Judged Pee Wee stake, land blinds, On/Off drill

Cheltenham, MD. After days of drenching rain, today was clear and warm.

The day started early so that I could meet with my co-judge to set up the land series for the Pee Wee stakes we were judging together at a WC/WCX event. It was the first time judging a field event for both of us. We set up two land singles, and later two water singles. In each setup, we ran the older puppies first at a longer distance, and then the younger dogs from the same start line but with shorter throws.

Neither of us knew how to record our observations in a way that we'd be able to make comparisons later, but together we evolved a method of drawing diagrams, recording the line that the dog took, making notations of any additional observations (for example, "hesitated before entering water"), and adding a numeric score 0-10 immediately after each retrieve, which we might modify on second thought later, but which somehow seemed to make it easier to remember what we'd seen. We also compared notes after the land, and then again at the end (of course), bringing our scores into sync and then using the totals to assign placements. Of course, we'd rather have just given a blue ribbon to all the puppies.

Of the older dogs, the dog who would have taken First place was a few inches from picking up her last water mark when she suddenly barked and jetted back to shore. We never found out what happened, and she didn't appear to be injured. But I know they have fish and turtles, including dangerous snapping turtles, on the property. The puppy was spooked and wouldn't get back in the water again for a while, but later that morning, some of the trainers worked with the owner, and the puppy seemed to be performing normally again. However, we felt we had to give the dog a zero for that retrieve.

We finished the puppy stakes around noon, and it would be hours before the WC/WCX competition would be complete, so I took Laddie to a part of the property away from the competition for some training. First he ran three land blinds, 100-200-300y. The 100 and 200 included tight keyholes near the end of the outrun, while the 300 included a canal crossing on a diagonal. The field for all the retrieves was swampy with large swaths of high cover. I'd like Laddie to sit faster when I blow the whistle, but aside from that, he was responsive on both sits and casts, and in each case ran the "judge's blind" as I had defined it to myself when I set the blinds up. I didn't want to require extremely narrow corridors for this session, because I feel that too much of that can hurt motivation and/or lead to popping, but he got all the obstacles I'd planned for.

After the land blinds, we ran an On/Off drill, a total of four retrieves, at a new location. I set up an orange lining pole, which Laddie didn't appear able to see till he was fairly close. However, he ran every retrieve correctly, off the point or on the point alternately. They all required at least a little handling in the tight configuration and thick, high cover of the land entry, and I was pleased that Laddie never made a peep, he just took the WSCs as called for and in high spirits. I'm not sure whether it might have been a factor that a couple of trainers were throwing bumpers in the water for 4 or 5 young dogs nearby. I thought it was advantageous as a diversion, and possibly to increase excitement level (the better to simulate event conditions), but I could imagine that it also reduced or overwhelmed whatever internal factors produce the vocalizing. Or perhaps Laddie wouldn't have vocalized even if the others hadn't been there.

After that, we ran a variety of additional water retrieves: a few poorman marks that required shoreline swims, a sight blind requiring Laddie to go over a point 2/3 of the way to the blind, and plenty of happy throws into open water and the overgrown meadow. For this later sight blind, I didn't have my whistle with me, so I needed to use verbal cues ("sit", "over", "back") to get Laddie onto and then off of the point. Again, other (different) dogs were running open water retrieves nearby while Laddie was running his blind, and again Laddie responded to my cues enthusiastically, accurately and silently.

We still had a substantial wait before the awards ceremony and unfortunate picture taking ritual (my request to wait for the pictures until I'd lost 20 pounds was roundly ignored). Nonetheless, having the opportunity to get in a nice training session, where Laddie seemed to perform well, made for a satisfying day.

LL&L

On/of drill with call-back

Cheltenham, blue skies, 76 degrees, light breeze.

Today was another day of all water blinds. First, Laddie did On/off drills on four different setups (eight retrieves total). Then he ran one cold water blind we've never run before, an 80y land entry off a mound plus a 70y swim, then thru reeds to the blind set 10y inland.

Every retrieve was with Laddie's 2" white puppy bumpers, since I think they act as +R for completing the blind.  All of the On/off drills were run as sight blinds, with an LP and a white plastic bag as the target.  The sequence was always the no-point retrieve first, then the point retrieve.  Most of the setups were repeats of setups we've used recently. In other words, except for the fact that these were all medium length rather than any short setups, my entire focus was on minimizing confusion, maximizing confidence, and reducing the likelihood of any vocalizing.

My ultimate goal with these sessions is to have day after day of no vocalizing until that becomes Laddie's normal behavior. Unfortunately, although I feel Laddie is significantly more familiar now with the On/off concept, I still haven't found a way to have a productive session with no vocalizing.

So today I added one more element: the three times that Laddie vocalized, I <i>immediately</i> called him back. The first time was a plaintive yelp, while the other two were tentative, perhaps experimental.

I am reluctant to use a call-back on blinds, since it would be terribly disheartening if I accidentally trained a no-go, or added to Laddie's anxiety and actually made the vocalizing worse.

On the other hand, call-backs seemed to be effective a few months ago in greatly improving Laddie's popping.

So perhaps now that Laddie's understanding of points is hopefully clearer, a mild +P for yelping will help Laddie make another step of progress.

I just need to watch carefully to see whether the problem is getting worse or better, and also to watch carefully for possible side-effects. That's assuming that I have enough skill to recognize them if they appear, not necessarily a sound assumption.

LL&L

On/off drill and Hurricane Irene

Cheltenham, low 70s.

Back in 2004, Lumi and I once practiced water retrieves in the rain and wind on the fringe of a hurricane. Today it was Laddie's turn. As Hurricane Irene was wending its way up the coast from North Carolina, Laddie and I took what may be our last training opportunity of the weekend to work on a set of six On/off drills here at the Cheltenham property in Maryland, southeast of Washington, DC.

Each On/off setup was run with OBs and no LP.  Each was two retrieves, the first no-point, the second point.  The first setup was short and familiar, while Laddie had never run any of the others as an On/off drill before. Few if any required handling on the no-point retrieve, all required at least a little handling on the point retrieve.

Although Laddie had some vocalizing today on the point retrieves (never on the no-point retrieves), it only occurred on blinds of over 100y.  The first setup, which was familiar, and the last setup, which Laddie has never seen before, were only about 40y. For those two, Laddie required a little handling to get him onto the point, but he took the casts quietly and confidently. For some of the longer retrieves, Laddie vocalized when handled onto the point.

It's hard to see this as a boldness issue associated with big water, since Laddie had no difficulty with no-point retrieves as much as 140y. Yet it also doesn't correlate exactly to handling. The only model that seems to cover today's data points seems to be handling over a point on a fairly big retrieve.

What's the best Rx to address this issue?  Ideally we would gradually work our way up from small to big setups, backing off as soon as we hit one that was a bit too big. However, its not easy to know what the correct distances are on any given day, and an On/off setup for that particular distance may not be available at the venue we're using that day.

In that case, do we err on the short side, and risk wasting a session (that is, four hours, at least one calendar day, and upwards of $50 in expenses)? Or do we err going too long, and risk strengthening the vocalizing habit? For this dog, I think the answer is the latter, since it's fairly clear that Laddie does not vocalize when confident, and a return to longer swims, which used to be fairly routine in our practices, might be the shortest path to gaining that confidence.

LL&L

Beating the rain

Cheltenham, low 80s, overcast.

Today Laddie and I ran our three most recent On/off drill courses on this property, from shortest to longest. I planted two OBs, and used no LPs, in each case. For each setup, I had Laddie run the point line first, then the no-point line.

Laddie ran the first setup exactly as I would have wanted him to: For the point retrieve, he started to skirt the point, quietly accepted a cast onto the point, and lined the retrieve the rest of the way. He then lined the no-point retrieve.

For the second setup, Laddie tried to go too far inland on the first point, and made a quiet yelp when I cast him back outward toward the end of the point. But aside from that, no handling was required on this setup.

For the third and longest setup, Laddie again tried to aim too far inland on the point retrieve, and again yelped when cast. On the no-point retrieve, which on previous days he has run without handling, he headed for the point, and when it didn't look like he'd self-correct, I cast him horizontally toward the correct line.  This produced Laddie's most pronounced yelp of the day.

As a test of whether handling on a water blind when no point was in the picture produced vocalizing, I had Laddie run a Master-like water blind: 20y land entry, sharp angle entry, 30y swim with a keyhole between two decoys amongst a group of about six decoys, angle exit onto shore thru thick cover, and a diagonal slope climb halfway up a 20y embankment. Laddie took a good line almost to the decoys and I was afraid he was going to line the whole blind, defeating the experiment, but then he veered a little and I got a chance to use three WSCs in the water, and one on shore, to keep him on a tight line. He took every whistle and every cast quietly, accurately, and with confident, enthusiastic demeanor.

I tossed a few happy bumpers for him, and ran him on a couple of little "singles" for fun. But then the sky opened up and we headed for home thru the downpour.

LL&L

On/off drill, poorman marks

Cheltenham, 6:30am, 55 degrees, sunny, wind calm.

Retrieve A. 80y cold water blind, no points in the picture. Though intended as a confidence builder, this was the only retrieve today that triggered yelping. I have no definitive explanation. Perhaps the relatively big water compared to most of the work we've been doing lately bothered him. Or maybe he found it confusing that there was no point in the picture.

Retrieves B-C. On/off drill in same location as A-D yesterday, but with no LP. Laddie ran the no-point retrieve exactly as I would want him to run a cold blind with a point in the picture: He swam toward the point, then calmly accepted a WSC bypassing the point when he was a couple of yards from the point. He also ran a good line over the point, but needed a cast off the point because he started munching grass.

Retrieves D-E. Poorman land skimming marks through large patches of thick, high cover with swampy footing, with an easy, obvious cheat available, one on the left, one on the right. Laddie needed to be handled on both.

Retrieve F. A big, mostly land single, but with three water crossings. I put Laddie in a sit, walked out to throw the mark, then called his name from my throwing position as a remote send. Because of a crest, we could not see each other, but my high throw, preceded by a gunshot, must have been visible. A few seconds after my remote send, Laddie appeared over the crest, then completed the retrieve on an excellent line, stepping on the bumper.

Retrieves G-H. On/off drill at a location we used a few days ago, but this time with an LP and white plastic bag. No-point line was 110y, point was at 70y. I had Laddie run the point line first. He tried to square the point's shoreline too much, so I needed to handle him more to the end of the point. Then I stopped him as soon as he started onto the point, and cast him horizontally.  He took both casts well, and did not need to be stopped again to put him back on line after the second cast. He just made the turn himself once he was clear of the point. He required no handling at all on the no-point retrieve, and this time the big water did not seem to bother him.

Retrieves I-K. Short poorman skimming water singles. No problem on any of these.

Retrieves L-N. A fairly difficult poorman land triple, all guns "retired", featuring a 140y mark on the right as the first throw, a 220y mark on left as the second throw, and a 40y mark in line with the first throw as the third throw. The line to the first throw included a diagonal slope ascent and a keyhole between a mound and a barn. I had Laddie pick up the marks in reverse order of the throws, trying to make the 140y memory bird, which had been thrown first and had possibly been erased in Laddie's memory by the short throw on the same line, as difficult as possible by waiting the longest to retrieve it. It was also unusual for the second-longest mark to be thrown first and picked up last. However, Laddie nailed that mark and of course the short one, and required only a small hunt on the long mark after taking a good line to the immediate area of the fall.

Hopefully this was a fun way for Laddie to wrap up the session.

LL&L

Cooler temps, a little more work

Cheltenham, starting at 6:30am, high 60s.

Retrieves A-B: On/off drill at same location as retrieves E-H yesterday, with LP and white plastic bag. Handling needed to keep Laddie off point on the bypass retrieve, no handling needed for the retrieve across the point. No vocalizing.

Retrieves C-D: ON/off drill at same location, this time no LP. No handling needed on either retrieve, no vocalizing, no popping.

Retrieves E-G: A poorman triple with WBs and pistol. First throw a big "bridge", also featuring a point, that is, LWLWLWL. Second throw all land, almost as long as the first one, with a road crossing. Third throw fairly short, across a cove into a patch of reeds, dog not visible after going down embankment to the cove on outrun until he comes back with the bumper. With all guns "retired", Laddie did a nice job.

Retrieve H: An LWLWL retrieve featuring a tempting cheat from the middle land crossing. When Laddie attempted to run that bank, I decided to call him back rather than handling him, though I would have handled him if he had done it again. However, he ran it nicely the second time.

Retrieves I-F: Similar to the On/off drill, but with throws rather than planted bumpers. Perfect lines, no hint of nerves.

Retrieve G: A poorman mark featuring a swim between two points, one of which he had just crossed, and then across another point further out. Again, Laddie nailed it with no hint of nerves.

For me, today was primarily about the first four retrieves. The rest was to maintain motivation, build confidence on pictures similar to the On/off drill but run as marks, and perhaps remind Laddie what a triple is.

LL&L

Laddie's tab

By the way, I don't think I've mentioned this before.

For the last several weeks, and for the foreseeable future, Laddie is wearing a collar with a tab, a 9" lead.

If we ever have a chance to train with flyers, I'll keep a firm grip on the tab, but keeping slack unless Laddie attempts to break. Because Laddie wears the tab all the time, he won't associate it particularly with flyers. He'll just re-discover that breaking doesn't work.

Beckie we can compete again, it's essential that we practice in situations that look as much like events as possible to the dog. If Laddie figures out that an event context predicts the availability of a self-reinforcing break -- at the minimum, the immediate pleasure of a high-energy outrun -- we may never dig out of that hole.

I don't know whether we'll ever have an opportunity to give Laddie that training. But at least we're laying the groundwork by habituating Laddie to the tab in the meantime.

LL&L

A time for training

It is, of course, sad to think that Laddie's competitive career is over because we have no group to train with and therefore no way to work on steadiness in an event-like context.

However, it does have a silver lining. If not for the steadiness issue, I would be tempted to run Laddie in many of the continuous string of Qualifying stakes being run over the next few months in our region. After all, his vocalizing hasn't actually cost us, as far as I know, in any event, and it might have taken more discipline than I had to forego competition, and a reasonable chance of Laddie getting QAA, with all those opportunities available.

However, it probably would not have been good for Laddie's vocalizing, which then might have become a more serious issue in All-Age stakes.

This way, we can work on the vocalizing issue, and any related issues of nerves, without any temptation to run in competitions as well.

Perhaps someday we'll find an opportunity to train regularly with a group, work on steadiness with flyers in an event-like context, and be able to compete once again. To be honest, I don't actually feel hopeful about this, I think it's more likely we'll never compete again. But it's at least theoretically possible.

LL&L

More nerves

Cheltenham, low 80s.

Today, a Weimeraner group was training near the part of the property I had planned to use, but rather than sending Laddie and me away, they said it would be ok for us to train on the other side of the property.

Laddie ran a total of eight water blinds as our On/off drill, all 2" bumpers, some white some orange (irrelevant, since in cover), and all with an LP and white plastic bag as the target. In each pair, we ran from the bypass SL first, then the crossing SL.

We used two setups, four retrieves each.  I wasn't that happy with the first one, since it had significant amounts of high, thick cover at both the water entry and exit, which I felt distracted from the lesson. The second setup was longer but visually clearer.

Laddie showed behavior that I interpret as nerves in each setup: not only quiet vocalizing, but also a few pops and also eating grass when he was on the point. In each setup, the nervous behaviors were most prevalent on the first pair of retrieves, and were minimal or disappeared entirely on the second pair.

I liked the second setup a lot. Besides providing clear optics and nice deep water for the On/off drill, it also had a relatively narrow cove behind the point, helping Laddie practice a good re-entry rather than running the bank when presented with that picture. If possible, we'll use the same setup for several more On/off sessions, until he can run both retrieves, in either order, eventually with no LP, and with no display of nerves.

LL&L

Lengthening the On/off drill

Cheltenham, mid-80s.

Because of the on-going heat, I'm reluctant to run Laddie much on land, and even on water, I feel I should keep down the distance.  So today was all water blinds, all 2" bumpers, and none too long.

Retrieves A-D were at the same location as last time, about 35y, all orange bumpers. A & D were off the point, B & C were across the point. Laddie ran all of them silently. I liked the way he ran B & C: He took a wide line, then accepted a cast onto the point.

Retrieve E was 180y.  I set up an LP with a WB, then ran him from the other side of the pond. The line was wide of one point on the right, then across the next point on the right. Laddie stayed responsive to the whistle and took every cast correctly, but he didn't carry them well so we needed a lot of WSCs. I felt it was a reasonable performance. The best news is that he didn't vocalize on any cast.

Retrieves F &G were at a new location. I lay two WBs where they'd be visible from the SLs. The distance was 45y. F was on a line wide of the point, G was on a line across the point. Again Laddie required no handling on the bypass, a little handling on the line across the point, and we had no vocalizing.

Retrieves H & I were once more with white 2" bumpers, but at 90y, I now think they were not sufficiently visible from the start line. In any case, H was across the point, and unfortunately included one bark, when I cast Laddie horizontally off the point. But other WSCs were also needed to get him into the correct location on the point, and he took those silently. No handling was needed for the final retrieve bypassing the point.

I'd like to try this again next time we're here, with better visibility of the destination, and see if Laddie can take that cast without vocalizing. Then, in another session, we'd do it as cold blinds.

LL&L

On/off drill at Twin Ponds

Training at sunrise on a gorgeous morning, temps in high 50s, blue skies, in Monrovia, MD.

Besides lots of happy bumpers, Laddie did a total of 13 water blinds, as follows:

A. 30y, LP with white plastic bag, to a pile with two white 2" bumpers and two 2" orange bumpers, past a point on the right. Laddie easily lined it without touching the point and without a sound, picking up one of the white bumpers.

B. Identical setup except that I moved the SL so that the line was across the end of the point. Again Laddie lined it easily, running over the point and making no effort to veer around the point, again picking up a white puppy bumper. He did bark when he leapt into the water on the initial entry, but made no sound after that.

C. Same as A, except that I took down the LP, and only orange bumpers were left. Identical performance to A.

D. Same as B, except with no LP and now only one orange bumper remaining. Laddie again lined it, running over the point,  without vocalizing.

E-H.  New setup, 60y, point on the right.  Otherwise identical pattern and performance as A-D, except no vocalizing at any time.

I-J. New setup, 70y. Point on the left, 10y shoreline swim on the right, creating a sort of keyhole 10y from the far shore. No LP, but white bumpers placed so as to be clearly visible. First retrieve was on a line thru the keyhole, second retrieve was on a line over the end of the point. Laddie lined both without a sound.

K. 110y swim on diagonal across stick pond, with no point but a tight keyhole between two stumps a few yards from far shore. Orange bumper on hillside, not visible to Laddie till he was close to it. Laddie took excellent line, started to square the shore about halfway across, took a WSC on an angle back, which he carried the rest of the way, including thru the keyhole.  He vocalized on the cast, possibly because of the somewhat big water remaining.

L-M. 30y, point on the left, two white puppy bumpers visible from both SLs. First retrieve was on a line over the point, second bypassed the point. Laddie lined both without vocalizing.

To me, today's work showed excellent progress. It appears that Laddie now understands that some retrieves are past points, and some are across them. He also now has one way of knowing which is which: line of sight.  Eventually he'll have to learn a second way of discriminating between them, which is to comfortably accept handling, but for now I'm just trying to lay a foundation. Both of these ideas seem to be important new concepts for Laddie compared to just a few days ago.

I don't think Laddie is "learning" not to vocalize per se. Rather, my feeling is that as his understanding and confidence increase, his nerves steady and the vocalizing subsides.

With respect to the question of why Laddie sometimes vocalizes, using only today's data points, a reasonable theory is simply that Laddie vocalizes when handled in water. However, I don't think that matches all the recent data.  We'll learn more in future sessions.

Training at Mt. Ararat Farm

As previously arranged, Laddie and I made an early-morning drive to Gaby's farm to run our On/off drill on her technical pond.

As it turned out, Laddie also ran three singles (two that included water) in a triple-style configuration, ran one land single where the bumper was pre-planted and the throw was faked, and ran one land blind.

Laddie ran the On/off drill in the same location as we used in previous sessions, with the high-visibility LP in place. He ran the drill twice, once before the group work, once after. In each case, he ran one retrieve on a line that bypassed the point and one on a line that crossed the point. In each case, he lined both retrieves without vocalizing.

Taking advantage of this rare opportunities to train on multiples with throwers, I ran these as singles, but showing Laddie all of the gun stations, then calling for a bird, and then sending him on that first mark.  The idea is for him to learn not to swing his head after watching a bird thrown, but to stay locked in unless and until he hears another gunshot (or duck call, in the case of a Hunt Test setup).

On one of the water singles, Laddie cheated both the entry to and exit from water, so that's something we'll need some tune-up work on.

However, my primary focus at this time is Laddie's nerves on water blinds with points, and in that regard, I'm pleased with our progress.

Second day of On/off drill at Cheltenham

Today I ran Laddie on a wide open water blind and used two WSCs to make minor adjustments in his direction. Not a peep.

Then I ran him four times to the same target as yesterday, from the same two SLs. The only difference from yesterday was that today I used two white bumpers, which, predictably, he picked up first, and two orange bumpers.

The two times I ran him down the middle (the first and third retrieves), he lined it with no vocalization.

The two times I ran him in a line across a point (the second and fourth retrieves), he veered wide and I used a WSC to correct his line. He vocalized a little when cast, but took the casts without difficulty.

Today's work suggests to me, not that Laddie considers a WSC aversive, but that he considers crossing a point, or being directed to cross a point, aversive.

In any case, the vocalizations were minor, little whines rather than yelps. Hopefully that represents a diminished level of anxiety compared to earlier, more emphatic vocalizations, and a trend in the right direction, though a backsliding from yesterday.

On/off drill at Cheltenham

Today, Laddie & I drove to Cheltenham. Temps were mild, in the high 60s, but we were training in a driving rain.

I found a perfect spot for our On/off drill.  Rather than bothering with an LP, which would have involved a lot of driving to get to, I just tossed four white bumpers to the far shore. I then ran Laddie to each of them, alternating between an open line between two points (and between two decoys), and a line across the point on the right.

With respect to what side I was running Laddie from, during the last three sessions, I've also taken to running him on the inside if he's to cross the point, on the outside if he's to bypass it.  I recognize this is a temporary measure since it often won't provide enough information in advanced blinds with multiple points, but since our immediate goal is to develop a habit of running water blinds involving points with no nerves/yelping, it seems like a reasonable addition for now.

Laddie ran all four sight blinds perfectly, without any need for a whistle.  Yay!

Is he starting to understand some approximation of "go straight"? Well, here's an interesting data point:

On the fourth run of the blind, the second across the point, Laddie took a somewhat fat initial line, as though he were planning to bypass the point.  Under ordinary circumstances, I would have blown a WS and cast him on angle back to the point.  But I decided to watch for awhile and see what he would do.

The answer: As he got even with the point, he suddenly veered right.  Lightly prancing across the end of the point, he then swung left again and leapt into the water directly toward the final bumper.  Wow, I thought, what an interesting way to run that line.

I recognize that that wasn't necessarily a perfect approach.  If the requirement were a keyhole off the end of the point, I'd want him approaching the point from the inside, not the outside.

But in terms of Laddie running a confident, non-yelping water blind with a point, apparently figuring out some way to know whether or not to touch the point without needing to be handled, I felt this was excellent progress.

While we were there, we also ran a few fun, somewhat challenging poorman water marks, complete with pistol, to help keep up Laddie's motivation for the training game.

Second day of On/off drill at Gaby's

I felt I had seen a good trend working on Laddie's nerves/yelping with our On/off drill at Gaby's farm yesterday.

Today we returned to the same location to run the drill again, after crashing at today's trial.  I expected a little back-sliding, but hoped for the same positive trend.  Instead, Laddie was back at Square One on the point-crossing line, and began having increasing difficulty with the bypassing line.

I concluded from his behavior that this was not nervousness but rather that he was not enjoying it.  Boredom, perhaps.

Anyway, I stopped the session and went to chat with Gaby.  Among other topics was Trouble, her good-looking and wonderfully affectionate new 4mo Chessie, whom Laddie seemed to be having fun playing with there in the kitchen.

After a couple of hours, I wanted to head for home, but I had an idea and asked if Gaby would be willing to come out with one or more of her dogs to watch Laddie run the On/off drill.  I speculated that having a human and canine audience might perk up his motivation.  She grabbed the puppy and we headed for the pond.

Sure enough, Laddie ran both blinds perfectly: no veering, no yelping, no popping.  As a bonus, Gaby threw a few long water marks for Laddie, surely more fun for him than all those blinds.

Laddie's sixth Qual

Today's trial at Cheltenham, the second in two days, started with a land triple, no honor.  Since Laddie broke on the honor yesterday, and I have no group to practice honoring with, I had come up with a plan while driving to the trial.

My plan was to run as many series as possible, in today's and future events, till Laddie had to honor a flyer, then run that series but put him on lead without giving him a chance to break on the honor.  So today's first series with no honor meant, under my plan, we had a chance to get to the last series, maybe even to the end and a possible ribbon if the last series didn't require honoring a flyer.

However, at the line, Laddie broke on the flyer go-bird, which I believe is the first time he ever broke from the line in competition.  Since he ignored me when I called HERE yesterday, I didn't say anything today.  I didn't need him to practice ignoring recall.

Well, since he's now breaking from the line, my brilliant plan to work on his honoring flyers at events won't work.  I'm glad I haven't signed up for any more events.

How in the world am I going to fix this without having a group to train with?  It's a rhetorical question.  I don't think I can.

We'll continue to work on whatever skills we can training alone, but unless we find a group, Laddie's competitive career is now over.

On/off drill: declining vocalization

Today was the first day I've felt I had a clear, unambiguous indication that if Laddie is confident on a water blind with points, he doesn't yelp. The alternative, that yelping was becoming operant and possibly reinforced by success, does not seem consistent with today's results.

After I checked out the trial's water blind (which I think Laddie could have done, possibly without yelping), I felt the best use of time would be to use Gaby's technical pond, about half an hour from the test site and on the way home, for our On/Off drill: a water blind with a point, a highly visible LP, several bumpers (I used Laddie's beloved puppy bumpers), and two SLs, one bypassing the point, one crossing it.  The pond had swim-depth water in front of the point, which I believe is a requirement for the drill.  It had running water on the back side of the point, but our drought in this region is making it hard to find deep ponds.  I didn't see running water on the far side of the point as a problem.  It might even be +R for negotiating the point correctly.

We ran the retrieve a total of twenty times, ten from each SL, random alternation, with lots of rest breaks.
Laddie never once tried to veer to the point when running the bypass line, and also remained quiet for those the whole session.

When running the point-crossing line, he was noisy in the early reps: He yelped as he leapt into the water, he yelped quietly as he swam toward the point, he yelped when I had to cast him to the point if he attempted to veer off it, and he  barked when I cast him off it.

Once he began getting on the point without help, at first I was still stopping him to cast him horizontally off the point, and that would elicit a bark.  Since he clearly knew where he was going, I decided my first priority was to get a quiet dog, and stop casting him off the point.

His noisiness declined on a nearly linear curve.  He was nearly quiet on the next-to-last set of four.  And he was entirely quiet on the last set.

Oh, also, in the early going, he did some popping. That went away by the end, too.

To me this seems like promising results.  I have not yet proven the whole path to a solution.  Will we ever be able to avoid yelping if handling is required?  Will we ever be able to avoid yelping on new setups with the LP?  Will we ever be able to avoid yelping on cold water  blinds?  Will we ever be able to  graduate to high-difficulty blinds without the yelping coming back?

A long road, but a good first step, I think.

Laddie's fifth Qual

First series was a wide open land triple with the long mark retired and a flyer as the go-bird. Then you ran a blind, and then you honored.

Laddie, running #1, nailed the go-bird flyer and the middle bird, running both better than any other dog I watched. The retired bird was thrown from a runway of grass into a soybean patch, not too hard for the later dogs once the path thru the soybeans was worn down a little, but more of a challenge for the test dog, Laddie, and the other early dogs. Laddie took a great line, but veered onto the runway, then homed in on the bird with little difficulty, never getting behind the gun station despite the fact that the gunner was retired. Laddie also ran the blind well.

Then he broke on the honor, ending our day. Gaby, who was here because she lives nearby and knows several of the trainers, said that several people told her the flyer Laddie had to honor was extremely difficult: lots of feathers flying, lots of flapping on the way down, lots of white belly flashing. In addition, the honor position was difficult: on the flyer side, with the honoring dog closer to the flyer than the working dog. It was too hard for Laddie.

I guess all those practices with Dave aren't doing the job.  Not surprising perhaps.  We practice singles or flower-pot doubles instead of triples.  We practice with small birds -- chukars, pigeons -- but see only ducks in trials.  Since I don't have anyone to run Lumi for me, I have to remote-honor Laddie while I run Lumi.  We use short distances and lots of noise to try to create excitement, but it's hardly the same picture as an FT triple. Those practice setups might actually be more difficult than a Qual honor, but nonetheless, we're not practicing what we see in a trial.

De-vocalizing water blinds

[For now, this is another unedited concatenation of tweets on @LindsayRidgeway.]

Cheltenham

Laddie and I trained with Gaby and Gus. Lumi also got to run some water retrieves, and I think Gaby ran Wes a little after I left for home. Laddie and Gus both having confidence issues on water retrieves. For Laddie, my main concern right now is his vocalizing on casts. To work on that, we ran at two venues, with two set-ups at each venue, one with shoreline on left and one with shoreline on right. For each setup, a pile of white bumpers was visible on the shore across a cove at approx 20y, and a duck was planted on the enclosed shoreline, so that the line to the duck was at least 15 degrees inside the line to the white bumpers. The handler had the working dog watch from the start line as the other trainer placed the bumpers and the duck. Then the handler brought the dog behind a holding blind, and then brought the dog back out to run the set-up. The dog was sent to pick up one of the WBs as a freebie (no handling) a random number of times, at least twice. Then the dog was sent in that direction again, but when the dog got about halfway across the cove, the handler blew whistle-sit and cast the dog to the duck. I used silent casts for Laddie. For all retrieves, we used the double-alignment line mechanics suggested to me by my friend Tony, and for retrieves with the duck, we worked on delivery mechanics by moving our hands around the duck as the dog held it for delivery before actually taking the duck, this to strengthen the dog's hold. We'd also touch the dog's muzzle and chest, and the duck itself, before taking the duck. Gaby would use Gus's verbal release cue ("leave it"). Laddie has a verbal release cue ("out"), but it wasn't necessary. In any case, despite the auxiliary parts of the process, our primary goal for both dogs was to instill confidence in running these blinds. In Laddie's case, the primary symptom I was focused on was Laddie vocalizing when I used a whistle sit and/or a cast. Since I'm operating on the assumption that Laddie's vocalizing is a classical rather than an operant response, I'm attempting to eliminate the classical stimulus (uncertainty, stress) from the context, in the hope that that will eliminate the vocalizing. On the first set-up, Laddie made a low whining sound when I blew whistle sit. But he didn't vocalize on any of the other whistle sits, nor any of the casts in any of the set-ups, so it was an encouraging session. Oh, another important part of this drill was that the duck was planted so that the dog had a difficult angle entry, and a tight shoreline swim, for the dog's return after picking up the duck. When Laddie would enter the water with the duck, I'd fire my pistol, which seems to be a high-value reinforcer for Laddie. In some cases, I'd also run away in mock terror, introducing a merry chase for Laddie when he reached shore. And in some cases, Gaby and I would throw the duck back in the water for the dog after taking delivery. All of this had several objectives: to improve the dog's attitude and performance on the returns and deliveries, and also to sweeten the pot for taking the cast to the duck after initially being sent to the WB. Gaby and I both felt our dogs benefitted from this drill and plan to run it some more, gradually transitioning over a series of incremental steps toward practicing cold blinds such as those the dogs will run in tests and trials in the future. Our intent is that if we can establish confident and unstressed performance in this drill, and we perform the transition gradually and slowly enough, we'll be able to resolve our dogs' confidence & performance issues in competition water series.

Laddie's Fifth Master Test

[At present, this is nothing more than the stream of my tweets on @LindsayRidgeway for the two days of the test, with a couple of minor spelling corrections. It requires a great deal of editing to be a satisfactory blog post, but I simply don't have time. I'm posting it in this form just as a starting point, and will attempt to edit it when I have more time. If I had known in advance that we wouldn't pass, I wouldn't have bothered with so much detail on the test description. I just tweeted it because I wanted the information for a detailed post if Laddie passed.]

MAY 21
Seaford, DE. Susquehanna Hunt Test,Master B. 125 dogs in Master. Laddie is #13. A) Land triple with flyer as go-bird, plus land blind. Walk-up. First mark on the right, throw with a winger on an angle back in tree grove. Second mark 180 deg to the left, thrown with a winger LTR onto front of a mound. Third mark 150 deg back to the right, a flyer thrown RTL to base of tree, in high cover, with to the fall past a mound on the left. No direct line from SL to the first fall, by the way, because of fallen tree. If dog goes around on the left (that's what most dogs did) dog is on line toward flyer station at same distance as the fall for #1. If dog goes around on right (Laddie only dog I saw do that), dog goes behind #1 station and also can see pond on right. This was relevant because Laddie had had his tongue lolling out for 20 mins, but had not been willing to drink water before his series. He has a history of detouring to ponds on returns when he's hot. First time to the line, the first bird was thrown into a tree, so judges called a no-bird. Second time, we got clean throws. Laddie nailed the flyer and#2. As mentioned, he took an unusual route to #1, but as one of the spectators commented, he knew where the bird was the whole time. He came back that same way, but it was a poor return because he was clearly tempted to take that last mark for a swim. However, he did finally bring me the bird without too much of a detour, though it was slow. The blind involved threading the needle thru a stand of trees, with the bird planted behind a dead shrub on the front of a mound. I did not attempt Tony's suggested new line mechanics, but I did try to minimize our time lining up. Laddie was only dog I saw who took such a good line from the SL (which was between the original SL and the first gun station) that he did not to be handled thru the stand of trees. He came even with the blind just a yard or two to the right, so I blew whistle sit and gave easy cast to the left. "You're all right. He marked the bird, he knew where it was." Laddie's heeling was pretty out of control, and he had that poor return so I'm not completely confident we'll be called back, but we'll see. Oh, one more thing: the diversion shot for the blind was made from the #1 gun station. For most dogs, this was heard behind the dog on the dog's return from the last memory bird. But for Laddie, Later, I saw other dogs go around the obstacle to #1 on the right, and other dogs get thru trees on blind without handling. So Laddie he was past the gun station and behind it, still thinking about going swimming, when the judge called for the diversion shot. I don't know whether that affected Laddie's performance differently than the shot affected other dogs, but to me it does suggest that the issues could prevent a call back. This is a long, slow series. I don't know whether they'll run Series B today. judge was impatient with Laddie's return route and reluctance to give up his intent to go swimming. I could imagine that some of those wasn't alone for either of those. I just heard from someone that the flyer's entrails were hanging out on Laddie's flyer. I'm sure that was from the shotguns. I was wondering why Laddie was standing over that bird until I blew a come-in whistle. I hope the judges don't blame Laddie for it. Laddie got called back to the second series...yay! Had a lot of company: 60 dogs ran, 55 were called back. They've started Series B, but they're rotating the running order, starting with #20 this afternoon, so Laddie at #13 won't run till midday tomorrow. I can describe Series B now: Water double with two water blinds. No flyers. The memory bird is winning water, the other three retrieves are swimming depth. Not much opportunity to cheat, one fairly wide keyhole for the shorter blind. The honor is fairly difficult, since the running dog runs in front of the honoring dog, but not that bad since no flyer. If Laddie has a problem on anything besides his returns, I'll be surprised. If course, I'm hoping his returns will be good, too.

MAY 22
I had a scary thought around 8:00 pm last night, and saw it was still fairly light out: What if the test organizers figured out a way to finish Series B last night, and already had callbacks?

We are headed home. Laddie dropped the bird several times on his returns from marks, had several cast refusals, and barked in seeming protest on every cast in water The judge did not let him run the second blind. I now feel he is not ready to run a Master water series. This was an easy one. Oh, I think the judges also said that Laddie had a pop. I didn't notice that with everything else he was doing.

Walk-ups, water blind, and land triple plus double blind

Rolling Ridge

Sunny, 60°, training with Nate.

SERIES A. Walk-up diversion with water blind

As Laddie and I came from behind a holding blind, Nate was hiding behind a nearby stand of trees. Without warning, he fired pistol and threw a white bumper. Trajectory of throw was behind another tree, then into a depression. I then cued "sit", swung Laddie to my other side, and ran him on a big water blind, which he lined without popping. Then he picked up the diversion mark.

SERIES B. Walk-up land triple plus two blinds

First mark was thrown RTL on a walk-up from behind trees at the right edge of the field and into a ditch, with the thrower on my right and Laddie on my left. I had planned to have Laddie facing in Nate's direction by the time he threw, but he threw too soon.  Laddie heard the pistol shot but did not look past my knees fast enough to see the throw, which though not planned was actually a good thing for us to work on, since an unseen first throw of a triple was the same situation that led to our being dropped in our last test. The Bumper Boy for the second throw was in line with the first mark, thrown RTL like the first throw, so that the first two marks were a hip pocket double. The third mark was the longest, thrown LTR across a ditch 90° to the left of the second fall. I ran Laddie in reverse order of the throws, which also had unusual result of being longest first, shortest last.  After Laddie picked up #3 and #2, I lined him up carefully for #1, the mark he had not seen, and sent him on "back" rather than his name as though it were a blind, but he nailed it without a need for handling.

The line to the first blind ran near the fall of the first mark, then a little behind the Bumper Boy used for second mark.  Just past the BB, the line ran to the left of a tree, forming a diagonal keyhole with the BB, then across an old driveway.

The second blind was on a line between the second and third marks, across a ditch, then to the right of a pile of downed trees. Just past the pile, the dog had to be stopped and cast left behind the pile and thru underbrush in front of a tree, making it a sideways keyhole. Coming out of the underbrush, the dog had to be stopped again and cast straight back, keeping to the left of the tree, then across a dirt road. The blind was in a depression beyond the road.

I tried my best to create challenging situations in this session, but Laddie made everything look easy all day.

De-popping on water marks

Rolling Ridge

Today was sunny with temps in the 70s, though the ground was soaked from torrential rain last night.

I decided to start Laddie's session with a big water triple.  I thought the marks might be a bit challenging, and Laddie would also get in some conditioning.  I even brought Lumi along for some water retrieves with one of her puppy bumpers.  She was injured recently and shouldn't be doing much land activity, but I thought the swimming would be good for her.

It turned out, however, that Laddie's work turned into one of our most intense sessions, while Lumi was primarily interested in playing tug with me when I had a spare moment.  :0)

The reason for the intensity was that the set-up I designed happened to trigger pops on two of the retrieves. I didn't plan it that way, but once it happened, I decided to take advantage of the situation to really work with Laddie on it.

The strategy I chose was somewhat controversial based on conversations I've had with others on the subject of popping in the past.  The problem was that I've already tried freezing when Laddie looks at me, and I've also tried calling "back" when he turns or, if possible, just as he's starting to turn.  I haven't noticed either strategy causing Laddie's popping to diminish.  I don't think either one set up a structure of operant outcomes that produced changes in behavior.  Worse, I was and am concerned that the behavior was becoming somewhat habitual because it has gone on for so long, however rarely.

So I decided on this strategy: At the moment that Laddie turned to face me, I would call him back to me.  In some cases, I'd then leave him at the SL, run/walk around the pond to where the mark was, show it to him or re-throw it, run/walk back to the SL, and send him again.  In other cases, I'd just spend some time with him lining him up and chatting to him for encouragement, and then send him out again.

The reason that's a controversial strategy is that a trainer might be concerned that being called back — quitting and returning to Daddy's side — is exactly what the dog is hoping for when the dog pops, so calling the dog back would act as reinforcement for popping.  Today's work showed in no uncertain terms that that is not the case with Laddie. To Laddie, it meant having to come back without the bumper, which is highly undesirable to him, and worse, it meant having to make another long swim back, and then another long swim out, just to get back to where he was when he popped.

Laddie and I worked on this for a long time, I'd estimate six attempts on each of the two retrieves where he popped before he made it all the way across without popping.  The swim was a good hundred yards, so Laddie got in a great deal of swimming, more than I had planned on and enough that by the end, I think he was starting to be a bit tired.

He was also frustrated enough to yelp a few of the later times I sent him.  And as he started his long swim, a couple of times he barked, as if talking to himself and reminding himself not to look around this time.

It was fascinating watching Laddie fight his urge to turn around and look at me.  In the later outruns, getting closer and closer to a full traversal of the pond, he would start to turn, then catch himself and turn back toward his destination.  These visible displays showed how habitual the popping behavior has become, and it showed how effective today's callbacks were in training him not to pop.  Apparently he figured out fairly early in the day that it was the pop that was causing me to call him back and repeat the send-out, but then the urge to pop would take precedence and he'd lose that battle.  As with any extinction process, he also needed to learn that I was being 100% consistent, and that no pop would result in being permitted to continue that outrun.

The fact that he finally made it across for the first retrieve, but then had to relearn not to pop all over again on the second one immediately afterwards, shows how ingrained this behavior has become and how difficult it was for Laddie to combat it.  I looked for every way to further reward his eventual success, running around to meet him on the side of the pond so that he didn't have to swim all the way back, and of course lots of extrinsic reinforcement as he reached me.

But before those successes, the amount of swimming and frustration were clearly grueling for Laddie, not the kind of day I'd want him to have very often. It was also grueling for me, first because I felt deeply for the frustration Laddie was experiencing, and second, because of my own physical exertion when I sped out to show him the marks and back again to re-run him.

By the way, apparently the trigger for popping on today's marks was a combination of two factors.  One factor was the fact that the fall was either invisible (one of the marks was behind a stretch of reeds) or had a confusing picture (the second mark was among a repetitious assortment of saplings and debris on the hillside beyond the pond).   The other factor was the big water.

I'm not sure that a confusing fall and distance are what cause popping when Laddie does it on land, but it's a working hypothesis.

I'm also not certain that a callback on land would work as well to discourage popping, since that's a lot easier for Laddie to carry out.  However, a Walk Out, the same mechanism I've used to discourage refused whistle sits and delayed water entries on returns, might be the ticket for land popping if we can find a set-up that triggers it.

Meanwhile, over the next few days, I'll try Laddie out on more set-ups like today's, though not every day in a row, lest he suffer any damage to his motivation.  I'd certainly like to stamp out this problem entirely, and get Laddie to the point where the habit is gone, and he can just focus on carrying out the retrieve without having to fight an urge that costs him.  But I just have to remind myself that we don't have to keep working on such an uncomfortable project day after day, we can spread the training out and have some easier sessions in between.

CORRESPONDENCE WITH A FRIEND ABOUT THIS POST

On Apr 19, 2011, at 9:15 AM, Jody wrote:

My thought is the fact that you "forced" him to do it correctly is a good thing.  Laddie hasn't had much force work (or you could call it pressure) of any kind.  This should help him understand that he is to do what he's "told" to do.

Good job in my opinion.

On Apr 19, 2011, at 9:30 AM, Lindsay wrote:

Hi, Jody.  In terms of OC, I think it's no different from interrupting an unsuccessful trial -- the no-reward marker was "Nope, come on back".  However, it shows that +R training can be unpleasant at times, no matter how much we try to make it a positive experience.  Frustration, and in this case some physical exertion, still occur.  I saw no way to obtain a high success rate on this particular session once we started, though ordinarily that's a mainstay of our training.

I didn't mention in the post -- I probably should -- that there wasn't the least recrimination when I would call Laddie back, and I praised him when he would get back for responding.  To be honest, I was immensely proud of the spirit Laddie brought to this session.  I wish the learning could have been easier for him.

If I had had access to more variety of water, and if I had anticipated the popping, it's possible I could have found a smaller crossing to work on first.  But I don't know that that would have triggered the pop, and I also would not have want to quit venue A, to switch to easier venue B, once he did pop at venue A.  I think switching might have reinforced the pop -- "Oh, if it's too hard, you can give up on it and we'll find something easier and more fun for you to do instead."  Nope, we'll just have to keep trying -- it was getting dark and I was soaked from Laddie's shaking off by the time we quit -- until you can do the job.

Thanks for your feedback, Jody.  It always means so much to me.

Laddie's Third Master Test

Remington, VA

I'm afraid Laddie is now 0 for 3 in Master Hunt Tests.  I see little advantage on dwelling on yesterday's event, but for the record, here's a brief description.

Basically, Laddie had no trouble with the first series, a land triple plus honor, though one clue about what was eventually to come did appear: During the honor, Laddie was far more interested in sniffing the ground around him than in the test that the working dog was about to run. He did look up when the guns started firing, but by Laddie standards, it was practically an afterthought.

Because of test logistics, we had a long delay between the first and second series, and Laddie was one of the last dogs in the running order when the lengthy second series did begin. As a result, I took Laddie out of his crate several times that morning. He exhibited similarly distracted behavior whenever I aired him: Instead of his usual ball/bumper obsession, all he wanted to do was follow scents, and in certain locations that he found, intensely sniff and even lick the ground.

Talking to the other handlers, I learned that one of the female dogs had been in heat recently, though was supposedly past that. Apparently someone forgot to tell Laddie.

The second series was a land/water triple with a walk-up and a flyer, plus two blinds. Although it was not a gimme, I didn't expect Laddie to have trouble with it

However, during the walk-up, he caught a scent and rushed forward ahead of me, nose to the ground. When he reached the start line tape a split second later, the judge called for the first bird, an angle back LTR from a nearby hidden gun way to the left of the field, thrown with a winger into reeds just beyond the embankment of the closest shoreline at 20y. This mark was intended to take the dog by surprise and happen very quickly.  Laddie looked up too late and never saw the fall. He then watched the center throw across the pond, thrown LTR at 90y from a gun station 30 degrees to the right of the first mark, and a flyer 180 degrees from the first mark and thrown from behind a sprawling stand of trees RTL at 60y.

Laddie picked up the flyer, and then, like all the previous handlers, I lined him up on the very short first mark. In retrospect, that was a mistake. Although I couldn't tell from Laddie's body language — perhaps a more experienced handler could have — Laddie had not seen that bird and did not know where it was, while he actually did know where the long mark was. Therefore, I now think I should have run him on the long mark first, though no previous handler had run the series that way. Once that was out of the way, and Laddie's mind was cleared about the long mark, I should have treated the short bird as a blind, cueing "dead bird" and sending him with "back".  Laddie and I had actually had a similar situation at a training day a few weeks ago, and I had come to the same conclusion of how to handle such a situation, but I didn't recognize that that's what I was seeing during yesterday's test, and didn't follow my earlier advice to myself.

Instead, I lined Laddie up on the short mark, saw that he was locked in, and sent him on his name. He ran the correct line till he got near the shoreline, and if the bird had been visible, we'd have been OK. But he neither saw it nor scented it, and immediately veered right and leapt into the water. I let him go for awhile, but he seemed confused, apparently struggling with whether to loop back to the mystery bird I'd sent him toward, or take matters into his own hands and go out to pick up the long bird. It was beginning to look like he might get called for a switch, since he had already been pretty close to the short fall, so I decided I better handle him.

Now of course Laddie has had a ton of handling, and I've often handled him on marks without difficulty when needed. But this situation where he's sent to a bird that he apparently knows he was supposed to have seen but doesn't know where it is seems to really mess with his mind, and he handled poorly. He just didn't seem able to believe I knew where the bird was. He eventually did pick up the bird, and then ran a nice mark to the center bird, as good as any dog had done on that rather difficult mark, which had knocked several dogs out. But the judges wouldn't let Laddie run the blind, because of the refusals during handling to the short mark.

I won't describe the land and water blinds, but I don't think Laddie would have had any trouble with them. I don't recall any dog going out because of the blinds.

Interrupted land triple, blinds with bulldogs

[Transcribed from @LindsayRidgeway tweets]

Rolling Ridge

Hazy, 86°, SW wind at 11 mph. Training with Nate again. With Master test coming up on Friday, today was mostly tune-up for that. My plan was to come up with something difficult, see what problems Laddie had, and use that info to plan work for rest of week. It didn't work. Laddie made mincemeat of both today's series

SERIES A. Interrupted land triple

First mark was on the right, a white bumper thrown by Nate RTL at 180y. Second mark was on the left, thrown by a Bumper Boy RTL at 80y. The third mark was on a line slightly to the left of the line to the second mark, thrown by a BB RTL at 30y. After the three marks were thrown but before any retrieves, I ran Laddie on a 170y blind on a line midway between the first and second marks. When Laddie returned with the blind, I sent him to the three marks in reverse order thrown. Nate retired behind a tree while Laddie was running the short mark on the left

The terrain on this field is hilly with uneven footing. in addition, each of the four retrieves had individual challenges:

• The blind was run after Laddie had seen three marks, and included an extremely tight keyhole near the end. Running a blind when marks are waiting to be picked can erode control, but Laddie did great.
• The short mark was thrown into high cover halfway up a steep slope, but its real challenge was to act as a diversion for the blind, to challenge Laddie's steadiness, and to act as a wiper-bird for the second mark. Laddie nailed it.
• The line to the second mark was up a steep hill, over a crest, and into a field of thick cover. The line was slightly to the right of the line to the first mark picked up. The BB was visible from the start line, but the fall was in high cover. Perhaps the most difficult part was that as Laddie was running up the slope, he could see only the crest of the hill above him. Laddie took a great line and absolutely nailed it.
• The long mark was fairly long, it was retired, and it was across a valley. Perhaps most difficult, it was a "bridge": Nate stood on one side of the wide ditch to throw to the other side, and Laddie needed to cross that ditch thru thick, high cover despite the picture of Nate in his memory being on the near side of the ditch. The configuration did not fool Laddie. He ran a beeline to the fall.

SERIES B. Land blind with bulldog

For the second series, I decided to try something Laddie and I have never practiced before, as far as I can remember: a "bulldog" thrown while Laddie was running a blind. A bulldog, as I understand it, is an article thrown while the dog is running another retrieve.  In the past, we've practiced bulldogs thrown while Laddie was returning from a mark.  A blind combined with a bulldog was new to us, but Alice mentioned it as a Master test possibility in recent correspondence, so I thought we'd give Laddie, and me, a chance to get a little experience with it.  In Series B, I just wanted to show Laddie the concept.  Then in Series C, we'd do it with a more difficult blind.

With Laddie in the crate and unable to see the set-up, I positioned Nate behind an old shed on the left and 30y from the start line. I then ran Laddie on an easy 40y blind toward the right and halfway up an embankment. As soon as Laddie had taken a few steps, Nate blew the duck-call fired a shot, and threw a white bumper LTR toward Laddie, so that it fell about 20y from Laddie. Laddie turned to look, took a couple of steps toward the bumper, them froze. I blew a sit-whistle, which I should have done sooner, then cast him up the hill to the blind, a cast he took without hesitation and with his usual exuberance. When he returned with the blind, I sent him to pick up the bulldog Nate had thrown.

TODAY'S LESSON. I don't know whether Laddie really needed this practice, but I'm glad I didn't wait for a test to try it out.  After seeing what happened, I realized that if we ever get one of these, I need to get myself ready to blow the whistle as soon as required, and not wait till Rocket Dog darts toward the diversion to think about getting my whistle ready.

SERIES C. Water blind with bulldog

Now we were ready to try a more realistic series. Again with Laddie in the crate and unable to watch, I set Nate up behind a holding blind at the top of the embankment on the right of the pond. I then ran Laddie on a water blind with a land segment, an angle entry, and the wind blowing straight into our faces. Laddie made a great entry, and after he had swum a short distance, Nate blew the duck-call, fired the pistol, and threw a white bumper down the embankment toward Laddie. It was supposed to splash but landed on the grass at water's edge. Laddie barely took notice of it.

A short time later, near the end of the blind and 80y from the start line, Laddie had to take handling thru a 3' wide keyhole, consisting of an aluminum pumping unit on the left, and a patch of reeds on the right, with the shoreline just the other side of the reeds. Laddie zigzagged a couple of times, trying to avoid swimming so close to the aluminum pump-housing, but he stayed in control and soon took a "back" cast thru the keyhole, to shore, and up the embankment to the blind. He also did a nice job of getting back in the water and swimming back, detouring around the pump on the water side.

As frosting on the cake, he then took a thin slice of water with a very sharp angle entry, rather than running the bank, when I sent him to pick up the bulldog

Laddie did a nice job today, IMO.

Walk-up diversions, de-popping

[Transcribed from @LindsayRidgeway tweets]

Rolling Ridge

Nate came out to throw for us (yay!). Overcast, 53°, wind calm.

First, a couple of walk-up diversions, then, for balance, a couple of de-popping marks. Details:

A) Using my van as a holding blind, began walking toward right of field. Nate, from behind holding blind on the right at 30y, blows duck-call excitedly, fires pistol twice and throws white bumper LTR into open area in clear sight of dog. Instead of sending dog to that mark, I run Laddie on difficult 110y water blind to the left, featuring sharp angle entry after steep descent down embankment, shoreline suction, and several geese on water who are giving ground only reluctantly. After blind, Laddie is sent to diversion.

Judging by Laddie's vocalizations, this was a frustrating set-up for Laddie, but he showed excellent control on the blind.

LESSON: In this series, I learned that the key to keeping Laddie from breaking to the diversion bird when I'm trying to swing him to my other side to run the blind first, is the same as preventing a dog from breaking after a no-bird is called, namely, an emphatic "sit" as many times as needed for dog's body language to show he/she is in control.

B) Again using the van as a holding blind for the walk-up, this time the diversion mark was thrown on the left side of the field, LTR at 60y. Then I ran Laddie on a difficult land blind on the right side of the field, on a line 45° to the right of the line to the diversion bird. The line to the blind featured two angle entries into high cover, rough footing, and wet, swampy terrain at the second area of high cover, with the blind planted on the far side of a shallow creek. I sent Laddie to pick up the diversion bird (white bumper) after running the blind.

C) 350y mark thrown first, then a short throw to the side. Long gunner retires while dog picks up the short mark. Line to long mark hilly, includes run along side slope, and ends in large field of high cover. Design intended to maximize uncertainty, requiring dog not to pop despite that uncertainty. Laddie did nice job, needed longish hunt in high cover without leaving area of the fall, and most importantly for this exercise, never looked toward start line, that is, never popped.

D) Similar set-up to (C) but mirror image, 320y. This time, the line to the mark crossed a creek and thick underbrush. Laddie ran this with great confidence, seemingly completely unconcerned, possibly unaware, that gunner was retired. Nice ending to an excellent session.

Angle entries, shoreline blinds, de-popping

[Transcribed from @LindsayRidgeway tweets]

Rolling Ridge

Overcast, 50°.

Six retrieves total, in pairs, each pair made up of mirror images:

• Pair 1: Poorman water marks with pistol shot, very sharp angle entry after land segment, easy and obvious cheat. This was the goal of our skimming drills last year, and Laddie did fine, as he had in last weekend's Master test on a similar entry.
• Pair 2: Shoreline water blinds.
• Pair 3: De-popping drill, one retrieve at 400y, the other at 270y. Set up as follows: I planted stickman, with white bumper 10y to the side. I then walked with Laddie to our start line and brought him to heel on the same side as the bumper was to the stickman. I stepped away, fired pistol, holstered it and stepped back next to Laddie. I lined him up, got him locked into the stickman, and sent him on his name. For each retrieve, the line took him across a steep valley and thru high cover and ditches with run-depth water, and more importantly, thru long segments where the stickman was not visible on other side of a crest. The intent was for Laddie to face uncertainty as he ran -- he hadn't seen a throw, and now he couldn't even see the "thrower" -- without turning to me for guidance.

Laddie did an outstanding job all day, including Pair 3, where he not only did not pop, but also never got "behind" the gun. That is, he kept to the same side of the imaginary line running from me to the stickman, from the time he left the start line till he had picked up the bumper.

Laddie's second Master test

Cullen, Virginia

The Tidewater event in which Laddie JAM'ed yesterday also included a Master test today.  I entered Laddie in the Master test as well, making it his second Master test after his first one last fall.

Here's a description I sent responding to an email inquiry:

In the Master test, Laddie went out on the first series, on something I've never seen before, and of course never practiced: a walk-up diversion bird (at 50y or so).  The judge even called Laddie's number to make it more like a mark.  When I tried to signal Laddie to swing around for a water blind, he broke to the diversion bird, and wouldn't stop when I called "Here" repeatedly.  Eventually he did come back without the bird.  I had turned away and didn't see, but knowing Laddie, he probably wanted to satisfy his curiosity that he knew where it was before he came back.

Aside from that, Laddie did an excellent job on the complex but rather easy series.  It started with a land-water double with a flyer.  He nailed the flyer go-bird, then nailed the water memory-bird, which included 60 yards of land with a terrain change, a sharp angle water entry with an easy and obvious cheat to the left, onto a peninsula, and then off the peninsula back into the water to a fall that was not visible from the start line.  To me, Laddie's performance on that water mark was one of the highlights of his competitive career, even though he did go out on the diversion bird.

For completeness, I'll describe the rest of the series.  After the land water double, you received the bird in the holding blind.  Then you came out for the walk-up diversion and then ran a water blind that was almost the same line as the previous water mark, except this time you pushed all the way across the second cove and picked up the bird on the far shoreline.  When you got back with that bird, you had a choice of order on the last two retrieves: picking up the diversion bird (which everyone did first), and a small land blind 15 degrees to the left of the diversion bird.  Finally, you honored the land-water double for the next dog.

After Laddie broke on the diversion bird, the judge was kind enough to let me run him on the rest of the series, before honoring on lead.  Laddie did everything well.

Laddie's First Field Trial

Cullen, Virginia


Today Laddie ran in the Tidewater Owner/Handler Qualifying Stake, the first Field Trial event Laddie or I has ever participated in.  During the day, I tweeted descriptions of each series and summarized the performance of the field in general and Laddie in particular on my Twitter feed @LindsayRidgeway.  This post is an edited version of those tweets, with additional detail added.


Weather today: Temps  were high 30s to low 50s, with the wind making it feel even colder.  That's rather cold for running a dog in water, and the field's performance in Series C and D reflected it.  The sky was overcast in the morning, and it felt like we might have snow, though we didn't. By afternoon, it was mostly cloudy with a little sun.


The trial was run at an excellent property called the Virginia Retriever Benefit Grounds.  It was difficult for me because the ground there is uneven and I'm dealing with a sprained ankle, but I enjoyed the opportunity to run Laddie there.


For this event, mallards were used for all marks and blinds.  Laddie hasn't trained with a duck since last fall, so I anticipated we might have some problems, but except for him spitting his flyer out 10 yards in front of the start line in the first series, and having to be cued to pick it back up to deliver, the birds didn't seem to present much problem.


For those who have followed Laddie's development, you'll know that returns have been a major challenge.  We seem perhaps to be over that phase.


I might mention that Laddie was not the only dog in today's Q to do that.  In his case, the way he was working his mouth seemed to indicate that he was having trouble with loose feathers, but he responded well when I called him to me.  During the rest of the event, I cued "Hold" as he returned on most of the other retrieves — no one else was doing that with their dogs, but I felt it prudent for Laddie — and he didn't drop any other birds.


SERIES A. Land triple


All throws were left-to-right. The first mark was on the right at 150y, and was a retired gun.  The second mark was in the center at 140y.  The third mark, the go-bird, was a flyer at 70y.


The shooters for the flyer were excellent.  Not only didn't they lose a single bird, they also dropped almost all of them in a small patch of high cover as the judges had requested.  Despite the fall in cover, this was a pretty easy mark for most of the dogs including Laddie, but at least one dog had a controlled break — 70y is on the short side for a Field Trial mark — and the owner withdrew rather than let the dog be reinforced for breaking by getting to retrieve the flyer.  That was good discipline by the handler, I thought.  It's not easy to walk away if the judges haven't disqualified you. 


Once the dogs had picked up the go-bird, the series presented the handler with a quandary — whether to run the marks in the exact reverse order thrown, or in the sequence outer-outer-center, often used when the two memory birds are about the same distance.  The field of handlers split about evenly on this.  I've thought about what to do in such situations if I ever ran Laddie in a Field Trial, and decided that my rule is: If the dog really wants a particular mark as the second retrieve, let the dog choose.  If not, run the easier mark first.  If they seem equally difficult, run them in the reverse order thrown.  Since this was our first Field Trial, it was my first chance to try those rules out.  Laddie didn't care which mark to run second, and they looked equally difficult to me, in different ways.  So the last rule applied in this case.


The second mark thrown, and thus for Laddie also the second mark retrieved, was thrown downhill and on an angle back into high cover.  The line to the fall was along the side of a slope, and at least half the dogs veered left to the top of that slope and ran along the crest, toward the gun rather than the fall.  In most cases, they then turned right to run down the hill and pick up the bird, though a few got further left behind the gun and at least one ended up returning to the fall of the first mark and had to be called in without completing the retrieve.  Laddie ran this mark, which I guess most handlers thought was the most difficult of the three, exceptionally well, carrying the slope without veering offline, entering the high cover without hesitation, and "stepping on the bird," as they say.


The last mark for Laddie to retrieve, the retired gun on the right, was challenging for all the dogs because the picture was of a repeating pattern of evenly spaced trees, with lots of open space behind and to the right of the fall.  With few exceptions, dogs ran too far to the right, and of those, the more successful ones winded the bird as they came even with it and hunted it up.  Laddie was one of the dogs who ran it that way, coming even with the fall about 10y to the right, winding it and hunting it up.  I saw one dog nail that mark, maybe one or two others did when I wasn't watching.


Before ending my description of Series A, I might mention that the configuration of the two marks on the left was a "hip-pocket double".  This means that both marks are thrown in the same direction, and the closer mark, thrown from a wider position, looks as though it's being thrown into the hip pocket of the thrower for the longer mark if viewed in two dimensions.  Of course actually the thrower for the longer mark is much further back than the shorter fall.  This can be a confusing picture for a dog, but Laddie has been practicing it periodically since he was a puppy so it didn't seem to be a problem for him.  I'm not sure that in this series, with this field, it was a problem for any of the dogs.


Summary of the field's and Laddie's performance for Series A: Thirty-two dogs were entered in this stake, 28 ran Series A, and 22 were "called back", that is, still in contention and carried to the next series.  Laddie was one of those 22.  He had been called back in his first Field Trial series.  Yay!


SERIES B. Land blind


Series B was a 160y land blind.  I gather it was fairly typical for a Q land blind, crossing a steep valley and running beside underbrush and other suction to the left.  One feature Laddie and I have never seen before, in an event nor in group or club training, was an obstacle making it impossible for the dog to hold a line straight to the blind, in this case a fallen shrub about 15y in front of the start line.  Another feature, much more common but nonetheless challenging, was a keyhole, in this case formed by a narrow gap in a stand of saplings, an unusually close keyhole at 30y.  The combination of the closely spaced obstacle and keyhole was a bit tricky and a couple of dogs did skirt the keyhole and were eliminated.  I'd say Laddie was about middle of the pack in his performance on this blind.


Summary of the field's and Laddie's performance for Series B: Twenty of the 22 dogs that ran Series B were called back for Series C, including Laddie.


SERIES C. Water blind


Series C was a 120y shoreline water blind, with 50 yards of land and a sharply angled water entry thru high reeds at water's edge, plus an on-and-off point mid-way that the judges had said was non-optional.  I think those features alone made it a fairly challenging blind, though not highly unusual for an advanced stake.  However, today's weather conditions — the icy cold water of early spring, and a strong wind blowing off the water onto the shoreline — raised the difficulty level significantly.  In fact, so many dogs went out-of-control behind a stand of reeds on the back of the point without a single dog qualifying that at one point, as I understand it, the judges considered scrapping the test.


However, eventually several dogs did run this blind satisfactorily, perhaps none better than Laddie.  We had the advantage of running late in the rotation in this series (the running order is rotated in a Field Trial), so by the time I ran Laddie, I had watched the problems other dogs had and had made up my mind that no "back" cast would pass my lips.  Living solely by "over", Laddie didn't have much trouble with it.

Summary of the field's and Laddie's performance for Series C: Ten of the 20 dogs that ran Series C were called back for Series D, including Laddie.

SERIES D. Water double

Series D was another hip-pocket double, a tight double with both marks thrown right to left.  The first mark was on the left, 130y with a short, easy land entry and a long, arduous swim in that icy cold water.  The second mark, the go-bird, was on the right, thrown by a winger into the open water of a cove at 40y.

The go-bird presented little challenge except to steadiness for a few dogs, but the line to that mark perhaps established an undesirable precedent for swimming toward the reed-bordered point of land that formed the back shore of that front cove.

The memory-bird was more challenging.  First, the thrower was barely visible on the back shore, appearing just left of the stand of reeds at the end of the point of land midway across.  Second, as mentioned previously, the water was intensely cold, and a strong wind was blowing across the water, so that both wind and waves pushed the dog hard toward that point.  With such a long swim for water that cold, most dogs ran that mark by starting on a line toward the fall, then veering with the wind and waves to the point, and finally running the bank around a second cove not visible from the start line to finally run past the thrower on the far shore and pick up the bird.  At that point, most handlers attempted to whistle the dog into the water for the return with the bird, but I don't know if a single dog took that cast, most or all of them running the bank again in the opposite direction to get around that back cove.

The owner of the ultimate winner of this stake told me that the dog has a habitual "banana" running pattern which sometimes causes problems, but in this case was beneficial, as the dog safely rounded the point to the left and homed in on the fall without ever going near the thrower.  I didn't see all the dogs run, but I take it that at least two others also swam past that point, though they ended up too far inside and required a little more hunt than the ultimate winner had.

Though it wasn't the best performance of the day on that last mark overall, Laddie's performance on that mark showed courage.  He took a line into the water that gave him a reasonable chance of getting past the point, and then shouldered the wind and waves valiantly, visibly fighting to push left with every stroke.  I heard one of the judges quietly urging him on.  I don't think Laddie ever did give into the cold, but the current was just too strong on this day, and it finally pushed him onto the point.  But listen to this:  Once on land, he didn't run the bank around to the right as the others had once on land, but rather got back into the water to swim across the back cove.  Unfortunately, he was too far to the right, which brought him to shore behind the thrower, but from that landing he ran immediately to the bird and picked it up, ready to complete the retrieve.  I felt it was a brave performance, though not quite good enough for a placement in the final standings.

I'll just mention one last point.  I was perhaps the only handler on Series C or D who did not attempt to whistle my dog into the water on the return.  As far as I know, it in no way hurts your score if the dog runs the bank on the return.  That's not always possible, and I guess many trainers believe that it hurts the dog's understanding of how to perform around water, but for me, it was a way of reinforcing Laddie for a job well done on getting to the bird thru the water in the first place.  "You needed to stay in the water on the way out, Sweetie, but take the faster, warmer, drier route back."  Considering that most dogs insisted on doing that in contradiction to the cues they were receiving anyway, I thought just cueing Laddie to do it from the outset made sense.  I think it could pay off in future performance, removing a disincentive to complete the outrun, then quickly pick up the bird and start back.  Perhaps this is more useful for a 2Q dog than it would be for a traditionally trained dog.

Summary of the field's and Laddie's performance for Series D: All ten of the dogs that ran Series D completed both retrieves, but with enough separation in quality of performance that the judges were able to award placements with little doubt of the outcome once all the dogs had run. The result was placements of First thru Fourth Place, plus a Reserve JAM, plus five JAMs.

The winner of today's Q was a 10-year-old Lab who years ago had become Qualified All-Age, but who had only won a Q that once and so was still eligible to run.  Ten years old!  Very cool.


Laddie was one of the dogs who received a JAM.


A Final Note on Laddie's Performance Today


If you're a retriever, getting past the first series, to say nothing of winning a JAM in your first Q, while not earth-shattering, is pretty cool. In addition, Labradors are historically more successful in Field Trials than other breeds — I've heard that 98% of FC/AFCs are Labs — and Laddie, not yet four years old, was the only Golden receiving a ribbon in this event.


Beyond that, Laddie is not only a retriever but also a 2Q-trained retriever.  That is, he has never been trained with physical aversives such as an ecollar, even for recall.  From that perspective, I believe he was in unchartered territory as soon as he got his first call-back in today's Q.  That was followed by two more call-backs, and finally a JAM.  In other words, Laddie completed every retrieve of his first Field Trial stake without a disqualifying error.  At that point, Laddie was even more steps down a road heretofore unvisited by positive field retrievers.


I believe the general consensus among experienced field trainers would be that a 2Q retriever couldn't do such a thing, so here's to Laddie for showing he could.