# April hunt and field training



## Alaska7133

Who has open water already?


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## K9-Design

Uhh, me


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## hotel4dogs

Ha ha Anney! 
We have open (gatorless/snakeless) water now, but it's just barely above freezing. I wouldn't want to do any intense drills in water yet, but some fun stuff is okay. I was hoping to do some water work at Dan's tomorrow, but they are predicting Thunderstorms so we'll see. 
We have almost NO good weather in this area. We have winter (blizzards and subzero windchills), Spring (severe storms constantly), Summer (excessive heat and humidity), and a few fall days that are just plain spectacular.


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## MillionsofPeaches

we have water...LOL. I would say this January and February was colder than the past year but we've been using the water for the last month, that is when it isn't POURING down rain.


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## Swampcollie

Alaska7133 said:


> Who has open water already?


Well as of this afternoon,we do. (Total Ice out.)

Annie the puppy got one hell of a surprise yesterday when she wen barreling down the boat ramp onto what she thought was solid ice. It wasn't! : It was slush and she went kerplunk into the lake. (The look on her face was priceless by the way.) Then she was off swimming after ice chunks until I called her back. The cold couldn't put a dent in her youthful exuberance.

It will take a few weeks for the water to warm up enough to do any serious water work.


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## FTGoldens

MillionsofPeaches said:


> we have water...LOL. I would say this January and February was colder than the past year but we've been using the water for the last month, that is when it isn't POURING down rain.


Geesh, I know what you mean about the rain...it's seemingly incessant! (But we'll probably be doing rain-dances in July for more.)

We're now warm enough to even do drills in the water (air temp + water temp > 100 degrees ... some folks put the number at > 110 degrees, but my dogs have always done fine at 100 or even less). So between rain storms, I've been doing shoreline (entry and exit) drills, and even a couple fairly lengthy "on the point/off the point/out to sea blinds." [You have to be careful when you run either shoreline or cut-the-corner blinds in training because the pups can come to believe that they never have to do a big swim away from the shoreline...it's all about balance.]

We're not running a field trial this weekend, so the dogs will get some marks. I'm sure that will make'm even happier! Me too!

FTGoldens


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## Loisiana

Alaska7133 said:


> Who has open water already?


Ha, our hunt test season only has a month left!


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## gdgli

I have been working the last week and a half. Today I took off and did some work with Buffy. We ran some pattern blinds. I am starting to stretch her out. My training so far has not included long distances for blinds. Today we went to 150 yds. which is long for her. We will go longer in the future. I was so pleased with her work that I treated myself to a bacon cheeseburger for lunch.


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## MillionsofPeaches

ha George that sounded funny!! Glad you enjoyed your burger!
We've been training all week. Today I met a friend and set up some hard marks. I just moved the younger dogs up closer for them and worked Katniss a tiny bit closer. I wanted to experiment on doubles with Peaches for the WC and triples for Katniss but I like to do single marks more on a daily basis. Then I ran Katniss on a shorter blind maybe 75 yards and a long one that was 153 yards. She took three whistles to it. It was up hill but at a slight angle and over a ditch. I was so proud of her. We've come so far in over a year I can't even explain it. My friend gave me some good pointers on my own handling. It just feels so good to actually enjoy blinds now rather than dreading them. It is like a treasure hunt for Katniss, too, I think she enjoys them a lot as well.


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## hotel4dogs

Kinda funny today, the weather forecast was for 90% chance of T-storms and heavy rain, so I had to really debate whether or not to drive the 70 miles to Dan's and take a chance on it. I decided to be brave. When I left it was storming both here and there. Got there, it quit raining. The sun came out, and it was dry the whole time we were there.
Anyway.
Had a good session. We revisited swim-by briefly, mostly because the swim-by pond is pretty small and the water wasn't ice cold like the other ponds. He seemed to remember all the concepts fine, so enough of that.
Did a little work on swinging with the gun, Dan says not to beat that into the ground in any one session, so we just do a couple of tosses and enough of that, too.
Then some technical singles, very pleased with him. A couple that were really to just work on depth judgement, as he was upwind of the bird and the bird fell over a couple of small rises and swales, so he really had to mark where it had gone. 
Ended with a 225 yard blind, also over rises and swales, between 2 of the marks he had retrieved. At first he headed straight for an old mark, and had to be called back and re-sent (no way buddy, that's NOT where you were facing!!). Then he 3 whistled it, did a great job. He doesn't normally run blinds that long, usually about 150 yards or less, so that was good.
Now he's limping ever so slightly. I've come to the conclusion that the sesimoiditis is just going to be a chronic condition, and since the sports vet said it won't do any harm to run him anyway (as long as I'm not stupid about it), I just gave him a rimadyl and that's that.


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## Alaska7133

Last night we worked on double retrieves at the park. DH threw for a change. Lucy is slightly tentative on the memory of her second bird. So I think we need to work on that a bit. She finds them without a problem, she's just a little slower and it seems like she's thinking. She's even a bit more tentative on her triples too. I think I will work again tonight and shorten up the distances. Her yard work is coming along. She has more confidence on her pile work and site blinds. She runs out and just pounces on her bumpers, which is really fun to see. DH is still doing yard work with her, never thought I'd see him out there enjoying yard work with the dogs.

Worked on easy singles with Reilly. He's definitely not even seeing well with his even good eye anymore. My hopes of running him this summer might be over. I'll try again this weekend, but he should be able to pick up 25 yard retrieves, and he just can't anymore without a heck of a lot of searching. This weekend I'll thaw out some ducks hoping that maybe the scent will clue him in on where they are. He's such a joyous boy, his tail wags all the way to and from the bumpers. He's so happy and full of life, it's hard to be too sad for him. If he can't smell a duck, he definitely won't be able to see a small quail on the spaniel tests.


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## hotel4dogs

Last night I had one of those blinding flashes of the obvious. I was online reading about sesimoiditis and carpal issues, and pretty much everything I read said that it's a very common injury when dogs jump from something high, like the back of a pick-up truck.
FLASH---FLASH---FLASH---how about numerous jumps off the back of a 4 wheeler :doh: . This is a big one, quite high, at least 36 inches high or more. He jumps off it numerous times at Dan's, and it's a direct down jump, with all of his weight coming onto his front legs, on uneven ground and often bad ground.
DUH. I'm going to try helping him down from the 4 wheeler for the next couple of weeks, and see if that makes a difference. 
If you didn't know him, you wouldn't even pick up the limp, so it's really minor. I only see it because I'm looking for it. He's fine today, 24 hours later.


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## K9-Design

Barb I have to "catch" Bally and lift him down out of my car every time. The crates in the back are on a platform so probably 40" or so off the ground. My other two are smart enough to step on the bumper on the way down but Bally just takes a flying leap. He's never hurt himself but doing that over and over can't be good!


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## hollyk

Still working on things here and it feels like it's starting to come together. Throwing a ton of singles, in line, don't cheat, trying to get all the concepts in. Same with blinds, under the arc, back side, poisened bird, slot. We have run short water stuff for a while and we have had some nice days with higher land temps so we can start to train bigger. The other day when we pulled in and a water blind set up I have been wanting to run was at the perfect level and it was a warm day. Usually it is way too cold to run this when it is full, it fills when the nearby river floods it. Most of the year the water is low and the climb outs on the land fingers are very steep and high. I have been waiting for two years to run this.There are 3 water entries and then a run up a hill. Winter lined it but the best part was the momentum she carried, sploosh into the water each time and she exited water at the bottom hill on line and carrying momentum up the hill. You may have heard my WOOHOO when she picked up the blind? This was the first multiple entry water blind of the year and I was so happy to see it. I was fully prepared to quickly move out on the land fingers to help her if I needed to. I know the water is still chilly so I was not going to get in a huge battle with her but I did want to give it a try since the opportunity does come up very often.


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## hotel4dogs

Yeah Anney, I'm thinking this is close to 40 inches, too. (got out my tape measure and looked, that looks about right). At least between 36-40 for sure. 
The worst part is that he jumps pretty much straight down, just a couple of feet behind the 4 wheeler, rather than stretching out and landing more solidly. He lands like pistons on his front legs. I often thought he was going to hurt his back one of these days doing that it's such an odd landing (he doesn't want to get far from the bird cage, which is usually riding in back with him, lol). 
I'm going to try not letting him jump down and see what happens.
He never had a problem before, other than a couple of acute injuries, but he's 8 now....


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## hotel4dogs

Holly, that's some gorgeous training grounds!


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## Alaska7133

Yah and it's not raining!


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## Loisiana

Flip JH! Takes a long time to earn the title when you only enter 1-2 times a year!


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## hollyk

Sweet!

Congratulations to the both of you.


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## hotel4dogs

Way to go Jodie and Flip!!!

oh, and be sure to update your signature


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## Alaska7133

Congratulations on the JH!!


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## Alaska7133

Yesterday we tried a new training set up. 30 yards away on the right was a pile of bumpers. 75 yards away was a thrower with dokkens. The two were 90 degrees from each other. So I sent to the pile, the after she returned, the thrower would throw. Lucy did those separately a few times in different orders. Then the thrower through a dokken, I turned Lucy and sent her to the pile, then sent her to the dokken. No problems turning her and moving her off the mark to be sent to the pile. I was sweating it though. She's doing just fine. I had to whistle her once and she took the cast very nicely. Need to work a little on whistle sits. Sometimes she turns and keeps walking back and doesn't immediately sit. Thankfully I have an ecollar. Today walking baseball I think.


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## Loisiana

Today was Phoenix's day.....Phoenix WC!


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## AmberSunrise

Huge congratulations!! to you & Flip for earning your JH and to Phoenix and your WC!!





Loisiana said:


> Today was Phoenix's day.....Phoenix WC!


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## hotel4dogs

Congratulations Jodie and Phoenix!!
I can't help noticing you had a jacket on. Was it under 80 degrees? :


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## Loisiana

That's my rain gear, we had off and on rain all day, but I wasn't going to mention that we were all complaining about it being so chilly, in the 60's :


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## Loisiana

not sure if this link will work, a bunch of pictures we took at the tests and in the fields: https://www.facebook.com/jodie.brou...1073741835.100001621570098&type=1&pnref=story

Prior to this weekend, Phoenix had worked with ducks three times, gunshots twice, never had a pheasant, never worked on freshly killed birds, never been in a holding blind. Only issue we had was some bratty behavior in the blinds.


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## Vhuynh2

Congratulations Loisiana on an amazing weekend!

Saturday, I took advantage of the chance to run a test setup on test grounds. I was all ready to run Molly in Seasoned this weekend. Water was first. Go bird was a long swim in open water and memory bird was a short swim away on land. Molly did it just fine. Then we go to the water blind and on "back" she spins around and goes through my legs. That has always been her "safe" spot for everything -- from being afraid of heights on the patio at 8 weeks old to avoiding bath time. I just don't know why she was doing this now and why this issue suddenly popped up. I'm so glad I went to this training day because if she pulled this at the test, I would have had no way to correct her. I eventually used pressure to get her to go. Of course I am panicked. I am terrified that she will become test-wise and refuse the water blind at tests after I had worked so hard to get her this far. My trainer agrees I should bag the tests. Her water force/force to pile is obviously weak. It is hard because Molly is so compliant 99% of the time that it can be difficult to spot holes in her training. That 1% is when she is too stressed about something. The only explanation I can think of is that we did a particularly difficult water blind on Monday and she is still stressed from that, but we did another on Thursday and I did not see any avoidance issues.

I went back out there to train today and did four different water blinds. Sounds like a lot but they weren't too long or difficult. She refused on the first send of the first blind and the first send of the fourth blind (we ran each blind twice). I hated doing it but I had to apply pressure until she got out of my legs and into heel position. Essentially she was being corrected for ignoring "heel" but I also want her to realize that between my legs is not a safe haven. On the last blind, she was ready to go but I was too fussy with lining her up that she ended up getting stressed and went between my legs. If I physically move her into heel position without collar pressure, she will repeatedly try to get between again. With collar pressure, she will not try it again once she's in heel and she will go when sent. 

So right now I'm just going to work on refusals and revisit water force when I see my trainer next. I may be a softie but it feels like an awful amount of pressure, although I'm sure the level I'm comfortable with on the collar is more of a nag than anything.


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## hotel4dogs

Link works fine Jodie, thanks. Gorgeous bluebonnets, gorgeous dogs!


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## Claudia M

Congrats Jodie, Flip and Pheonix! Love the pic with Flip sticking his tongue out at the camera!


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## Loisiana

Claudia M said:


> Congrats Jodie, Flip and Pheonix! Love the pic with Flip sticking his tongue out at the camera!


That is just so "Flip"


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## Alaska7133

Congratulations!! Hope you are able to continue on to more titles.


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## Loisiana

Alaska7133 said:


> Congratulations!! Hope you are able to continue on to more titles.


My plan is to start Phoenix in junior in the fall, but we don't have many fall tests so I'll probably finish it up next spring. Then I would like to train for WCX and senior. Since we don't get to train very often, I am imagining we will be looking at a time frame of years before we are ready for that. So that will also include needing to keep me motivated for the training. 

I don't think training for master level work is a practical, realistic thought for us at this point, unless something dramatically changes and I have a lot more training opportunities.


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## Alaska7133

You're pretty rural aren't you? So you end up training alone? I'm just guessing here. Dennis Voigt has a really nice DVD of ideas in how to train retrievers alone. You might want to take a look at it. Dennis was a biologist in a remote part of Canada is what I heard. Nobody else around but him and the ducks. So he had to figure out how to make it work. Are there any kids around you can train to be bird boys? I had an 8 yr old own the street that would run my dogs and I would throw. It was good for all of us to do some fun stuff together. Just a thought.


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## MillionsofPeaches

Jodie, that is us too. We have some tests around us but I don't travel to anything over 2 hours away on the normal so all our ribbons are the same clubs, ha ha. It takes a long time to get a title.


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## MillionsofPeaches

We're still training everyday over here. Went to a seminar with a motivational trainer Sunday, not sure Im really into that kind of thing, I don't like to reward in the field with cookies the whole time, but I did learn a thing or two and it was a beginner's seminar so it reminded me of some stuff to work on with Proof. This week is Master's week in my town so that is when the kids are off for spring break. That means I have three bird boys! the JOY! No dragging wingers all over the place. All week I have it planned out what we're doing and as a reward I'll take them all to the movies and lunch on Thursday. We are working on JH and WC for Peaches, senior and WCX for Katniss and then my friend's dog a WC. I'm doing lots of single marks with the occasional double and triple thrown in to see where we are at. Also, blind work with Katniss and my own handling skills at the line. Proof is working on stretching his marks out, all I care about is marking on long marks with white for him right now. He is doing incredibly well, I am in awe at how innate his abilities are. Busy week for sure!


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## gdgli

MoP

Treat your birdboys to lunch. IKEA (if they are down there) has 50 cent hot dogs! Once the word gets out you may get even more workers!

Be nice to the birdboys!!!


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## gdgli

We have more rain this week. However, I got to run Buffy a couple of times. We took a walk and got to a clearing in the woods in an urban park. A stream-ditch on the right and a fallen tree on the left. I had my bumpers and saw an opportunity to train overs with these obstacles. I set her up in between. Bumpers were placed so that each over was about 25 yards. I set her up and did several overs to each pile. Tree was 18" high. She took good casts leaping over the ditch and jumping over the fallen tree.

I know these are short casts but I don't care. I am training a concept. I didn't miss this opportunity. And I will return to this spot. 

And yesterday I ran some blinds with her. I am looking forward to nicer weather and getting to some bigger fields.


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## gdgli

Update on Thor, my puppy.

I haven't said much about him because his needs are maybe a bit different from his littermates. I have spent time with him on super name recognition, recall and attention on me as a default behavior. Temperament testers said he had no desire to please and would be most difficult to train. Well I don't think so. And as for independent---people don't know independent, have no idea. This dog will be easy for me. Right now I have a darn good recall. I have a consistent whistle sit which he has now started to do with some distractions around him. He likes retrieving, doing in yard 20-25 yards. I wish we had slightly better weather but I think I will even take him out in a light rain just to get a little more distance in a field. Heck, I might even trap some pigeons for him.

I know, lots on behavior modification, but why not? I am building a foundation for success. I don't even want to call this obedience but would rather call this training compatible behaviors for field work. If Thor can do as well as his littermates are currently doing he will be doing well. I have seen video of his littermates and I am impressed.


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## hollyk

Vhuynh2 said:


> Congratulations Loisiana on an amazing weekend!
> 
> Saturday, I took advantage of the chance to run a test setup on test grounds. I was all ready to run Molly in Seasoned this weekend. Water was first. Go bird was a long swim in open water and memory bird was a short swim away on land. Molly did it just fine. Then we go to the water blind and on "back" she spins around and goes through my legs. That has always been her "safe" spot for everything -- from being afraid of heights on the patio at 8 weeks old to avoiding bath time. I just don't know why she was doing this now and why this issue suddenly popped up. I'm so glad I went to this training day because if she pulled this at the test, I would have had no way to correct her. I eventually used pressure to get her to go. Of course I am panicked. I am terrified that she will become test-wise and refuse the water blind at tests after I had worked so hard to get her this far. My trainer agrees I should bag the tests. Her water force/force to pile is obviously weak. It is hard because Molly is so compliant 99% of the time that it can be difficult to spot holes in her training. That 1% is when she is too stressed about something. The only explanation I can think of is that we did a particularly difficult water blind on Monday and she is still stressed from that, but we did another on Thursday and I did not see any avoidance issues.
> 
> I went back out there to train today and did four different water blinds. Sounds like a lot but they weren't too long or difficult. She refused on the first send of the first blind and the first send of the fourth blind (we ran each blind twice). I hated doing it but I had to apply pressure until she got out of my legs and into heel position. Essentially she was being corrected for ignoring "heel" but I also want her to realize that between my legs is not a safe haven. On the last blind, she was ready to go but I was too fussy with lining her up that she ended up getting stressed and went between my legs. If I physically move her into heel position without collar pressure, she will repeatedly try to get between again. With collar pressure, she will not try it again once she's in heel and she will go when sent.
> 
> So right now I'm just going to work on refusals and revisit water force when I see my trainer next. I may be a softie but it feels like an awful amount of pressure, although I'm sure the level I'm comfortable with on the collar is more of a nag than anything.


Winter and I went through our own breakdown due to not the best initial FTP. "Why force, she always goes", then one day my compliant girl threw every avoidance trick she could think of to not go. Luckily, I was training with my Pro the day the wheels really came off the bus. By the end of the session we were busted all the way back to FTP, which she now understood no going was not an option and we rebuilt from there. 
I get what you are saying about pressure and the amount. But for me, I still struggle to improve my timing. So often I see where the correction should have taken place too late for the correction to happen. In my training days with the Pro I watch a lot of other day trainers train their dogs. Often after the run the discussion is if the correction would have come when the dog did this that hole you dug would not have been as big. The voice behind us often says one of two things when we are running blinds, either "you're just hopin and wishin" or "You're Killing Me", quiet behind me means I'm doing a good job.


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## Loisiana

Looking at the results from the hunt test last weekend, 17 failures seems like a lot for junior. 

Not sure why the failure rate was so high, it didn't seem like a particularly hard test. The only thing I didn't like about the test, I don't know if this is normal or not, but on land the line was on a low area, and both birds were at the top of a hill. So if your dog overran the bird by more than a few feet, you totally lost sight of them. A little scary for junior dogs to be totally out of sight for a long period of time. One dog disappeared for quite awhile, the gunners later reported back that the dog had flushed a jack rabbit and was off chasing it.

I thought it was easiest water test I've seen, but I saw quite a few dogs fail water. Don't know why that happened.

I'm told the senior test was really hard. Only five out of 23 passed.


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## Vhuynh2

hollyk said:


> Winter and I went through our own breakdown do to not the best initial FTP. "Why force, she always goes", then one day my compliant girl threw every avoidance trick she could think of to not go. Luckily, I was training with my Pro the day the wheels really came off the bus. By the end of the session we were busted all the way back to FTP, which she now understood was not an option and we rebuilt from there.
> I get what you are saying about pressure and the amount. But for me, I still struggle to improve my timing. So often I see where the correction should have taken place too late for the correction to happen. In my training days with the Pro I watch a lot of other day trainers train their dogs. Often after the run the discussion is if the correction would have come when the dog did this that hole you dug would not have been as big. The voice behind us often says one of two things when we are running blinds, either "you're just hopin and wishin" or "You're Killing Me", quiet behind me means I'm doing a good job.


How do you know when you're done with FTP when you have such a compliant dog?

My trainer doesn't think I used enough pressure on FTP or water force. I honestly have never been so tempted to just let someone else do this one step for me.


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## hollyk

Vhuynh2 said:


> How do you know when you're done with FTP when you have such a compliant dog?
> 
> My trainer doesn't think I used enough pressure on FTP or water force. I honestly have never been so tempted to just let someone else do this one step for me.


I think someone with more experience than one dog should answer that one.

With my schedule I can usually only train with the Pro on average a couple of times a month. When we talked later he told me that he had suspected that I would have a problem. Also he knew that I wouldn't try to pressure my way out of the situation, I would just stop and wait to have him help me so I wouldn't cause anything that would be hard to recover from. The main thing we worked on once we had her running was me having that instant timing on a no go, nick step forward resend. She learned that going was the only option. 
I can understand why a lot of people have a Pro put solid basics on their dogs.


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## Vhuynh2

I know that is what I'm supposed to do but it is so hard to even get her back into heel position when she's hiding in my legs. So I have to use pressure to get her back to heel, and haven't been able to stomach the idea of using pressure again when she's in heel position. So far she is going without pressure once I get her back in heel. I just don't want her to feel like she's being punished first for being in my legs, and then "punished" again when she's in heel position. 

I see my trainer tomorrow so until then, we're not doing much.


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## FTGoldens

Vhuynh2 said:


> How do you know when you're done with FTP when you have such a compliant dog?
> 
> My trainer doesn't think I used enough pressure on FTP or water force. I honestly have never been so tempted to just let someone else do this one step for me.


I know what you mean ... I don't really like going through the steps of FTP, but I know that there are tremendous benefits on the other side. I've gone through it quite a few times and think that I have a pretty good handle on it now, but I don't enjoy it. 
This is one stage of training where BABY steps are absolutely essential. Each piece of this puzzle must be put in place before picking up the next piece. Don't get me wrong though, perfection is not necessary ... thank God that our dogs are quite resilient ... but taking care and thinking through each step of this stage is important. 
The very best non-in-person instruction that I have seen on FTP is the DVD put out by Danny Farmer and Judy Aycock: Retriever Training Basics, which is a two DVD set. It's very, very good. 
(I also attended the very first retriever training seminar put on by Danny ... it was about a hundred years ago .....). 
FTGoldens

ps: BTW, I do not water-force my dogs. I know that some accomplished trainers do so, but I've never done it and, unless something happens to change my mind, I never will. I haven't needed it with the dogs that I've trained ... and they've been pretty good water dogs.

pps: FF must be solid before going to FTP, which is an extension of FF. I don't know where your dog is in the process, but it may be worthwhile to revisit FF.


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## FTGoldens

Vhuynh2 said:


> I know that is what I'm supposed to do but it is so hard to even get her back into heel position when she's hiding in my legs. So I have to use pressure to get her back to heel, and haven't been able to stomach the idea of using pressure again when she's in heel position. So far she is going without pressure once I get her back in heel. I just don't want her to feel like she's being punished first for being in my legs, and then "punished" again when she's in heel position.
> 
> I see my trainer tomorrow so until then, we're not doing much.


If this happens when you are in FTP, I would immediately begin using only remote sends to remove the pressure from your side. I would even have her complete the retrieves with a front finish. I wouldn't have her at heel for anything related to FTP at this point. HOWEVER, check with your trainer to see if that is even a viable option. 

Going between your legs is simply a form of bugging, an avoidance tactic. She cannot win using this tactic; no need to beat her up, just make her do what you want her to do with the least amount of pressure required to get there.

FTGoldens


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## Vhuynh2

FTGoldens said:


> If this happens when you are in FTP, I would immediately begin using only remote sends to remove the pressure from your side. I would even have her complete the retrieves with a front finish. I wouldn't have her at heel for anything related to FTP at this point. HOWEVER, check with your trainer to see if that is even a viable option.
> 
> 
> 
> Going between your legs is simply a form of bugging, an avoidance tactic. She cannot win using this tactic; no need to beat her up, just make her do what you want her to do with the least amount of pressure required to get there.
> 
> 
> 
> FTGoldens



When she first did this it was actually on a water blind. I have not done any FTP since she refused the water blind on Saturday. So I'm extra worried that it might be more than just a FTP issue, that maybe she sees water blinds as too stressful, even though I've tried my hardest every time to spell everything out for her.

Thanks for all the suggestions -- I will bring them up tomorrow.


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## hollyk

Vivian, I can understand not wanting to make all the ground around you hot by pressure pressure pressure. I like the remote send idea from FT. One of Winter's avoidance issues was climbing me. I would have to use pressure to get a stable sit. Then my trainer would have me step forward without pressure to try for a clean sit at heel. When I was getting clean sits then I could nick in this new area if she would no go. He did want me nicking for the sit and the no go in the same area. He want her to be clear on what the correction was for and not just make one huge hot spot where she felt like she couldn't win. 
Are you training with your trainer soon? When I'm going through something like this or concepts I don't quite have the grasp of, I find that I have to find a way to train with the Pro more often.


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## Vhuynh2

How does a remote send work? Do I line her up and walk away leaving her there and then say back? 

I see my trainer tomorrow. I hope I can remember all these things I need to ask him. All of this is a bit overwhelming. 

We did go out today with a friend. We just did a water double and blind. She had such wonderful enthusiasm for the marks, then hesitated and slid in for the blind but at least she did not refuse. Second try was a much better entry; it's probably a confidence thing. I'm not even sure if I should continue doing blinds at this point.


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## hotel4dogs

Didn't get to go to Dan's today, as we have severe storms and tornado warnings. I was disappointed. Tito was probably more disappointed, although I'm not sure he knows we were supposed to go.

But a sunny part of the day, I got the following email from the hunt test secretary at the HRC upland tests we ran a short time back:

"...Barb
I didn’t get a chance to really talk to you but I was out planting birds when Dan was running your dog. I have to say not many Goldens run the upland tests well and your dog out shined a lot of labs that I have seen run. He found a bird that the previous dog practically ran over and hadn't even nosed. Hope to see you around at other tests this year...<<snip>> " 

Score one for the Goldens!


----------



## Vhuynh2

Molly had an awesome day with our trainer today. We started with a water double and a water blind down a channel. The double went great. For the blind, she got in slowly but she went, and I was very proud to see her swimming straight down the channel. We went over to land and did a double with a live flyer (pigeon) as the memory and a bumper as the go bird. Molly did it nicely without attempting to switch. After that, we ran a blind. She then honored for another dog -- we have never honored with a live flyer before. She fidgeted but I didn't see her try to get up at all. Then my trainer said to no her off a live flyer and run the blind again. She took a good initial line but was slower/tentative and then she suddenly sped up and veered left towards the pigeon. What a sneaky snake. I quickly stopped her and handled her to the blind easily. Then, we ended with the most incredible part of the session -- we ran the same water blind but from the end of the pond, making it 130+ yards. There was a bit of a keyhole in the first third of the pond (I included an image). Whenever she started to swim towards land, my trainer told me to let her roll until she got a lot closer to land, so when I stop her, it would be more clear that touching land is a no no. I usually stop her much earlier, so I was afraid she might ignore my casts or scallop when she's already so close to land. She surprised me by taking every cast. Eventually she got to the point where she remembered where the blind was, and swam down the channel nicely. She did try to bank a little early, but I casted her away. I was pleased that I still had control with her so far away. In the image, the X is where the blind is. I first ran from "1" and then "2".










It is exactly days like these that make it SO easy for me to keep building and training on top of a foundation with holes. We are going to do FTP again, the right way this time. She did incredible work today but none of it matters if she won't go.

Dog training sure is a lot like a roller coaster ride.


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## MillionsofPeaches

what a great compliment, Barb!!

Viv, I know what you mean. You have some bad days and get discouraged and then have great days and feel elated! I'm glad Molly gave you that great feeling today!


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## FTGoldens

It's great to hear that you and Molly had such a good day! 

FTGoldens


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## Alaska7133

Vivian,
very nice place to train! 

Got word this week that another environmental group is buying up a training area. They are using federal and state grants to buy the land, then they encumber the deed with all kinds of restrictions like no trails, dogs, etc. Then give the land to the state or city to maintain. Nice way to piss off the dog people. Terrible use of government money.

Took Lucy to train at a park a block from my house. It has a frozen pond and was a huge distraction. She wanted to check it out so badly. But we focused on walking baseball and long distance FTP. Only once I had to nic her to keep her from entering the pond. Little pistol just couldn't believe I wouldn't let her skate around on the ice. Great distractions though. People, traffic, bicycles. I like to train in different locations so that she understands she still has to listen to me. The ducks will be coming back to Anchorage in a few weeks I think and once the water on the ponds thaws and ducks are here, it will be very interesting to see if I can keep her out of the water! Poor dogs up here have to go so long without being in the water.


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## hollyk

Stacy, my main technical water has been for for sale for a couple of years. Luckly it is way over priced, IMO, since almost all of the land is in flood plane and does flood every year. Bob Pepper created the grounds. He won the National Amateur Retriever Championship in 1963 with his Black Lab FC AFC Pepper's Jiggs. Jiggs is buried on the grounds and one of the ponds is named after him. Many of the people I train with remember him and say he was a really nice man. 
Also, I haven't seen the Trumpeter Swans in a couple of weeks so yes the pacific flyway is open for business.


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## Alaska7133

Last weekend I bought a new shotgun. DH had to cut 2" off the stock to fit me. It's an over and under Franchi. DH laughed when I bought it. He said it's now he most expensive gun in the house. None of his rifles cost nearly as much as my new shotgun. So off the range now to get up to speed in the new gun. Left the dogs in the car while I shoot. Go back to the car after I'm done and 6 beady eyes are staring back to me from the front seats, wondering why they weren't out there with me hunting up ducks. My goal is to hit 20 out of 25 pigeons. I'm a heck of a long way from that. I just don't want to disappoint the dogs this fall!

Everything is still frozen solid. But it's still early. Snow is gone very early this year, yah! 

DH is still getting into the training mode with Lucy. I bought him his own whistle yesterday. I'm hoping to keep his interest up.

Dogs are doing great. Next month are the first NAHRA hunt tests. I'm debating whether to enter Lucy in Hunter or Intermediate and try a blind. Reilly will be in Started. There is a theory to put Lucy in both Hunter and Intermediate, then you get to at least pass one, but that gets pretty expensive....


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## Vhuynh2

Last night my bf and I were driving back from BC (long drives give you time to think! ugh!) and I realized that I really, really wanted to run Molly in Seasoned this weekend. If it weren't for the sudden no-gos last weekend (which, don't get me wrong, is a huge deal to me), we would've been there. My one duck call broke, and I knew I needed one if I wanted to run her but decided not to stop at Cabela's on the way home, because I thought not having a duck call might prevent me from running Molly. I really wanted to run her, but I knew that I probably shouldn't. I feared Molly becoming test-wise. This morning, I went to the test grounds thinking I'll be there at least to help out, and _maybe_ run her but decided to go with it after talking to my trainer. I actually took so long to decide that I did not have time to fill out the paperwork for the test. I'm not a risk taker, so it was huge for me to risk Molly no-going at a test, but at the same time, I knew she could do the work. 

And we came home with a ribbon!!

Of course, the water blind was the very last element of the test and exactly what I was panicked about, but Molly did SO WELL! She did not hesitate going into the water. She did pop when she got in, but I gave her a back and she took the perfect line for most of the way there (I think they said it was 65 yards). I actually thought she might line it, but she eventually drifted with the wind. We did this blind in two whistles and I kept her really tight on the line so she would exit the pond right where the bird was. I was so proud of her! I don't think we'll do any more tests until Senior and I'm really glad I ran her today because now I know where she's at. Everything else went great -- she marked very well. Well, the land blind was not that great; I was told I lined her up incorrectly, and my depth perception is not the best. The ribbon in the grass looked closer to me than it actually was so my handling was a little off, but we figured it out.


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## Alaska7133

Congratulations!! Where's the photo of Molly with her ribbon?


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## Vhuynh2

Alaska7133 said:


> Congratulations!! Where's the photo of Molly with her ribbon?


Molly either takes really good pictures or really bad ones. This is a really bad one. I was in a hurry to get home so I didn't bother to get her out of the car for a photo.


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## MillionsofPeaches

ha ha ha love the photo of Molly. I wish you and me lived closer, I think we are the exact same person for the most part. I'm proud of you for taking that risk, I know what you mean about taking them. It is also the best feeling to pass that first time, that way you know you are capable. So happy for you guys!


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## hollyk

Congratulations Vivian and Molly.
All that hard work and worry is paying off.


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## hotel4dogs

congrats to you and Molly!!!


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## Vhuynh2

MillionsofPeaches said:


> ha ha ha love the photo of Molly. I wish you and me lived closer, I think we are the exact same person for the most part. I'm proud of you for taking that risk, I know what you mean about taking them. It is also the best feeling to pass that first time, that way you know you are capable. So happy for you guys!


I know, I think we'd have fun together!


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## gdgli

Beautiful day today. We had a chance to run some blinds. I took advantage of a hill in this field and tried to mimic what I had seen a MH hunt test that several dogs messed up. The line to the blind is across a flat field and the bird is at the top of the hill at the end of the field. Of course I am teaching this to Buffy right now but she ran it well.


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## goldlover68

*GRC of Illinois Hunt Test*

With the flu and Kennel Cough anyone up in Illinois concerned about the upcoming GRC hunt tests? We already have her flu shots...but not sure they are any good for this stuff.

I have a pup entered and just wondering what is being said by the locals at this point.


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## Alaska7133

The flu shot your dog had will probably not work against this strain. The strain has been determined to come from China. With all the dogs being imported by rescues from China and Korea, supposedly from the dog meat industry, the finger is being pointed in their direction. So avoid places with those rescue dogs. Now as people adopt those foreign origin rescues or foster those foreign origin rescues, I would definitely stay away from those locations. Now with so many rescues coming from foreign countries we are starting to see parasites in the US that were eradicated decades ago. Parasites like screwworm were eradicated in the US in the 1950's. Now can be found on dogs being brought in from Mexico. Be careful of visiting homes or locations where foreign rescues can be found. Find out if your vet is treating any of these dogs before you visit. A vet office could be a place to pick up odd things. Also any doggie daycare, dog wash, pet chain store or boarding facility.


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## hotel4dogs

Just back from chasing a LOT of live ducks, lol. We had a blast! Did a nice 100 yard channel blind, some nice water marks.
Gorgeous day here.
Dog flu is a very serious concern here in IL.


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## my4goldens

hotel4dogs said:


> Just back from chasing a LOT of live ducks, lol. We had a blast! Did a nice 100 yard channel blind, some nice water marks.
> Gorgeous day here.
> Dog flu is a very serious concern here in IL.


I am getting a little freaked out because of it too. Thought about the vaccine but from what I gather it won't work on this particular strain of flu.


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## Alaska7133

Obedience trial this weekend. Crossing our fingers. Missing out on live flyers at training tomorrow. But last leg for CD and RN tomorrow. Hoping to pass. Then move up on Sunday.

Next weekend we are clearing our hunt test/field trial area at Turnagain Pass. It is the most beautiful place on earth to run a test/trial. But the willow brush grows up and takes over. So every 2 years we go down and cut it all back. The ponds have crystal clear water. Amazing place all created by mines working in the area. Their leftovers created awesome ponds and hills perfect for tests and trials. Anyone want to come up and help?


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## boomers_dawn

Alaska7133 said:


> Anyone want to come up and help?


Ha ha Stacey, your area is stunning! But I'm working on keeping my big fat volunteer hand DOWN!

The last ice chunk in our yard disappeared yesterday (I took a photo of the chickens pecking at it 2 days ago)

So far this year we trained once (marking drill) and went to a fun ice breaker trial (entered well in advance of the poopola hitting the fan at work). The girls' marking wasn't perfect but Gladys was quiet and the line with no forward motion until send, and Dee Dee got out there and went way farther than she needed to. More thrilled overcoming their challenges than caring about their marking.

Lots of opportunities training-wise, but due to major milestone at work - (10 - 12 hour days, working weekends, nightmares and pressure) current goals are survival mode and say NO to volunteer work :uhoh:


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## MillionsofPeaches

The weather has been nuts here, rain and more rain!
This past weekend the girls had more tests, kat got another leg on senior and Peaches finally got her JH. Glad that is over! Yesterday we worked on land and did memory drills and ran some blinds, today was in the water. It is beautiful today and brisk so the dogs were wild bandits. Katniss was obnoxious! They sure get frisky when it cools down, ha ha. 

Proof has been doing basically all the same marks as the girls. Even the memory drills and WC doubles. I want to make sure he doesn't head swing so it is just occasionally. He is obsessed so now I feel it is time to work on some field obedience. I held off until I knew I'd have him hooked but when your puppy is doing 100 yard marks, you really need him come back ha ha ha ha! No, he's always come back until this week so I worked on that today. He did well. I think he is starting to understand he has choices, so now I need him to know what choices he needs to make in order to keep playing the game. But its all still light and fun and he loves training more than anything on Earth


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## Vhuynh2

Kat is on fire!! Go girls and Proof!!


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## Alaska7133

DH left the office for awhile this morning, so I snuck out of work with Lucy and met some golden friends to train. We worked lots of doubles of varying distances that forced the dogs to run right past chairs with gunners in them. Lucy doesn't have trouble with that. Normally though, she'd slow a bit and show each gunner in the way back her bird, but not today. Today she was slow and not very happy I guess you could say. On her very last retrieve she puttered around and didn't pick up the bumper right away and found something interesting to smell instead. She does this every now and then which is very annoying. She knows exactly where the bumper is, yet she takes a moment to goof off. So after we wrapped things up, I asked the group what to do. I got a variety of answers.
1. Fetch, nic, Fetch when she starts to putter.
2. Make her happy and play with her more, she's too stressed out.
3. She needs birds since she hasn't had them in several months.
4. Don't talk so much and use the tab on her collar to move her around for directing her at the line.

You ask for opinions and you get them sometimes! So when I came home tonight, I got out a pigeon and did retrieves. Holy cow! Miss Lucy has missed her birds! We didn't have a problem with puttering, we had a breaking problem. So there you go, just switched one problem for another. No more puttering problem.

Just for fun I got Reilly out for some retrieves with the pigeon. He was so happy! He popped his jaws and just vibrated. He flipped his bird in the air when he retrieved it and caught and swung it around. Good old Reilly he is such a joyful dog! Can't see worth a darn, but there's no mistaking that golden nose, he didn't miss that pigeon one time. Good thing the pigeon was frozen or it would have been right down his throat. 

I do have one tip for anyone joining a training group, do NOT complain about the weather. Do NOT say you are cold. Don't request that everyone cut their training short because you are cold. Show up ready to train and dressed accordingly. don't be a drag for everyone else. Yes it was snowy today, yes it was cold, but get over it and help everyone else train, because you are expecting them to help you too.


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## MillionsofPeaches

eww sounds like it wasn't the best training day, Stacey. Those happen sometimes


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## gdgli

MoP

Congrats to Kat and Peaches.

Very nice shot of Proof! Glad to hear that he is doing well.


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## gdgli

I just got in from doing a little training. I ran Buffy on a couple of cold blinds. She did well.

I hope to run Thor this afternoon, before the rain.


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## Alaska7133

MOP,
You are doing so great with your pups! I'm envious!


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## Vhuynh2

Last week, we did three sessions of FTP. She is responding very well. By Monday I realized I had not done any water work at all since the test, so we ran the same keyhole blind that we did about two months ago and she did very well. It is goose nesting season so I am afraid of running new channel or keyhole blinds because of the goose nests on the islands. I am terrified of the chance of Molly banking where there could be a nest. 

Yesterday, we ran a blind between two wingers that were staggered to throw two inline marks. This was new for Molly in two ways -- I don't believe she had ever run a blind under the arc of a fall before and she definitely has never run a blind between two wingers so close to each side of the line. It was pretty difficult but she stuck with me and did a good job.


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## gdgli

I hope to get out to train today if my eyes recover from the eye exam this morning. I want to get out to a field with both dogs.

In any event I will be traveling this weekend to train with SBGRC. Looking forward to it. Both Buffy and Thor are going.


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## hotel4dogs

A fun session at Dan's today! We're concentrating heavily on water right now, although he did do some nice land work as well. Today's concept (on water) was blinds across an island, with increasing difficulty due to decreasing angles. He did a good job. Also worked on marks that involved the bird going out way up on land across the pond, up a hill a good distance and then marks where the bird fell in lots of crud (cattails, weeds, etc) at the water's edge.
A good day. Perfect weather, 50 degrees and sunny.


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## MillionsofPeaches

are you running him in Master, barb?


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## hotel4dogs

<<sigh>> one of these days, yes....but not yet :no:

(edit to add...he had an awesome day today....chasing live ducks, swimming, and a breeding tonight. what a life  )



MillionsofPeaches said:


> are you running him in Master, barb?


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## K9-Design

Had one of those "I'm not sure if this was productive" experiences yesterday --- well some parts were productive just not much of it.

First I drove an hour to train water at the L pond. Set up 3 blinds straight across, the two to the outside were about 30 yards swimming then 10 yards up the bank, the middle one was across the bend of the pond and altogether about 75 yards as it's flooded in the corner. Anyways this is Bally's 3rd session of water blinds. The first one he wasn't on the correct line (about 5-10º) off but I let him swim all the way across without stopping him since his momentum was so good, then a cast or two to get him to the blind once he was on the opposite shore. The next blind he lined. The long blind in the corner we had some casting but he hung in there and worked with me --- really good!!! I was really pleased with that. Hey, he jumped in and swam relatively straight and was going to keep going without my help and that's all I really want at this point.

We then practiced a little drill for remote sends. Sat Bally on the mat, Kristin walked out with bumpers, my goal is to be able to say "mark" and have Bally look straight ahead and find the gunner when I am either 10+ feet away to the side or behind him. He caught on to this game pretty quickly.

We then packed up and drove back over near Kristin's house to do land. Drove into our normal field and there was a woman in a golf cart smack in the middle of the field. Sat there and stared at her a while and she didn't move. No idea what she was doing. So we decided to go train on this new field that Kristin found, drove 15 minutes over there. The field is huge and gorgeous! Wow! We spend 25 minutes setting up and figuring out what we're going to do. Long double and two very long blinds. Right as I get Bally out of the truck to do the memory bird as a single, these two big diesel pickups drive into the field, and start driving all over the place, coming close to us and definitely checking us out. They were very loud. The one was a flatbed hauler and had two giant cages with enormous dogs in them and one loose dog standing on the flatbed! YIKES! I ran and put Bally in the car. They drive all the way over to the far side of the field and suddenly a tractor pulls up where they are, then the two truck drive and park in the middle of the field (conveniently between my go-bird station and a blind). Tractor proceeds to fire up and start spraying pesticide! All said and done I ended up doing the memory bird as a single and one of the blinds, Bally did great but that was a whole lot of work setting up for not a lot of training. At least we saw the sprayer as we may have come out the next day and had no idea our dogs were running through the pesticide.


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## gdgli

hotel4dogs said:


> <<sigh>> one of these days, yes....but not yet :no:
> 
> (edit to add...he had an awesome day today....chasing live ducks, swimming, and a breeding tonight. what a life  )


Reminds me of my younger days.


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## MillionsofPeaches

dang, Anney, that sucks. Sounds kind of deliverancey to me, too, ha ha


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## K9-Design

Oh trust me these people looked the part!!! hahaha

I really do not mind training with people or cars or whatever around, but loose dogs -- ABSOLUTELY not. No chance. I train a lot at a community college and there are always people driving around the field, walking across the field, cross country joggers, bikes, kite flyers, model air planes, whatever. Train away. But one loose dog walker? Back in the car and I wait them out. 

MoP -- every time I read your screen name I sing the song! LOL


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## Alaska7133

Anney,
How does Bally do with long blinds and cataracts? I'm curious about how does he see your casts from such a distance?


Most of our water is thawed now. Took Lucy last night for water session. I only took her, not the boys. She was freaking out crazy. 7 months without swimmable water. Thankfully e-collars were invented. I would not have been able to control her otherwise. The pond was about 1/4 covered with ice still and some ice was still frozen to the bottom at the edge. But she climbed over the ice and away she went. I just hand threw some bumpers and dokkens. I was torn about making her hold her bumpers as she came out of the water or letting her shake. The water is just so darn cold, so I did let her shake. When it was time to pack up, she noticed me gathering the dumpers and dokkens in my arms, so she ran away to the other side of the pond and started to get in! **** dog! Called her once, then here-nic-here. She really didn't want to get out of the water. I didn't want to correct her too much, it's been 7 months with no swimming, so I probably let her get away with more than I should. Anyway I finally got her toweled off and back in the car. This is earlier than the average spring, so pretty nice for a change. I'm hoping to get out every day for swimming and hopefully be on track to run SH this summer.

I'm considering taking the Bill Hillmann seminar in TN next weekend. I have some frequent flyer miles...


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## MillionsofPeaches

K9-Design said:


> MoP -- every time I read your screen name I sing the song! LOL


Yay!! I didn't think anyone ever "got" my screen name!! We love that stupid great song!


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## K9-Design

Presidents of the United States of America 

Stacey -- Slater is the one with cataracts, not Bally  Bally sees just fine


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## FTGoldens

gdgli said:


> Reminds me of my younger days.


Okay George, I laughed out loud with that one!


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## Alaska7133

Cool, just wondered. With Slater having cataracts, how were you able to put a MH on him? I assume he wasn't that much affected? I've heard rumblings that juvenile cataracts should be removed from the list of reasons for neuter/spaying. What do you think?


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## hotel4dogs

hahahahahaha!



gdgli said:


> Reminds me of my younger days.


----------



## K9-Design

Slater can see fine at hunt test distances unless the sun is right in his eyes. There was no problem with it at all. 
I believe we need more research that shows that judicious breeding of dogs with JCs doesn't produce blind puppies, and that most JCs do not progress to affecting the dog's quality of life or ability to be a pet. I want the ACVO and OFA on board and all in agreement that it is OK before I want GRCA to change and "allow" it per the COE. I don't want GRCA's COE recommending one thing, and the ACVO and OFA saying something else --- a very slippery slope for shady breeders to convince puppy buyers that clearances are worthless. 
Having said that, besides long distance vision and direct sunlight, Slater is not affected in any way. It would have zero impact on him if he were only a pet, or only did obedience, agility or conformation.


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## Vhuynh2

Hahaha Stacey, that is so Molly too. At the park where she swims, she will jump into the lake when she sees the leash in my hand. I have thoroughly dried her up after training only to turn my back for one second and then hearing SPLASH. :doh: She loves to swim around in circles while using her paws to splash the water up and then biting it. She can do that all day. My friend jokes that I can just drop her off at the pond and come back in 3 hours and she'll still be doing it.


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## Claudia M

The guy we train with likes to push me above my "safety spot". Yesterday we went out to train and he has been asking me to do more doubles and more walk ups with the girls. I figured I better keep it simple stupid until we get to pass the JH. 

Nope he has decided yesterday the girls will have fliers in the water. I am agnostic but I prayed before each run and thanked the "guy up there" each time they went after the bird and did not get spooked by the flapping thing in the water. More important the birds were brought back still kicking and alive. Actually above important they left the four geese swimming around the ducks alone. 
We had a dead goose on the ground and they both got to smell it before they ran. They were curious but did not attempt to pick it up nor did I tell them to.


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## gdgli

I am looking forward to training tomorrow. It will be Thor's first club training day. So far his yard training is going well. I hope he does well tomorrow.


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## MillionsofPeaches

oh wow, G!! I cannot wait to hear all about it!


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## Claudia M

As of today (couple hours ago) we have gone 5 for 5 in JH tests and finished the JH title for both girls. It took us 9 months due the timing, heats and since both girls started training for the tests together I only entered them together and me not driving 3 hours for a test. But we still did it.

Forgot to add the pics


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## Alaska7133

Did our first cold blind yesterday. Took a leap and gave it a shot. First we came to the line and ran an easy double on mowed hay field. Then turned 180 degrees and ran a short maybe 100-150' cold blind. I was a bit nervous, but what the heck right? So I said "Back", and off Lucy went running like heck. Wow, that was a surprise, I fully expected her to look at me and say, there's no bumper, I'm not going! But she didn't. She ran straight where I sent her. She was a bit off course, so I whistled her and she stopped! Oh my gosh I was shocked. So I walked up, and handled her with an angle back. She took it nice, but we needed to zig zag across the field. I did move up near her every time, I didn't have that much confidence that she would be able to understand if I was far away. But she sat at every whistle and took every cast. She was sooo excited when she got to that dokken! She swept it up and ran back to me and jumped up on me with that dokken in her mouth. She was so proud of herself. So I walked her back to the line, took the dokken and ran her on an easy single. She did just fine yesterday. There is hope...

Next weekend I'm headed to Bear Country Retrievers in Bethpage, TN for a Bill Hillmann seminar. Water Fundamentals. It's time to get on track for water work. With the ice almost all thawed, we need to step it up and get going if we are going to run SH this year. I had frequent flyer miles and the seminar is actually not that expensive. Plus they are throwing in some training time after the seminar. So I'm going to hang around an extra day and give Lucy some time in the warm southern water. Should be fun.


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## MillionsofPeaches

that is fantastic, Stacey, I'm glad that she did so well on the cold blind!!! 
George, waiting patiently to hear about Thor's first time out in the field!


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## gdgli

We had a very enjoyable day today at Southern Berkshire GRC training day. And I enjoyed watching the puppies. We did a few bumpers, then went to the chukar partridge, and then a duck. Here's the report on Thor:


THE GOOD--Thor likes birds. He couldn't get away from the bag of dead birds. He also has a lot of energy and marks well and runs well. He did pick up a chukar and a duck with a fairly nice hold.

THE BAD---Thor likes to do things his way. He needs lots of encouragement to get him to return. My excuse---he is a very young puppy. Really. Anyway, that's what training is for, isn't it?

THE UGLY---Thor decided to put down the duck on one retrieve and started to pluck the feathers. And apparently became very deaf.

I was most pleased at his drive and interest. I also had a chance to get him introduced to the event atmosphere. I am happy to say that he was interested in the sights, smells, and sounds without going crazy. He was really good at being calm in the crate. I am looking forward to more time in the field with him.

PS I encountered a problem on this trip. While on the highway my radiator hose developed a leak. It had been cut by the fan. Many thanks to Advanced Auto Parts in Avon. I drove there and found a nice large store open 9-7 on Sundays. Although I had my own tools the employee offered to lend me tools in order to do the repair. I made the repair and got back to the field to shoot and train.


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## hotel4dogs

Congrats Claudia!!! They look good in Orange!


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## MillionsofPeaches

It sounds great, George! Proof also has a plucking problem so currently the only birds he gets are in panty hose and that boy still wants to shake his head and get crazy with his birds. This will be a process for us, I know. As well, he also is starting to stop half way to me to enjoy his bird or decoy. He won't run away from me as I approach him, sometimes he will hunker down on his spoils or sometimes he will come to me without the the item. Thursday I started the process of walking out there, putting the item in the mouth and heeling him back to the line. Then Friday he did much better. So I think this might work. He is a quick learner and wants to play so hard that he seems to do what is necessary to stay in the game.


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## Claudia M

Good job Thor! I think all puppies pluck on their first bird. In training when we saw a puppy trying to decide on the return we would make a cheer leader chorus behind the handler and clap the puppy back in.


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## Alaska7133

George where's your photos?


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## FTGoldens

MillionsofPeaches said:


> ....the only birds he gets are in panty hose ....


So do the hose sag down to their ankles?

(I'm sorry, I just HAD to do that!)

FTGoldens


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## K9-Design

When Bally was that age he wanted to pluck birds or crunch their heads, I ended up taking birds away and only using bumpers for a few months then at about 6 months of age we threw shackled ducks....he tried setting one of those down to pluck feathers and it ran off! He had to hold it or it would get away. That worked to fix the problem 

Yesterday Kristin and I did an intro to field training mini-course for Mid-FL GRC and it was a HUGE success. We had almost 20 dog & handler teams all very new or completely unfamiliar with field work. We started with a demo, we had a Master setup but first ran Tuuli on two of the marks like a Junior dog, Bally on a walkup, double and short blind like a Senior setup, and our friend Mike ran his dog as the Master demo (triple w/ hip pocket, run one blind after you pick up go bird, then longer blind after marks which was a goalpost between two trees on the back side of the short gun). One of our club members who is a HT judge narrated and we discussed jargon and rules as the dogs ran the setups. Then we broke into two groups, Kristin took her group and introduced them to live pigeons, and my group had a discussion/demo of basic field obedience, line and holding blind manners, collar conditioning and basic training questions. There were many people there unfamiliar with an ecollar or flat out against it. By the end of my lecture I had them holding the collar in their hand so they could feel the different levels -- they all wanted to try it!! Hopefully it was educational. People seemed to have a great time and I hope they want to get involved with field work.

We also had the 4 Dual Dog Hall of Fame members from the state of Florida in attendance, and got some great photos of Jagger, Millie, Sophie and Fisher together. I'll post them when the photographer sends them to me.


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## gdgli

Here's one pic. Thank you Christine Valls of SBGRC.


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## gdgli

Here's another. Again, many thanks to Christine Valls.


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## gdgli

And thank you CarmenK


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## gdgli

CarmenK, thanks for the many photos. I chose those above for now because I feel they show intensity.

Thanks again.


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## Alaska7133

Oh my gosh George! He's delightful! Wow can't wait to see him in action someday. Does he have a white splash on his chest like his dad?


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## FTGoldens

Indeed, the focus is manifest, especially in the last photo!
And I don't think he could have gotten any more of that bird in his mouth in the preceding photo. He seems to know why he was born ... to get birds!
You're going to have fun with that boy!
FTGoldens


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## gdgli

Alaska7133 said:


> Oh my gosh George! He's delightful! Wow can't wait to see him in action someday. Does he have a white splash on his chest like his dad?


It's there and I am glad he has it!


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## MillionsofPeaches

most definitely!! :



FTGoldens said:


> So do the hose sag down to their ankles?
> 
> (I'm sorry, I just HAD to do that!)
> 
> FTGoldens


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## Claudia M

OK, I am officially a "dog field crazy" person. I am ecstatic with joy that I have 26 ducks in my freezer. Of course those are some of out training group ducks and happy I can store even more. After reading how guys had to hide ducks in the freezer so the wife does not find them I am so happy my husband can care less of what I fill the freezer up with.


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## gdgli

K9-Design said:


> When Bally was that age he wanted to pluck birds or crunch their heads, I ended up taking birds away and only using bumpers for a few months then at about 6 months of age we threw shackled ducks....he tried setting one of those down to pluck feathers and it ran off! He had to hold it or it would get away. That worked to fix the problem
> 
> Yesterday Kristin and I did an intro to field training mini-course for Mid-FL GRC and it was a HUGE success. We had almost 20 dog & handler teams all very new or completely unfamiliar with field work. We started with a demo, we had a Master setup but first ran Tuuli on two of the marks like a Junior dog, Bally on a walkup, double and short blind like a Senior setup, and our friend Mike ran his dog as the Master demo (triple w/ hip pocket, run one blind after you pick up go bird, then longer blind after marks which was a goalpost between two trees on the back side of the short gun). One of our club members who is a HT judge narrated and we discussed jargon and rules as the dogs ran the setups. Then we broke into two groups, Kristin took her group and introduced them to live pigeons, and my group had a discussion/demo of basic field obedience, line and holding blind manners, collar conditioning and basic training questions. There were many people there unfamiliar with an ecollar or flat out against it. By the end of my lecture I had them holding the collar in their hand so they could feel the different levels -- they all wanted to try it!! Hopefully it was educational. People seemed to have a great time and I hope they want to get involved with field work.
> 
> We also had the 4 Dual Dog Hall of Fame members from the state of Florida in attendance, and got some great photos of Jagger, Millie, Sophie and Fisher together. I'll post them when the photographer sends them to me.


Anney, I agree with the strategy for dealing with what I call puppy interest in birds. Building skills with bumpers is the way to go. Everything else gets cleaned up with force fetch and smart training.

Your field training mini-course sounds great. I would be interested in seeing a course outline/list of topics for the day and how much time you spent on it. And I would be very interested in hearing how you handled the ecollar.


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## FTGoldens

K9-Design said:


> Yesterday Kristin and I did an intro to field training mini-course for Mid-FL GRC and it was a HUGE success. We had almost 20 dog & handler teams all very new or completely unfamiliar with field work. We started with a demo, we had a Master setup but first ran Tuuli on two of the marks like a Junior dog, Bally on a walkup, double and short blind like a Senior setup, and our friend Mike ran his dog as the Master demo (triple w/ hip pocket, run one blind after you pick up go bird, then longer blind after marks which was a goalpost between two trees on the back side of the short gun). One of our club members who is a HT judge narrated and we discussed jargon and rules as the dogs ran the setups. Then we broke into two groups, Kristin took her group and introduced them to live pigeons, and my group had a discussion/demo of basic field obedience, line and holding blind manners, collar conditioning and basic training questions. There were many people there unfamiliar with an ecollar or flat out against it. By the end of my lecture I had them holding the collar in their hand so they could feel the different levels -- they all wanted to try it!! Hopefully it was educational. People seemed to have a great time and I hope they want to get involved with field work.


That's excellent! Events like that one are marvelous for many reasons, including (i) introducing non-field people and their dogs to field work and (ii) dispelling myths about field training and field dogs (and field trainers!).

FTGoldens


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## goldlover68

Our 26 month old girl, already a JH, will be running in her first SH test this Sunday. The two more the following weekend. The season begins....wish us luck. We hope to have her SH title sometime this spring and also have her scheduled for a WCX run in May. Fun, fun, fun...


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## K9-Design

I did make an information packet and handed it out, I'll try to make it into a PDF and share it here.

I did the obedience portion so I started with sit (stay), walk around dog, leash tension, etc. Then did heel vs. here and demonstrated with Bally how I can stand still and tell him "heel" and he will back away left, or say "here" and he will curve around me to the right. How I can walk a backwards figure 8 with him in heel position, walking to the holding blind by saying heel and having the dog take the first step backwards. We did approaching and waiting in the holding blind, approaching the line, and lining up for a mark. I emphasized that field commands can have different meanings in different contexts -- like heel vs. heeling, here to turn right vs. come when called, sit is both put your butt on the ground and look straight ahead. I demonstrated my placemat training and explained how I trained Bally to be steady by using the placemat and collar conditioning to the mat. We then got into recall training. I explained that I use 3 phases to teach it, starting with very baby puppies and keeping things 100% positive and preventative, add corrections for ignoring me when they are adolescents, then collar conditioning to here.

When we talked about the collar I brought out my collar and explained each function of the collar, how it is worn. They asked great questions like can it cause physical harm, can you use it in the water, and like I said many of the people were interested in feeling it themselves! I told them the story of how I trained Fisher for JH, WC and WCX without a collar with no problems whatsoever, but when I advanced to pile work and he would not look out at the pile, I tried everything I knew of to fix it and was not able to, my only option was to quit or shoot my dog with rat shot which is how the old pre-collar books tell you to punish your dog!!! (Of course this always gets a crowd response.) Then I went to Mike Lardy seminar where he cured a dog of this in two sends with an easy heel-nick-heel and that I went home, bought a collar, and never looked back. 

What got a really good response was I told them about force fetching Slater, that when I started with ear pinch it was terrible, he would NOT willingly take the bumper with ear pressure, extreme ear pressure, he would totally clam up, and this was a dog who was dynamite on marks. When I finally went to collar fetch he totally got it, turned on and was a superstar in pile work and forward. I realized that the problem was he was very sensitive to what he perceived as me punishing him, being disappointed in him, and me being the bad guy. With the collar it was God or somebody else, I was the coach there to help him, and he could totally take that and work through it. I talked how lots of anti-collar people think the advent of the collar has led to really tough dogs being perpetuated, dogs who can only be trained with electricity, but in fact the opposite is true -- the collar allows very advanced training with very sensitive dogs that would have never cut it in the pre-collar days, and we have now more sensitive, intuitive dogs than ever before who are achieving in very high level field work, because of smart training with the collar.

Anyways I thought it was productive and by being open and honest about the collar use I think people are more receptive to it. Also they see our dogs work who are really happy and fast workers and capable of amazing stuff even as young dogs.


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## gdgli

goldlover68 said:


> Our 26 month old girl, already a JH, will be running in her first SH test this Sunday. The two more the following weekend. The season begins....wish us luck. We hope to have her SH title sometime this spring and also have her scheduled for a WCX run in May. Fun, fun, fun...


Good luck!


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## gdgli

Thank you Anney. I am always looking to educate prospective retriever owners.


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## MillionsofPeaches

you know Anney, I'd LOVE to have a PDF file of your stuff. Most definitely. You know, I'm glad you dealt with the collar the way you did. I went to a "positive" training seminar a couple of weeks ago that my club hosted. It was insane, I couldn't handle it. I had this lady pick me out of the crowd several times to ask me if I burned my dog. I hadn't ever said anything about collars or anything! She was catering solely to the other ladies that were so anti collar. I did NOT get into a conversation about collars or even say I used one. I just kept my mouth shut but I promise you this lady uses one in private, lol. I just wish people would be open about them as a training tool when used the right way. Needless to say, I went home without much information except using "cookies" in the field instead of collars.


"What got a really good response was I told them about force fetching Slater, that when I started with ear pinch it was terrible, he would NOT willingly take the bumper with ear pressure, extreme ear pressure, he would totally clam up, and this was a dog who was dynamite on marks. When I finally went to collar fetch he totally got it, turned on and was a superstar in pile work and forward. I realized that the problem was he was very sensitive to what he perceived as me punishing him, being disappointed in him, and me being the bad guy. With the collar it was God or somebody else, I was the coach there to help him, and he could totally take that and work through it. I talked how lots of anti-collar people think the advent of the collar has led to really tough dogs being perpetuated, dogs who can only be trained with electricity, but in fact the opposite is true -- the collar allows very advanced training with very sensitive dogs that would have never cut it in the pre-collar days, and we have now more sensitive, intuitive dogs than ever before who are achieving in very high level field work, because of smart training with the collar."

THIS is exactly how I got anywhere with Katniss and a lot of people do not understand. She worked SO MUCH better with the collar and it was too bad that my trainer wouldn't put one on her because he thought she was too soft. It was the exact opposite. She didn't understand it was me that was correcting her and it turned me into the good guy rather than the bad guy. Plus a simple nic is so much easier for her to tolerate than a NO! or an ear pinch. I would say the collar was a positive tool for her rather than a negative.


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## K9-Design

OK I will try to construct a PDF out of my info packet. It really was geared for beginners so maybe nothing new for experienced people, but it'd be great for puppy packets or something.

MoP I can probably guess who the seminar Speaker was.
Who has since denounced field work and who's famous dog was absolutely trained with a collar. To single you out is ridiculous. To that whole crowd I say, best of luck and I'll see you at the next Master test. I'll be running two dogs and you'll probably be delivering lunches.


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## MillionsofPeaches

OMG you are so right on who that Speaker was!!! What a waste of money and I laugh because those ladies followed the speaker like the speaker was a cult figure. Some of them have trained with that speaker for over a year with nothing to speak of and I'm thinking, hello? Do you not see that a year with no results means you need to change it up.


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## hotel4dogs

oh oh oh I want to know who it is, someone send me a PM


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## K9-Design

haha Barb just like a Jeopardy question the answer is in the question itself


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## hotel4dogs

I *think* I get it!


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## Alaska7133

Dang and I just bought her book! Seriously. I just got it last week! I was reading it thinking how the heck did she get Speaker to do all that stuff without a collar? Wow! Amazing. I knew as I read it that she was lying about the whole collar thing. I'm sad that I spent the money. Good to know I wasn't imagining anything.

On another note. The weekend before last I was the judge hospitality person for our obedience trial 2 weekends ago. I had to pick up the judges from the airport, do the hotels, run them around. Nothing major, but it did allow me time to discuss their theories of training. I did make sure before I picked the judges up to remove all my e-collars and pinch collars from my car. Boy am I glad I did. Judges were both all positive clicker trainers. And they preached! I wanted to melt. So I put on my happy face. Next time I won't volunteer for judge hospitality. Our club is balanced obedience and not critical of anyone. But the one judge was preaching at the trial to anyone that would talk to her about clicker all positive training. Sigh. I guess it's now a religion.


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## MillionsofPeaches

Funny, it was mentioned at least 20 times that "its in my book" "You can buy it and read more about it"
Her dogs were talented and great, no doubt about it. I just do not think that cookies are the whole story.


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## gdgli

MoP K9 Alaska hotel4dogs

You girls are just terrible with this gossip.
(Got more?)


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## MillionsofPeaches

G those pain killers make you funny!


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## Alaska7133

Spring is definitely here. Last night I got out for more water work with Lucy. She was not a good girl. The geese are here and of course not afraid of anything. The pond I worked her on had several geese. First I threw a bumper twice into the water for a simple retrieve. No problems. So I set up a pile on the shore next to the water of 4 bumpers. We walked to the opposite side of the pond, about 30' - 40' to send her to the pile. No angles, right from the edge of the water. She new where the piles were, she'd head straight for them, then 1/2 way across, she'd make a 90 degree turn for the geese. I'd whistle her back and send her again. 4 times she did the same thing, 90 degree turn to the geese. Nic didn't help, whistles didn't help, she wouldn't cast in the water. She has had NO water work until now since our water just opened up. So it's not like she was casting in the water last year and we're revisiting the issue. So after 4 tries, I decided to simplify. We walked back to the pile of bumpers on the other side of the pond. I sent her from land to the pile 4 times. The distance wasn't far and I left the bumpers on the shore at the edge of the water. I sent from my side and had her retrieve all 4 bumpers. Each one, she went to get and was completely distracted by the geese. But I was able to get her to pick up each bumper and return to my side. So I was able to get some work out of her and keep her from chasing the geese again. I did have to use the collar a lot to control her. She was completely overwhelmed with being able to swim and seeing the geese. Her little brain was in overdrive. Alaska dogs have it so hard. Such long periods without open water and not seeing water birds! This weekend when I head to the Bill Hillmann seminar I will probably have the least obedient dog. She is obsessed with water.


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## Claudia M

goldlover68 said:


> our 26 month old girl, already a jh, will be running in her first sh test this sunday. The two more the following weekend. The season begins....wish us luck. We hope to have her sh title sometime this spring and also have her scheduled for a wcx run in may. Fun, fun, fun...


good luck!


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## Vhuynh2

My trainer wants me to practice no'ing off marks and running blinds, but warned me to not do it too often. We practiced with no'ing her off live pigeons and sending her over a pipe to a pile and she did wonderfully. I have no'ed her off marks but so far I have only been sending her to blinds we had already done. So I run the blind first, throw a mark, no her off that and then run the same blind again.

On Monday, we did a wider channel water blind but there was a white bumper in the water that should not have been there that I did not see (it was behind an island). She had to swim past the island before entering the channel and once she caught sight of the bumper she wanted to go for it. It was pretty close, too, and it took 3-4 casts but I got her off the bumper and down the channel. I was pretty happy with that.

I am so nervous about Senior -- AKC seems so intimidating to me.


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## gdgli

I had a great day with Buffy yesterday. I ran her on 4 cold blinds. She did well. Sounds like nothing spectacular except that she ran them with such confidence, speed and style. I feel that my patience in teaching blinds has paid off. PLUS my blind training has all been done in NYC parks. Perfect for teaching---baseball and soccer fields as well as brushy edges. 

And when I was done, a woman came over to me and complimented me on Buffy's training. That made my day.


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## hotel4dogs

No training for us today, Tito is away at a sleepover with one of his girlfriends. I miss him, but I'm sure he doesn't miss me a BIT! But that is 2 out of 4 training days we missed this month, which isn't going to get us to MH very fast.


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## MillionsofPeaches

This week working on just more of the same. Today I worked on water with some land mixed in. Working on water and land blinds after calling off water marks. That was much harder for Katniss as she loves a splash! 
proof is doing really great on water, he is swimming out to about 40 to 60 yard marks with tall cover on the bank so he is pushing right through it in and out. His water has become much more confident so I'm glad about that. He is an excellent swimmer and glides through it so fast. Never did baby swim. His main issue is the return, on water or land, but today we made some good progress. He is funny, he will come back towards me and then veer off to the side away from me. So I'll call here here and he'll turn towards me again but lay down and bite on his retrieve. Then he'll get up and move closer and lay down again and do this about three times. Finally I had him leaving the decoy and coming into a heel for me without it. I never cared about the heel but since he's doing it that's nice. I train him obedience to do this for me so I think this means he knows that is what I want when I say here, he's transferring what he learns away from field to field. He already will stay steady and leave on his name 80% of the time which I'm grateful for. He learns pretty quick, much quicker than my girls did but he is also very possessive of the bird or decoy which my very biddable Katniss wasn't. So it is all about getting him to come back to me right now, with or without it. I forget he is four months a lot of the time. He moves forward so quickly,and is so crazy about training, but I'm trying to be as easy on him as possible. He is still so young.


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