# Field Training 2022 Show and Tell



## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

Well it isn't 22 yet but close enough.
Here is a setup from last week.
Photo was taken from a few feet left of the line.








Left mark is a duck at 250 yards
Middle is a hen pheasant flier at 275 yards
On the right at 225 yards a duck is thrown to the right and a hen pheasant is thrown left and slightly inward.
Wind is from the left at 10mph.

As always, it is up to the handler to chose how to run the setup. Lily was nine months old to the day for this test. For her I broke it into two doubles. The flier was shot first then the right gun threw the duck. I sent for the duck first. The flier is a huge temptation but Lily took a straight line to the right hand mark. I then sent her for the flier and she took another perfect line to her bird.
Next I had the left gun throw first followed by the right gun tossing the pheasant inward. The left gun retired (covered up with a ghilli blanket). This is a huge concept for a pup. She has just been out to the flier and it is natural for a dog to want to go back, the trained response is the opposite, not to return to an old fall. The pheasant on the right tossed slightly inward is easy to miss, then the dog is running toward the flier again and has to check down to get the short bird. Lily did great on this mark, never though about going to the flier.
The left retired mark is another big concept for a pup. She can't see the gunner from the line and those flier guns are out there to pull her plus the wind pushing her. I fully expected her to be drawn to the flier and instructed the left gunner to help if she blew past. I underestimated Lily, she went straight to her bird. Very good job for a little girl.

With Jake I ran it with a higher degree of difficulty. Flier first the the duck on the right. Picked up the duck. Then the left mark retired and the hen pheasant tossed inward. Picked up the hen then the left retired and the flier last. Jake stepped on every mark. He has been doing very well in training lately.
This was actually the first time we ran any multiple marks in over a month. Have been doing all singles with multiple guns in the field and it has obviously helped.


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## diane0905 (Aug 20, 2010)

Nice job!


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## cwag (Apr 25, 2017)

That's great. It must feel good to see all that hard work paying off so well.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

cwag said:


> That's great. It must feel good to see all that hard work paying off so well.


It does, I am also very thankful for my good fortune in having two retrievers with a great deal of talent.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

We ran three blinds yesterday, meant to take a photo but forgot. Finally we have pretty weather and can train in the afternoon!
Bally placed 4th at our trial a few weeks ago and would have done better if not for a shaky land blind. Mind you they dropped half the field on that blind so I was thankful to get called back. He is a terrific blind runner but one thing he has started to do with more frequency is stick on casts. I cast, he sits there and looks at me. If I use verbal he will go. Thing is I don't use verbal casts very often so I end up giving 3-4 identical silent casts before he decides to go. He generally takes the correct cast so it's not confusion. Its VERY IRRITATING. 
Day before last I set up a long back pile and did sort of an inverse force on casts. Held button down while the dog was sitting, then cast and released pressure as soon as he moved. Oh guess who can move on a cast now?
On yesterday's blinds he one whistled two of them and lined the third. Well, if you want to do that and just avoid the problem then OKAY!
Every weekend in January & February is a trial or hunt test. Looking forward to it!


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

Ran four blinds this morning. This is Jake returning with the last one. 
After placing the blind I thought they seemed awfully long so I ranged them. 250 yards to the shortest, 485 yards to the longest one in the photo. 
I expected to have to follow Lily out a long way to get the casts but she handled them all very well and I never left the line. 
Very light cross wind.









From the line.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

SRW one of my fields is big open rolling not dissimilar to the one you posted, with trees here and there, looks can be deceiving and what I think is 250 yards turns out to be 450! Love blinds like this and the good habits they can encourage.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

K9-Design said:


> Love blinds like this and the good habits they can encourage.


I do to, and I like to run fairly long blinds with a pup, not usually 485 yards though.
On a short blind, less than 100 yards, you have to stop a pup too quick for a less than perfect cast. With a 200 plus yard blind you can let them take and enjoy a cast for a fair distance even if it isn't perfect. "Train for momentum and precision will follow".

Congratulations on your placement. Is there a thread for photos with ribbons? There should be.


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## Edward Lee Nelson (Jan 2, 2017)

Great set up, looks like the pup is doing great. We give the dogs a few weeks break during Christmas from training. It works well with Deer and Goose season in full blast. The 4 yr old is happy as a couch potato but the 2yr old needs to run every day or she is really off the wall so we have been refreshing drills. The new pup keeps them busy though. She is another wild child.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

Did a little training yesterday. One of our goals was to do very challenging single marks and require/teach the dogs to do them correctly. 
This is one of the marks from the perspective of the thrower. There is a long "cheaty" water then across another point of land and more water. The dog will also lose sight of the destination a couple times in route while in the water. Terrain and cover add to the challenge. It's about a 250-275 yard mark.
Just two of us training, I had Jake and Lily and Ron ran Emma.
Every dog tried to cheat the first water. They all got in then climbed back out instead of swimming down the shore. This was expected. With both dogs I simply stopped them, "no-no", called back to the line and resent. Not a big deal, just "you know better". On the second send both did it right, took a nice line down the shore. This is important because cheating little pieces of water will almost always take a dog off into no mans land away from the mark. It isn't often that we call the dog all the way back to the line. Most often just back to the point they erred (or decided to be naughty). In this situation I read it as the dogs planning their route from the line, so we just started over.

I may have adjusted the line once more in the water one one or both dogs. 
After exiting the last water Lily "popped" which means she stopped and looked back at me for direction, not a good thing on a mark. This can be caused by many things, one of which is putting pressure on a dog for making mistakes on marks. This is a self inflicted problem that can be very difficult to fix. I'm confident that is not the case with Lily. There are plenty of blackbirds around that sound very much like a whistle and she may have stopped because she thought I told her to. It was also a very challenging mark for a little girl under 15 months old. When she popped I did nothing, stood perfectly still. After about 5 seconds she proceeded to get the mark with a very short hunt. 
Looking back I think it was just a little confusion, had she thought had whistled she probably would not have moved.
This was why we set up this and a couple more very tough marks. In advanced field training you need to push the dogs right to the edge of their ability but still maintain success. 
On the next two equally challenging marks Lily did very well as did Jake.

A retriever should not know what failure is. Retrievers have to believe that following the handlers cues and thinking through a situation will lead to success.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

One of the blinds I ran yesterday. About 270 yards. Jake's line is in yellow. Taking a lot of land is bigger challenge as the dog can be more reluctant to cast back into the water. Not because they don't like water but because they know it will slow them down. On this route you also have to be confident that the dog will take a good cast of the point and not wrap around the shoreline when out of sight, creating a bad habit. 

Lily's route is in red and somewhat exaggerated. Taking a good cast of a point and keeping the dog in sight is crucial with a young dog. 
She did a great job and absolutely loves running blinds.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Okay, I'll expose myself to public humiliation. We are no where near the stratospheric level of Stan and his dogs. 

Events this spring haven't allowed much hunt training. Pinyon had a couple of teeth pulled in March and wasn't supposed to retrieve anything for a month; I had lens replacements for cataracts three weeks ago and have been on post-op restrictions. (Many thanks to the training group for doing all the hauling and setting up today.) It was great to take a day off work and go up to the Espanola training grounds on a gorgeous spring day in eastern Washington and let the dogs have some fun. 

Pinyon is entered in a WCX on Wednesday. We set up a WCX-type triple (around the clock, one short mark at about 40 yards, a medium mark at about 70 and a long mark at about 100 yds). Also did a land blind, about 100 yds, which was pretty much a messy hack job. No blinds in WCX, thankfully. Very rusty on the blinds!


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

PalouseDogs said:


> Pinyon is entered in a WCX on Wednesday.


Looks like you are well prepared.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

SRW I absolutely love the photos and am so jealous of the amazing grounds you have access to!! Don't you want a few fluffy goldens to come train with you!?
We have been very busy training almost every day. I have three dogs preparing for Master, plus the 12 month old that is in force fetch and a new client dog puppy learning the ropes (she didn't even know "sit" upon arrival...but is a quick study). It suddenly got hot about 2 weeks ago so, yay Florida, it's summer. 
I've been going once a week and training water blinds on my friend's tech pond. It's the only safe water I have access to. It's almost 2 1/2 hours driving each way. This is why I have no sympathy for new field people whining about driving an hour to train! Going again on Thursday, will try to get photos as her place is really beautiful.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

K9-Design said:


> SRW I absolutely love the photos and am so jealous of the amazing grounds you have access to!! Don't you want a few fluffy goldens to come train with you!?


I'm thankful to the land owners for the training grounds we have. I do have to travel although not often 2 1/2hrs.
We have to get creative with water and even on land when cover is either to heavy or nonexistent.
I just got this book. Only half way through it but it is interesting.
Loving the Game: A Guide to Retriever Training in an Urban Setting: Erwin, Arnie, Erwin, Linda: 9781478723912: Books - Amazon

One of my training mentors talks about a guy he had great respect for. I forget the name at the moment but he lived in Alaska and the biggest portion of his training was done on empty parking lots at night in the winter. He had multiple FC/AFC titled dogs. 

Nice training ground are a huge plus but dedication is more important.

We can always make room for dedicated amateurs, even the ones with puff balls.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

The training grounds I use are 2.5 hours away. What little training I do there is limited to spring, before the cheatgrass matures in the 2nd or 3rd week of June and then again for a brief period in late fall after the danger of toxic algae (a big issue the past couple of years here) is ended and before the water freezes. Access to adequate grounds with suitable water is, by far, the biggest impediment to almost anyone trying to get into field work. I've figured out a bunch of exercises to do at home away from training grounds, but there is no substitute for water.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

PalouseDogs said:


> Access to adequate grounds with suitable water is, by far, the biggest impediment to almost anyone trying to get into field work. I've figured out a bunch of exercises to do at home away from training grounds, but there is no substitute for water.


The majority of us face the same issues.
No substitute for water is true, but; Always treat factors like cover and terrain changes the same as water. Cheating a piece of cover is the same concept as cheating water.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

Lily in route to the long memory mark of a double, I drove out on an ATV to throw the marks with Lily sitting at the line.
The long memory mark is about 450 yards and challenging due to the terrain and water. The shorter go bird on the right is beyond a second small pond not visible. 
I had been doing some very long challenging singles with Lily. She needed confidence in punching out long distances, especially with challenging terrain that causes her to lose sight of her destination. There are white "stick men" at the marks. It's a big confidence builder and reward for a young dog to regain sight of a gunner when cresting a hill. 
Build up to this slowly, never allowing the dog to fail. Having a gunner to help if the dog falters is great. 
I have a launcher that will shoot several bumpers, not as good a a training partner but nice when you are alone.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

SRW nice looking setup!! Very pretty terrain too 
Three down-the-shore singles for us today. Long one about 250


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Training alone yesterday. 
Did 2 land singles using wingers. First was at 75 yards, set up to land in a dense clump of sage. Dogs sometimes have trouble with sagebrush because of its strong odor. 










View of first mark from the line. Had to go through a bunch of sage to get to the mark. The winger is near the center of the photo beyond the first line of sage. He had no trouble at all with this mark.









Second single was at 150 yards landing in lighter cover. 










View of the second mark from the line. Winger is near the center of the photo, bird launched left to right against the background of the pine trees and hillside. I thought he approached it too far to the right, but watching him through the binoculars, I saw him wind it just a couple yards off line. Apparently, his memory of the fall was better than mine. 










Did a 125 yd blind between the marks. Blind location is the blue mark in the center. I set this up poorly. The row of sage between the line and the blind was denser than I thought. I didn't walk the path back before I ran it to avoid leaving a scent trail. I ended up having to handle him around the sage, not really ideal. 









I picked up the wingers and walked a circle around the field with a duck and a blank pistol doing stand alones with my young dog, Hawthorn. We all took a break and had lunch, then I drove over to a pond and worked on water entries at shallow angles and getting on and off a point, which Hawthorn has almost no experience at. The Espanola training grounds used to have virtually no useful points but the club has created several points in the couple of years since we last did any real water work. Pinyon was a little baffled at first, but he figured it out. I have a couple more training days before the test to see if he remembers and generalizes the concept. 

I took a few moments to pull out the spotting scope and gawk at the detail I could see on the Spotted Sandpipers and Killdeers on the pond shore. I got lens replacements for cataracts a few weeks ago. I am still marveling at how what a difference it makes. I was looking at the very real possibility of having to give up my drivers license. Now, I have nearly 20/30 far vision without glasses. It is amazing. (Also very helpful on blinds.)

Ended the day with a tired wet dog and a long drive home through steady rain.


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## PalouseDogs (Aug 14, 2013)

Pinyon was in a Master test today. I left the house at 5 am, drove 2.5 hours in steady rain and waited about an hour in rain for our turn. It turned out to be a very short test. He broke on the VERY FIRST BIRD!!! He didn’t get to pick up a single bird. We did the on-leash honor of shame and drove back home in the rain. 

In his defense, it was an extremely exciting flyer. In most of the hunt tests I‘ve seen, the gunners are so concerned the bird will get out of range, they shoot when the bird is barely in the air. These gunners had a lot of confidence. The flyer was tossed way up (with a winger?) and got in several flaps, silhouetted against the sky, before they fired. It was too much for Pinyon. He only sees flyers in hunt tests, but has, until today, never broken on one. 

I was disappointed about the break, obviously, but also because I had really wanted to see how he would do on this challenging setup, an indented triple, birds left to right, out-of-order long flyer on the left, short middle, long right bird, then a blind under the arc of the right bird. It was in the same field where I took the photos above, uneven terrain broken by a lot of shrubs. Many dogs before him were handled on one or two birds. 

Oh, well. I know what I need to work on in training!

Left flyer:









Short middle









Long right and blind


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## Golden Gibby (Jan 8, 2011)

You have my sympathy. I have been there also. Sometimes those fliers are just too hard to resist.


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

Palouse
I ran the North Idaho test last year and we had really high winds in the 1st series. 
The club is really friendly and the gallery was a lot of fun. 
Better luck next time out.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

This is the first series of the Watopa Am last weekend. A triple with a long retired on the left thrown angled back to the right. Flier in the middle short second, also to the right. Last bird was a very short stand out, about 70 yards, thrown left into tall grass.
An interesting test that was more difficult than it appeared. Scenting conditions were not good which contributed to the challenge. 
The retired gun on the left was the most difficult with hunts on the other two birds adding to it.
Jake looked away from the long retired just as I called for the birds. I thought he would look back at the shot but it was a gas gun and very muffled so he never saw that bird. He got the short mark and the flier quickly but hunted deep of the retired mark and I picked him up.

Learned my lesson and spent a lot of time getting Lily to focus on the left gun. She watched all the birds well and did a great job, just a very short hunt on the long retired. 

I think 23 were called back to the next series out of 38 that started.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

The water marks at the Watopa Am yesterday.
Flier on the left, a standout on the right with the bird splashing in the waters edge and a long retired in the middle.
The retired is about 350 yards and there are a couple water reentries in route.
Lily was first to run but got a no bird, not helpful especially with a 14 month old girl. Went back three dogs.
Next time to the line she was a little more anxious but watched the birds well. She went a little wide in the water and had a hunt on the flier. It was raining on and off making scenting conditions poor. She came back and focused on the right mark very well. I sent her but she turned and went up the middle. I probably should have handled her to the right mark immediately. She stopped short of the long retired and circled around trying to get her bearings. She did not pop, I was happy about that. I gave a whistle and a cast and she went right to the long retired.
Not soon enough though, I was ask to honor on lead. It was the correct call by the judges, we did not deserve a JAM. If I had handled sooner maybe.

Lily's Mama won it!


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

Trimmed around the pond at a training property yesterday and then ran a couple blinds. 
I would guess the distances at 275 yards maybe 300. Very little wind.
Challenging factors;
Sharp angle entry to water, holding a line on the hillside after exiting water, running up against treeline at the end.










Just a sliver of water and two key holes. Angle across changes in terrain.








Both Lily and Jake did very well. I expect it from Jake. I am amazed with Lily, she is doing extremely well at 15 months. We have done a lot of training but mostly it's just talent. She has been running big dog blinds since she was 8 or 9 months old. 
It was, and still is, kind of comical to see her instantly change from a playful puppy to stone cold serious when I cue her to run a blind.
These are about average for what you might see at an all age stake, I have seen much tougher blinds and also easier blinds.


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