# Question on Blinds



## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Hi! It sounds like you are not following an established training method for blinds. In a word, you should be 
There are many out there. Mike Lardy's Total Retriever Training is the gold standard, Evan Graham's Smartworks very similar and very good, I have watched Rick Stawsky's Fowl Dogs videos and they are excellent also.
Training to run blinds is a rather detailed process, and the beginning stages are not necessarily what we perceive as intuitive to blind running. But they are absolutely necessary for the dog to develop the skills necessary for understanding and running cold blinds. 
Have you done these early steps? Pile work, FTP, 3HC, Single T, double T, pattern blinds, blind drills, pattern blinds with diversions, etc etc? 
IMO, running sight blinds and pattern blinds -- ESPECIALLY with a dog who missed these early and vital steps -- is only teaching the dog to run to a known and visible object. It is doing NOTHING for cold blinds, in fact it may hinder them in running cold blinds because they have been drilled to run to something they see. Running pattern blinds only builds confidence for running pattern blinds; running cold blinds builds confidence for running cold blinds -- but ONLY if the dog has the tools and the trainer has the knowledge on how to accomplish it -- available from earlier training.
If you have done the early steps (followed Lardy's flow chart) there could be things to recommend to improve attitude. However I feel it's detrimental to continue running sight blinds, this is giving you a false sense of security. 
Having said all that, one of my training partner's dogs (golden bitch) hated to repeat pattern blinds -- once we moved to cold blinds she loved them. It's like she was thinking, I just did that correctly, why are you making me do it again? However she stuck to Lardy's flowchart in training so she was well prepared to leave the pattern blind field and start on cold blinds.
Best of luck! Let us know how we can help.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

Anney hit the nail on the head. Teaching the dog to do blind retrieves is a process. There are many steps that need to be completed in sequence to develop a handling dog. There is more to it than lining.


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## RunsCreek (May 9, 2010)

I second Anney's response. Another resource to check out is "Finished Dog" by Charlie Jurney.

Chance


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