# Hunt and Field Training Plans for the Week of May 13-19



## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

What's up this week guys?

I'm trying to get a group training practice together here at my way cool designated dog training area on Wednesday morning. Got a few takers so far. Need to work on same old same old with the monster boy, his confidence on doubles. He's been improving steadily, so at least there's that.

Thursday we go to Dan's. We didn't go last week, and are not going next week. With the HRC Grand Hunt coming up he's really busy and it's hard to get together with him.

We are entered in tests next Saturday and Sunday in Michigan.


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

My Pro is heading out for The Grand this week. The really cool part is 3 training partners are entered and headed out too.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Continuing swim-by. Didn't work on it this weekend because our pond is located in a very popular park so it can be quite crowded.

Yesterday had fun training but it was really hot. It was in the 80s and the dogs sure felt it. After watching my friends dogs struggle, we decided to build the double we set-up (benefit of running last) so Scout ran four marks plus a blind. The memory bird proved tricky because of where it landed and not too far off we had planted a blind for the MH dog which sucked the younger dogs into the scent pool and away from the memory bird. In the end they figured it out, but it was a rough go. Because Scout had her double built she handled it a littler better.

The blind was a bit of a hack job as she was facing suction either to the bushes or was flaring the tree--not sure which. Plus, she was really hot and tired. On her way back from the blind she stopped and laid down in the shade. Because it was a messy blind I rested her then brought her out and re-ran it. Did one short single, then turned for the blind. Much better. Very nice line and only took one handle for a slight veer.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Yesterday I was beginning to feel like it would be an epic journey to make it through swim-by and today was the first morning I woke up so tired it made it hard to go to the park. But onward...and it paid off!

This morning was awesome and it gives me hope that I will be able to finish this thing in two weeks before I go on vacation. I identified the over pile twice, then sent her twice without identifying and she held her cast all the way out...even past the water and a few yards on land she was holding the cast. Good girlie. At the end I was able to even have her sit after she picked up a bumper from the back pile and cast her over to the side pile with it and drive her even farther across on land. It was smooth and clean. Getting there...slowly...and Scout was so happy and proud of herself the silly girl


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

Will continue to work on water issue that Jige developed recently. Yesterday at training we did water marks and the first time he went out no problem made me look like a liar for saying he was having issues. The second time the guys got to see what I was talking about. He needed coaxing to go in. He does go in on a longer marks but he is hesitating. I got soem different advice. I just wrote one of the trainers as he arrived late and I really wanted his input. I couldn't stay any longer well I could have but it was 10pm when we got home as it was. It would have been after 11 or close to midnight as we drive along ways and there is road constuction going on.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Bob and I trained water at Betsy's today. First set up a long double, ran the memory bird first as a single then put it together. Only snafu is I had Slater lined up and ready to send for the memory bird, right when I sent him he shook off and got all discombobulated. Lined him up and sent again and he did fine. Note to self : shake off before sending
We set up some challenging water blinds and I was really, really pleased with Slater's work. He is coming along in leaps and bounds. One was a very narrow, long channel and another was over a point, he lined the channel and carried his line over the point into the far water and kept on going --- SOOOO happy! 
Then he got a bath which was the low-light of his little day 
About to go take Fishie & Slaydoo for a walk.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I have a small group (4 of us) coming tomorrow to toss a few birds here. I think I will do a taught triple with Tito, it will be the first triple he's seen in a long time. Most likely I will run it as 3 singles, then a single and a double, then a triple, then maybe just one of the marks as a single. Have to see how he does.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Barb I am in the taught triple phase with Slater too. Really I keep this up with Fisher as well. Generally I only do the two memory birds as singles, or just the last/hardest memory bird as a single, then put it together. Unless the go-bird has some factor I think the dog may have an issue with (i.e. cheaty, tight to another gun, whatever) I don't run that as a single first. It has worked well for me. Have fun!


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Thanks Anney, I will do that tomorrow. You're right, it doesn't make sense to run the go-bird as a single! I was trying to figure out how to do this without running him a gazillion times (he has an agility private lesson tomorrow, too, because of the trials this coming weekend!) and that makes much more sense.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Nice training session here this morning. Everyone got some good work out of their dogs. Even the 13 week old puppy got his first birds!
I ran Tito on a taught triple. The go-bird was about 125 yards out, the 1st memory bird about 100 yards, and the second memory bird about 85 yards. Cover is knee deep (to a human) alfalfa. As per Anney's suggestion, I ran the 2nd memory bird as a single, then the 2 memory birds as a double, then the triple. He did a great job, I was totally pleased with him so we just ran 2 more singles, a nice 125 yard blind, and called it a day.


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## my4goldens (Jan 21, 2009)

hotel4dogs said:


> Nice training session here this morning. Everyone got some good work out of their dogs. Even the 13 week old puppy got his first birds!
> I ran Tito on a taught triple. The go-bird was about 125 yards out, the 1st memory bird about 100 yards, and the second memory bird about 85 yards. Cover is knee deep (to a human) alfalfa. As per Anney's suggestion, I ran the 2nd memory bird as a single, then the 2 memory birds as a double, then the triple. He did a great job, I was totally pleased with him so we just ran 2 more singles, a nice 125 yard blind, and called it a day.


Glad it went well. Who's puppy was there?


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Doing tune-up work with Breeze to bring back her line focus on water blinds. Coming out of her pseudopregnancy this is one of the areas she has been worried about so we have been doing some of Carol's "Drop, Lock, and Go" drill. Started water force with Bon-bon which is going really well--she looks out, locks on, and goes hard when sent to the pile. Then did some walk-around blinds with her on land, and a really simple water double to keep that marking element in balance. Distraction there was a family of geese with 7 goslings who were not pleased to have the dogs on "their" pond.
Cooler here today after a thunderstorm so we will be doing land work tonight.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Annette brought Jimmy's new golden puppy, Strut. He's a cutie!



my4goldens said:


> Glad it went well. Who's puppy was there?


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Good training for the girls last night. Since it was cool I took Bonnie back to the t-field and did disciplined casting with her. We had done everything else and then it got too warm for those kinds of running drills on land so we went to water force.

Then set up three marks of varying distances with a nice elevation change incorporated, and added in two big blinds for Breeze. She did the triple clean and with enthusiasm, and we had no hormone-head bugginess on the blinds. She looked out, locked on and responded well to whistles and casts. Bonnie did a nice job on her marks as well.

Then did the marks with my friends' dogs. They have waited to start two of them until they were almost a year old, and the third just came back from the co-owners kennel. No stamina and no work ethic after being allowed to just lounge about! They were also only using their eyes to hunt up the bumpers (not in an area were could use birds) so after the marks, we did a depth of fall drill with white and oragne bumpers to get them hunting more effectively once they made the AOF. And I seriously have to convince them they are just nagging their dogs, and letting the dogs run the show...


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Well I got a little ahead of myself yesterday with swimby since the previous day was awesome. Tried our first official swimby and it didn't go real smoothly. I was able to cast her back into the water from the pile but she had a very hard time holding it and wanted to angle in to the shore. So I had to take the bumper and throw it out back once or twice to get her to swim the length of the pond. So I decided to back up a little today and things were much better. I didn't try anymore casts back into the water after she picked up the side piles but I did mix them up and they did look nice. She did a great job of holding the over and not angling in all the way to the pile without me identifying them. Good girl. We're fighting a little anticipation now like I did with the single t but I am much better prepared to address it and consider it a minor issue (except that I really want to practice my overs, but she is telling me I need to send her to the back pile more--more than every other time--which limits how much we can do in a single day).


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

GoldenSail said:


> Well I got a little ahead of myself yesterday with swimby since the previous day was awesome. Tried our first official swimby and it didn't go real smoothly. I was able to cast her back into the water from the pile but she had a very hard time holding it and wanted to angle in to the shore. So I had to take the bumper and throw it out back once or twice to get her to swim the length of the pond. So I decided to back up a little today and things were much better. I didn't try anymore casts back into the water after she picked up the side piles but I did mix them up and they did look nice. She did a great job of holding the over and not angling in all the way to the pile without me identifying them. Good girl. We're fighting a little anticipation now like I did with the single t but I am much better prepared to address it and consider it a minor issue (except that I really want to practice my overs, but she is telling me I need to send her to the back pile more--more than every other time--which limits how much we can do in a single day).


Keeping that balance is important--most of the time you are going to want them carrying a line back and you want them going with confidence, so absolutely, MOST of your sends should be straight through.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

whew, we had an AWESOME training day at Dan's today.
Three things were different....
All live ducks
All water work
Dan was handling him

He did a great job!! But of course the combo of live birds and water is pure nirvana to Tito!

First he ran 3 "finished level" water blinds. No problems with any of them, he was very cooperative and we were quite pleased.

First set up of marks was going to be a taught triple, but the best laid plans don't always work out that way and it turned into a lesson on poison birds (not sure that's the right term) instead.

The memory bird was a live duck about 40 yards away thru a mixture of splashing and swimming water. The go bird was almost exactly in line with it, but 40 yards further out, in the pond behind the pond where the memory bird fell. So if this makes any sense, he had to swim directly past the live bird (who was swimming around and quacking not more than 10 feet from his swimming line), get out on land, cross about 20 feet of land, get into the next pond, then combination swim/lunge for another 40 yards to the go-bird which had fallen into some very heavy weeds. That bird was also live, and fluttering a bit.
Needless to say, he went to the wrong bird the first time. In an amazing (to me) display of control, Dan handled him off that bird and back to the real go-bird. 
Then we repeated the double, and the same thing happened. We repeated it again, and he understood that he had to go pick up the go-bird first. YAY!!! Then of course when he finally got sent for the memory bird, he was a bit hesitant (REALLY? You want me to go get it? This isn't a trick of some sort??) but when he realized that it was okay he flew out and got it.

Then we did a whole bunch of "mud marks", as I told Dan that I wasn't pleased with his return speed when he gets into mud. He just sort of picks his way thru it. With a bit of collar pressure Dan had him coming back in at a very brisk trot after a couple of tries, and again I was really pleased with him. Dan says we will get him faster yet, but since he was putting out really good effort today we would accept the brisk trot for now.

I also asked Dan to run Tito in some HRC seasoned tests this summer, now that the SH is out of the way. Dan thinks I should run him. He said that I did all the training, I should run the dog. But I explained to him that I'm just learning the AKC rules, I don't want to complicate my poor little brain with the HRC rules, then get to a master test and fail because I did something according to HRC not AKC. Further, I don't want to handle the gun, and I don't look good in camo!
Anywho, Dan said he would be "honored" to be able to run Tito. We'll see if he says that AFTER the tests, LOL.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

just as an aside, Tito ran/swam/lunged for over an hour non-stop. He's probably going to be worthless in the agility trial tomorrow....


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