# Hunt and Field training plans for the week of March 4-10



## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

I am off for field training with Faelan. 

I thought of bringing Ms Towhee as well, but she gets to enjoy a hike with Casey, my brother, BIL and his 2 dogs.

Hopefully I won't be knee deep in mud LOL


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

It's windy, cold, and snowing a little here. Which is okay, I have to work all day anyway, so no training for us today.


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

I plan on continuing CC with Tag. Starting with the sit and here commands.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

We're still about three weeks away from the start of training season. The game farm season is also winding down now that the hen pheasants are getting too heavy to fly well. 

Time to start shopping on line for training birds to restock the bird pen for the upcoming season.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Hey Radarsdad, didn't Gunner have a JH test this weekend?


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Colder today, but much less windy and we have sunshine! Took Breeze, Bonnie and Butch out to the conservation area. For Breeze I set up a confidence triple with a double blind. . The field has a steady hill from the bottom of the pictre to the top. The longest mark and blind were at the top of the rise. Threw it 1)right at 77 yards, 2) left at 71 yards, and 3) centre at 119 yards. Left blind was 147 yards, right blind 119 yards.

Breeze hammered the go bird, but then had to deal with a doodle diversion while she was retrieving the mark (ie out of control off lead dog). She ended up with a bit of a hunt on the left bird after that, but then nailed the right bird. Picked up the right blind next--she ended up deep of it and I had to box her around it to get her on the right side of the wind. Left blind she had a beautiful initial line that took her halfway out before she started to fade down the hill. Two whistles and casts to put her on the bumper.

For Bonnie I did a bunch of teaching doubles, hand-throwing a mark off to the side first and then mechanically throwing a longer go-bird. Little girl did really well, and by the third one was locking onto that memory bird when she came back in.

For Butch I turned the three marks into two doubles. Hand threw one off to the right and then threw the left bird as go for the first set. Aced it! Then threw the right bird as memory and Centre bird as go for the second double. He hunted a bit short on the memory bird initially, but worked it out!


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

hotel4dogs said:


> It's windy, cold, and snowing a little here. Which is okay, I have to work all day anyway, so no training for us today.


You have a field by the kennel, right? You and Tito need to get on the teaching-blinds plan. Set up three pattern blinds of at least 100yards each on that field in a big wideopen fan--about a 60 degree spread between the outside blinds. Mark each with one of those electric fence posts you can get at TSC. Teach him those three blinds. First day teach the centre leg. If he does well at it, next day, review the centre leg and add the left leg. Next day review the left and centre blinds and if he does them well, add the right leg--if not, keep reviewing and try again the next day. When he is comfortable on all three, you can add in sending to one and then stopping and casting to another (like the split casting drill--just don't overdo it--most sends should be straight through). Then you can start teaching some of the other blind concepts from the tracking chart on it--Put out a lawn chair wearing a white t-shirt just off the line on each and run him "behind the gunner"; get out your winger and sequentially do one phase of the 4-phase drill each day; put out two buckets a few yards off either side of the line and teach goalposts; get out your obedience highjump with a low board or a log, centre it on the line and have him go over an obstacle, etc, etc. On a break you could go out and work on a concept for 15-20 minutes--set it up in the morning and then go run Tito in the afternoon. A blind-break instead of a coffee-break! You will be amazed at what a difference that sort of concerted teaching will make to his blinds. Then when you are able to go out and train with your friends, you can incorporate whichever concept you have been concentrating on into a cold blind for him.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Faelan was so excited to be doing field work again!! He sat up immediately I turned into an area we frequently trained at although we trained in a new area of the fields. He ran 2 separate series, both mom & pop drills with rolling terrain for factors. It was somewhat windy and chilly, but he truly nailed each mark. The dog after him was having problems so our honor until he was sent for the 2nd send was probably about 10 minutes and Faelan did the honor well too.

I was joking with my mentor and the conversation went something like this

Me: Hey, do you think absence makes the eyesight stronger?
Frank: What do you mean?
Me: Faelan is really doing great.
Frank: Yes, he is
Me: So maybe the break did him good and improved his eyesight
Frank: Sharon, believe that if you must but Faelan is dam*ed good, he always has been

Me: Grinning ear to ear. Now I have a very dirty dog, but happiness abounds 

Then we stopped on the way home and after my grocery shopping, I worked Faelan in the parking lot - signals, recalls etc


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Thanks Shelly, we've done this much before the winter, but I was using it more as working on casting instead of working on some of the other blind concepts. You are right, I can easily set this back up again and then start working on the blind concepts with it. He won't have to re-learn the blinds, I'm sure he will remember them so just a quick refresher will do. 

One question, I believe his doubles fell apart specifically because I worked so much on his blinds. Honestly, other than when someone sets up a really, really hard blind (like running past a live bird 15 feet away!) I'm pretty pleased with his blinds right now. I'm fairly confident he can pass a Senior level blind; Dan has him running a lot of "easy finished level" blinds and he does great. I haven't done all of the advanced concepts, especially the water ones, but he has no trouble with cover changes, obstacles, diversion shots, diversion birds (if he's on the way back in!), angle entries, quite a few things on the list.

So the question is, should I be working on the blinds right now, advancing his blinds, or is that likely to cause further breakdown in his multiples??




sterregold said:


> You have a field by the kennel, right? You and Tito need to get on the teaching-blinds plan. *Set up three pattern blinds of at least 100yards each on that field in a big wideopen fan--about a 60 degree spread between the outside blinds. Mark each with one of those electric fence posts you can get at TSC. Teach him those three blinds. First day teach the centre leg. If he does well at it, next day, review the centre leg and add the left leg. Next day review the left and centre blinds and if he does them well, add the right leg--if not, keep reviewing and try again the next day. When he is comfortable on all three, you can add in sending to one and then stopping and casting to another (like the split casting drill--just don't overdo it--most sends should be straight through). *Then you can start teaching some of the other blind concepts from the tracking chart on it--Put out a lawn chair wearing a white t-shirt just off the line on each and run him "behind the gunner"; get out your winger and sequentially do one phase of the 4-phase drill each day; put out two buckets a few yards off either side of the line and teach goalposts; get out your obedience highjump with a low board or a log, centre it on the line and have him go over an obstacle, etc, etc. On a break you could go out and work on a concept for 15-20 minutes--set it up in the morning and then go run Tito in the afternoon. A blind-break instead of a coffee-break! You will be amazed at what a difference that sort of concerted teaching will make to his blinds. Then when you are able to go out and train with your friends, you can incorporate whichever concept you have been concentrating on into a cold blind for him.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

hotel4dogs said:


> Thanks Shelly, we've done this much before the winter, but I was using it more as working on casting instead of working on some of the other blind concepts. You are right, I can easily set this back up again and then start working on the blind concepts with it. He won't have to re-learn the blinds, I'm sure he will remember them so just a quick refresher will do.
> 
> One question, I believe his doubles fell apart specifically because I worked so much on his blinds. Honestly, other than when someone sets up a really, really hard blind (like running past a live bird 15 feet away!) I'm pretty pleased with his blinds right now. I'm fairly confident he can pass a Senior level blind; Dan has him running a lot of "easy finished level" blinds and he does great. I haven't done all of the advanced concepts, especially the water ones, but he has no trouble with cover changes, obstacles, diversion shots, diversion birds (if he's on the way back in!), angle entries, quite a few things on the list.
> 
> So the question is, should I be working on the blinds right now, advancing his blinds, or is that likely to cause further breakdown in his multiples??


Balance, balance, balance! 

It is all about balance. Marking does tend to fall off when dogs are first learning blinds. I am working on handling stuff with Bonnie right now, so I tend to go out and do our drill work first, and then load everyone up to go and do a marking setup to keep her marking sharp and her attitude good.

Now that you are getting more into teaching concepts on the blinds you need to continue blind work, while doing marking work. If you swing the pendulum too far the other way and back off blinds to repair his marking, then his blinds will fall apart! So get more marking back in, and keep working at teaching him increasingly complex factors on blinds so that you can integrate those into your training setups, and when he gets to a test he will look out and go "Oh, I know what that is. You want me to do a blind behind that gun station, or past that flyer I just picked up? No prob!"


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Well, we had a tough day for many of the dogs. We switched to a new field with some ponds (yay!). We set up three marks with two blinds--one between marks and one outside the marks. The terrain was lumpy with some hills that the dogs had to negotiate. Unfortunately the field had some goat heads in it. For those of you who don't know what those are...they are basically little seeds that have two sharp ends almost like a thumb tack. They hurt like hell...I've stepped on one barefoot before. Every single dog picked up at least one during the marks and was hobbling back on three legs. 

I wanted to run a double with Scout, a single, and then the blinds. I was encouraged to try the triple if she ran the double and single well. However, one problem. I brought my BF with me and he was out in the field throwing bumpers and Scout threw a fit (she adores him). She wanted to go where he was and was whining a bit obnoxiously. Anyway, she nailed the go bird but came hobbling back with a goat head. She was distracted by BF and had issue with the memory bird and didn't go. So I decided to scrap it and try again by building the double. Well, for whatever reason she did not want to that mark as a single so I chased her out there with a loud 'fetch' to get her going and she was fine picking it up. I don't know what was up with her, it was weird. Anyway, I've been given the wisdom that if the dog doesn't do the single well the first time, don't do a multiple so we didn't do the double or triple. The single was thrown by my BF and she wanted to muck around for a second and that's when I learned my ecollar transmitter had died. Plus, she saw the water just beyond that marked and really thought about jumping in. She did come back just fine though. We ran the outside blind and she did fairly well getting to it.

Our second set-up we did a cheating short water mark. It was beautiful outside and none of the dogs seemed to have any issue getting in the water (well they did cheating). I borrowed my friend's ecollar for this setup and little Scout wanted to cheat so badly even with my running from the shore. I burned her once for running on the shore and immediately she took to the water and the mark. Ran it two more times and she didn't think once about cheating. Its one of those moments when sometimes giving them one big and appropriate correction does the trick.

So, had some rough spots but that happens and I think we worked through them. Scout got the message that she had to go get that mark, and that she could not cheat that water.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

These are goat head--ouch!


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

thanks Shelly, I appreciate the support and advice more than you know!




sterregold said:


> Balance, balance, balance!
> 
> It is all about balance. Marking does tend to fall off when dogs are first learning blinds. I am working on handling stuff with Bonnie right now, so I tend to go out and do our drill work first, and then load everyone up to go and do a marking setup to keep her marking sharp and her attitude good.
> 
> Now that you are getting more into teaching concepts on the blinds you need to continue blind work, while doing marking work. If you swing the pendulum too far the other way and back off blinds to repair his marking, then his blinds will fall apart! So get more marking back in, and keep working at teaching him increasingly complex factors on blinds so that you can integrate those into your training setups, and when he gets to a test he will look out and go "Oh, I know what that is. You want me to do a blind behind that gun station, or past that flyer I just picked up? No prob!"


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

YIKES Lisa!!!! Ouch is right!!!


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

Goat heads are EVIL!


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

GoldenSail said:


> These are goat head--ouch!


 
Owwie! I imagine she did not want to take that line back out because it hurt! that is one way for nature to create a "hot spot"


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

sterregold said:


> Owwie! I imagine she did not want to take that line back out because it hurt! that is one way for nature to create a "hot spot"


Yeah the thought crossed my mind afterward that maybe she wanted to avoid the goat heads...although she's encountered them before and been a real trooper about it. It didn't stop her on the final mark though. A friend of mine blew a senior test when his poor dog ran into a patch of them with an injured but live bird. Poor guy.


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

GoldenSail said:


> These are goat head--ouch!


Nasty looking.


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## Tatnall (May 20, 2008)

We ran our first trial last weekend and it exposed some holes in our training, particularly the quad with an out of order flyer with a 120 degree swing to the go bird. The black dog was too far ahead of me for me to get him to turn to the go bird (although I was able to talk him in to it and we were one of the lucky 25 our of 85 that made it to the next series). So, we are skipping one trial in two weeks to keep training. The black critter needs more work on the line and picking the butt up or happy feet means he gets a correction and back to the holding blind.

The young fluffie needs more work taking casts into the wind, generally more momentum on his blind work, good therapy land marks (he would be a FC if land marks were the only series  ) and long water swims that he has to shoulder into the wind.

Both will get more lining and casting drills to crispen things up--especially when the time changes and we can train during the week.

We will work on that and run our next trial at the end of March. After that, we will re-evaluate, but probably will focus on HTs a little more to get a MH on the young fluff and get him qualified for the MN and see what he can do FT wise in the Fall or next Spring.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Tatnall said:


> We ran our first trial last weekend and it exposed some holes in our training, particularly the quad with an out of order flyer with a 120 degree swing to the go bird. The black dog was too far ahead of me for me to get him to turn to the go bird (although I was able to talk him in to it and we were one of the lucky 25 our of 85 that made it to the next series). So, we are skipping one trial in two weeks to keep training. The black critter needs more work on the line and picking the butt up or happy feet means he gets a correction and back to the holding blind.
> 
> The young fluffie needs more work taking casts into the wind, generally more momentum on his blind work, good therapy land marks (he would be a FC if land marks were the only series  ) and long water swims that he has to shoulder into the wind.
> 
> ...


You could have gotten some good work on the wind stuff up here this weekend....


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

Just got back in from a nice walk in the pasture with Tag. Collar conditioning on HERE. Beautiful response to the command and came all the way in with one call. Also did some whistle sits on the way in. Lots of great distractions, ducks taking flight-which I didn't call him off his watching them, cow poop, even some coyotes (dead) our neighbor had at the very back of his field.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

never mind. I moved the thought over to the chit chat section of the forum.


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## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

hotel4dogs said:


> Hey Radarsdad, didn't Gunner have a JH test this weekend?


Yep, he is now Firemarks Texas Shoot Out *JH*

Saw the longest water entry I have ever seen in a Jr. test. It was about 60 yds. Two passes this weekend got it for him. 

Haven't posted yet until I get a pic which will be tomorrow.


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## MarieP (Aug 21, 2011)

Radarsdad said:


> Yep, he is now Firemarks Texas Shoot Out *JH*
> 
> Saw the longest water entry I have ever seen in a Jr. test. It was about 60 yds. Two passes this weekend got it for him.
> 
> Haven't posted yet until I get a pic which will be tomorrow.


CONGRATS!!!! Sounds like he did well. Can't wait to see pictures


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

Yay Gunner! Congratulations!!!


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

Atta Boy Gunner!


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Way to go Gunner!! Good dog!


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Yay !! Congratulations  Can't wait to see the pictures



Radarsdad said:


> Yep, he is now Firemarks Texas Shoot Out *JH*
> 
> Saw the longest water entry I have ever seen in a Jr. test. It was about 60 yds. Two passes this weekend got it for him.
> 
> Haven't posted yet until I get a pic which will be tomorrow.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Radarsdad said:


> Yep, he is now Firemarks Texas Shoot Out *JH*
> 
> Saw the longest water entry I have ever seen in a Jr. test. It was about 60 yds. Two passes this weekend got it for him.
> 
> Haven't posted yet until I get a pic which will be tomorrow.


Congrats, Gunner JH!!!!

I hope that long entry was just because they had really limited water and there was really nothing else they could do. Hate that in Junior! We had judges set up something similar in a test up here 2 years ago, but there was no reason for it--it was a beautiful pond with soooo many possibilities. Then their next water mark was a 90 yard out to sea swim, into the sun, with a hidden gunner.....


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## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

The water was limited but there are so many ways to test to see a dogs abilities that sometimes you wonder what they are thinking.

Bad pic from my cell phone. My camera is AWOL apparently










He was a little distracted and probably annoyed about a photo shoot. He knew we were about to train and this was not what he wanted to be doing.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Congratulations! Nice looking dog. Now what is the big colored ribbon for? I've only been to one hunt test and we just had those orange ones.


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## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

GoldenSail said:


> Congratulations! Nice looking dog. Now what is the big colored ribbon for? I've only been to one hunt test and we just had those orange ones.


It is a title ribbon for Junior Hunter.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Great photo, even though he clearly is not pleased with having to pose for it. What's next for him??


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Trained with 3 partners today, and it went fantastic.
Took Shelly's advice and started out with some confidence building doubles. I had them hand thrown, each thrower had a whole cooler full of birds just in case Tito needed some help....but he didn't! 
We started with the go-bird long, about 125 yards in moderate cover, and the memory bird short, about 30 yards in low to moderate cover. It is very, very windy here today, so I had the throwers throw so that if he got anywhere near it he would pick up the scent. He slammed it, so we moved the memory bird out to about 60 yards in moderate cover, kept the same go-bird so that it was more of a taught double. Again, he slammed it. So we moved the throwers around for each double, did 6 of them, different wind presentations, and he nailed every one of them. Good dog, time to go back in the truck for a while!
Next time it was his turn, we ran 9 singles. This time I had the wind at his back instead, and then did some with a heavy cross wind. He stepped on all but 1 mark, but I was thrilled that the one he missed he put up an intelligent hunt. The other winger was a bit close, maybe 20 yards from the mark he was supposed to get, and he did go check it out for a brief second, but then realized his mistake (without help) and returned to the AOF and hunted up the bird. 
Did a couple of walk-up singles, which went fine. A little bit of honoring. Also did just 1 short, easy blind. He got off line a little because of the wind, but took a whistle sit and angle back cast right to it, so I was very pleased.
Why can't all training days go like this one???????


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## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

> Why can't all training days go like this one???????


You do realize you are dealing with an animal that has a mind of it's own?? Right??
If all of them go perfectly what are *YOU* learning?

Derby and SH is next.


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

I was very brave today....Took both Tag and Dooley for a walk about in the pasture, wind was howling and snowing that hard pelty kind of snow. Anyhow, worked on HERE with Tag, had to use a whistle cuz they couldn't hear me over the wind. Since we hadn't worked previously with the come in whistle, it was really good having Doo out there, Tag came in readily, following Doo's lead. 

I took a bumper out, and tried doing some very informal honors. Leashed Doo and let Tag retrieve. Then did the same with Tag. They both did very well, Doo broke once before I released him, other than that it was good session overall, except I couldn't feel my hands for about a half hour afterward.


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## Tatnall (May 20, 2008)

Radarsdad said:


> It is a title ribbon for Junior Hunter.


Never seen one of those before--all I have seen is the little thing you stick on the regular ribbons that says "title". I was going to guess it was an HRC ribbon. They are all huge and gaudy, like the flowers at a mafia funeral.

Congratulations! Nothing beats a dog's first title.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

Our club also gives a special "Title" ribbon in addition to the standard orange one. (Junior, Senior and Master) 

Barb Get out the white coat and do some long singles with the monster. It helps to boost their confidence and focus. It also allows you to put some complicated factors into a single if you have some distance to work with in designing a mark.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Thanks! 
Don't they start to "look for" the white coat?



Swampcollie said:


> Our club also gives a special "Title" ribbon in addition to the standard orange one. (Junior, Senior and Master)
> 
> Barb Get out the white coat and do some long singles with the monster. It helps to boost their confidence and focus. It also allows you to put some complicated factors into a single if you have some distance to work with in designing a mark.


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## Swampcollie (Sep 6, 2007)

hotel4dogs said:


> Thanks!
> Don't they start to "look for" the white coat?


 
Yes, but if you're throwing a 300+ yard mark they need to know where to look for the station.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

hotel4dogs said:


> Thanks!
> Don't they start to "look for" the white coat?


It helps them to learn to look long, and to look past factors/obstacles in the foreground. If they do not see the mark thrown, they cannot very well retrieve it! I really only run hunt tests (tho we are working at getting ready for that specialty Derby in Sept), but do white coat work as part of our training, particularily when teaching long marks, or concepts which require the dog to drive past factors. Some HRC trainers/handlers have an irrational opposition to using white coats because they will not be used in tests. I've heard a lot of "those FT dogs just run at the white coat" from some of the guys in my HRC club who only run HRC. They really have not seen good FT dogs work--it is not simply a matter of them running at a gun and finding a bird, particularly when it comes to retired gun marks. Those dogs have to be able to MARK, and at extreme distances. 

So, the point of training is to teach your dog and help them to be successful!! You want the dog doing more in training than they will see in a test, and if it takes a white coated gunner to do that, so be it! Doing the big or complex white coat marks will improve Tito's marking. Keep it balanced with hidden guns in your hunt test-like setups and he will maintain those skills as well.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Thanks for the explanations. One of the guys that we sometimes train with has stickmen, and I've asked Dan about it and his answer is that there's no harm in it at all as long as you balance it out, so pretty much what Shelly said. I can see that having the white shirt would help to build confidence on the really long marks or marks with difficult factors.

Another question....one of the guys we were training with yesterday said they never run tests into the wind. Is that true? If not, why not? I missed his explanation.

And one last one...another of the guys said that the judges *can't* throw a diversion bird as a dog is heading out to a blind/mark in SH because if the dog doesn't already have a bird, it's a poison bird, not a diversion, and that's not allowed in Senior. Is he right?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

I was told not to run them into the wind because then they will pick up the scent too soon and hunt short and/or could pick up the scent of the wrong mark first.

Aren't stickmen also good for marking drills and confusing the dog (rather than just pointing out the gunner to the dog)?


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

hotel4dogs said:


> Another question....one of the guys we were training with yesterday said they never run tests into the wind. Is that true? If not, why not? I missed his explanation.
> 
> And one last one...another of the guys said that the judges *can't* throw a diversion bird as a dog is heading out to a blind/mark in SH because if the dog doesn't already have a bird, it's a poison bird, not a diversion, and that's not allowed in Senior. Is he right?


 
Generally, judges will not set a test where the dogs are running into the wind. But wind likes to do things like switch directions mid-test, so you should train for it. 

As for the diversion issue, if the guy was talking AKC he was incorrect and needs to read the rulebook. A poison bird is a mark that is thrown while the dog is sitting on line. They see it thrown as a mark, and they must retrieve it as a mark, after picking up the blind--it is the leaving of a bird they have seen presented as a mark that makes it a poison bird. A diversion cannot be thrown when the dog is on the way TO a MARK, but can on the return. It can be thrown on the way out to or back from a blind. It is considered a diversion because it is thrown to interrupt or distract the dog from the task at hand--so they are already in the field working. It is legal in Senior as per the rule book, but I would not consider it a fair test for a Senior dog, so would not do it in a test I was setting--but it is technically legal. Now if he was talking UKC-HRC he would be correct about when it can be presented, but not about it being a poison bird. In HRC the diversion can only be thrown on the return from a blind, walkup mark, or the last bird of a double mark in Seasoned. It can also only presented on a return in FInished, but could be on any of the marks, not just the last one retrieved.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

GoldenSail said:


> I was told not to run them into the wind because then they will pick up the scent too soon and hunt short and/or could pick up the scent of the wrong mark first.
> 
> Aren't stickmen also good for marking drills and confusing the dog (rather than just pointing out the gunner to the dog)?


Yes--multiple stickmen in the field set up in key relationships force the dog to focus on the mark thrown rather than just a lone gunner.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

thanks Shelly, he was talking AKC (the poison vs. diversion bird) and he's one of those people that knows everything, and I just LOVE for him to be wrong hee hee hee


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Speaking of No-Go problems.....sigh.....

Something really weird happened at Dan's today.
It was warm out, but very, very windy. We had high wind advisories, with 35 mph sustained winds and gusts to 60 mph. 
Since it was warm, we started with some water work. Tito did some great water work. Did channel blinds, no problem at all. A couple of pretty easy cold blinds, again, no problem at all. We were very pleased with him. 
Then we took him out to the field with pretty heavy cover to run some blinds, because as I said just a couple of days ago he's been running really great blinds. There were 3 blinds out, the first one at about 100 yards, the second one at about 85 yards, the third one at about 125 yards. We were on one side of the "road" (4-wheeler track, about 15 feet wide, dirt) and then there was pretty heavy cover on the other side. The shortest blind was directly in front of us, the other 2 off to our left and our right. The wind was whipping up a dust cloud down the 4 wheeler road, as a crosswind. Tito does not have issues with cover changes at all.
I was handling him. Lined him up for the right hand blind, gave him the "back" command, and got a TOTAL NO GO. I was floored. I cannot remember Tito ever not going on a blind, or at least not since he learned what "back" means. I tried it again, and not only did he not go, he jumped back behind me. Dan and I were both shocked. He had just run blinds on the water and did a great job. I ran one blind with him yesterday with my training partners and he did a fantastic job.
So Dan took over and he did the same thing with Dan. When Dan finally "convinced" him to go, he only went out about 10 feet and then stopped and turned and sat. 
It was totally strange. And very upsetting (to me). After a long, ugly battle Dan got him out in the general direction of the blind, let him roll with it even though the wind was pushing him off the line pretty badly. Then he whistle sat him, and at that point Tito refused to take any commands. But Dan figured that he probably couldn't see or hear us, so he ran out there, and it turned out he really could NOT see or hear us because of the high cover and the wind. So that explained that, and Dan ran the rest of it from much closer to Tito.
Then he lined him up for the next blind. Also got a no go on that one. And a second one. But it was very weird, it was really clear that something was bothering Tito and we didn't know what it was. 
Dan figured it was probably the wind. It really was whipping, and Dan said it might actually be "whistling" in his ears (it was in mine when we were on the 4 wheeler, it did sound like a whistle) and maybe Tito was confused because he was getting both a command and a long whistle. So we moved for the third blind so that the wind wasn't whipping directly into his ears, and he headed out for that one on the first command.
Now as luck would have it, he got off line, but Dan again wanted to let him roll for a while because of the issue we were having. Suddenly Tito's head dropped down, and didn't he come up with a live, injured duck. Must have been from the duck hunt there over the weekend! Dan had no idea it was there. So at least Tito thought he had lined that blind, lol. 
Edit to add.....these blinds were nothing different or harder than what we've been running with him, and he hasn't had any issues and we haven't had any "battles" with him. The only thing that was different was the wind. We've never trained in anything remotely like this, it was hard to stand up at times.
Then we took him to another field where it was much more protected from the wind, did 3 more blinds, and he was absolutely fine with them. No problem with not going, no popping, no command refusals. Just ran 3 lovely blinds. So I have to agree with Dan, it must have been something about the wind. So weird though. And of course, scary when one is thinking about possibly entering tests soon. 
Finished with a couple of marks just to get his attitude back up, and he slammed them. He had to hunt one up, but he did a nice, intelligent hunt and came up with the bird pretty quickly.
It wasn't at all our curriculum for today, but we had to work through it. I was distraught, but Dan said sooner or later you will get a no go out of even the best dogs, and it's better to see it happen here in training so that you can work through it and he learns that, no matter what his problem is, not going is NEVER an option.
So this week I am to take him out and run mixed marks and blinds with him, and see what happens. 
Sheeesh, what next?


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Ran a 200 blind with Scout. She did decently although she starts to lose her line the farther she goes. I then re-ran it twice as I plan to use that spot as a long PB on occasion. I let her run around and swim for fun. Finished up with our modified T and was very pleased with her work.


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

Eyes crossed, but taxes done. Phew. After dinner, I'll take everyone for a walk about. Not sure what training will actually get done.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

And what a difference a day makes.
Took Tito out to a conservation area today and ran 6 cold blinds and 8 marks with him. He was spot on. Other than a little sloppy work (ignored the sit whistle when he was close to the blind and saw the bird), he did fantastic. Not a hint of even thinking about a no-go. Tensed and ready to go, loads of momentum when sent out. Once he even anticipated the send, corrected himself and came back, and went when sent. I know that's not a good thing, but it was okay with me because it showed he had no reluctance to go even after making a mistake. 
So apparently it did have something to do with the wild winds yesterday. We had winds about 15-20 mph today, so still pretty windy, but nothing at all like yesterday's howling, gusty stuff. 
Oh and his marks were great, but I just had those thrown to balance out the blinds.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Did part of four phase drill today with Scout, then ran some really long marks. Scout has not ran such long marks before. I tried to build it by running her short then backing up (mark stayed the same) but she had some difficulty after I backed up and did not want to go. She got hung up on the distance because she's been so conditioned to running not much longer than 150 yards. But, we worked it out and got her rolling and did a total of four long ones. Just had to get her over this hump. Something good to work on occasionally even though these were so long as to be not in the realm of hunt test stuff.


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## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

Very happy with my boy today. Took Tag out to the pasture and threw a couple marks (hand thrown) and his response was WONDERFUL! Fast, hard drive to and from the fall. He never dropped or mouthed the bumper! He did however do the circle around thing vs. bringing it straight in. But we haven't worked on that formally yet.


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

We finally got out today for some training. We did two different double set ups with a blind. For a third set up, singles, with one blind run, down into small valley, then up a hill with cover, to the pile at the top, and the second blind at an angle down the valley.
Winter is finally starting to turn with me on doubles and her marking seems to be holding up well for that memory bird too.
Blinds, we do pretty well out to 80-100 yards. After 80-100 yards, I may see big looping sits or maybe no sit at all. I need to be ready for this. Also the correction level that is enough at 80 yard doesn't even phase her at 120 yards. How does that work???
Training again on Sunday.


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