# November Field Training



## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

ADDED BONUS: I come away from the shoot with training birds!!! And eating birds!!! And a DU barbecue!!!

Life is good!!!


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

OK, the Youth Waterfowl program went well. About two hours on Waterfowl ID. Then the decoy setup and explanation of gunning on the salt marsh went well. (Not in the know? You gun the tides.) Retrieving demo had some glitches. Surrounded by kids yelling "Buffy, Buffy!" while doing retrieves was very distracting. Next year there will be a barrier for spectators.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

Our Continental Shoot went well. Thor had 55 retrieves, mixed bag of pheasants and ducks. He needs a little more experience with cripples. He runs them down OK but needs more running/flapping nasty birds. This is where he will get his practice. 

Thor is steady. Great! Steadiness at a shoot like this is tough. We also had the opportunity to run half a dozen blinds.

Got to talk with John Cushman, Director of Development for DU (NY, CT,ME, RI, VT, MA). We chatted for quite a bit while I worked Thor. Interesting.


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## FTGoldens (Dec 20, 2012)

gdg,

Ha! "Buffy, Buffy, Buffy" ... she must have felt like a rock star!!!

55 ducks and pheasants ... I'm not sure if Thor ever wears out, but it he does, that should have done it!

With field trial season over (unfortunately, due to a multitude of circumstances, it never really got started for me), my focus is on duck hunting ... working on the blind (esp. the dog ramp), getting more decoys ordered and rigged up, deciding whether to get a case of Blind Side or Black Cloud ... and watching the weather for the 2017 opener (for us, it's 11/18/2017).

FTGoldens


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

I've run Quals the past two weekends. First weekend Bally got THIRD --- soooooooo close --- his first three series were pretty great, last series was FUBAR but less FUBAR than most, I didn't handle, pretty much everyone else did. VERY EXCITED to get a yellow ribbon.
This past weekend we ran an owner/handler Q and didn't make it out of the first. 
This upcoming weekend we are going to a Kevin Cheff seminar in Tennessee.
Grounds are great at my local club after the hurricane -- all our ponds have big water -- and they mowed. Ready to get back in a groove training.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

Our training season is finishing up as we enter the "hard water" season. There won't be any soft water again for 5 months. Time to chase more pheasants.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Anney have fun at Sherrie’s, she’s got a pretty cool place!

Last month we spent a fair amount of time in the single digits, so we’ve been done with open water for awhile. This month I’m sure it will be colder. This is our conditioning time of the year. We run our dogs with our fat bikes in the snow on the trails. They love it and get in great shape.

With darkness before and after work, I have to train at lunch when we can find the time. In the evening, I can do wagon wheel type drills in the lights from the shop building in the yard. 

Winter is also obedience trial time for us. Riot and Lucy both got their rally advanced titles last weekend. And Riot got his beginner novice title and is ready for competing in Novice. We’ve been working on signals and jumps. I’m hoping that we are in the utility ring by next fall.... Lucy is happily retired from competing in obedience.

Connie Cleveland will be up here for an obedience seminar in Feb. I have a working spot with Riot. I wish Conni could bring her husband Pat Nolan with her and do a field seminar too... wouldn’t that be cool?


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

Friday's Training=Frustration

Training in a city park, I set up a pile of bumpers with a stake and return to the truck to get Thor. I come back and there is a dog with his owner at my pile of bumpers. The dog is chewing one of my bumpers. Trying to be polite I ask "Do you want to train with me?" He says "Oh, this is yours? Sorry."

I finish with Thor, set up the pile again, go back to the truck for Buffy. I come back to find the same guy with his dog chewing my bumper again. He says "You forgot your bumper." I said "No I am not done yet".
Again---"Sorry".:--dumbfounded:
Maybe I should have taken the hour ride to get out of the city. 

That being said we did get to do our pile work.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

Training in New Hampshire yesterday while visiting my cousin I met another retriever trainer. He and his wife were watching while I ran my setup. When he drove up to me he said it was nice to find another retriever person up here. I agreed that it was difficult to find people who train. We chatted said it would be nice to train together and then exchanged contact information. Overall a good day!


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

We’ve been running drills in the street and in the yard. I move the equipment out of the way and away we go. The snow isn’t too deep but enough to protect paws from the gravel and pavement. I’ve been setting out jumps and doing blind work at an angle to the jumps. Lucy is better at this than Riot. Riot is a huge cheater. His first instinct is to go around. But I need him to go straight over if we ever get to Open obedience. Plus he needs to go over any obstacle. Did some wagonwheel and lining/casting drills to piles of bumpers in the road. The street lights are on so that helps. Sunrise is 9:30 and sunset 4:15. We’re rapidly loosing sunlight right now.

Saturdays are back to field classes with the local hunt test pro. I know the distances aren’t as far as field trials, but it gets us out in an environment that is much closer to a trial/test. Holding blinds, etc. Ran a nice triple and 3 blinds yesterday. Riot kind of freaks out with the marks in your face for hunt tests. As for the blinds he wants to line them, so I have to stop him part way and cast him just to make him remember that I’m still there. He’s so **** fast! He looks at the distraction birds but always comes back without deviating. Such a good boy.


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## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

I was told to always stop Maisey 10 ft from the blind, to never let her line a blind.


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## MillionsofPeaches (Oct 30, 2012)

just training the same old way over here. Trying to get better at blinds. Proof is a big liner so I was not allowed to let him line blinds unless there was some concept that he needed to go by. In this case, if he is doing it right i don't want to stop him. I always make a joke that if I could just get him to line the blinds at the field trials then we'd be okay, ha ha! He's a lot more spastic at the trials than at training though. 

Working lots of short and long retired guns as well. Trying to get in as much big water work as possible before it gets cold. And the hours are whittling away so just trying to get a lot in while I can....

Shelly is off with the foundation trainer right now. I just don't have the time to get all her basics in while trying to train proof with this big dog stuff and trying to learn to get better as a handler. She will have a better foundation than Proof as well. Ironically she is with four other littermate right now and a fifth one trains here as well. They are all so cute and fun. I miss my shelly belly girl!


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## Edward Lee Nelson (Jan 2, 2017)

Im being very nosy  What is Shelly's breeding? Golden or Black dog?


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## MillionsofPeaches (Oct 30, 2012)

Edward Lee Nelson said:


> Im being very nosy  What is Shelly's breeding? Golden or Black dog?


Lee its a black lab by Clooney and out of Chrome. Chrome has a lot of special meaning to me so I was thrilled to get a pup out of her. the Jones were giggling...telling me they were bringing me over to the dark side. While I love Shelly, love her! I am still on the mission for another great golden. I think I'd like to have one of each all the time. They balance each other surprisingly well. I actually don't like my goldens ganging up on me, ha ha! Just kidding. But yes, I'd like another well bred golden in the future. But way down in the future another lab. I might flip flop with genders who knows! I just love them both for different reasons, if they were one dog it would be the perfect dog! 

And another great training day. Proof did nicely on his short retired land set up and then on his hard long water retired he did just good enough. I felt he got out a little early but not too early that he needed to be stopped. Too ambiguous but that's okay he'll be looser next time  After that I left so I could drive and pick up my son from college for Thanksgiving break! Happy Thanksgiving y'all!


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## Edward Lee Nelson (Jan 2, 2017)

Thats a great breeding good luck I really like Clooney! For some reason I thought you had another Golden by Hawk and a Jake/Lucy bitch. (Andy's dog)


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Vhuynh2 said:


> I was told to always stop Maisey 10 ft from the blind, to never let her line a blind.


Maybe for a dog who wants to seriously drive the bus but NO WAY what could be better than let them line a blind???????
Talk about confidence booster.
I put out a big stupid stake and run big stupid long blinds and let em rip until they see the stake and get dogs who LOVE to run REALLY GOOD blinds (well, most of the time LOL)
And then if I show up in training and they've set out a pile of orange bumpers with no markers I bitch and moan with the best of them. HATE boxing around the end of a blind...


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## Vhuynh2 (Feb 13, 2012)

Yes, Maisey is a dog that wants to, and sometimes is, driving the bus. I’m sure it’s possible, but I can’t ever see Maisey ever losing confidence.

I’m coming from training my first dog that I never want to stop, so of course I know what you’re saying.


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## Edward Lee Nelson (Jan 2, 2017)

Blinds are about control. There is always a beginning, middle and end to a blind. How many times have you said or heard someone say " Dog ran a good blind 3/4th the way there or almost to the end" I personally don't see anything wrong with blowing the whistle 10 ft or so from the blind to gain the extra control in training. The further the dog is away from you the less control you have of the dog. In a trial or test when your dog is jacked up and they dont have a collar on you wont have that control, you might as well install the control issue in training when you can. Just my opinion.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Winter training in Alaska is always beautiful. You might not like the temperature, but its still beautiful everywhere you look. The days are super short and the sun is so low in the sky. In this photo is where we train a lot in the winter. The brushy/weedy spots give us opportunity to make corrections if a dog decides to go around brush or reeds or uses a trail instead of going directly to the blind or mark. You can see by the aerial photo that there are lots of clumps of different vegetation. Along with muskrat and beaver homes. The wind blows here pretty well, so the snow is usually no more than 12” deep. It’s huge and you can walk and walk or ride fat bikes to find that right spot to train.


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## MillionsofPeaches (Oct 30, 2012)

this last couple of days I've been training with the amateurs and doing some really meaty singles and then very hard blinds. They were the kind of blinds me and proof can't do well so it is good training for me. Then this morning I did a lot of drill work. Hopefully this week get some more water in in the afternoon. It has been warmer afternoons but pretty cold until around 11 am. This Friday I judge my first derby so Im pretty excited about it!!


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## Edward Lee Nelson (Jan 2, 2017)

Good luck on the Derby Judging MOP. This weekend was a rough one for the pup but she hung in there. Friday was the first time with 4 guns in the field besides stickmen. We ran all of them as singles. 1st set up was open/amateur marks with both sets converging. She did well on the short marks but needed help getting out to the long guns past the old falls. 2nd setup was basically the same but a triple.(Ran as singles) Ran the short bird and did ok, ran the long right bird (325yrds) and nailed it. Came back to the long converging left gun, she drove through the old fall but about 75% of the way there she needed a little movement to get her attention to the long bird but she learned to keep going. Saturday we trained with a hunt test group with bumper launchers. She has never seen this before. The first mark confused her a bit not having a white jacket in the field and a bumper shot out of the bushes with a duck call ( whats that?) so we moved up and she got it with a hunt. The 2nd and third marks were a lot better but still different with no white jackets and duck calls. She handled it well though even though her marking was off a bit. Sunday was just a confidence builder with all single marks under 100 yards. Now back to the yard finishing up FTP this week. Have a great week!


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

MOP,
Good luck on judging. Fill us in and take photos. Sometimes when I judge hunt tests, I take a video of the test dog. It's really nice to remember how things came together.

Trained last Saturday with a totally wild Riot. He was a crazy dog and completely embarrassed me. But last night he was amazing. I corrected him only once. Thankfully my husband was there so it wasn't just my imagination, Riot really did very well. It was only drills, but gosh it was nice to have a session that was completely great. Now if I only had it on video! Sometimes I think Riot will be just like his sire, hot one day, cold the next. Last night I ran him completely on my left side. Tonight I'll run the same drills from my right side and see how he does. I don't run him from both sides nearly enough. I'm a one sided human, so I have to think really hard when I run him on the other side. He doesn't have a problem though, it's strictly his handler. 

The calendar for Alaska trials/tests is already up. 
June 1-3 field trials at Pt MacKenzie
June 8-10 field trials at Pt MacKenzie
June 15-17 hunt tests at North Pole
July 6-8 field trials at North Pole
July 13-15 field trials at North Pole
July 20-22 hunt tests at Turnagain Pass
July 27-29 field trials at Turnagain Pass
July 28-29 flushing hunt tests Pt MacKenzie
Aug 3-5 field trials at Turnagain Pass
Aug 17-19 hunt tests at Pt MacKenzie
Aug 25-26 flushing hunt tests at North Pole

Generally our Open and Amateur field trials have 15-18 dogs. Our Qualifying field trials have 6-12 dogs. Our derbies 3-10 dogs.
Master hunt tests 6-24 dogs, senior hunt tests have 5-10 dogs, junior hunt tests 10-30 dogs.

Let me know if anyone is interested in coming up to run their dogs. Small entries, no ticks, beautiful locations, no hot weather. $100/dog to fly on Alaska Airlines each way.

Here's a link to videos of some of our locations: https://www.youtube.com/user/GraylingConst/videos
Please consider coming up and running your dog. Let me know if you can judge, we're always looking to fill a spot!


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## FTGoldens (Dec 20, 2012)

Alaska7133 said:


> MOP,
> Good luck on judging. Fill us in and take photos. Sometimes when I judge hunt tests, I take a video of the test dog. It's really nice to remember how things came together.
> 
> Trained last Saturday with a totally wild Riot. He was a crazy dog and completely embarrassed me. But last night he was amazing. I corrected him only once. Thankfully my husband was there so it wasn't just my imagination, Riot really did very well. It was only drills, but gosh it was nice to have a session that was completely great. Now if I only had it on video! Sometimes I think Riot will be just like his sire, hot one day, cold the next. Last night I ran him completely on my left side. Tonight I'll run the same drills from my right side and see how he does. I don't run him from both sides nearly enough. I'm a one sided human, so I have to think really hard when I run him on the other side. He doesn't have a problem though, it's strictly his handler.
> ...


*It sounds like you work for the Chamber of Commerce or the Alaska Visitors' Bureau! LOL!!!*

Joking aside, I can personally attest that the grounds are unique and beautiful, as is the entire state.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

Buffy is in heat. I had committed to working two Continental Shoots Thanksgiving Thursday and Friday. Oh well, I had to work Thor two consecutive days and as always use it as a training opportunity. Actually it was awesome. I had watched Thor at a previous shoot having trouble with what I call flyaway cripples. Forget about it, Buffy gets them all, she is amazing. But I watched Thor get flapped in the face, pecked, and the birds fly off a short distance, he would not pursue. I figured he needed more experience so 35 birds one day and 45 the next day seemed to be doing the trick. Most of the shooters are not that good so I would suspect 90% of the birds are cripples. I saw Thor get flapped in the faced by a pheasant hen, she ran a couple of steps, started to fly and Thor ran and jumped in the air to get her. I LOVE IT! HE LEARNED THAT HE CAN GET THEM! And to make it even better, I asked a friend to come with me to watch. Thor made me proud.


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