Hunt Test Training

With rain coming down in buckets and an expected high of only 60° today, I phoned Bob when I woke up this morning to ask whether we'd still be training, and he said he was already on the road to Cheltenham. So I packed up Lumi and Laddie and we drove out to join the group, which to my surprise had three other trainers and their dogs there as well. Luckily, the rain slowed down and finally stopped as the session continued, and the pond water was apparently comfortable for the dogs despite the cold air temps. By the time I got there, they were in the middle of setting up the first series, which was two water marks. Later, we ran a second series with another water mark as well as the day's only land retrieve. Summary:

• Series A. Two water marks with the group (Lumi and Laddie both ran the series)
• Series B. A water mark, a blind, and a land mark with the group (both dogs again)

Series A. When I first arrived, I thought Series A looked too difficult for Laddie, and maybe even for Lumi, especially given the cold weather we've been having, and I decided to just throw at one of the stations. But one of the other trainers assured me that the water was fine and that the marks weren't that difficult. First I ran Lumi, and when she did well, I thought I'd run the series, slightly modified, with Laddie as well.

LUMI

This was the set-up for Lumi, left to right:

• #1, a 40-yard mark (duck) thrown with a winger into a large patch of high grass in marshy terrain
• #2, a 70-yard mark (duck) thrown with a winger into the water near the shoreline, with points of land on either side of the line to the fall

I ran Lumi from well inland, giving her a better view of the throws than closer to the reed, and also increasing the interest of the retrieves by making the distances half land, half water. I was told #1 was a good opportunity for the dog to practice hunting in tall cover, but Lumi took a straight line to the fall and didn't require a hunt. She also did well on #2, not veering toward any of the land masses and instead swimming straight out and back. In addition, I waited to whistle on #2 to see whether a recall would be needed, and it wasn't. Lumi picked up the bird, then turned around and swam back.

LADDIE

Knowing that Laddie would likely maroon if the fall was too close to shore, I called for modifications to both of the marks described above, again running them from well inland as I had with Lumi.

On #1, the thrower carried the winger to water's edge and the bird was thrown well out into the middle of the pond. Laddie had no difficulty with the retrieve.

But on #2, the fall was too close to shore. Laddie swam out, picked up the bird, and took it to shore. He would not re-enter the water, and even when the thrower took the bird and threw it back in the water at my request, Laddie went out to get it and then brought it back to the far shore. When I saw that, I headed for my van and drove around to where I could walk out to Laddie, slip on his lead, and walk him back to the van without the bird. That's when the incident described below under "Bad Dog, Question Answered" occurred.

Series B. For this series, Bob combined a water mark, a land blind, and a land mark. Once again I ran both dogs from inland rather than water's edge, but I modified Laddie's water retrieve. In addition, the blind had no more birds when I ran Laddie, so one of the trainers was kind enough to run out and place a blind while Laddie was running the first mark. But she placed the blind in a different location than the others had been. As a result, Lumi and Laddie again ran somewhat different series.

LUMI

For Lumi, the set-up looked like this, left to right:

• #1, 70-yard land-water mark (duck), thrown by winger to far shoreline, opportunity to run bank along right edge of the pond
• #3, 90-yard land mark (duck), thrown by winger from shadows under a tree into large area of high cover, with line to the fall thru high cover, marshy terrain, and pools of standing water
• #2, 110-yard land blind (duck), beside a large tree and marked by a lining pole, again with line to the blind mostly thru high cover

Lumi ran her series well, pinning the marks, and lining the blind. Bob commented that Lumi looks ready to run in a Senior test.

LADDIE

For Laddie, the set-up looked like this, left to right:

• #1, 60-yard land-water mark (duck), thrown by winger to open water, the fall equal distance to land on all three sides
• #3, 90-yard land mark (duck), thrown by winger from shadows under a tree into large area of high cover, with line to the fall thru high cover, marshy terrain, and pools of standing water
• #2, 90-yard land blind (duck), thru a keyhole formed by two trees and into a small stand of trees, the bird placed in front of one of the trees with no marker, the line to the blind thru medium cover

Like Lumi, Laddie ran his series well, and at his usual breakneck speed. Like Lumi, he pinned both marks and lined his blind, too.

Steadiness. I ran both dogs off lead today, as I have been doing for some weeks. Lumi has been steady for some time and continued so today. In the recent past, Laddie has crept at times, especially when a winger was used, as it was on all of today's marks. But today, Laddie was steady on every mark, with no creeping.

Bad Dog, Question Answered. After driving to the other bank to put Laddie on lead and walk him to the van after he marooned on mark #2 of Series A (see above), I stood at the van wringing out our chamois so I could dry him, my foot on the loop of his leash.

On the other side of the pond, Bob was calling for a throw for one of his dogs, but I was barely aware of it. The winger was more than 100 yards away, thru marsh, waist-high grass, and a swimming-depth channel, and the fall would be into a pond beyond the rise. I didn't think it would tempt Laddie, and I had something on my mind.

I wasn't worried about Laddie marooning. We're working on that problem, and I have reasonable confidence that we'll get it fixed and events like today will someday be relegated to the distant past. My concern was different.

I was wondering, is Laddie losing his courage? I have a video on YouTube of him retrieving across a channel when he was much younger, and I'll never forget another day, when he scaled a cliff on the far side of Brink creek to retrieve a duck I was trying to discard in the high cover. Would Laddie be motivated to perform either of those displays of prey drive today? Or have I made some error in his training and somehow killed that spark?

I sighed and continued wringing the chamois. In the corner of my mind, I heard a shot fired and a winger released. Suddenly, a flash of golden fur brought me out of my reverie. Laddie had broken from his sit, easily pulling the lead out from under my foot, and was racing toward the point where the bird must be landing. I called Here a couple of times but to no avail. I started trudging after him, watching as he bounded, splashed, and swam straight for another dog's bird. A moment later, I saw him disappear over the crest, and then heard him splash into the water. I learned later that the other dog, a powerful yellow Lab, got the bird, but I felt terrible that Laddie had interfered.

I was worried that I'd be in trouble with Bob and the other trainers, and yet, I couldn't help the fact that my spirits were actually lifted by the incident. That question I'd been asking myself — Had Laddie lost his drive, his courage, his need to retrieve at all costs? I had my answer: No, apparently I hadn't broken him after all.

"That's my boy," I thought, relief mingled with illicit pride. "That's my boy."

Angle-in, Alligator Drill, Blinds

Summary

• Series A. At Milestone, practiced angle-ins with a 90-yard backline (both dogs)
• Series B. At Black Hill Regional Park, worked on alligator drill (both dogs)
• Series C. Back at Milestone, ran a series of blinds to work on concept of a blind placed behind the tree line of adjoining woods (both dogs)

Series A. I used lining poles to set up a 90-yard backline, and placed several white dummies at the far pole. I worked Lumi, then Laddie, on an angle-in drill as follows:

• I sent Dog to the pile twice.
• Next time, I threw a soft black dummy at 11 o'clock as Dog was running away, then blew WS and cued angle in.
• Another time to the pile without stopping.
• Finally, another throw at 1 o'clock, this time of a pheasant, WS, and angle in.

Both dogs were fine with angle-ins on both sides, but both dogs also had latency, or outright slips, on the whistle sits. I suspect this is because we have been focusing on other things for some time. Also, both dogs have been tending to line the blinds at Hunt Test training, which might make the WS seem less valuable to them. We've continued to practice WS on hikes, but Lumi rarely gets more than 20 yards from me, and Laddie rarely more than 50 yards, so we don't get to practice distances needed for blinds.

Alice has suggested that we begin running some short, difficult blinds to work on the WS. Short so the dog is likely to respond — and then we can begin adding distance — and difficult so that several WSs, if possible, are needed.

Series B. Although Lumi is already able to enter water carrying a dummy or bird, I decided to run the alligator drill I had planned for Laddie on Lumi first, in case I discovered that it was actually more difficult than I thought it would be. If Lumi, who can run land-water-land, wasn't able to run the drill I had planned, I'd know it was too difficult for Laddie.

LUMI

This is what I'll call the "6-oc AG", meaning six o'clock alligator drill:

• I positioned Lumi in a sit 10 yards inland from the shoreline of the lake. I placed the dummy at 6 o'clock midway between Lumi and the shoreline. I positioned myself 15 yards into the water, which was chest high. The swimline, where either dog would have to stop walking on the lake floor and start to swim, was about halfway between the shoreline and me.
• I called Here. Lumi came running toward me, picking up the dummy as she got to it, then entering the water and alligatoring past the swimline to get to me. When she arrived, we played a rowdy game of water tug, complete with me growling, for a few seconds. Then I cued Out, she released the dummy, and I threw it a few feet further toward the center of the lake. Lumi swam out to get the dummy and I trudged into shore. When she arrived with the dummy again, I took it and threw it along the shoreline as a happy throw, cueing Shake as she chased it. She shook off, picked up the dummy, and brought it back to me again. We played some more tug and I also threw the dummy for her again.
  

Lumi seemed fine with the 6-oc AG. Next I tried something else with Lumi. For the next two retrieves, I brought Lumi out into the water with me, then threw the dummy up onto shore. She ran out to retrieve it and brought it back to me, and we played as before.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I was taking a major jump in criteria between those two versions of the drill. Laddie might be ready for the 6-oc AG, but I'd later realize he was far from ready to retrieve a thrown dummy and bring it back into the water.

LADDIE

This was my training sequence with Laddie:

1. Laddie at shoreline, dummy in shallow water, Daddy 15 yards into water. Daddy calls Here, Laddie picks up the dummy and brings it to Daddy, alligatoring across the swimline.
2. 6-oc AG. Laddie was so enthusiastic that he leapt into the air with the dummy in his mouth, something he used to do when he was younger but has not done in a long time.
3. 6-oc AG. Laddie again made a big air entry. It would be the last of the day.
4. I attempted bringing Laddie into the water and throwing the dummy to shore for Laddie to retrieve, as I had with Lumi. Laddie marooned.
5. Another 6-oc AG.
6. I attempted a 12-oc AG, identical to the 6-oc AG except that I placed the dummy behind Laddie. When I called Here, Laddie attempted to come to me without the dummy. When I cued Back, he marooned.
7. Another 6-oc AG.
8. I attempted a 9-oc AG. Laddie marooned.
9. Another 6-oc AG.
10. A 7-oc AG. Laddie was successful.
11. An 8-oc AG. Laddie was successful.
12. Another 9-oc AG. Laddie marooned.
13. Another 6-oc AG, then more play, and I ended the session.

Series C. Because Lumi has had difficulty in the past when blinds were placed in alcoves inside a treeline of woods adjoining the field, I set up a series to introduce an easy version of that picture, a double blind with both blinds inside an alcove behind the treeline of adjoining woods, but the alcove on mowed lawn and with ample open space. The series was as follows, left to right within a 60° angle:

• #1: 80-yard blind (bird), the line to the blind straight across a paved walkway and thru a keyhole formed by two trees, in an alcove behind the treeline of the adjoining woods
• #2: 100-yard blind (bird), the line to the blind thut a keyhole formed by two trees, then diagonally across a different section of the paved walkway, then thru a second keyhole made up of two more trees, into another alcove behind the treeline of the woods

Thus this set-up enabled the dogs to practice several concepts:

• Keyholes
• Perpendicular and diagonal road crossings
• Blind behind treeline

Laddie veered to the right on #1, responded well to a WS and angle-back left, responded well again to a WS and angle-back right, and went straight to the blind to complete the retrieve. He then lined #2.

Lumi lines both #1 and #2.

Both dogs showed high motivation and are hopefully starting to be better prepared for the kinds of challenges in these blinds.

Alligator Drill

Summary

• Series A. Alligator drill at Black Hill Regional Park

Big Air versus Alligators. Based on correspondence about Laddie's difficulty with land-water-land retrieves, Alice has finally gotten enough information to figure out what's going on with Laddie and to explain it to me.

Ever since Laddie was a small puppy, he has always taken big air entries into water, leaping high as he leaves shore and landing well into the swim-depth water. I've always loved those entries and have thought of them simply as another manifestation of his prey drive, which seems to shape so much of his personality.

While drive may be the reason for those entries, the result is that Laddie has almost no experience with alligatoring into swim-depth water, that is, wading in until his feet can no longer touch the floor and then pushing off.

That has not been a problem as long as Laddie was doing open water retrieves. He can leap into the water, swim to the article, and carry it back out of the water.

But it became a significant obstacle when he attempted a land-water-land retrieve, because it meant that he had to carry an article with him while he was re-entering the water on the return. He was not comfortable leaping with the article in his mouth, and he was also uncomfortable with the feeling of losing the floor under his feet. He simply did not know how to get into swimming-depth water carrying an article.

As Alice pointed out, this explains why Laddie was not making progress on the Re-entry Drill. I was inadvertently expecting Laddie to learn two different skills simultaneously: how to enter swim-depth water without leaping, and how to do so carrying a dummy. The two skills needed to be separated so that he could learn them incrementally.

Series A. Once we understood the problem, it became possible to devise games to enable Laddie to become comfortable with alligator entries, and to see a path to extending that skill all the way to land-water-land retrieves.

Today's work was the first session of what I'll call the alligator drill. I started with Lumi to test the drill's practicality. Since Lumi can is already comfortable with land-water-land retrieves, I wanted to make sure that the drill I had in mind would be easy for her. If it was hard for her, as the re-entry drill had been, I felt it wouldn't be appropriate for Laddie at his level.

The alligator drill involves several points in a line perpendicular to the shore line:

• The dog's start line, 10 yards from the shoreline.
• The shoreline, where the shore meets the water.
• The swimline, where the depth of the water requires the dog to stop walking on the floor of the lake and begin to swim. The swimline is about 7 yards from the shoreline in the area where we were training.
  
• Daddy's position, 15 yards from the shoreline, in chest high water.
  

To run the drill, I position Dog in a sit and then carry the dummy with me out to my position, or in later steps, drop it on land or in the water as I go out to my position.

On every retrieve, when Dog gets to me with the dummy, we play a rowdy game of water tug. Then I cue Out and toss the dummy a little further out into the water, and Dog breaks away to swim to the dummy. As Dog completes the retrieve, I wade to shore, sometimes turning toward Dog and splashing like a bird taking a bath on the way out, then running out just ahead of Dog. On shore, I play more tug with Dog, throw the dummy, cue Shake, add more throws and tug, and finally put Dog in "sit" for next retrieve.

With both dogs, the first day's sequence was as follows:

1. Daddy throws dummy 3' in front of him and calls "here". Dog is able to cross swimline and begin swimming without carrying anything, then picks up dummy and brings it to Daddy. For Laddie, that meant leaping over the swimline.
   
2. Daddy throws dummy 6' in front of him. Dog is still able to cross swimline without carrying anything, and another big air entry for Laddie.
   
3. Daddy throws dummy 9' in front of him. Dummy is still past swimline.
4. Daddy throws dummy 12' in front of him. Dummy is still past swimline, but Laddie cannot make a leaping entry or he'll land on the dummy and bury it. Alligator entry required.
5. After that, various positions of the dummy may be repeated to build confidence, but the dummy is positioned closer and closer to Dog, by means of a throw or by dropping the dummy in the desired spot as Daddy wades out to his position. Eventually, the dummy is placed on shore, midway between Dog and the shoreline.
   

Today, we had one session for Lumi, then one for Laddie.

LUMI

Lumi had no difficulty until the dummy was thrown to the swimline. On that retrieve, she was a little hesitant, but when we reran it, no hesitation.

The next two retrieves, I dropped the dummy in shallow water as I waded out. Perhaps because she has never used a big air entry, this seemed to be no more difficult for her than when she crossed the swimline without the dummy.

Then on the last two retrieves, I threw the dummy over Lumi's head. This was essentially the same as the Re-entry Drill from previous days training, with the difference that today we had built up to it with the Alligator Drill. Today, she ran back onto the grass both times, picked up the dummy, and brought it to me without hesitation. Although Lumi made it look easy, I was later to learn, and continue to see over several days, that even with the preparatory work, picking up the dummy behind him and then turning to bring it into the water was a much more difficult behavior for Laddie than when the dummy was in front of him, and that more intermediate steps were needed before Laddie could be successful at it.

LADDIE

As Laddie and I began the Alligator Drill, I raised criteria (that is, positioned the dummy closer to him) more gradually with Laddie than I had with Lumi, taking more reps to progress. Laddie's sixth rep was on the swimline. He hesitated, but he completed it. Next time at the same location, no hesitation.

For the next two retrieves, I dropped the dummy in shallow water as I walked out. The next two, I positioned the dummy midway between Laddie and the shoreline and cued Here. Laddie ran to the dummy, picked it up, and brought it to me, using a gorgeous alligator entry to push off at the swimline. Although that would have looked like routine behavior in another dog, and I would not have recognized its significance prior to Alice's explanation of the difficulty Laddie was having, these retrieves to me took on the significance of a pivotal training moment in Laddie's field career. I was elated. I then ended the session with an easy throw to the swimline.

In my view, today represented a major breakthrough. Prior to today, Laddie had never made a non-coerced entry into swim-depth water carrying an article. He had done so only when I had driven away from the training area, or a couple of times when pulled by a long line, or when repeatedly beckoned. By contrast, today I only needed to cue Here once. The only pressure on Laddie was that if he wanted to bring the dummy to me, he'd have to enter the swim-depth water with the dummy in his mouth. Because of the preparatory steps in the Alligator Drill, he was able to do so comfortably.

I feel as though an enormous weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Before today, I had to consider the possibility that Laddie would never be able to perform a willing land-water-land retrieve, that he would always maroon on the far shore unless pressured in some way. I now feel that it is only a matter of incremental training steps from what he accomplished today, to a complete land-water-land retrieve.

Shore-handling

Summary

• Series A. At Black Hill Regional Park, re-entry drill (Laddie)
• Series B. At Black Hill, Tool #6, Over-WTL-W/O (Lumi)
• Sereis C. At Black Hill, re-entry drill (Lumi)

Series A. Today Laddie and I worked on the re-entry drill at the lake at Black Hill Regional Park. In this drill, Laddie either brings the dummy to me from shore into water, or runs with me from shore into water carrying the dummy. Laddie had several successful entries, but nothing approaching an automatic re-entry as in a land-water-land retrieve. He always needed to be called repeatedly with me fairly close to the shoreline, and then he would follow me out into the water. When he did so, he often tried to put his paws on me rather than swim. I am pessimistic that the re-entry will ever be easy for Laddie.

Series B. Today Lumi and I worked on Tool #6, Over-WTL-W/O of the shore-handling toolkit:



We worked on the tool as follows:

1. Facing the lake's shoreline with Lumi at heel, I cued Back. Lumi ran out into the water and began to swim.
2. I called Sit. I didn't use my whistle becausee Gabriel, who is uncomfortable around whistles, was in the vacinity. Lumi turned in the water to face me.
3. I cued Over visually and verbally. Lumi began to swim in the direction cued. We ran it both ways.
4. I threw dummy onto curved section of shore in direction Lumi was swimming.
5. Lumi exited the water picked up the dummy. Meanwhile, I moved to a position so that she could run to me without taking an indirect route around the water.

It appears to me that Lumi has no difficulty with Tool #6.

Series C. Out of curiosity, I tried the Re-entry Drill with Lumi. To my surprise, Lumi seemed to find it even more difficult than Laddie had. Apparently, at least for Lumi, it's easier for her to re-enter water after a retrieve if I'm waiting on land on the other side, than if I'm waiting in the water. In later correspondence with Alice, she speculated that both dogs may be confused by the sight of me half-submerged in water, and seeing only the top of my body calling them. The fact that Lumi found it so difficult would seem to invalidate the Re-entry drill as a technique for conditioning Laddie to have a positive association with re-entry.

Snapshot: TO DO List, Guidelines for Training Day, Shore-handling Toolkit

TO DO List

• Daily
• – Wagon wheels with birds to shape the retrieve
• – Build motivation with tug
• Dinner
• – Multiples: abort retrieve if dog looks away
  
• – Backing up at heel
• Hikes
• – WS shaping
• Solo/Land
• – Practice with soft black dummy
  
• – Angle-in (90-110-yard backlines)
  
• – Triple blind:
• >> Salience drill
• >> At and inside tree line
  
• >> Short/longer/longest
• >> Pyramid
• >> Indent
  
• >> Keyholes
• >> Diagonals across roads
• >> Diagonals across ditches
  
• – Holding blind and SL approach
• – Heeling
  
• Solo/Water
  
• – Shore-handling toolkit
• – Swim-by
• – Cheaters
• – Walk-arounds
• – Chinese singles
• – Cold blinds
  
• Thrower:
• – Include soft, black dummy in practice
  
• – Marks and blinds, including returning thru cover and dealing with other factors
• – Occasional hip-pocket and other picture drills
• – Looking to long gun
• – Drills to prepare for triples in group work
• – Practice walk-ups
• – Practice with line gun

Guidelines for Training Day

BEFORE OTHER TRAINERS ARRIVE

• Bring:
• – Birds for retrieve shaping
  
• – High-value treats
• – Clippies
• – Boots
  
• White jacket
• Load pockets: pistol, ammo
• Daily TO DO items for each dog

RUNNING THE DOG

• Key question: What is the best way to run each series in terms of benefit to the dog's training as a continuation of private training?
• Do not run the dog unless confident that he will not rehearse any incorrect responses
• If running:
• – WS for distraction during returns (Laddie)
  
• – No multiples until dog completes JH
• – If running as a multiple, show the dog all stations before calling for the first throw
  
• – Cue "sit, mark" before first throw
• – First train that high sit triggers send, then build duration for long count before sending
  
• – In FT series, run long gun last
• – If using an auto-whistle, whistle early, as dog is pouncing on the bird
  
• – Run only blinds within dog's capability based on private training
  
• – Call dog to heel for slipped whistles
• – Don't challenge early blinds
• – No cheating water retrieves until shore-handling is trained
  

RECORD KEEPING PER MARK

• Creeping?
  
• Attempted break?
• Head swinging, before or after throws? Which throws?
• Could the dog find the long gun?
  
• Did dog return uncued? Auto-whistle? Contingent whistle? Voice? Walk out?
• On blinds: Slipped whistles? Refused casts? Hunting by scent or sight?

AFTER GROUP TRAINING

• Pay for flyer if used
• Purchase birds if available

Shore-handling Toolkit

– Tool #1. Here-WTL-W (no WS)
– Tool #2. Here-LTW-W (no WS)
– Tool #3. Back-LTW-W/O (no WS)
– Tool #4. Back-WTL-W/O
– Tool #5. Back-WTL-W
– Tool #6. Over-WTL-W/O
– Tool #7. Over-LTW-W/O (no WS)
– Tool #8. Over-LTW-W
– Tool #9. Over-WTL-W

where

– WTL=water-to-land
– LTW=land-to-water
– W=with dummy
– W/O=without dummy

These tools are each trained thru the following stages, except that for some of them, no whistle sit (WS) is used:

• – Stage 1. Without stopping the dog
  
• – Stage 2. WS, then cueing the behavior
• – Stage 3. Extend distances for SL-to-shoreline and shoreline-to-article
• – Stage 4. As thoroughly-proofed cued behaviors

Re-entry Drill, Shore Handling

This morning we drove to Cheltenham for shore training. In Laddie's case, we focused entirely on his re-entry to water carrying a dummy, using a new drill I gradually designed, which I call the Re-entry Drill. In Lumi's case, we went onto the next tool in the shore-handling toolkit I came up with, the first Over tool. Summary:

• Series A. Re-entry Drill (Laddie only)
• Series B. Tool #7, Over-LTW-W/O (no WS) (Lumi only)

Series A. Today's goal for Laddie was to work on his re-entry into water after picking up the dummy during a land-water-land retrieve. Ostensibly this is Tool #2, Here-LTW-W (no WS), of the toolkit, but Laddie's only difficulty with this tool is the re-entry, and that continues to be a major stumbling block.

After several experiments, I finally found a sequence in which Laddie would consistently, though still hesitantly, enter the water with a dummy. I'll call this the Re-entry Drill:

1. Make 2-3 happy throws to an open area on land near the water re-entry point.
2. As Laddie gets close to deliver on the last happy throw, run or back into the water, calling Here as necessary. In early retrieves, Laddie only had to get his feet wet. In later retrieves, I backed up enough that he needed to swim a few feet to complete the delivery. In today's practice, if I got more than 3' from Laddie he'd stall at the shoreline. Sometimes Laddie would run beside me into the water, but most times I had turn around to face him and call him repeatedly.
3. Take delivery of the dummy in the water.
4. At this point, I experimented with two alteratives: Option 1. Throw the dummy 3-5' further into the water for Laddie to swim out to, then leave the water while Laddie was in the middle of that retrieve. Or Option 2. Throw the dummy onto land and as Laddie swam, then ran, to retrieve it, leave the water behind him. I thought that Option 2 would be more reinforcing for Laddie's delivery into water in Steps 2-3, on the assumption that Laddie finds water aversive, but Option 1 seemed to provide more comfortable re-entries the next round. I take it that this means that Laddie doesn't find water or swimming, but rather entering water, or entering water while carrying something, aversive. So perhaps it's the transition into water that makes him uncomfortable, even after hundreds of water entries since he was a puppy.
5. After Option 1 or Option 2, take delivery on land near the shoreline and play a rousing game of tug.
6. Go back to Step 1.

Today's training with Laddie is discussed further below, under "Re-entry Blues".

Series B. I felt that Lumi was ready to try the next tool in our shore-handling toolkit. I remembered that the next tool was Tool #6 and that it was an Over, but I forgot which Over it was and actually worked with Lumi on Tool #7, Over-LTW-W/O (no WS):



As with previous tools from the toolkit, this was easy for Lumi and required no actual training. I didn't even need to put the dummy in the water before cueing Over. Instead, I'd cue Over, Lumi would jump in the water and start swimming, and I'd throw the dummy to where she was swimming toward.

We ran five retrieves of increasing distances, and we practiced Over to both the left and the right. On the last retrieve, I placed Lumi 40 yards from the SL along the right edge of a channel, then took my position at the end of the channel and cued left Over. Lumi entered the water sideways and I threw the dummy into the middle of the channel to the position Lumi was swimming toward. She picked up the dummy, turned, and swam toward me down the middle of the channel and up onto shore to complete her delivery.

Next session we'll go back in our toolkit numbering and work on Tool #6, Over-WTL-W/O.

Re-entry Blues. It is seems clear to me at this point that Laddie's problems with re-entering the water after picking up a dummy on a land-water-land retrieve is not a shaping issue. Laddie is fluent in retrieving dummies, and has had enough successful and extrinsically reinforced re-entries that it seems likely he has an accurate mental picture of the correct response. Yet the fact that he does not choose to make re-entries suggests that his reinforcement history is not sufficient to overcome whatever adversity is involved in the behavior. Apparently, Laddie finds entering the water, especially with an article in his mouth, aversive enough to overshadow all the intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcement he has had in his life for retrieves in general, and the re-entry in particular.

Therefore, I now see this as a conditioning issue, akin to Lumi's gun shyness when we first began field training in early 2007. To address the problem, I've tried to find a way to create a highly positive association with re-entry, which I called the Re-entry Drill. What Laddie seemed to be learning from the Re-entry Drill is that re-entry predicts a whole chain of desirable outcomes:

• The opportunity to deliver the dummy
• The opportunity to get back on land
• Games of tug
• Happy throws on land

In addition, the drill also involves running alongside Daddy, a chase game that generally excites Laddie and also a companionship activity like those that Laddie often does spontaneously whenever we are together, such as running upstairs with me at bedtime.

When we addressed Lumi's gun shyness last year, we used a procedure called Desensitization and Counter-Conditioning (D&CC). The Re-entry Drill may be similar, but I don't think that a desensitization component is involved, because I don't see Laddie as having some irrational fear that I can systematically habituate him to. Nonetheless, hopefully I can produce sufficiently effective counter-conditioning that the results will be the same as a successful D&CC program.

As I recall, it took approximately six weeks of daily sessions with Lumi to get her relatively comfortable with gunfire, and once she experienced it in the context of field work, the associations became even more positive. It's unfortunate that a similar timeframe will involve long and expensive daily drives to Cheltenham with Laddie for the next several weeks, but if it enables Laddie to become successful with land-water-land retrieves for the rest of his career, it will be well worth it.

Hunt Test Training, Shore Handling

Today we trained with Bob Hux and other trainers at Park Heights. After the water series, I spent some time with Laddie on the problem he is having with shore handling, which is re-entering the water on the return from a land-water-land retrieve. Summary:

• Series A. Bob's land series (both dogs)
• Series B. Bob's water series (both dogs)
• Series C. Working with Laddie on water entries

Series A. Bob's land series set-up was within a 90° angle, and was made up of the following retrieves left-to-right:

• #2: 50-yard mark, a hand-thrown duck
• #1: 50-yard mark, a winger-thrown pheasant, with the fall in the shadow of a large tree
• #3: 120-yard blind, a pheasant marked by lining pole, with a large tree separating the lines to #1 and #3
  

Lumi ran #1-2 as a double, then ran the blind, lining it. Because Lumi seemed to have trouble remembering the memory mark on a previous double, I lined Lumi up on each station before calling for the first throw. Another trainer pointed out to me that while that would be legal in a Field Trial, it would not be legal in a Hunt Test. Once Lumi has had some success with multiples, I'll need to go back to not lining her up.

Laddie ran #1-2 as singles, then ran the blind, also lining it.

Both dogs ran off-lead and were steady all day.

Series B. Bob set up his water series at the end of the pond, where a triangular point juts out at midpoint along the shoreline that was on our right as we ran our dogs. We used white bumpers for the marks.

Lumi ran a double, consisting of a 60-yard mark to the far side of the point and a 30-yard mark to the near side of the point. She had no problem with the 30-yard mark (the go-bird), but I didn't line her up on the stations before calling for the first throw, and she forgot #1. I called Back at water's edge, then WS and Over when she veered toward the point. She responded correctly, then remembered (or saw) the long mark and swam to it.

To run Laddie on the longer mark while he was fresh, I asked for a long throw well into open water. When sent, Laddie ran to water's edge and popped. I called him back to me and sent him again, and this time he flew into the water and swam to the mark. By then, the dummy had floated too close to the shoreline to the right and Laddie squared the bank and swam to it. I made no effort to stop him, since I did not think it likely I'd be able to and didn't want him to rehearse ignoring my handling cues. Once ashore, Laddie ran along water's edge to the near side of the point, where the terrain became too difficult to continue bank running. There, he had great difficulty re-entering the water, and finally I asked the thrower to throw his dummy in the water. When she did so (calling him a "bad dog"), he swam to it and then delivered it to me. Laddie's second mark was in open water on the near side of the point and he had no difficulty with it, including a 20-yard land segment between the SL and the shoreline that he needed to run across in order to complete his delivery without dropping the dummy.

Series C. I remembered that some time ago, I had good luck working on Laddie's water entries while holding a dummy by getting into the water and throwing dummies for Laddie up onto the shore. At the time, he had no trouble entering the water while carrying the dummy if I was waiting for him in the water.

So today, I waded out a few feet at three locations along the edge of the pond, called Laddie into the water with me, and threw happy dummies several times from each location up onto shore varying distances. Laddie had no difficulty entering the water with the dummy during today's training, either.

I like this approach far better than driving away to get Laddie to return on land-water-land retrieves. Tomorrow, I plan to drive to Cheltenham and use a new channel, which I'll call the wading channel, that Charlie told me was shallow enough for me to stand in but still deep enough for the dogs to swim in. Hopefully I'll be able to start in the water close to the shore I'm throwing to, and gradually back up from one throw to the next until I'm up on the other shore.

It appears that Laddie has some aversion to water, or at least to entering water. If that becomes a permanent part of his make-up, it will ruin his field career. I can only hope that with practice and improved confidence, his aversion to entering water will be replaced with joyful entries.

Marks and Blinds, Shore Handling

This morning, we trained with Barbara and her Lab, Deuce, at Sundown (Series A). Then we drove to Cheltenham for continued work on shore handling (Series B). Summary:

• Series A. Marks and blinds (both dogs)
• Series B. Shore-handling toolkit: Lumi worked on Tool #5 Back-WTL-W, while I focused with Laddie on Tool #2 Here-LTW-W (no WS)

Series A. This was a series of marks and blinds run by Lumi, then Laddie. Both marks were ducks thrown right to left with gunshots, while all the blinds were orange dummies marked by surveyors flags. The set-up was relatively tight, with all five retrieves within a 60° angle, in the following arrangement left to right:

• #3: 110-yard blind
• #2: 70-yard mark TTL for #3 and marked by a chair
• #4: 100-yard mark TAL for #5 and marked by a stickman
• #5: 200-yard blind
• #1: 100-yard blind

Both dogs did well on both the marks and the blinds.

Series B. We worked on the shore-handling toolkit at the pines channel at Cheltenham, the work with Lumi and Laddie being considerably different.

LUMI

I felt that Lumi was ready to try Tool #5, Back-WTL-W:



This is an example of what's called disciplined casting, in which the dog takes casts after picking up the retrieval article. In this case, the cast she is a left or right Back.

To train this tool, I started with a water retrieve warm-up, having Lumi run two land-water-land retrieves across the channel. Then we rehearsed Tool #5 on land as follows:

1. I placed a lining pole on a road off to the side, 40 yards from our SL.
2. With Lumi sitting at heel, I threw a dummy onto the road, 20 yards toward the lining pole.
3. I sent Lumi, and when she picked up the dummy and turned back toward me, I blew WS.
4. I cued Back and Lumi spun 180° and ran to the lining pole.
5. I cued another WS and then recall.

The first time we ran this, Lumi took the disciplined cast in step #4 correctly, but dropped the dummy during step #5. So we ran it again, and when I blew WS in step #5, I immediately called Hold. Lumi then sat without dropping the dummy and I whistled recall, to which she responded with an enthusiastic delivery.

After the two land rehearsals, we then ran the same pattern twice more, but this time across the channel. Both times Lumi responded to the tool we were training correctly. That is, she retrieved the dummy in open water, then carried it up onto the far shore when I cued Back. As with the land version, Lumi dropped the dummy in step #5 the first time, taking the opportunity to shake off. And as with the land version, I was able to get Lumi not to drop the dummy by cueing Hold during step #5 the second time.

Except for a few land-water-land retrieves, that completed Lumi's training day.

LADDIE

Although at one point we tried Tool #5 and Laddie performed the Back correctly, today consistented primarily of about 15 land-water-land retrieves across the channel. My goal was to establish some consistency for an immediate return, but I was unsuccessful in accomplishing that goal.

On about half the retrieves, Laddie returned on whistle or voice recall. On the other half, he stalled, and I reacted by getting in the van with Lumi and driving away. That always resulted in Laddie immediately grabbing his dummy from the ground on the far shore, swimming across the channel, and chasing the van until he caught us. In addition, Laddie always responded correctly on the next retrieve. But he never responded correctly more than twice in a row, and began to show some variability in his behavior on the last couple of retrieves.

Because Alice had suggested that Laddie may have some trouble overcoming an obstacle — the water entry — while carrying a dummy, I had Laddie leap into the driver's seat of the van while still carrying the dummy each time he caught us. He had no difficulty doing that, but it did not seem to improve his water entries.

I am not certain how to interpret the data. It appeared that driving away punished the incorrect response, because Laddie always responded correctly on the next retrieve. But overall the incorrect response did not decline.

It appears that this is an especially difficult behavior for Laddie for some reason. The next time we train shore-handling at Cheltenham, I think we'll start with some retrieves across standing water, then across the narrow neck at the east channel where we've had success in the past, and finally move back to the pines channel. Perhaps establishing a pattern of success with the other water retrieves will enable Laddie to do better at the pines channel.

I also have some question about the correct number of retrieves to attempt. The variability in Laddie's behavior at the end of today's session suggested that he was becoming uncomfortable. Yet little enough was accomplished even with the number of retrieves we ran, and I'd be concerned that cutting that number to a smaller number would eliminate any progress at all, an expensive proposition considering the cost in time and money to train at Cheltenham.

Still, it's clear that we went too long today. Next session, I'll run Laddie on six retrieves across the pines channel, and if he is not successful on the last one, we'll run another one or two until he has a good retrieve. As soon as Laddie has a correct retrieve, we'll quit there.

It also seems that it's time to stop trying to keep Lumi and Laddie in sync on the toolkit training. Lumi is ready to go on to Tool #6, Over-WTL-W/O, whereas I need to continue to work with Laddie on Tool #2 until he is completely comfortable with land-water-land retrieves.

Hunt Test Training, Retrieve Shaping, Shore-handling

Today the dogs and I trained with Bob Hux's Tuesday Hunt Test group at Cheltenham (Series A and B). One of the other trainers then threw a couple of marks for Laddie (Series C). Finally, working alone, I continued training with both dogs on shore-handling, first at the west channel, then at a new location on the property. Summary:

• Series A. Bob's land series (both dogs)
• Series B. Bob's water series (both dogs)
• Series C. Retrieve shaping (Laddie)
• Series D. Shore-handling tool kit, Tool #4 Back-WTL-W/O (both dogs), and continued work with Laddie on Tool #2 Here-LTW-W

I ran both dogs off lead all day, and both dogs were steady, even on the flyer in Series A. Both dogs showed excellent motivation the entire day.

Series A. Bob's land series was set up as follows:

1. 70-yard mark, hand-thrown duck with line to the fall through a large pool of standing water
2. 80-yard mark, winger-thrown pheasant, with the bird landing in high cover and a pool of standing water
3. 50-yard mark, duck flyer, thrown and shot so that dog had to run around the station's holding blind to get to the fall
4. 140-yard blind, pheasant marked with a lining pole, seen from the SL as between two trees; the tree on the left was actually closer to the SL than the blind, and the one on the right was actually further back

LUMI

I planned to have Lumi run this as a triple and a blind, with the throws #1-2-3, to be run #3-1-2. Lumi retrieved #3 without difficulty, but did not seem to remember #1 when I sent her. I asked the thrower to help, but calling hey-hey and blowing the duck call didn't draw Lumi away from the SL.

Next I tried to run #1-2 as a double. Lumi retrieved #2, but again did not remember #1 the first time I sent her. I lined her up again, sent her, and this time she remembered the fall and marked it well.

Lumi ran the blind about the same as most of the other five dogs who ran it, with 3-4 casts.

LADDIE

Laddie ran the series as singles in the order suggested by Bob, #3-2-1, and then ran the blind. Laddie brought picked up and returned with all the birds, including the flyer. I tried no auto-whistle on #1 (Laddie's third single) and he still had a fast pick-up and came running back. However, I turned my back to because of a dispute with another trainer who was trying to force unsolicited advice about Lumi's multiples on me, and when I looked back again, Laddie had dropped the bird in the water and was standing over it looking at me. I called Here and he completed the delivery.

Laddie then lined the blind, the only one of six dog running the blind to line it.

Series B. Bob's water series was run in a stickpond with lots of decoys, was run with hand-thrown white dummies, and was set up as follows:

1. 20 yards into open water
   
2. 30 yards past an island into an small inlet

Lumi ran the series as a double, which Bob said made it about the equivalent of a Senior water double. Lumi did great. She even completed a diagonal swim back from #2 instead of squaring to the bank, which was inviting on that mark.

Remembering Lumi's difficulty with the multiples in Series A, I realized that I had not had her check out all the stations before having the first bird thrown, in either the triple or the double. When we ran Series B, I turned to face both stations back and forth several times, and Lumi turned her head to look at whichever one I was facing, before I called for the first bird. Perhaps that's one reason she had no difficulty with the double on Series B.

Laddie ran the series as two singles, in the order #2-1. After picking up #2, he got stranded on the island for a little while, but finally found his way into the water and swam back well. He had no problem with #1.

When Laddie was stranded on the island, running back and forth but not entering the water, one of the other trainers commented, "He's just screwing around over there." I disagree. Going by Laddie's body languate, Laddie was not acting playful. He wasn't throwing his head or prancing. To me, he appeared to be earnestly trying to figure out how to get in the water while carrying his dummy.

Series C. Because Laddie had dropped a bird in the standing water in Bob's land series, I asked one of the other trainers to throw a couple of marks for Laddie at that same location, though changing both the SL and the falls from the marks we had run in Series A.

I asked her to throw on 90-yard mark and one 180-yard mark, both ducks, gunshots but no duck calls. The first fall was just beyond the pool of standing water, while for the second mark, the pool was at the mid-point of the line from the SL to the fall. The second mark was also thrown over a dirt road.

Both of Laddie's retrieves in this series were excellent, with no problems of any kind. His send out, pick up, and return were all exuberant — I didn't use a whistle on the second one — and in addition, he did not drop the bird, he didn't look around during his returns, and his deliveries were solid.

Series D. The intent of this series was to begin work on SHTK Tool #4, Back-WTL-W/O:



Working at the west channnel, Lumi did it correctly the first time, so that was the end of Lumi's training day.

Laddie, however, did it poorly: He only turned halfway to me, and not on "tweet", but only when I prompted with "sit". So we tried it a second time.

This time, Laddie became so spooked by the woods behind the embankment — he's stared into them on previous days for some reason — that I decided we needed to move to a different channel for our training to be productive.

I'll call the new channel "the pines channel" because there's a pine tree on both sides of the narrowest point of crossing.

At the pines channel, Laddie once again beached when we tried a simple land-water-land retrieve, and I reacted by driving the van away, which once again brought him across with the dummy and chasing me.

At Alice's suggestion, I tried throwing a tennis ball and then a smaller, puppy dummy. Laddie beached with both of them, also. Since the article didn't seem to matter, I switched back to our 3" white dummies.

We then did another dozen poorman singles across the channel. About 75% of the time, Laddie beached when he first got to the other side. Each time he did not respond immediately to Here, I got in the van with Lumi and drove away, stopping 200 yards down the road. When Laddie caught up, I silently took the dummy and gestured for Laddie to jump in the van, and then we drove back to the pines channel. On those times that he did respond immediately to Here, I reinforced with bites of cheese and cheerful praise.

Finally, we had two correct responses in a row. Tomorrow, I hope we'll have time to train at the pines channel again, and we'll see if the beaching problem stays fixed. If so, we can work some more on Tool #4.

Shore Handling, Marks and Blinds

It was raining all day today, with morning temps in the 40s and 50s. In the morning, we made a trip to Cheltenham's west channel for work on shore-handling toolkit (Series A). In the afternoon, we trained with Nate at Sundown Road Park (Series B). Summary:

• Series A. Toolkit Tool #3, Back-LTW-W/O (no WS) (both dogs)
• Series B. Marks and blinds (both dogs)

Series A. Today, I tried both dogs on Tool #3, Back-LTW-W/O (no WS):



We trained in two sessions, Lumi first in each session, Laddie second, with the other dog waiting in the van.

In each session, I ran the dog from heel first, then placed the dog eight yards in front of me, facing me, and sent with a series of left or right Backs.

Session 1:

1. Back from left heel (simple open-water retrieve)
2. Right back from front
3. Left back from front

Session 2:

1. Back from right heel
2. Left back from front
3. Right back from front

We had no problem with Tool #3, left and rightt Backs from front with either dog. In addition, for Lumi, I used no auto-whistle on Session 2, #2-3, and she came back automatically without the whistle.

For Laddie, after the six retrieves shown above, we practiced Tool #2 (land-water-land retrieves) five times. The first four times, he started to cheat to the left, with the apparent intent of running all the way around the channel, and I called him. The fifth time, he came directly back uncued.

Series B. After days of rain, I decided to run a session of three marks and four blinds with Nate at Sundown, where the grass is shorter than at our other nearby training areas. Rather than ruining birds in the wet conditions, we used white dummies for all marks and orange dummies marked by surveyors flags for all blinds. This was a tight course, with all retrieves within a total of 120°, set up left to right in the following order:

• #7, a 120-yard blind
• #6, a 100-yard mark thrown toward the line for #7, marked by a stickman
• #5, a 120-yard blind
• #4, an 80-yard mark thrown over the line for #5, maked by a stickman
  
• #1, a 110-yard blind
• #2, a 70-yard mark thrown away from the line for #3, marked by a chair
• #3, a 100-yard blind

Both dogs did fine, adding easy mileage to their experience with blinds tight to marks.

Retrieve Shaping, Shore-handling

This morning the dogs and I drove to Cheltenham, not to train with the FT group, but to take advantage of the technical ponds there for continued work on the shore-handling toolkit (SHTK). I believe that we could probably run the kind of land series the FT group was sometimes setting up during the cold weather, but until we have developed our shore-handling skills, trying to run land-water series with more advanced dogs would be counterproductive. In three separate areas of the property, we had three groups of sessions:

• Series A. Retrieve shaping (both dogs)
• Series B. SHTK tool #2, stage #1 (both dogs)
• Series C. SHTK tool #2, stages #1-2 (both dogs)
  

Series A. As usual lately, we ran some short poorman marks with ducks to see if any problems in the dogs' retrieves showed up.

Both dogs did fine with simple land retrieves, but when I threw the ducks to the other side of a large pool of standing water, both dogs showed some discomfort. Lumi displayed it by slowing down in her pick-up of the duck, while Laddie picked up the duck but then dawdled rather than coming straight back.

I didn't need to walk or drive away, nor to take the bird away, to repair the problems for either dog. In both cases, as soon as I waded out into the water (I wore high, rubber boots), and the dog realized that I was about to take the bird away, the dog immediately entered the water. I would then turn and race the dog to the SL. On subsequent throws, the dog would then pick up the duck and come back immediately.

Both dogs were in high spirits during this game and all day.

Series B. We started our shore-handling work with retrieves across the neck of the pond on the east side of the property where we worked previously. Laddie showed excellent progress since last time, and came back immediately on three retrieves in a row, without any beaching. Lumi continued to perform on this simple retrieve as well as before, perhaps showing more confidence entering the water than previously for some reason.

Series C. For this series, we moved to the channel at the west side of the developed area of the property. Alternating between first Lumi, then Laddie, while the other waited in the van, we ran three sessions of Tool #2 (Here-LTW-W).

The first two sessions were intended to exercise Stage 1 (no WS) of the tool:

1. Throw two dummies onto the far embankment.
   
2. Send the dog from heel.
   
3. As the dog comes out of the water at the far shoreline, call the trained cue "shake". The idea is that if the dog is going to shake off, I want him/her to do so before picking up the dummy, because I don't want the dog to pick up the dummy, then put it down again to shake off. As the dogs become more comfortable with turning and immediately re-entering the water, I may drop this step in the future.
   
4. As the dog picks up the dummy, auto-whistle recall. Intermittently, I omit this step, with the objective of being able to increasingly rely on the recall as an automatic behavior.
5. Take delivery of the dummy at heel.
6. Reinforce with high-value treat (cheeseburger for Lumi, liverwurst and turkey dogs for Laddie).
7. Repeat steps 2-6 so that dog gets two retrieves per session.
   

The dogs both did so well with Stage 1 even in this new location that I decided to try them out on Stage 2 (whistling sit, then recall). Therefore, the third session was identical to the first two, except that we did three retrieves:

1. Start by throwing three dummies onto the road beyond the far embankment.
2. Run one retrieve without a stop, as described above.
   
3. After the first retrieve, again send the dog.
4. Dog picks up dummy, turns back toward water.
5. Blow WS, dog sits while holding dummy.
6. Call "here". I believe I could also whistle recall here. I'm not sure which is preferred at this stage in our training.
   
7. Reinforce with jackpot, several high-value treats.
8. Run one more retrieve without a stop as described above.
   

Both dogs performed the stopped version of Tool #2 correctly the first time, which pleased me.

Simply the Trained Retrieve over Water? Despite the cryptic notation of the SHTK tools, what we were practicing today was nothing more than a trained retrieve over water. For a dog with a sufficiently reliable recall, no training for Tool #2 would be required. You'd simply throw the dummy across the channel, and the dog would retrieve the dummy.

Nonetheless, for both of my dogs — Lumi several months ago, Laddie in the immediate past — it just wasn't that simple. For my dogs, the first time I sent them on a land-water-land retrieve, or even to a dummy in the water at the far shoreline, the dog would become trapped on the far shore no matter how insistently I cued recall.

I cannot say whether this is because my dogs have an unusually weak recall, or because water would present a significant barrier for any dog's recall. Another way to say this is that any dog requires the recall to be proofed, but perhaps some dogs do not require any specific proofing for recall during a land-water-land retrieve.

In the future perhaps I, or some other trainer working without an ecollar, will begin training Tool #2 using a dog with an unquestionably well-established recall. If the dog still has a problem with beaching on the far shore in the early training, we'll know that this is a problem for any dog being trained without an ecollar. If the dog doesn't have the problem, we'll know that the problem wasn't the lack of an ecollar, but an inadequately trained recall for my particular dogs at the time that Tool #2 training was begun.

Hunt Test (Lumi's Junior Hunter Title)

Today we travelled to Remington, VA, so that Lumi could take the Junior-level test at the Rappahannock River Retriever Club 2008 Spring Hunt Test. Summary:

• Series A. Land series
• Series B. Water series

Series A. The land series was set up in an agricultural field as follows:

1. 50-yard mark (duck) thrown into a large patch of high, wet cover with a diagonal entry less than 10 yards from the fall, so that the dog ran thru low cover most of the way to the mark and then encountered the diagonal entry
2. 70-yard mark (duck) thrown into a smaller patch of high, wet cover, past a ring of decoys on the left 50 yards from the SL

#2 was 90° to the left of #1.

Of the 31 entries, all of whom ran, 20 passed this test. Most of the drops came on #1, when the unsuccessful dog would follow the line of the entry into the high cover too far before entering and then begin a wide-ranging hunt, sometimes eventually switching to the other Gun, the decoys, or the woods even further to the left.

Several dogs also failed the test on #2, generally because they were diverted to the odd circle of decoys, pulling them off the line to the fall, and were then unable to find the mark.

Apparently because of the wet conditions and the falls occurring in high cover, the scent from the ducks was too widely dispersed to enable some of the dogs to find the birds by scent.

With Lumi's marking ability, experience with high cover, and experience with diversions including decoys, she had no difficulty with this series.

Series B. The judges called the water series a "wood duck hunt". The series was set up in densely wooded stickpond, with the two marks arranged as follows:

1. 20-yard mark (duck), thrown right-to-left from shore by a winger, into a circle of dead trees at a 45° angle toward the right from the SL
2. 40-yard mark (duck), hand thrown left-to-right, in front of a wood pile at the back edge of the pond, at a 45° toward the left from the SL, the line to the fall edged with trees on both sides and a large, dead log, mostly submerged, floating freely in the path

The appearance of this course worried several of the handlers that a dog might be spooked or even injured by underwater debris, but the judges assured us that this series was safe, and easier than the land series. They turned out to be correct, with 19 of the 20 dogs passing, only the last dog getting offline to the left on the last mark and then being separated from the mark by a maze of floating debris and unable to complete the retrieve.

Lumi diverted to the right on #1 and entered the circle of trees thru a wider space than from in front. On #2, she skirted the floating log rather than swimming over it. Although the retrieves therefore weren't perfect, they were more than adequate to pass the series and complete the test.

This was Lumi's fourth Junior ribbon, completing the requirements for her Junior Hunter title. Lumi's name is now:

Lumiere-du-Soleil JH WC

Snapshot: TO DO List/Guidelines for Training Day

TO DO List

• Daily
• – Wagon wheels with birds to shape the retrieve using silent handling
• – Build motivation with dummies and tug
• Dinner
• – Multiples: abort retrieve if dog looks away
  
• – Backing up at heel
• Hikes
• – WS shaping
• Solo/Land
• – Angle-in (70-90-110-yard backlines)
  
• – Triple blind:
• >> Salience drill
• >> Short/longer/longest
• >> Pyramid
• >> Indent
  
• >> Keyholes
• >> Diagonals across roads
• >> Diagonals across ditches
  
• – Holding blind and SL approach
  
• Solo/Water
  
• – Shore-handling toolkit (no shaking off after picking up dummy)
• – Swim-by (including left and right back from WS both at shoreline and in water)
• Study
  
• – Review Lardy's de-cheating fundamentals
• Thrower:
• – Creeping
• – Marks and blinds, including returning thru cover and dealing with other factors
• – Occasional hip-pocket and other picture drills
• – Looking to long gun
• – Drills to prepare for triples in group work
• – Practice walk-ups
• – Practice with line gun

Guidelines for Training Day

BEFORE OTHER TRAINERS ARRIVE

• Bring:
• – Birds for solo training
  
• – High-value treats
• – Clippies
• – boots
  
• White jacket
• Put collars on dogs if needed
  
• Load pockets: pistol, ammo, slip cord if needed
• Daily TO DO items for each dog

RUNNING THE DOG

• Key question: What is the best way to run each series in terms of benefit to the dog's training?
• Do not run the dog unless confident that he will not rehearse any incorrect responses
• If running:
• – No multiples until dog completes JH
• – Cue "sit, mark" before first throw of each series
• – Occasional bird-in-mouth marking
• – First train that high sit triggers send, then build duration for long count before sending
  
• – Require retrieve of dummy(ies) as -P for creeping
• – In FT series, run long gun last
• – Auto-whistle early
• – Run only blinds within dog's capability, and only if dog remains responsive; don't challenge early blinds
  

RECORD KEEPING PER MARK

• Creeping?
  
• Attempted break?
• Head swinging, before or after throws? Which throws?
• Could the dog find the long gun?
  
• Did dog return uncued? Auto-whistle? Contingent whistle? Voice? Walk out?
• On blinds: Slipped whistles? Refused casts? Hunting by scent or sight?

AFTER GROUP TRAINING

• Pay for flyer if used
• Purchase birds if available

Distraction-Proofing, Remote Send and Delivery

On a rainy day before Lumi's Hunt Test tomorrow, the dogs and I had a light session of training at the neighborhood lacrosse field. Renee and Gabriel helped Laddie and me with our distraction-proofing drill, and then Lumi learned to complete a retrieve with me as the handler remaining in a remote location. Summary:

• Series A. Distraction-proofing (Laddie)
• Series B. Remote send and delivery (Lumi)

Series A. Today's drill was a continuation of Wednesday's distraction-proofing drill. In today's version, Renee stood at one place on the field throwing a tennis ball for Gabriel and intermittently giving him treats when he retrieved it.

That was a distracting situation because typically, Laddie would be highly drawn to any activity that involved R&G, would race Gabriel to the tennis ball whenever Renee would throw it, would try to take the ball away from Gabe if he already had it, and would try sitting in front of Renee to get a share of the treats being distributed. In addition, Laddie would typically ignore recall in such a situation unless I was at close range and used an insistent tone of voice.

With R&G playing on one part of the field, I played with Laddie about 50 yards away. A typical cycle would be as follows:

1. Daddy throws white dummy
2. Laddie runs to dummy
3. Daddy says "here" just as Laddie pounces
4. Laddie runs back to Daddy with dummy
5. Daddy takes dummy and tosses a treat (a chunk of turkey dog or liverwurst) about 6' away
6. Laddie runs to get treat
7. Daddy again says "here" just as Laddie pounces
8. Laddie runs back to Daddy

We also used abbreviated versions of that cycle. In addition, if Laddie turned to look at R&G as he ran, I called "no" and did not give him a treat. I made the next throw of the dummy much shorter.

By the end of the session, we were able to continue this drill in immediate proximity to R&G. In fact, after throwing the dummy and watching Laddie run to it, I would position myself so that R&G were right between Laddie and me. In the last half-dozen reps, Laddie showed that whether the tennis ball was just being thrown, or Gabriel was in the middle of a retrieve, or Renee was dispensing treats, Laddie would pointedly ignore their activity and return to me on every call.

That was the success I was hoping for.

Series B. During this series, I trained Lumi to perform as follows: I set her up at a pole acting as an SL, positioned myself 20 yards away to make a throw of the dummy, released Lumi on her name to run to the dummy and pick it up, and directed her back to the original SL without moving myself. When she arrived at the SL, I called "sit" and she turned to face me and sat while continuing to hold the dummy. I then ran to her, took the dummy, and gave her a high-value treat.

It turned out that this was a relatively easy trick for Lumi to learn.

Hunt Test Training

Today we trained with Bob Hux and other trainers at Park Heights. Summary:

• Series A. Bob's land series (both dogs)
• Series B. Bob's water series (both dogs)

Series A. Bob set our land series up within a 120° angle, left to right:

• #4: 100-yard blind (black dummies), with a large tree on either side of the line to the blind, the closer tree on the right
  
• #3: 90-yard mark (pheasant), hand-thrown
  
• #2: 50-yard mark (pheasant), hand-thrown
  
• #1: 30-yard mark (pheasant), winger-thrown

LUMI

Lumi ran the series as three singles followed by the blind. She had no difficulty with the marks, but she slipped the first whistle running the blind, so I called her all the way back to heel. She then lined the blind, so I didn't find out whether she would slip another whistle.

LADDIE

Laddie crept on #1 and #2. In each case, instead of sending him, I brought him behind the holding blind, waited 10 seconds, then brought him back out and sent him. I'm not sure it taught him anything.

After noticing yesterday that Laddie tends to look all around him during his returns, even when he is returning on a direct line, today I decided to try to improve his focus on his returns. Whenever Laddie glanced away from me during a return, I whistled sit, then recall. This seemed to be effective, because Laddie's glancing away distinctly declined while running the series.

Laddie had no trouble getting to the blind, but he did not like carrying the soft, black dummy. I borrowed it so that we could practice with it at home.

Series B. Since Bob's water series required shore-handling skills that neither of my dogs has been trained in yet, but Lumi is more experienced with shore handling than Laddie, I modified the set-up separately for both dogs.

One thing I didn't need to change was the retrieval article: All the dogs retrieved white dummies.

For Lumi, #1 was a 30-yard land-water-land retrieve, and #2 was an 80-yard swim to a fall at the far edge of the pond. She performed well on both of them, including not attempting to run the bank on the return from #1.

For Laddie, both marks were open-water retrieves. #1 was 30 yards and #2 was 60 yards.

On #1, Laddie picked up the dummy, swam toward the thrower, and played with the dummy in the water. At my request, the thrower took it and threw it back into open water. Laddie swam to it and delivered it to me.

On #2, Laddie kept trying to square the nearest bank during his return, but each time he looked at it, I called "no here" and he continued to swim toward me.

Steadiness, Retrieve Shaping, Shore Handling

In the morning, Ray joined the dogs and me for training at Sundown Park (Series A and B). After dropping Ray off at home, the dogs and I then returned to the creek at Brink for continued work on shore handling (Series C). In the late afternoon, Nate joined us for some additional retrieve shaping (Series D) at Oaks, where the fresh thick grass is now thigh high. Summary:

• Series A. Steadiness training with tosser (Laddie)
• Series B. Retrieve shaping with Ray throwing marks (both dogs)
• Series C. Shore training, Tool #2 (Here-LTW-W), Stage 1 (uncued) (both dogs)
  
• Series D. Retrieve shaping with Nate throwing marks (both dogs)

Series A. This was a continuation of last week's practice with a borrowed winger. With Ray operating the winger, Laddie had four retrieves with ducks thrown to the left, four to the right. I was pleased to see that he did not creep on any of them.

However, Laddie's retrieve fell apart in Series A. At the first retrieve, he wouldn't even pick up the bird. On the next 2-3 retrieves, he tried to carry the bird to the shade of a tree near the fall. I ran to him and had him return with all the birds to the SL, and his deliveries were good, no drops. But even by the eigth throw, I could see that Laddie was still feeling temptation not to return to the SL after the pick-up.

Lumi is already steady and doesn't creep, so I had her sit out Series A.

Series B. I've been trying to make it a practice to have a session of retrieve shaping every morning. I usually don't have the luxury of a thrower and need to use poorman marks, but this morning, Ray was there to help.

LUMI

Ray threw three marks (ducks) for Lumi:

1. 20 yards
2. 20 yards
3. 140 yards
   

Lumi had a slow pick-up on the first mark, so I ran out and took the bird away. She had excellent pick-ups on the next two marks. Everything else about all three marks was also excellent.

Instead of putting Laddie in the van, I had him lie on the grass in the shade of a tree. He made no effort to get up while Lumi was working, an unprecedented behavior from Laddie. I think it partially reflects improved understanding of how to honor, partially reflects that he was uncomfortable in the warm sunlight.

LADDIE

Ray threw five marks (ducks) for Laddie:

1. 20 yards
2. 20 yards
3. 40 yards
4. 90 yards
5. 140 yards

Laddie's marks, pick-ups, and deliveries were all excellent. He repeatedly tried to veer during his returns, perhaps seeking shade, but was instantly responsive to "no here".

Series C. Today's training at Brink creek went significantly better tha yesterday's. One reason was that my expectations were lower, so I did a better job of setting appropriate criteria. Another was that I kept one dog in the van while training the other.

I worked on Laddie's water handling first, then Lumi's. We made good progress. However, both dogs still want to cheat over to the shallow crossing. Also, Laddie plays with the dummy if it's not in deep water, possibly a delaying tactic because he doesn't feel comfortable re-entering the water.

I spent much of the time with both dogs thigh deep in the water. Even though the temp was in the 70s, the water was ice cold, which may have had a negative impact on our training.

In the evening, I found that I had a fever and chills all night, was better the next morning. I wonder if working in the cold water made me ill.

Series D. Working with Nate at Oaks, I ran each dog on three marks at 20-90-90 yards, #2 thrown from a mound. I ran Lumi first, Laddie next, watching for any flaws in their retrieves.

Lumi had one slowish pick-up on #2, but had an instant pick-up again on #3.

Laddie got distracted by something (I don't know what) and detoured on return from #3, but responded well to "no here".

It seems that our steadiness training with the tosser has also helped Laddie's creeping for hand throws. He was remained in place for the first of Nate's throws. On #2, Laddie crept a couple of inches and I called "pick it up" to Nate and pulled Laddie back from the SL. Nate then re-threw #2, and then #3. Laddie was steady as a rock on both of them.

Salience Drill, Angle-in, Retrieve Shaping

Since the property our FT group uses on Sundays was leased to the Lab club for a Hunt Test this weekend, I dropped Renee off at the club where she teaches, worked with the dogs at three locations on various skills, and returned to pick Renee up a couple of hours later. We worked on the following:

• Series A. Salience drill, at Homecrest soccer field (both dogs).
• Series B. Angle-in drill, also at soccer field (both dogs).
• Series C. Retrieve shaping, at Fair Hill Area 3 (both dogs).
• Series D. Salience drill, at Norbeck ballfield (Lumi only).

Series A. I placed a lining pole as an SL and ran each dog on three blinds separated by 30&deg angles. This was the salience drill I devised, not a handling drill, so the dogs were expected to line each blind. The blinds were all orange dummies lain endwise at varying distances from the SL, and with prominent landmarks 20+ yards behind them, as follows:

1. One dummy out 40 yards in the direction of a large, light-green tree.
2. One dummy out 60 yards in the direction of a small wooden structure.
3. One dummy out 80 yards in the direction of a white sign on a silvery metal pole.

I ran Lumi first, then Laddie. Both dogs ran toward the landmark, did a double-take as they came upon the dummy, pounced on it, and responded to my recall whistle by enthusiastically delivering their discovered dummy.

Hopefully the dogs were learning the intended lesson of the salience drill: When Daddy sends you in a particular direction, find a target in the distance with your eyes, run toward it, and eventually you'll come upon the blind as you run.

Series B. This was our second angle-in drill of the sequence started a couple of days ago, and today we used a 70-yard backline rather than a 50-yard one. Today's series was as follows:

1. Send from right heel, thru to pile
2. Send from left heel, thru to pile
3. Send from right heel, WS, angle-in right
   
4. Send from left heel, thru to pile
5. Send from right heel, WS, angle-in left
   
6. Send from left heel, thru to pile
7. Send from right heel, thru to pile
8. Send from left heel, WS, angle-in right
   
9. Send from right heel, thru to pile
10. Send from left heel, WS, angle-in left

The pile was white dummies, and the angle-in was to an orange dummy that I threw while the dog was running toward the pile.

I ran Lumi on this drill first, then Laddie. Neither dog slipped a whistle nor refused a cast. Hopefully, both dogs (especially Lumi) are developing confidence in the angle-in cast.

Series C. Next we drove to Fair Hill Area 3 for a short session of retrieve shaping. We used a large depression in the ground, about the size of a future basement but with sloping sides, in the shape of a rectangle roughly 50' x 150'.

For both dogs, I used an unusual duck, which one of the trainers had called a "Black Head". I think that's what some people call a Ring-Necked Duck, but I believe this one was a Lesser Scaup. In any case, both dogs had previously shown some discomfort carrying this particular bird.

I ran Lumi first on a single 20-yard retrieve, with the SL on the high ground near the center of one of the long sides, and the fall near the right corner of the high ground on the opposite side. Lumi's retrieve was so good, including a lightning fast pick-up, that I simply rewarded her and ended the session.

I then ran Laddie on the same retrieve. Everything was excellent except that Laddie's hold on the delivery was a little weak. I used some walk-offs to strengthen the hold, and then ran a second retrieve of 40 yards: With the SL on the high ground at one end of one of the long sides, the fall was on the high ground behind the corner diagonally opposite. This time, Laddie's entire retrieve was excellent, including a firm hold on the delivery.

I had not before noticed that the sloping sides of the depression in the ground make this location a possibility for beginning to train the dogs an important concept: not to square up when crossing a ditch or road. They may have gotten some of that lesson today, but I think the lesson would be more emphatic on a send out to a cold blind, rather than on a mark as we were using today when the dogs may not have paid as much attention to the topography of the ground surface as they might when running a blind. Perhaps we'll return to this location to try the idea out in the future.

Series D. Finally, we drove to the Norbeck ballfield for a final single-blind salience drill. It turned out that I only ran Lumi, because as we worked, a softball team began warming up in one direction and picnickers showed up in another, making it too risky to run Laddie with such nearby diversions.

The drill consisted of an orange dummy lain endwise 100 yards from our SL, with a large tree standing alone in the field, 50 yards further back in the same line of sight as the blind. As before, Lumi took the line toward the tree, presumably assuming that the dummy was at the base of the trunk, and was then surprised and excited when she ran across the dummy earlier while running in that direction. She delivered the dummy, and we returned to the van and drove to pick up Renee.

Work Ethic? During Series A and B today, people and dogs on the fringes of the soccer field repeatedly distracted Laddie. While I tried to make sure that playing our games (that is, drills) were rewarding both intrinsically and extrinsically, I also moved quickly toward Laddie a couple of times, calling "no HERE," if he started to divert. I hope he was learning that working with me is both highly rewarding as well as not optional.

Perhaps the lesson is similar to what Alice Woodyard calls "work ethic". I only understand the term vaguely as it applies to dogs, but in private correspondence, Alice once wrote: "Work ethic, to me, is a dog who wants to learn and believes in learning, believes in his own power in controlling outcomes if only he tries . . . AND believes, also, that even if he does not enjoy something 100% of the time, the nonenjoyability is temporary and enjoyment is on its way. Therefore he perseveres when he does not enjoy something at the moment."

Hunt Test: Labrador Retriever Club of the Potomac

This morning, we made an early start and spent a few minutes at the neighborhood lacrosse field with me throwing a duck for Lumi, then Laddie. Lumi was too slow on her first pick-up, so I came out and took the duck away from her. Then I made several more throws, and she did great. Laddie did fine on all of his throws from first to last.

When we were done, we went to Cheltenham for Lumi's Junior Hunt Test given by the Labrador Retriever Club of the Potomac. I gave Laddie a couple of walks, and while waiting to run Lumi in the water series, I worked on "no bird" with him off to the side of the flyer Gun. Aside from that, Laddie spent the entire time in the van.

I think Laddie could have passed today's test, but my focus with Laddie is on Field Trials, not Hunt Tests. If he gets to the point where I have high confidence in his ability to run a Hunt Test at a particular level, I may run him, but otherwise, I don't plan to have Laddie compete until he's ready to try a Derby or Qualifying stake.

Every Junior-level Hunt Test I've been to, including today's, was made up of two series:

• Series A. Land series
• Series B. Water series

Today's was unusual in my experience in that the judges called for a flyer to be shot in both series.

Series A was neither the hardest nor the easiest I've seen, with a pass rate of about 75%. Series B was made up of two open water retrieves, and as easy as any I've seen, with a pass rate of 100%.

Lumi, who's been training for about a year on the same set-ups as Senior and Master dogs in group training, had no difficulty with today's Junior series. She had pinpoint marks as well as high quality returns and deliveries. I learned later that the judges had given her scores of all 10s.

I used a loose slipcord with Lumi on all four marks, because I didn't want to assume she would be steady, and then have her break and be disqualified. But the cord was unnecessary. Lumi was steady as a rock on every throw.

When the test was over, Lumi received an orange ribbon, completing ¾ths of the qualifying scores needed for her Junior Hunter title. When we got home, I entered her in another Hunt Test next Saturday, and we'll see how we do then.

Angle-in, Shore Training

This morning, I went with the dogs to the neighborhood lacrosse field to run a drill focused specifically on the angle-in (Series A), which Lumi has had problems with at times, including at yesterday's Hunt Test training group. While we were training, a man parked next to our van and walked out to introduce himself. The man turned out to be a guy named Nunzio, an event field trainer with Labs and Chessies and a judge for a variety of field events and venues. He had been passing by and was attracted by the sound of our training whistle.

In addition to providing interesting conversation and some training tips, Nunzio was also kind enough to mention that he lives nearby on a five-acre property with a small pond, suitable for training the swim-by as well as land-water-land retrieves. Amazingly, he invited us to train there any time we wished! So in the afternoon, the dogs and I drove to Nunzio's property for a session of shore training (Series B).

Summary:

• Series A. Angle-in drill (both dogs)
• Series B. Shore training, Tool #2, Here-LTW-W, Stage 1 (uncued) (both dogs)

Series A. I designed this drill as the first of a sequence intended to strengthen the dogs' comfort level with the angle-in cast. That doesn't seem to be a weakness for Laddie, but it is for Lumi, and I see no disadvantage to giving Laddie additional mileage on it.

For the drill I came up with, I placed two lining poles 50 yards apart. I used one of the poles as the SL, the other to mark a pile of eight white dummies.

I then trained Lumi first, then Laddie, with the other dog waiting in the van each time.

The sequence was as follows:

1. Straight thru to the pile
2. Straight thru to the pile
3. WS, angle-in to the left
4. Straight thru to the pile
5. Straight thru to the pile
6. WS, angle-in to the right
7. Straight thru to the pile
8. Straight thru to the pile
9. WS, angle-in to the left
10. Straight thru to the pile
11. Straight thru to the pile
12. WS, angle-in to the right

I randomized which side I sent the dog from, and for the angle-in casts, I threw an orange dummy while the dog was on the way to the pile, then blew WS before the dog reached the pile.

In addition, to increase the randomization of the sequence, I had Lumi skip #11 and Laddie skip both #8 and #11.

It was clear that the orange dummies were not visible to the dogs until they got close, because neither dog ran straight to any of the dummies. Instead, both came forward in the general direction cued, then veered to the dummy when they got close. Both dogs seemed in high spirits throughout the drill and performed well.

In subsequent sessions, I plan to increase the distance from the SL to the pile by 20 yards per session, so that we repeat this drill at 70-90-110 yards.

Series B. The dogs and I used Nunzio's pond to work on shore training, Tool #2, Here-LTW-W, Stage 1 (uncued). I ran a few reps with Lumi and Laddie alternating, but it was soon clear that Laddie needed more work than Lumi, and I was happy to rest Lumi anyway since she'll be in a Hunt Test tomorrow.

This was a shaping session with no pre-planned structure. I'd say the most productive thing I tried was when I waded into the water, called Laddie to me, and then repeatedly made happy throws onto the bank and further inland. Laddie had much less difficulty re-entering the water with the dummy while I was standing there in front of him, than when he faced a swim to the opposite shore of the pond.

At the end of the session, I had Laddie make one retrieve all the way across the pond, land-water-land. I decided to end Laddie's retrieves on that note of success.

For reinforcement, I used happy throws for both dogs, plus food for Lumi, clippies for Laddie.