with me, and because Deuce isn't trained to play the same role that Lumi does in Alice's diversion drill, I decided to use a modified version of the drill that only required one dog. The bad news was that this turned out to be quite an advanced drill, right at the edge of Laddie's ability to succeed, and therefore involved more frustration than I like to see in a training session. The good news is that Laddie made significant progress between the first and last reps, and showed no hint of being demotivated.

The drill, which simulated a dog being sent to a blind after one or more marks have been thrown but not yet retrieved, was as follows:

1. I put a start line pole and "blind" pole 80 yards apart, with a pile of white dummies, visible from the start line, at the base of the "blind" pole.
2. I placed a chair and a bag of birds 50 yards from the start line, on a 30° angle to the left of the line to the pile of dummies (the center line).
3. I had Laddie run the pile of dummies with Barbara sitting in the chair.
4. I had Barbara stand and fire a gunshot, then ran Laddie to the pile.
5. I had Barbara throw a bird 10 yards toward the center line (no gunshot), then ran Laddie first to the pile of dummies, then to the bird.
6. I had Barbara fire a gunshot, then throw a bird 10 yards toward the center line, then ran Laddie first to the pile of dummies, then to the bird.
7. We repeated step 6 several times.

Beginning with step 4, Laddie nearly always veered to the left when sent. I would then whistle sit, he would sit (even if he had reached the bird), and I would cast him to dummies. In almost every case, he responded to the first whistle sit and took a single cast to the dummies.

I was unable to get Laddie's focus off of the thrown birds from the original start line at 80 yards, so on every rep, I found that I had to walk some distance along the center line until Laddie was able to look at the correct target long enough for me to send him. The distance I had to walk each rep gradually diminished, but never reached the point where I could send him from the original start line.

The first time Laddie ran to the bird, I ran behind him, and when I whistled sit, I was only a few feet away. The look of surprise on his face when he spun around and saw that I was right there was kind of comical. He sat promptly and took the cast to the dummies, still looking a bit bewildered. "I thought I left Daddy at the start line. What was he doing standing next to the bird with me?" I didn't feel I needed to run behind him again.

On a later rep, Laddie managed to reach the bird by the time I whistled, and he picked it up before responding to the sit whistle. I walked to him, took the bird, dropped it on the ground beside him to the left, walked 20 yards back toward the start line, and cast him to the right toward the dummies. He took the cast, I ran the rest of the way to the start line and cheered him when he delivered the dummy, then sent him to the bird.

In contrast to yesterday's diversion drill, Laddie did not snake a single time on his returns from the pile of dummies, nor did he ever veer to the side of the center line away from the bird when sent. He may have run straight to the pile once or twice without trying for the bird, but I don't have a clear memory of that ever happening.

I would have preferred that by the end, he was regularly running straight to the dummies when sent. On the other hand, it may have been more productive this way, since Laddie got a lot of practice with whistle sits and casts away from a diversion.

It must have been quite frustrating to Laddie being repeatedly cued not to get the bird when first thrown, even when he was already right there, but being required to retrieve a dummy first. I suspect Lumi would have shut down rather than continuing to play such a frustrating game, assuming she found it as frustrating as Laddie (which she probably wouldn't have at this stage in her development). But Laddie showed no drop in enthusiasm for the game, and it was clear that he was gradually figuring out that the sooner he retrieved the dummy I sent him to, the sooner he would get to pick up his beloved bird.

When Barbara threw the last bird, and Laddie continued to swerve toward the bird when first sent to the dummies, I sent him back to the pile of dummies three times before I sent him to the bird. We finally ran out of dummies. I'd have preferred to continue sending him to the pile until a time came when he went straight there, and then sent him to the bird. I think that would be salient lesson for him.

Private Training: Diversion Drill

Today, we ran Alice Woodyard's diversion drill with a better understanding of the set-up. We trained on a large ballfield. Conditions were cloudy, cold, and windy, with the direction of the wind constantly changing. Whenever I ran one dog, I had the other dog sit behind us to honor.

The steps we followed were as follows:

1. I placed a pole as our start line, and a second pole 75 yards away.
   
2. I placed a pile of white dummies at the second pole, and periodically replenished it with more white dummies.
3. I ran Laddie to the pile.
4. I had Nate stand 40 yards from the start line and 10 yards to the right of the line to the pile ("the center line"), and ran Laddie to the pile.
5. With Nate in the same position, I had him fire a dry shot and ran Laddie to the pile.
6. I had Nate set up with his chair and a bag of birds 30 yards from the start line and 20 yards to the right of the center line.
7. I had Nate throw a bird for Lumi. His throw was in the direction of the pile, but remained to the right of the center line. I did not have him fire a shot.
8. I ran Laddie to the pile.
9. I had Nate throw another bird for Lumi, but this time with a shot. As before, his throw was in the direction of the pile, but remained to the right of the center line.
   
10. I ran Laddie to the pile.
11. I had Nate throw the same mark for Laddie that he had just thrown for Lumi, again with a gunshot.
12. I ran Laddie to the pile.
13. I had Nate move his chair and bird bag to a point 45 yards from the start line and 15 yards to the right of the center line.
14. We repeated steps 8 thru 12 at the new location.
15. I had Nate move his chair and bird bag to a point 60 yards from the start line and 10 yards to the right of the center line.
16. We repeated steps 8 thru 12 at the new location.

In addition to the diversion drill, I also did some pile work with both dogs at another location in the same park:

1. With Lumi on my left and Laddie on my right, I sent them alternately to a pile of birds 15 yards in front of us. The order was Lumi, Laddie, Lumi, Laddie, Laddie.
   
2. Then I had the dogs switch sides and sent them alternately to another pile of birds at the same location. The order was Laddie, Lumi, Laddie, Lumi, Laddie.

Notes on Performance. Unlike yesterday's attempt at a diversion drill, today's session went exactly as Alice had predicted it would go. The drill was not so easy that the dogs breezed thru it, but not so difficult that they couldn't succeed and learn in the process.

Laddie's runs to the pile did not get better or worse during the diversion drill. About half the time he ran straight to the pile, the other half he veered, usually to the right, sometimes to the left, and I would handle him as soon as he got off line. I saw no pattern as to when he went offline and when he didn't. In all cases where he went offline, he was immediately and enthusiastically responsive to every whistle sit and every cast, and in every case but one, a single cast got him to the pile. One time he got past the pile and I used a recall whistle and an "over" to get him to it.

While Laddie didn't show improvement or decline in his lining to the pile, he did show improement in his returns with the dummies. He snaked around a bit on his early returns, prompting me to use multiple recall whistles to bring him back. By the last few retrieves from the pile, he had stopped doing that.

Neither dog had any difficulty pinning the thrown marks. But both dogs displayed low-grade resource guarding, possibly because Nate was throwing pigeons in most cases rather than ducks. When we ran the pile work at the end with both pigeons and ducks, both dogs' performance steadily improved, and their last several pick-ups and returns were excellent.

Next time, I think we should run a pile drill before the diversion drill as a warm-up, hopefully resulting in higher quality pick-ups and returns during the diversion drill. If that doesn't work, the next time after that, we might do the pile drill before the diversion drill with a long line.

Private Training: Diversion Drill

This was our first day training with Nate as our thrower. We were attempting to follow a written description of a diversion drill designed by Alice Woodyard, but I later found out that I had not positioned Nate correctly. Nonetheless, I'll describe what we did.

With Lumi and Laddie sitting near the start line, I placed two piles of five white dummies 30 yards from the start line on lines at 90° angles to one another.

I placed Nate and a cooler of dead birds five yards behind the pile to the left and tried to send Laddie to the pile. He veered to the left immediately after being sent, ran to the area of what would have been a fall if Nate had been throwing, and then went out of control, running to the woods, out into the field, over to the other pile of dummies, anywhere but the desired pile in front of Nate. He was unresponsive to whistle sit and any recall for some time.

I tried moving halfway to the pile to send him, and the same thing happened. Then I tried it about one yard from the pile and again the same thing happened.

Finally, I put Laddie into a sit, walked to the pile, threw one of the dummies straight in the air, walked back to Laddie, and sent him. This time he retrieved the dummy easily. I then ran with him to the halfway point and then the start line to send him to the pile, and each time he easily retrieved a dummy.

Next, I put Laddie in a sit behind me and had Nate throw three single marks with dead birds for Lumi, alternating sides. Because I wasn't sure if Laddie could honor Lumi's marks, I didn't have Nate use a gunshot, just quietly toss the birds.

Then I put Lumi back into a sit behind us, brought up Laddie, and tried to send him to the pile again. As before, he went out of control.

I was highly excited by the opportunity to finally have a regular helper who would throw birds, and was taken aback by Laddie's inexplicable inability to retrieve from the pile even from a few feet away, and shocked by his total lack of responsiveness once sent. Rather than beating my head against the wall, I decided to change the drill for today into a dummies-over-duck-scent drill.

To do that, I had Nate throw birds to each side for Lumi, then dummies to each side for Laddie, at both of the two piles with no gunfire. We then repeated it with Nate firing the pistol before every throw. Neither dog had any problem with any of those retrieves and we called it a day.

Comments. I realized later that the factor that seemed to be confusing Laddie so badly was having Nate standing behind the pile. That is not a picture either dog has ever retrieved to. Laddie has a long history of retrieving from piles, and a long history of retrieving thrown marks, but he has no history of running straight toward a thrower in the field and then stopping short to retrieve from a pile.

Checking with Alice via email later, I learned that that had not been the intent of her description. Obviously, we won't pursue trying to get Laddie to retrieve from a pile with the thrower behind it in the future.

Private Training: Distraction-Proofing the Return

Several hours after running with the group training, when we returned home I asked my son Eric to help me with a distraction-proofing drill while it was still light out.

We trained on a nearby ballfield as follows:

1. I positioned Eric in one area and asked him to play fetch and tug with Lumi while remaining in that spot.
2. I then took Laddie on lead to a spot about 50 yards away, took off the lead, and began throwing a random sequence of articles: a white dummy, a pigeon, and a duck. As he picked up each article, I whistled recall. I tried rewarding the first few retrieves with food but it didn't seem important to Laddie so I stopped doing it quickly. After each throw, I'd watch Laddie as he was returning with the article. If he came straight back without paying attention to Eric and Lumi, I moved us a step closer to them for the next throw. If he seemed to be drawn to them, I moved us a step further away for the next throw.
3. Only once did Laddie break away from our game and try to join Eric and Lumi. He returned to me when I called him and didn't attempt it again.
   
4. Over time, we got closer and closer to Eric and Lumi, and at last I was throwing the articles over Eric's head and Laddie was swerving around or running between Eric and Lumi to get to the article and then back to me. We did that about ten times and then Laddie and I ran back to the van.
5. Next, I began throwing pigeons and ducks for Lumi in a fixed location, whistling recall at each pick-up. Meanwhile Eric practiced recall with Josh, his BC, on a long line. Eric would call Josh to him, and when Josh arrived, Eric would throw a treat several feet away. Once Josh got the treat, Eric would call him again.
6. As when I was training Laddie, Eric moved closer to Lumi and me a step at a time, as long as Josh wasn't glancing at us. I wasn't watching them, but Eric told me later that he thought Josh made good progress.
   
7. Although this was intended as a distraction-proofing drill for Josh, it also turned out to be a good retrieval drill for Lumi. When we started, she was returning promptly when I'd throw a duck, but she'd take her time picking up the pigeon. By the end of our session, she was picking the pigeons up quickly, too.

It is my intent to run similar drills every day possible between now and next Sunday's group training. It's my hope that Laddie's returns will be noticeably improved compared to this morning's group session. This may also help to groove Lumi's retrieves and prepare her more quickly for retrieving flyers.

Holodeck Training

Holodeck Program
based on guidance from Alice Woodyard and Jody Baker

BEFORE OTHER TRAINERS ARRIVE

• Let Lumi rest after airing her with Laddie.
• To reduce likelihood of zoomies by giving Laddie some work, and to gauge Laddie's responsiveness, run him on two semicircle wagon wheels:
• First drill: dummies thrown at 15 yards, birds thrown at 10 yards.
  
• Second drill: dummies prepositioned at 50 yards, birds thrown at 15 yards.
  
• In each drill, have Laddie pick up all the dummies first, then the birds.
• Auto-whistle return on every pick-up.
• If Laddie swerves to any bird, whistle sit and cast away.
• If Laddie is not 100% responsive on every whistle sit, every cast, and every recall whistle, do not run him with the group.
• White jacket.
• Put on Laddie's collar.
• Load pockets: pistol, ammo, ear protectors, slip cord for Laddie, radio.

BEFORE FIRST DOG

• No birds for Laddie until his resource guarding has completely stopped in private training, and until he's had some good group sessions with dummies; therefore, make sure the gunners have dummies with them when they go out.
• Arrange to run Laddie first.

RUNNING THE DOGS

• No multiples for either dog until that dog has had some good series running singles.
• No blinds with the group, since that would let the dogs continue to practice hunting for the article rather than responding to a whistle.
• Run shortest mark first, longest last.
• With Laddie, use a slip cord to prevent a break.
• With Lumi, cue "mark" before each throw, then send as quickly as possible.
• If Lumi looks away from the fall before I send her, radio to the thrower to pick up and throw again.
• Auto-whistle recall on the first two marks of each training day. Based on how the dogs do, consider switching to contingent whistle for the remaining marks of the day.
• After pick-up, anything but coming right back is bad. Attempt a whistle sit followed by a whistle recall, and if necessary, a verbal recall. If I cannot gain control quickly, walk out, take away the article, put dog on lead, and put dog in van for remainder of training day.

RECORD KEEPING PER MARK

• Attempted break?
• Head swinging, before or after throws? Which throws?
• Did dog return uncued? Auto-whistle? Contingent whistle? Voice? Walk out?
• If the dog did not come straight back, why (for example, RG, parading, Super D, zoomies, diversion)?

Conditions. Temps in mid 40's, overcast, wind 5-10 MPH from variable directions so it felt colder. Ground damp but no standing water where the group was training.

Before Group Training. As planned, Lumi rested in the van while I ran wagon wheels with Laddie. We ran more than I had originally planned. Laddie did well at lining to the article sent to, and on the few occasions where he veered to a duck, he was 100% responsive to whistle sits and casts. He apparently found the field highly distracting, and while he was eventually 100% responsive to recalls, it not always on the first whistle or verbal cue.

Group Training. The group ran a single triple with two blinds, one slightly to the left of the leftmost mark, the other down the center of the course taking the dog right next to the middle Gun, which had a holding blind so the thrower could retire for those trainers who wanted it.

Lumi ran the three marks as singles, shortest to longest. Laddie ran only two marks, also shortest to longest. I didn't have Laddie run the right mark because that's where flyers were being thrown and I didn't want him to be distracted by the cage of pigeons there. It didn't work, since he was still distracted by the pigeons on the other two marks, but that was the idea.

Neither dog is running blinds with the group right now.

I used no slip cord for Lumi. I used a slip cord for Laddie on the first mark, and when he made no attempt to break, I didn't use a slip cord on the second mark. Neither dog attempted a break the whole day.

I auto-whistled every pick-up.

The course was an indent configuration as follows:

1. 70 yards into high grass
   
2. 140 yards into high grass (this was the flyer station and the mark that Laddie didn't run)
3. 220 yards into an open area

The course was narrow:

• #2 was 45° to the right of #1.
• #3 was slightly to the left of #1.
  

Here's how the dogs did:

LADDIE

Laddie ran as the first dog and retrieved white dummies. I walked him to the start line and back on a lead.

He pinned #1 and picked the dummy up immediately, but then started to run toward the flyer station. When I called "here", he veered back around toward me and delivered the dummy.

He also pinned #3 and ran the line exceptionally well. The line between the start line and the fall for #3 included a mulch mound, and Laddie was the only dog the whole day who ran over the top of the mound to get to the mark. Again, he picked the dummy up immediately and then ran toward the flyer station. But in this case, he did not respond to whistle sit, whistle recall, or verbal recall, and when he arrived at the pigeon cage, he dropped the dummy and began playing at the cage, being fended off by the gunners there. Meanwhile, I had begun running out in that direction, calling "here" several times. When I had gone out 50 yards, Laddie finally picked up the dummy and came running toward me. I turned and ran back to the start line, and Laddie completed his delivery there.

The following week, I asked one of the gunners at the flyer station for details on what had taken place. The guy said that when Laddie arrived, he dropped his dummy near the cage and sniffed the cage. The birds fluttered and Laddie jumped back. The gunner threw a dead pigeon, and Laddie ran to it and picked it up. Laddie then spotted the dummy, dropped the bird, picked up the dummy, and ran to the handler (me) with it.

LUMI

Lumi ran as the third dog and retrieved dead ducks. I walked her off-lead, except that as we were returning to the van and the gunners were firing guns for the next dog, I noted Lumi's body language and put on her lead for fear she might run back into the field for those marks.

During the series as planned, I released Lumi quickly after each throw, and she didn't look away from any of the falls.

On #1 and #3, she returned immediately. On #2, I could not see her behind the high grass and received no signal from the gunners. After about five seconds of not seeing any movement, I decided that she must have the bird by now and called "here". She immediately came running out of the high cover with the bird. As far as I could tell, she completely ignored the cage of pigeons.

On #3, Lumi ran over one slope of the mulch mound, the only dog besides Laddie not to run around the mound all day.

Once again this week, Lumi seemed unable to see the long thrower, even with waving and calling hey-hey. As I attempted to line her up, she focused either on the middle thrower to the right or the stand of trees, backed by a barn, to the left. After several attempts to line her up on the long thrower, I finally called for the throw while she was looking at the middle Gun, which was not too far to the right of the long Gun. As soon as Lumi heard the gunshot, she shifted her focus to the correct thrower, kept her eyes on the fall, and once I sent her, raced straight out to the mark, detouring only slightly at the mulch mound.

I felt Lumi ran an excellent series. As we were walking back to the van, one of the other trainers, who had expressed concern about Lumi's recall in the past, smiled nicely and said, "Looks like she's got the concept!"

After Group Training. One of the other trainers offered to throw walking singles for Laddie. Using white dummies and throwing each dummy after a gunshot, he threw singles of 60, 100, and 140 yards. I did not use a slip cord, and Laddie was steady on all the marks. I auto-whistled recall on each pick-up.

In each case, Laddie pinned the mark, picked up the dummy uncued and without hesitation, and then, despite the recall whistle, instead of running back toward me, Laddie turned toward the right in the direction of the thrower. Each time it happened, I called "here" repeatedly until he began running toward me, but even on the return, he sometimes swerved to the right again. I'm not sure why he was doing it, but it was most severe on the first mark and least severe on the last.

Training Group Advice. In the course of conversations with other trainers at the group, I received several suggestions:

1. One trainer repeated a suggestion he's made before, that I send my dogs on the long mark first, not last. Today, he related his own experience in this area. He told me that his first dog was trained initially for Hunt Tests, with much shorter marks, and that dog had great difficulty learning to find the long Gun when they began training for Field Trials. In contrast, his younger dog trained for Field Trials from the beginning, and this trainer had the younger dog run the long mark first when they were running singles. It turns out the younger dog doesn't have the problem that the older dog has in finding the long Gun. I didn't argue with him, but my thought is that it was the older dog's lack of experience with long marks, not the fact that the guy had the younger dog run long marks first, that accounts for the difference in their abilities to find the long Gun.
2. When I asked a senior trainer about retiring all throwers except the one who was throwing while running my dogs on longer marks first, he said he did not think that was wise, that the dog needs to learn to run past other throwers. I didn't argue, but my thought is that that is an advanced skill and the dog doesn't need to learn the advanced version of the skill from the beginning. A way to ramp up to running longer marks first would be to run them with the other throwers retired the first few times. The dog would still be aware the stations were there, but they wouldn't be as distracting if the throwers were hidden. After the dogs were successful that way, they could be sent while the other throwers were visible.
3. I asked one of the senior trainers whether he thought Laddie would get better or worse on his returns if I continued training with the group. He answered, "I think he'll get worse." But when I said, "So you think I should stop training him with the group," he said that that was not what he was saying. He then explained that the group session isn't for training, it's for testing to see whether the yard work you were doing during the week was having good results. If you come back the next week and the dog is performing better, you know you're addressing the problem. If not, you know you're not. That seemed like good advice, but I'm not sure it completely explains why he said that he thinks Laddie will get worse. Did he mean, If the only training we do is to come to group training, Laddie will get worse? Maybe that's what he meant. I hope so. Of course if it's not what he meant, I hope he's wrong.
   

Comments. In previous group training, we worked on particular skills — such as multiples and steadiness — while others subtly, and then precipitously, declined. When that happened, I took the dog out of group training to prevent permanent damage to the dog's development as a field competitor. As far as I can see, that was not happening in today's session.

Lumi's performance was solid, suggesting that she may be ready for another raise in criteria. Some of the areas where Lumi is not working at the same level as the advanced dogs are retrieving flyers, running blinds, running multiples, and running longer marks before shorter ones. The problems with having her start doing any of those are:

• Retrieving flyers. The risk is that she will begin to resource guard again, and after that will not even be solid on dead birds or possibly even dummies. I think we should stick with dead birds for the time being.
• Running blinds. The risk is that she will practice using sight, scent, and hunting skills, rather than cues coming from me, to find the blinds. Because finding the blind is reinforcing, running blinds that way reinforces incorrect concepts of how to do it. I think we should stick to private drills that require responding to my cues to meet with success.
• Running multiples. The risk is that Lumi's recent tendency to look away from the fall before being sent on singles will become an entrenched head-swinging behavior, eventually detracting from her ability to perform on marked retrieves. I think we should stick to singles at group training until we have a well-established ability to maintain focus until specifically cued to turn away from the fall.
• Running longer marks first. The risk is that Lumi will run to the short thrower, then swerve to the long thrower (possibly requiring help), and finally succeed with the retrieve. It's possible that the success might train her to run such marks that way. However, it seems more likely that this mistake, if it occurs, will not be self-reinforcing since it inserts a delay in getting to the bird, and that therefore Lumi will do it less and less with experience. I also think that I could improve her chances of learning the skill correctly if I arrange for the shorter Guns to hide while running the longer marks. In fact, I've purchased three camo umbrellas that could be used for that purpose. The only problem is that some of the other trainers do not agree with that procedure and I'll have to ask them to help me train in a way that they don't agree with. Perhaps if I emphasize that it will only be for the first few times, that will resolve their concerns.
  

In conclusion, pending guidance from Alice and Jody, I believe that the next raise in criteria we should try is running longer marks first. I'm not sure how soon we should try that.

As for Laddie, he showed solid progress from the last time we trained with a group. Today, he displayed no resource guarding, no parading, no stalling, no rolling in the grass, and responsive to all recalls except trying to call him away from a cage of pigeons from 140 yards.

The question for me is whether the times he detoured on his return were self-reinforcing. If they were, then we must once again suspend group training until we can solve the problem. If they were not, then it is only a matter of training the correct behavior during the week and testing it at group training as suggested by one of the group trainers, because even if it occasionally occurs, if it is not self-reinforcing, and the correct behavior is self-reinforcing, then the incorrect behavior will ultimately extinguish.

Given the importance of group training, and the possibility that the group will be working on increasingly difficult set-ups in the coming weeks with the risk of leaving Laddie too far behind to join this year if he does not start soon, I am leaning toward the decision that we should continue group training, at least for one more week.

During the next few days, we will focus our private training on a single task: distraction-proofing the retrieve, so that Laddie learns to return immediately with the article no matter what diversions might be present in the environment. Another way of saying that, I guess, is to further strengthen Laddie's recall.

If we are successful, next Sunday Laddie should show distinct improvement, hopefully returning immediately on every retrieve. If, in spite of an intense distraction-proofing effort, Laddie again fails to return, that may indicate that not returning is so self-reinforcing that our private training can't overcome it as long as he continues to rehearse it with the group on Sundays. If that turns out to be the case, we'll know that it's time to suspend group training again.

I hope that's not what happens.

Private Training: Wagon Wheel

Today I thought I'd try out the warm up drills I plan to use tomorrow morning before group training. Tomorrow, I'll be resting Lumi before group training and only running Laddie on the drills, but today I ran both dogs on the drills.

Once out on the ballfield, I decided to modify the drills somewhat from what I had originally planned. The version I ended up with was in two series, Series A and Series B. I ran Lumi, then Laddie, on each series.

Conditions were sunny with temps in the high 30s and wind calm. The ground was damp but not too muddy.

Series A. A semicircle of white dummies and ducks, prepositioned and separated by 45° angles:

1. Dummy at 20 yards
2. Duck at 15 yards
3. Dummy at 20 yards
4. Duck at 15 yards
5. Dummy at 20 yards

I had the dog pick up the dummies first, then the ducks. To increase difficulty for #1 and #5, I sent the dog from the same side of me as the ducks. Neither dog had any difficulty with Series A, so that I never had to whistle sit or cast. I used an auto-whistle recall on every article, and both dogs delivered each article immediately and enthusiastically. I intermittently reinforced deliveries with food.

Series B. A semicircle of white dummies and ducks separated by 45° angles:

1. Dummy prepositioned at 50 yards
2. Duck thrown to 15 yards
3. Dummy prepositioned at 50 yards
4. Duck thrown to 15 yards
5. Dummy prepositioned at 50 yards

I prepositioned the dummies, then brought the dog to the start line and threw the ducks. Next, I had the dog pick up the dummies, which were invisible or barely visible to the dogs from the start line, then the ducks. To further increase difficulty for #1 and #5, I sent the dog from the same side of me as the ducks.

When sent to #1 and #5, both dogs swerved to the ducks, but both dogs were 100% responsive on whistle sits and casts away from the ducks and back toward the dummies. I used an auto-whistle recall on every article, and both dogs delivered each article immediately and enthusiastically. I intermittently reinforced deliveries with food.

When we returned home, I updated the second drill in tomorrow's Holodeck Program based on today's experience, reducing distances but adding thrown, rather than prepositioned, ducks.

Private Training: Alternation Drill

Today, Renee and I took our three Goldens to Rover's Content, the field training property in Cheltenham, for a high-quality alternation drill. The dogs played while I set out poles to mark where Renee would throw from. Then Gabriel, Renee's Golden, and Lumi went in the van while I ran Laddie. Next, Laddie went in the van while I ran Lumi. Finally they played some more, ending up soaked from swimming with muddy feet.

Conditions included temps in the 50s, bright sun, a calm wind, geese on the technical ponds, pools of standing water over much of the property, and low clumpy cover broken up by strips of high grass.

We ran from atop a mulch mound. We used no slip cords and neither dog seemed the least at risk of breaking. As I've been doing recently, I used food at various times with the intent of reinforcing good performance, but this was one day when the food seemed entirely irrelevant.

Each dog ran a single long series:

1. A poorman double of a duck and a pigeon, 30 yards, open ground.
2. 70 yards to a white dummy thrown by Renee standing in a keyhole formed by two trees after a gunshot, the dummy landing to the left of the trees and in high grass.
   
3. A poorman double of a duck and a pigeon, 40 yards, thrown to the far side of a pool of standing water.
4. 180 yards to a white dummy thrown by Renee standing behind and to the left of a tree, so that she appeared under the tree's boughs, thrown following a gunshot onto a high hillside.
5. A poorman double of a duck and a pigeon, 40 yards, thrown behind a stand of trees, requiring the dog to watch each bird thrown from the right of a tree and land on the left of the tree.
   
6. 250 yards to a white dummy thrown by Renee standing behind a large area of high grass, thrown after a gunshot into the shallows of a pond.
   

The long marks were well separated:

• #4 was 30° to the left of #2.
  
• #6 was 90° to the left of #4.

Both dogs performed well, but I was focusing on different issues with each dog, as described below.

LADDIE

On the poorman doubles, Laddie only exhibited resource guarding on one of the six retrieves, requiring a verbal cue to complete that one returns. The other five retrieves of birds looked excellent.

On the long marks, Laddie had no problem at all with #2 and #4. On #6, he got lost trying to run toward me, finally dropping the dummy and rolling on it. I called "here", and Laddie instantly jumped to his feet, picked up the dummy, and raced to me with it.

LUMI

Lumi showed no resource guarding of the birds, and once sent, ran all her marks nicely. On #6, she lost me on the return and started running the wrong way, but responded instantly to a recall whistle.

My primary concern with Lumi was working on her recent pattern of watching a thrown article fall, then taking her eyes off it too soon. The strategy I used today was to radio Renee to pick up the dummy and re-throw it if Lumi took her eyes off the fall before I sent her.

On #2, Lumi needed three throws. On #4, she needed two throws. On #6, she never lost focus and needed only one throw.

Comments. Both dogs showed nice progress working in much more challenging terrain than the ballfields we usually use for private sessions.

Laddie showed nice progress in two areas:

• Retrieving 5 of the 6 birds with no resource guarding
• Responding well to recall after getting lost on a return
  

Lumi also showed nice progress:

• Keeping her focus on the fall after a thrown mark, needing fewer and fewer rethrows as we continued thru the series

Naturally Lumi will train with our Field Trial group on Sunday. Though I had planned to keep Laddie out until his handling skills were better developed, after today's performance I am thinking of having him run with the group this Sunday as well.

Private Training: Alternation Drill

Renee offered to help with today's training (yay!), so I planned to run first an alternation drill with Renee throwing the longest marks possible in our local area, then a follow-up of yesterday's bail-out drill with Renee videotaping.

Unfortunately, time ran out and we had to skip the second series. So we ended up doing a single series, Laddie first, then Lumi:

1. A duck and a pigeon at 30 yards, separated by 15°, thrown as a poorman double.
2. A white dummy at 160 yards, thrown by Renee after a gunshot.
3. A duck and a pigeon at 30 yards, separated by 15°, thrown as a poorman double.
4. A white dummy at 260 yards, thrown by Renee after a gunshot, 30° to the left of #2.
   
5. A duck and a pigeon at 30 yards, separated by 15°, thrown as a poorman double.
6. A white dummy at 230 yards, thrown by Renee after a gunshot, 30° to the left of #4.

I used auto-whistles on all the poorman retrieves, and on none of the three long marks. Neither dog had any problem picking up and returning with the long marks without the whistle.

Both dogs did well on most of this. The only problems:

• Whereas Lumi's returns with the birds showed little or no sign of resource guarding, Laddie threw his head quite a bit and also angled out from me as he got closer a couple of times, requiring me to use an additional verbal "here" to reel him in. I don't know whether this is a cascading behavior that will deteriorate into something worse, or simply the way that Laddie is going to retrieve birds at this stage. But to me, he's not ready to retrieve birds under more exciting conditions while he continues to behave that way in private training.
  
• Lumi ran around a muddy baseball diamond the first time we ran #4, putting her off line and causing her to run to Renee instead of the fall. Since Renee was holding the dummy she would later throw for #6, Lumi became fixated on getting that dummy away from her and required a lot of help before she saw that the real #4 was still on the ground. I had Renee run #4 again, throwing a different direction so that Lumi wouldn't have to run across that diamond (as Laddie had not), and Lumi did fine with it.

Comment. Today's series was what I call an "alternation drill".

To reiterate my concept, I give the dog one or more short poorman retrieves (keeping the dog close to me for control) with difficult retrieval articles (dead birds, in this case with blood on one of them) to groove the Retrieval Paradigm. Immediately afterwards, we run a long mark (in this case to a dummy, since Renee won't throw birds). The hope is that even though the dog is much further out on the long mark, the pattern from the short retrieves holds and the long mark becomes more reliable than if we hadn't run the short marks first.

After a long history of alternation drills, the dog will hopefully have a well-developed habit of returning promptly on long marks that some day will hold up without further need to run short marks first.

Based on both dogs' dramatic progress with long marks after we began running the alternation drill, I continue to feel this is a useful training concept.

Private Training: Bail-Out Drill

Today, son Eric offered to help me train, which gave us an opportunity to throw marks, but I also thought it would be valuable for each of the dogs to retrieve at least one duck. Above all, I wanted both dogs to run Alice Woodyard's bail-out drill for the first time.

I set up a series to work on all of those, ending with the bail-out drill. It's possible that dogs contemplate what they've learned after a training session is over, and if so, that was the experience I wanted freshest in their minds.

The series was as follows:

1. 30-yard poorman mark to a duck
2. 200-yard single to a white dummy, thrown after "hey-hey"
3. Bail-out drill

On the narrow ballfield:

• #2 was 75° to the left of #1.
• #3 was merely 10° to the left of #2.

The bail-out drill was set-up as follows:

• Three poles were placed in a straight line (separated by 30-30 yards).
• The pin of pole 3 went through the eyelet of an orange dummy and then into the ground, pinning the dummy and holding it in place if a dog tried to retrieve it.
• A white dummy was placed 15 yards to the left of pole 2 and under the high branches of a conifer. The white dummy was not visible to the dog from the line of the poles but was readily visible once the dogs got within 10 yards.
  

Conditions: High 30's, drizzly, wind calm. We worked at a ballfield where the grass was wet, cold, and had standing water and mud in places.

I ran Lumi first, then Laddie. Both dogs were nearly identical in their performance, so I'll refer to both of them as "Dog" in the following description:

I walked Dog from the van past poles 3 and 2 of the bail-out drill, giving them a chance to notice the orange dummy at pole 3. We set up at the start line, which was pole 1 of the bail-out drill.

I walked out and threw the duck, then sent Dog to that mark. I didn't auto-whistle and Dog returned immediately without a whistle and with no hint of resource guarding the duck.

Next I called for the long mark. Again Dog did great without an auto-whistle.

Finally, we ran the bail-out drill, as follows: I sent Dog from heel to pole 2, whistled sit, and cast Dog on an "over" to the bail-out dummy to the left. Dog took a step in that direction, then looped back toward pole 3 and the orange dummy. Before Dog could get to pole 3, I whistled Dog to sit again, then called Dog toward me with a recall whistle. As soon as Dog was even with pole 2, I again whistled Dog to sit, then again cued "over". This time Dog took the cast, ran to the white dummy, and picked it up. As Dog did so, I auto-whistled and Dog came racing back to me with it.

I used food when I returned from throwing the poorman mark (to reinforce waiting) and at the completion of the series as we ran back to the van (to reinforce accompanying me back, and also as a positive association with the overall training session).

Minor differences in the way the two dogs ran:

• Lumi does not like sitting or lying down on cold, wet ground and won't maintain a sit. She puts her butt down, then immediately lifts it again. I tolerate it, because I know that she only behaves that way in those conditions, and she remains steady and focused.
• Lumi was tentative on the second "over" cast until she spotted the white dummy. Then she accelerated to it. Laddie only has one speed — overdrive — so that didn't happen with him.

Private Training: "Over"

At Alice Woodyard's suggestion, I wanted to devote at least one training session to "over". Today, in icy temps and freezing rain, the dogs and I had such a session, made up of two short series.

Both series were run with the same configuration: the dog at the imaginary pitcher's mound facing home plate, me at home plate 15 yards in front of the dog, two white dummies at 1st base 12 yards from dog, two white dummies at 3rd base 12 yards from dog.

Series A. I ran only Laddie on Series A and he had no trouble with it:

1. "Over", visual and forgot to use voice, to the right.
2. "Over", visual still with no voice, to the left.
3. "Over", visual and remembered to use voice, to the right.
4. "Over", visual and voice, to the left.

Series B. I ran Lumi first, then Laddie. The similarity of the way they both ran the series was uncanny, to the extent that I can describe both of them at the same time below by referring to "Dog".

I always used a visual "over", while I used a verbal "over" intermittently. I don't remember when I did and when I didn't.

As you'll see, I had to handle both dogs on #1 and #4. They were both instantly responsive on 100% of whistle sits (WSs) and always cast in the generallly correct direction, though not always on a perfect angle.

1. With Dog in a sit facing me, I threw a dummy halfway between Dog and me, whistled sit (even though Dog was already sitting), and cued "over" to the right. Dog broke to the right, did not make an attempt at the thrown dummy, but also did not run on a straight line to the target pile, instead running on a line bisecting the target pile and the thrown dummy, angling in slightly instead of a true "over". I used a WS and a cast back to direct Dog to the target pile. Once Dog saw the target dummies, Dog pounced on one and came running back to me with it.
2. With Dog in a sit facing me, I again threw a dummy halfway between Dog and me, whistled sit, and cued "over" to the left. This time, Dog ran straight to the target pile, pounced on a dummy, and brought it to me.
3. With Dog in a sit facing me, I threw a dummy over Dog's head, whistled sit, and cued "over" to the right. Dog ran straight to the target pile, pounced on a dummy, and brought it go me.
4. With Dog in a sit facing me, I threw a dummy past Dog on a line midway between Dog and the left pile of dummies. I then whistled sit and cued "over" to the left. Dog ran toward the thrown dummy. I used a whistle sit to stop Dog before Dog picked up the thrown dummy, then cast Dog to the left toward the target pile. Dog was curiously resistant to that pile, and it took several WSs and casts before Dog finally ran to the pile, pounced on a dummy, and brought it to me.

Comments. Although it might have been nice to have both dogs respond perfectly on every "over" cast, this seemed to be a helpful session. Both dogs got good experience with sitting on the whistle and benefitting from it, both dogs demonstrated a basic understanding of "over", and both dogs showed improving resistance to divesions. I plan to repeat Series B in future sessions until both dogs clearly understand "over" as being a 90° cast.

After that, I plan to strengthen the WS by running a series of pinball drills in which I whistle sit at a midpoint and cast the dog with "over" to a dummy not visible to the dog from that position. I'm hoping that experiencing such "bail out" dummies will reinforce both the WS and "over".

Private Training: Bird-foot Drills

This morning it was sunny but bitter cold, which the dogs didn't mind but my hands did. I decided to have a low-exertion day of handling drills based on Alice Woodyard's suggested bird foot configuration.

First I set up a diamond of white and orange dummies, the white dummies 20' from the start line and 12' apart, the orange dummies 40' from the start line on a line between the white dummies. The white dummies were turned sideways for maximum visibility, while the orange dummies were turned endwise for minimum visibility. Lumi ran first, then Laddie. When I sent each dog to the orange dummy, the dog took the correct line and retrieved an orange dummy the first time sent.

Next we had our first session of using the bird foot layout as a casting drill. Per Alice's guidance, I moved the white dummies so that they were 18' apart, I added a fourth orange dummy, and I scattered the orange dummies in a small area rather than lining them up end to end. Again, I ran Lumi first, then Laddie. For each drill, I had the dog sit 40' from the orange dummies with the dog's back to the orange dummies, and I stood 15' in front of the dog. I then repeatedly cast the dog back to the orange dummy pile between the white dummies with a verbal "back" and a right or left arm raised straight in the air. The choice of arm was to tell the dog which way to spin.

LUMI: The first time I spun Lumi to my right, she ran to the white dummy on the right side. I cued "no here" and brought her back to the sitting position, then cast her again. The second and third times I spun her to my right, she spun 180° and retrieved an orange dummy.

The identical sequence happened when I spun her to my left.

LADDIE: The two times I spun Laddie to my right, he spun 180° and retrieved an orange dummy.

The first time I spun him to my left, he spun the correct direction but ran to the white dummy. I was't sure whether he was taking a wide path or actually planning go retrieve the white dummy, so I didn't whistle until he picked it up. I walked to him and took the dummy, lay it back on the ground, and walked him back to his starting position. The same thing happened again. For the third cast with my left arm, I positioned Laddie between the two white dummies. Again he spun the correct direction and this time retrieved an orange dummy. We then reran it from halfway back to his original starting position, and then from the original starting position, and each time he retrieved an orange dummy.

Holodeck Training

Holodeck Program
based on guidance from Alice Woodyard and Jody Baker

BEFORE OTHER TRAINERS ARRIVE

• [Because Laddie seems to have been learning some incorrect lessons from group training, he will not be training with the other dogs at this time.] Before and after group training, work on wagon wheel drill. If someone happens to offer to throw for us, run bulldogs or alternation drill.
  
• Don't work Lumi too hard while waiting for group training to begin.
• White jacket.
• Load pockets: pistol, ammo, ear protectors, radio.

BEFORE FIRST DOG

• No birds until we've had some good sessions with dummies; therefore, make sure the gunners have dummies with them when they go out:

--Hard white dummies with streamers, running midway thru group for 2-3 weeks. [This will be our first week not using canvas dummies, and our first week not running first, since establishing a baseline.]
--After 2-3 weeks, combinations of dead birds and dummies until dogs ready to try a flyer.

RUNNING LUMI

• No multiples until Lumi has had some good series running singles.
• No blinds with the group, since that would let Lumi continue to practice hunting for the article rather than responding to a whistle.
• Run shortest mark first, longest last.
• Auto-whistle the first two marks of each training day. Based on how Lumi does, consider switching to an only-if-needed whistle for the remaining marks of the day.

RECORD KEEPING PER MARK

• Attempted break?
• Lumi returned uncued? Auto-whistle? Contingent whistle? Voice?

AFTER SESSION

Purchase some dead birds if available.

Training Day

As planned, only Lumi ran with the group, Series A and B. But both dogs also participated in some solo bird foot drills at the Rover's Content property, and one of the other trainers was kind enough to throw four short marks for Laddie, Series C, when the group training was over.

All the marks for Series A, B, and C were run thru several strips of high grass. The day was cold, breezy, and overcast.

I brought both dogs to the start line off lead for all series, and ran them without a slip cord. Lumi did not break on any of her marks, though she was highly excited especially on Series B. Laddie did break on his first two marks of Series C, but with a duck in his mouth for the second two throws, he did not break on those.

All of the sessions are described below.

Series A

I had planned to run Lumi in the middle of the pack with white dummies, but with other dogs retrieving ducks, two of the other trainers insisted I should run Lumi first, so that she would not have to pick up a dummy over duck scent. We've practiced that considerably over the last few weeks, but I didn't want to argue and proceeded to run Lumi first.

We ran three singles:

1. 100 yards
2. 160 yards
3. 210 yards

#1 was 30° to the left of #3, #2 was 30° to te right of #3.

NOTES. #1 was thrown from behind a tree, and Lumi apparently didn't see the throw. The first time I sent her, she went out a few yards and then began to prance around. I called her to heel and sent her again, and this time she ran toward the thrower, then hunted for awhile. Eventually she left the area and the thrower called hey-hey. She raced back, found the dummy, picked it up, and galloped back with it on my whistle.

Lumi pinned #2, and I auto-whistled as she picked up the dummy. She seemed distractted by the thrower's bag of ducks, but I whistled again and she brought me the dummy.

On #3, Lumi hunted the area of the fall, then got out of range and the thrower called hey-hey. She found the dummy, picked it up, brought it toward the thrower, spit it out, and seemed to be looking around for a duck. The thrower said "fetch!", which Lumi somehow understood even though I use "give it". She picked up the dummy, I whistled, and she brought it back to me.

It seemed evident that Lumi really wanted to retrieve a duck. I decided to give her a shot at one in the next series, which came some time later.

Series B

Lumi ran as the second dog. We ran the course as three singles:

1. 80 yards
2. 110 yards across a watery inlet
3. 160 yards through a deep hollow

I had sent out white dummies with all the throwers. When I brought Lumi to the line, I used the radio to tell #1 to throw a duck, and that I would let the others know whether to throw a duck or dummy after I saw how Lumi did on #1.

Lumi displayed no sign of resource guarding on #1, so she got to retrieve ducks for all three marks, and brought every one of them straight back on an auto-whistle. She pinned all three marks and displayed a high level of excitement the entire series, from every send out to every delivery.

Bird Foot Drills

The bird foot drill is Alice's name for a lining drill set up and run as described below:

• Two white dummies, turned sideways for maximum visibility, 20 feet from start line and 12 feet from one another
• Three orange dummies, end to end and turned away from the start line for minimum visibility, 40 feet from the start line and on a line between the white dummies
• The dog is sent to the orange dummies. Alice describes the procedure for what to do if the dog does not go to the orange dummies. I followed her procedure with Lumi on the first drill and Laddie on the second.
  

In spare moments during the group training, I set up this drill four times in different locations, and in each location ran Laddie first, then Lumi.

The results:

FIRST LOCATION

• Laddie: Went to the orange dummies on his first try.
• Lumi: Went to each of the white dummies on her first two sends. When she did so, I called her back with "no here". Then I sent her three more times: first from between the white dummies, then halfway back, and finally from the start line again. She went to the orange dummies each of those times.

SECOND LOCATION

• Laddie: Ran past the orange dummies on his first try, then to one of the white dummies on his second try. I called him to me with "here" the first time, "no here" the second time. Then I sent him three more times: first from between the white dummies, then halfway back, and finally from the start line again. She went to the orange dummies each of those times.
• Lumi: Ran to a white dummy on her first try. I called her with "no here", sent her again. She ran between the white dummies and almost past the orange dummies, spotted them as she was running past and brought one to me.

THIRD LOCATION

• Both dogs went to the orange dummies on their first tries.

FOURTH LOCATION

• Both dogs again went to the orange dummies on their first tries.

Series C

This series was thrown by one of the trainers for Laddie after the group training was completed. It consisted of four marks of 70 yards with dead ducks, thrown after gunshots. The marks were 30° apart.

Laddie pinned all four marks, but stalled at the fall with all, and looked like he would have begun to chew the ducks if left to his own devices. I auto-whistled each pick-up, and when he didn't come, I began to walk out. I had to walk less and less distance with each mark, only a couple of steps on the last one.

Once Laddie began to run toward me with the ducks, he didn't stop again, and delivered each duck nicely. I took the first and last one as soon as he swung to heel and sat with them, but I had him hold the second and third in his mouth at the start line while watching the next mark thrown in the hope that it would discourage breaking (it did), and also in the hope that that would make the delivery more valuable and increase the probability of immediate returns in the future.

Training Group Advice

As often happens, I received some advice during today's training. Today, one of the trainers said that Field Trial trainers have their dogs look for the long gun first, as soon as the dog comes to the line, and if you're running singles, you'd run the long mark first.

I think it makes sense to look for the long gun first on a multiple, especially if that's going to be the first mark thrown. Often, however, that will make the long mark the last mark retrieved. When running singles, if you run the long mark first, you're actually running the opposite order that the more advanced dogs will typically run.

In discussing this with Alice some weeks ago, she recommended that at Lumi's and Laddie's current stage of development, they should be running singles with the shortest mark first, the longest mark last.

Conclusion

Although I had planned to have Lumi retrieve dummies for a few more sessions before trying her on ducks again, it appears that she may be ready to retrieve ducks from now on. I don't know how soon they will have flyers again, and I would be reluctant to have her retrieve a flyer yet. But as long as they're throwing dead ducks, or even dead pigeons, I'm comfortable with letting her continue to retrieve them as long as she does not begin to display signs of resource guarding again.

Although Laddie has been retrieving ducks well in private training, today showed that he is not yet reliable retrieving ducks under group conditions, even the subdued conditions of short marks and a single thrower. Alice has recommended that he not run with the group until he has a rock solid whistle sit, so that is our current training objective. Once that feels solid, he'll retrieve dummies for 2-3 weeks before we try having him retrieve ducks with the group.

Both dogs exhibited nice progress on the lining drills.

Private Training

Once again today, we had two sessions. Today, it was a morning solo session at a neighborhood ballfield, and an afternoon session at Cheltenham with Renee as thrower.

The morning session (Series A and B) was wagon wheels, mixing dead birds and dummies. The afternoon session (Series C thru E) was alternation drills, alternating short poorman marks of birds, with long thrown single marks of dummies, plus a final single for Laddie.

Only black and white canvas dummies with streamers were used today for all drills. The birds were dead pigeons and ducks in various combinations. I reinforced the dummy retrieves with food and each session with food, happy dummies, and tug.

Series A. Two dummies alternating with two birds at 20 yards, separated by 90° angles. I sent the dogs to both dummies first, then both birds. Both dogs were 4 for 4.

Series B. Three birds alternating with two dummies in a semicircle, separated by 45° angles. The birds were at 20 yards, the dummies at 25 yards.

Laddie was 4 for 5. He took a whistle sit and cast off the bird when he veered off the send to the second dummy.

Lumi was 5 for 5.

Conditions for Series C thru E. The afternoon sessions were run at Rover's Content in Cheltenham. The day was sunny, with temps in low 50s and variable winds. The rolling terrain had low, clumpy cover with many strips of high grass and occasional pools of standing water.

Series C. Alternation drill, alternating short poorman multiples of birds with long thrown marks of dummies:

1. 20 yards, dead pigeon into high grass, first throw and memory-bird of a poorman "double"
2. 20 yards, dead duck in front of a mound, second throw and go-bird of the "double"
3. 180 yards, canvas dummy thrown in front of a mound after gunshot
4. 30 yards, dead duck into high grass, first throw and memory-bird of a poorman "double"
5. 25 yards, dead pigeon behind a mound, second throw and go-bird of the "double"
6. 290 yards, hard white dummy with streamers thrown into high grass after gunshot

LUMI: I used an auto-whistle on all marks except #4 and #5. Lumi's performance was flawless. She pinned every mark, picked up every bird and dummy uncued and unhesitatingly, and returned to me at an excited gallop.

LADDIE: I used an auto-whistle on all marks, and reinforced all retrieves with food, plus happy dummies and tug at the end of the series. Laddie's performance was wonderful, except that we ran #6 twice.

#6 was a traversal thru standing water, and on the first return, Laddie stopped to drink, then play. I walked out, cued "sit", picked up the dummy, and walked him back to the start line on a leash. We then reran the mark and he ran it beautifully, never slowing in either direction. He didn't stop on any of his other returns the rest of the day.

Renee believes that Laddie stopped because he was thirsty, and I agree that I should make sure he always gets plenty of water. But possible thirst aside, I believe that Laddie has a gap in his training to date, namely inexperience with land-water-land, even shallow water. Lumi had the same problem last spring. Now that I see the issue, it's something I hope to work on with Laddie in the next few weeks.

Series D. Alternation drill, alternating long thrown marks of dummies with a short poorman mark of a bird. This series was run from on top of a mulch mound:

1. 100 yards, hard white dummy with streamers thrown into high grass after gunshot
2. 30 yards, dead duck into high grass thrown as a poorman single
   
3. 220 yards, hard white dummy with streamers thrown into high grass after gunshot

LUMI: I used an auto-whistle only for #2, and it seemed unnecessary. Lumi's performance was again flawless. She pinned every mark, picked up both dummies and the bird uncued and unhesitatingly, and always returned to me at an excited gallop.

LADDIE: Had to hunt a short time for both dummies, and needed a whistle to get oriented on his returns (he may have been parading for the thrower Renee), but he needed no help finding the dummies and responded instantly to the recall whistles.

Series E. Because Laddie had shown a problem traversing standing water, I had him run one more single before we quit for the day:

1. 100 yards, last 30 yards through knee-deep standing water, hard white dummy with streamers thrown on other side of the pool after gunshot

Laddie slowed slightly as he approached the water, then plunged in and swam across, came out and picked up the dummy on the run. He shook off and pranced around for five seconds while I tried a recall whistle and then shouted "here" several times. At last, he turned toward me, swam back across, and ran excitedly all the way back to me. Once I saw he was well on his way, I turned and ran away from him. In a few seconds, he caught me and we played fetch and tug games for some time.

General Remarks. Neither dog has "stalled" or exhibited any resource guarding of birds in weeks. Today was a continuation of that pattern.

Both dogs are now generally run without slip cords. Neither attempted a break all day.

I reinforced all retrieves with food, plus happy dummies and tug at the end of each series.

This was one of Lumi's best days of training in some time. She was essentially perfect all day.

Both dogs showed great enthusiasm for today's wagon wheels in the morning as well as the afternoon work at Cheltenham. While both dogs clearly have a genetic predisposition for retrieving, my impression after comparing many sessions with and without food is that intermittently reinforcing retrieves with food provides a markedly improved association for the overall game.

I think this is more true for Lumi than for Laddie, who only has one speed, but even for Laddie, his returns, especially the last few yards, seem more focused than ever since we began intermittently reinforcing with food again.

Private Training

Today, we had a solo morning session and an afternoon session with two throwers. As usual, we'll also work on "give it"/"hold"/"out" indoors at dinnertime, but this post is about our outdoor training.

For the morning session, we ran two series of wheel drills (Series A and B). For the afternoon, we ran two sets of marks (Series C and D).

For the wagon wheels, I used prepositioned dummies and all were in plain sight. I only had the dogs retrieve the outer ring of dummies. I used praise, food, random tosses of a dummy, and random games of tug as reinforcement for retrieves.

Although I believe that lining skill is enhanced by using a whistle sit and recall if the dog goes to the wrong article, I was curious to see how the dogs would do if I used a whistle sit and the cast them to the correct dummy instead.

Series A. Three rings:

• Four 3" white dummies at 5 yards
• Four 2" white dummies at 7 yards
• Four 3" orange alternating with four black & white canvas dummies at 10 yards

Laddie was 8 for 8, Lumi was 6 for 8.

Series B. Three rings:

• Four 3" white dummies at 10 yards
• Four 2" white dummies at 15 yards
• Four 3" orange alternating with four black & white canvas dummies at 20 yards

The first time I tried this set-up and ran Laddie, he took off into an adjoining farmer's field and rolled in something disgusting. I cleaned him up a bit, put him in his crate, and set up the same course elsewhere in the same park. I ran Lumi first, then Laddie on the new set-up.

Both dogs were 4 for 8. Lumi was 0 for 4 on the orange dummies, 4 for 4 on the canvas. Laddie was highly distracted by something in the woods or a nearby field, and was 0 for 4 running toward the distraction, 4 for 4 running away from it.

Neither dog attempted to pick up the wrong dummy when whistled to a sit or when cast, even if the dog was standing right over the wrong dummy. Both dogs were 100% responsive on whistle sits and casts, and in all cases but one, needed only a single cast to the correct dummy. Both dogs were also 100% responsive in picking up the dummies and coming straight back.

Lumi seemed to be distracted by something on one of her sends and needed three casts. She went the right general direction on all of them but took slightly wrong angles the first two times and had trouble homing in on the dummy.

In contrast to some of yesterday's practice, both dogs showed a high level of enthusiasm on both of today's wagon wheel drills. Weather may have been a factor. Yesterday, the temperatures reached record-breaking highs for the date, while today temps were in the 30s with gusting winds, conditions Goldens seem to find invigorating.

Series C. Three singles:

1. 30 yards, as a poorman mark, dead duck
2. 100 yards, B&W canvas dummy with streamers
3. 160 yards, B&W canvas dummy with streamers

Lumi: I used an auto-whistle for #1, no whistle for #2 and #3. Excellent work.

Laddie: I used an auto-whistle for #1, also needed to whistle #2 and #3, with Laddie responding instantly to all whistles. To go straight on #3, Laddie had to run over the side of a hill and across a corner of pavement, which he did, maintaining a laser line.

Series D. A double with B&W canvas dummies with streamers:

1. 140 yards
2. 70 yards

Laddie: Again needed whistle, again Laddie responded well. This time, the throw for #2 required Laddie to run thru a wooded section to maintain a straight line to the mark, and he did so.

Lumi. No whistles, again excellent work.

Private Training

With no one else to train with today and temperatures in the 60s, we did two series of wagon wheels and then went swimming for the first time in months.

For both wagon wheel drills, all the dummies were prepositioned, the dogs only retrieved the outer ring, and they were reinforced for each retrieve with food and praise. I used no casting today, and both dogs were 100% responsive to every whistle sit and recall, which was how I dealt with veering offline instead.

Occasionally the dog makes it all the way to the incorrect dummy, but as long as I whistle sit before the dog picks up the dummy, both dogs will sit and then recall on whistle without trying to pick the dummy up. I haven't tried casting the dog from there to the correct dummy, since that might reinforce going to the wrong one and cause it to increase, but I think I'll try the cast periodically to see if they'll take it.

Both dogs were about 70% accurate on the first send, but only about 30% accurate on the second send. In other words, if the dog didn't go to the correct dummy the first time, the dog would usually repeat the error, or veer to the other side, rather than immediately getting it right the next time.

I thought that shortening the distances might make Series B easier than Series A and increase the success rate (and therefore the rate of reinforcement), and that seemed to be true for Lumi, but not for Laddie. That may have been because today Laddie was unusually distracted by goose droppings and possibly other environmental factors present at today's training site.

Series A. Wagon wheel drill with three rings:

• White 2" dummies at 10 yards
• White 3" dummies at 15 yards
• Orange 3" dummies and B&W canvas dummies at 20 yards

Series B. Wagon wheel drill with three rings:

• White 2" dummies at 5 yards
• White 3" dummies at 7 yards
• Orange 3" dummies and B&W canvas dummies at 10 yards
  

Swimming Laddie has long since become a faster runner and higher jumper than Lumi. In fact, Laddie runs faster, jumps higher, and acts wilder than even the two BCs we live with. But as today showed, Lumi is still easily the faster swimmer.

Nonetheless, Laddie showed measurable progress in today's swimming compared to the last time we swam, when he was about half his present age. Laddie can now happily and repeatedly swim as far as I can throw a dummy, and has no difficulty waiting at my side until sent.

In addition, our swimming session got some benefit out of the "give it"/"hold"/"out" training we've been doing at dinner time for the last couple of weeks. Instead of dropping the dummy to shake off as soon as he reached shore, Laddie was responsive to "hold" as he was coming out of the water and retrieved the dummy to hand before shaking off. If the unseasonably warm weather holds up, we'll add distance/duration to those deliveries out of water in the days to come.

Comments I was pleased about the way today's outdoor training sequence worked out.

I continue to feel that the wagon wheel drills recommended to us by Alice Woodyard are valuable not only for fine lining in the presence of diversions, but also for grooving the fundamental retrieval pattern: go out, pick up the article, and bring it straight back.

In addition, I think today added a new element of extrinsic reinforcement, or at least pleasant association, to the wagon wheel retrieves. While wagon wheels are hopefully somewhat self-reinforcing for Lumi and Laddie because they involve retrieving, and while feeding and praise add extrinsic reinforcement, wagon wheel drills at such short distances are also relatively low energy and therefore, it seems, not as much fun for either dog as most of our field training.

I think it's good for the dogs to learn that we need to keep on working, and working well, even when it's not as much fun. I think it's even better to cap off such a lesson with an exciting session of swimming. With repetition, that trains the lesson: Working even when it's not much fun predicts the possibility of great times afterwards.

Private Training

Today, per Alice Woodyard's recommendation from last week, we worked on wagon wheels. Over the day, each dog ran five series, two in the morning and three in the afternoon. Each series was in a different location.

Although performance varied from series to series, one constant was that both dogs were 100% responsive on every whistle sit and every whistle recall.

Lumi was also responsive and reasonably accurate on every cast, whereas Laddie's casts were not accurate enough. He leapt out of his sit on every cast, but did not always go in the direction I cued. Since I did not intend this as a casting drill, I minimized casting for both dogs, and since it wasn't working well with Laddie, I only tried it with him a handful of times.

Series A. Four prepositioned orange dummies at 20 yards, one invisible from the start line, four thrown white dummies at 20 yards. I had the dogs pick up the three visible orange ones, then the invisible orange one, and finally the four white ones. I reinforced the retrieves of the orange dummies with food.

Lumi had some trouble on both the visible and invisible orange dummies, and to improve her success rate, I walked her closer after a couple of unsuccessful, veering send-outs on any dummy she had a problem with.

Astonishingly, Laddie did not need a single resend on any of the eight retrieves.

Series B. Four prepositioned orange dummies at 25 yards, three invisible from start line, four thrown white dummies at 15 yards. I had the dogs pick up the visible orange dummy, then the three invisible orange dummies, and finally the four white ones. I reinforced the retrieves of the orange dummies with food.

Lumi needed some resends on the orange dummies, but I never needed to walk her closer.

Laddie's performance was similar to Lumi's.

Series C. Four prepositioned orange dummies at 25 yards, all invisible from the start line, four thrown white dummies at 15 yards. I had the dogs pick up only the orange dummies. I reinforced all retrieves with food.

Neither dog lined on faith. Laddie needed to be walked closer, Lumi responded well to handling. I was concerned that one or both dogs may have been hunting on scent rather than actually lining.

After Series C, I decided that it's premature to train lining and faith, and that we should get lining to visible targets fluent first.

Series D. Four prepositioned dummies at 20 yards, all visible from the start line, four thrown white dummies at 15 yards. I had the dogs pick up only the orange dummies. I reinforced all retrieves with food.

Series D was too easy for both dogs, so I decided to try finer lining.

Series E. Four prepositioned white dummies at 5 yards, four prepositioned orange dummies at 7 yards, and eight prepositioned additional dummies at 10 yards. The additional dummies were four 2" white dummies alternating with four B&W canvas dummies. I had the dogs pick up only the outer ring of eight dummies. I reinforced all retrieves with food.

Because the lesson was simplified, this was the day's most satisfying drill. Both dogs were 70-80% accurate. When they'd go to the wrong dummy, I'd whistle a sit and then a recall, to which they were always responsive. The goal was for each dog to learn to go in the direction he was looking when sent, and over the eight retrieves, the dogs seemed to be grasping that concept.

Planning. In the future, I plan to make some or all of the targets invisible from the start line again, and also to increase the suction of the diversion articles by using dead, and later live, ducks. For now, I think it's more valuable to strengthen the dogs' performance in drills like Series E. Not only does this practice accurate lining, but it also practices and reinforces unhesitating pick-ups, direct returns, and whistle sits and recalls to remedy incorrect responses, the foundation skills needed for productive participation in group training.

Private Training

Today, son Dave offered to help with our training, so instead of working on wagon wheels, I thought I'd see how the dogs would do retrieving dead birds. I also wanted to try out one of the drills Alice Woodyard had recommended for my dogs a few days ago, a pinball drill with duck scent across the path to each target.

We ran the following series, first Lumi, then Laddie:

• Mark #1 - 30 yards, dead pigeon.
• Mark #2 - 100 yards, dead pigeon, 90° to left of mark #1.
• Pinball drill - 90 yards, four poles (spaced 30-30-30 yards), no articles, duck scent on two tracks between poles 2 and 3, and on two more tracks between poles 3 and 4. The pinball course was 90° to left of mark #2.
  
• Mark #3 - 220 yards, dead pigeon, 45° to right of mark #2.

Everything was run on lawn at nearby Sundown Park, except that mark #3 extended out into an unmaintained area of clumpy grass and underbrush for the last 100 yards.

All marks were thrown after a gunshot.

Dave said he was excited about both dogs' performance, especially Lumi's, which was not only error-free but was unusually enthusiastic.

Laddie broke twice on mark #1 and once on mark #2 and ignored my recall, and each time, Dave picked up the bird. Obviously I'd have preferred that Laddie not break, and I'd have preferred that he come when called, but as Dave pointed out, it was cool to see Laddie's steadiness improve so visibly when he saw that breaking was fruitless.

Considering that Laddie hasn't had a chance to run around since Saturday, I suspect that if he'd had some play time before today's training, he wouldn't have had quite so much bundled up energy and would not have broken. We're working on his recall, but I guess the gunfire and the dead bird, combined with all that energy, were too much for him today. We'll keep working on it.

I id not see the breaks as too significant, since they declined rather than increasing. By comparison, seeing both dogs responsiveness on picking up birds and racing back to me with them was thrilling.

Neither dog seemed to have any trouble with the duck scent on the pinball drill. Soon we'll try a more advanced handling drill with duck scent that Alice has also suggested.

Private Training

Although Laddie did not participate in the group training (see today's "Holodeck Training" post), he did accompany Lumi and me to Rover's Content today. Both before and after the group training, I set up wagon wheels for both dogs to practice their lining, whistle responses, and in some cases handling.

I ran the wagon wheel series in a variety of locations, all characterized by rolling terrain, low clumpy cover, small pools of standing water, and strips of high grass. I used whistle sits and either casts or recalls if the dog went off line, and an auto-whistle after every pick-up.

We used all hard dummies, four white with ropes and streamers, four orange (except for Series A). In each case, all dummies were 20 yards from the start line in the center. The white dummies were at the four points of the compass, while each orange dummy was midway between two white ones.

When orange dummies were used, the dog was sent to all the orange ones in random order. After all the orange ones were picked up, the dog was sent to all the white ones. The dog was sent from a sit on either side of me, and asked to deliver on either side, in random order. If the dog saw me place or throw the dummy, I sent the dog with the dog's name. If the dog did not see me place the dummy, I sent the dog with "back".

Today's five series represented a progression of increasing difficulty:

Series A: Laddie. White dummies, watched me throw them.

Series B: Laddie and Lumi. White and orange dummies, watched me throw first the orange ones, then the white ones.

Series C: Lumi and Laddie. White and orange dummies, watched me throw first the orange ones, then the white ones. Two of the orange ones were invisible after landing.

Series D: Lumi and Laddie. Orange dummies planted, watched me throw white dummies. One orange dummy was in plain sight, other three were partially or fully invisible from start line.

Performance. Both dogs picked up every dummy uncued and were 100% responsive to every sit and recall whistle. Lumi was also responsive to every cast. Laddie did not take the casts accurately so mostly I just called him back and resent him if he went off line. A few times, I also walked him closer to the target dummy before sending him again.

Plans for Future Sessions. Next time, we'll repeat Series E until both dogs are confident. After that, we'll make the following increases in criteria:

• We'll try replacing the white dummies with dead birds. That will increase their distraction value, and will also raise the excitement level of the drill and give the dogs pratice returning with birds after they've picked up the dummies.
  
• We'll place the orange dummies at 30 yards, then throw the white dummies to 20 yards.
• We'll place the orange dummies at 30 yards, then throw dead ducks to 20 yards.
• We'll add a third ring of eight dummies at 40 yards for the dogs to retrieve first.
  
• We'll try using one or more wrapped live ducks in combination with white dummies and/or dead ducks for the ring at 20 yards.
  
• We'll try using one or more shackled live ducks in combination with white dummies, dead ducks, and/or wrapped live ducks for the ring at 20 yards.
• We'll try increasing distance. This will not necessarily increase the difficulty of lining; in fact, it might actually make it easier, since the articles will be further apart. However, it will give the dogs practice with whistles and retrieving real birds at longer distances.
  

Holodeck Training

Holodeck Program
based on guidance from Alice Woodyard and Jody Baker

BEFORE OTHER TRAINERS ARRIVE

• [Because Laddie seems to have been learning some incorrect lessons from group training, he will not be training with the other dogs at this time.] Before and after group training, work on pinball drill with duck scent and wagon wheel drill. If someone happens to offer to throw for us, run bulldogs.
  
• After airing Lumi, let her rest in van while waiting for group training to begin.
  
• Put on Lumi's collar for slip cord.
• White jacket.
• Load pockets: slip cord, slip lead, pistol, ammo, radio, ear protectors.

BEFORE FIRST DOG

• No birds until we've had some good sessions with dummies; therefore, make sure the gunners have dummies with them when they go out:

--Canvas dummies and run first for two weeks. [This will be our second week of this.]
--Canvas dummies but running later for two weeks.
--Rubber dummies for two weeks.
--Combinations of dead birds and dummies until dogs ready to try a flyer.

RUNNING LUMI

• No multiples for Lumi until she has had some good series running singles.
• No blinds with the group, since that would let Lumi continue to practice hunting for the article rather than responding to a whistle.
• Run shortest mark first, longest last.
• Use a slip cord if reasonable possibility of a break.
• Auto-whistle the first two marks of each training day. Based on how Lumi does, consider switching to an only-if-needed whistle for the remaining marks of the day.
• If Lumi has something in mouth, anything but coming right back is bad. Gain control. If you cannot influence her, walk her out of the field and don’t let it happen again. Drop the criteria back, which might mean, stop training with FT group.

RECORD KEEPING PER MARK

• Attempted break?
• Lumi returned uncued? Auto-whistle? Contingent whistle? Voice? Walk out?
• If Lumi did not come straight back, why (for example, RG, parading, Super D, zoomies, diversion)?

AFTER SESSION

• Purchase some dead birds if available.

Group Training As planned, Laddie did not train with the group. We did some private wheel training both before and after the group training, which I'll describe in a separate post. This post only applies to Lumi's work with the group.

Today's session included only a single series of marks:

1. 140 yards into high cover, throwers obscured by trees
   
2. 220 yards into standing water, with pools of standing water en route
3. 280 yards into standing water, pools of standing water en route

Terrain: rolling low hills and low, clumpy cover with strips of high grass crossing all marks.

Configuration — pyramid:

• #1 was 90° to left of #3
• #2 was 10° to right of #3
  

I ran Lumi first, and I had the throwers throw our blank and white canvas dummies with streamers. Shotguns were used for all marks.

I walked Lumi to and from the start line off lead and used no slip cord. She did not attempt a break.

Lumi picked up every dummy uncued and on the run, then turned to look for me without breaking stride. Because of the distances and the terrain, I auto-whistled all marks. Lumi turned toward me, cantered home, and delivered nicely as soon as I whistled.

Lumi got a little off line and went out too far on #3. When she seemed to have lost track of the area of the fall and risked going out of sight, I used the radio to call for help. The thrower attracted her attention and re-threw the dummy. Lumi immediately ran to it, picked it up, and brought it to me. Considering the 280 yard distance, the fact that the dummy was thrown into a pool of water, the fact that Lumi was looking into the sun when the mark was thrown, the fact that she had to run thru rough terrain including a large area of standing water to get to the dummy, the fact that the dummy had little or no scent, and the fact that the area of the fall had not yet been scented by other dogs or birds, I wasn't worried that Lumi had a little problem finding the dummy on #3.

One of the other trainers commented, "She seems to be returning a lot better now." Another trainer also said Lumi did a nice job.

While some of the dogs ran triples, and some ran a double and a single, a few also ran one or more singles. Compared to the others, Lumi ran nice marks, and even with her problem finding #3, ran her series better than several of the others.

Private Training

Heavy rains prevented us from training outdoors yesterday, but today was sunny and unseasonably warm, temps reaching the lower 50's with little to no wind. Renee and I packed up our three Goldens and drove to Rover's Content, the training facility in Cheltenham where I train with the Lumi and Laddie on Sundays, for a private training session. Gabriel, Renee's Golden, waited in the van during the training session, and had lots of play time before and after.

Lumi and Laddie each ran a total of four series, three from one mulch mound, then one more from a different mulch mound and in the opposite direction. Laddie ran Series A-C first, then Lumi. Then Laddie ran Series D, then Lumi.

The terrain at Rover's Content is rolling hills and valleys, short clumpy cover mixed with strips of high grass. Except for the 35 yard marks, all of today's marks required the dogs to run through several strips of high cover, and some also went through large pools of standing water. Most of the falls were in high cover.

Series A

Poorman triple, then thrown single. The triple:

1. 35 yards, dead duck, dropped quietly in place
   
2. 35 yards, B&W canvas dummy with streamers, dropped quietly in place
3. 35 yards, dead duck, dropped quietly in place

Wagon wheel configuration:

• #2 30° to left of #1
• #3 30° to left of #2
  

Retrieval sequence: #3-#2-#1.

Single:

90 yards, B&W canvas dummy with streamers, thrown after gunshot, 15° to the right of #1 of the triple.

A white bag containing dead birds, open at the top, sat next to the thrower.

Series B

Same as Series A, except that the single was 140 yards and 22° to the right of #1 of the triple. Lumi only ran the single on Series B.

Series C

Same as Series A, except that the single was 220 yards and 30° to the right of #1 of the triple. Lumi only ran the single on Series C.

Series D

Two singles of B&W canvas dummies with streamers thrown after gunshots:

1. 140 yards
2. 190 yards, 15° to right of #1

A white bag of dead birds, open at the top, sat at the thrower's position for #1 while each dog ran both singles.

Notes on Laddie's Runs

On Series A thru C, Laddie had difficulty with the wagon wheel, repeatedly starting on line and then veering to a different article. He was 100% responsive to whistle sits and recalls, and twice, when I cued "leave it" and "here" while he was standing over a bird or dummy, he responded correctly and returned to heel without the article.

One time, after veering off several times and being whistled to sit, then come back to me, Laddie ran part way out and stopped without me cueing it, apparently confused whether he was to retrieve or not. That showed me that he was confused about what I wanted rather than trying to act independently from my cueing.

On Series D, the first time Laddie ran #1, he marked well, but on the way back, he stopped at a large pool of standing water to drink and then roll in the water. I walked out to him, put him on leash, and gave the dummy to Renee so she could throw the mark again. The second time we ran #1, Laddie did fine. He also ran #2 without difficulty, and showed no sign of being confused or distracted by the bag of ducks at the pole for #1, which he ran past off to his left.

Notes on Lumi's Runs

Lumi had no difficulty on any of these series, except occasionally finding me from the fall over the tall grass. When she would look confused, I'd whistle and she'd come.

Lumi was so confident on the wagon wheel in Series A that I didn't bother to run her on that part of Series B and C.

On Series D #2, like Laddie, Lumi showed no sign of confusion or distraction from the bag of ducks at the pole for #1.

Conclusion

Lumi seemed to have all the skills needed for today's training, and seems to have recovered her ability to retrieve dead birds, a skill she had developed some months ago but had then lost late in the competitive season. I plan to continue having her retrieve dummies in group training for a few more sessions, but I'm feeling good that she will soon be able to retrieve birds — at least dead birds — with the other dogs. Lumi also seems to be feeling better physically the last week or so than she did for several weeks.

The lessons for Laddie seem more complex:

• Laddies's problems in going to the wrong marks on #1-#3 on Series A-C might appear to be freelancing, but the fact that he stopped on his own at one point says to me that he was not trying to ignore me, he simply does not have a thorough understanding of lining yet. Next week, we will focus on that skill.
  
• Laddie playing in the water on Series D might appear to be a lack of retrieve drive, but the fact that he did not stop when we reran the mark says to me that he in fact has strong retrieve drive. As long as he believed that he could both play and complete the retrieve, he apparently preferred that to simply coming back with the article. But once he learned that stopping to play cost him the opportunity to complete the retrieve, he didn't do it again.
• Laddie's marking was outstanding.
• Laddie was 100% responsive to the whistle, for both sits and recalls, the entire day.
• Laddie was not confused by bird scent coming from the bag sitting with the thrower.
• Laddie had no difficulty with the divesion of the bird bag sitting alone at the #1 pole on Series D while running #2.
• Laddie had no difficulty picking up dummies in the presence of duck scent.
• Laddie picked up each dummy and each dead duck promptly and immediately returned toward the start line. While he did show some reluctance to complete the return with the ducks, he was completely responsive to verbal cueing to do so.
• In summary, Laddie has made visible progress in the areas that we have focused on the last two weeks. Although he had some incorrect responses in today's series — poor lining, mild resource guarding of the birds, stopping to play in the water on one return — he seems to have the foundation of responsiveness to whistle sits and recalls, combined with a strong drive to retrieve, needed to work on solutions to each of those problems.