# Hunt and Field Training Plans for Sept. 17 to 24



## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Faelan will be starting back up in training on Thursday - he has had some time off due to an incident/mild infection involving snorfling a burr or seed. We are training to have him ready for Senior next year.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

thanks Gdgli, for starting the thread. I've been stupidly busy, and haven't spent much time on the forum. 
I'd like to pass the torch to you for a while, if you don't mind!


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

We went to a wonderful 5-acre pond on Sunday that a training partner has access to through his wife's chiropractor.
We managed to fit in two straightforward pairs of marks (run as either singles or doubles depending on what dogs were getting prepared for) and then a big courage single across the pond at over 130 yards. No training last night as I had a heads meeting after school, and today it is pouring rain. Hopefully we can get out tomorrow, as we have a test this weekend--Bonnie and Butch are going for their WCI's.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

We have rain today with tornado watch. Time to work on some obedience.

The rest of the week should be OK.

Also, National Hunting and Fishing Day on Sept. 22. I will be there with South Shore Waterfowlers Association. I had asked for time to give a retrieving demo-I hope we can fit it in.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

sterregold

Good luck on your tests. I'm sure you will do OK.

How is your weather up there? I love the Fall weather. I hope to get out into the grouse woods in October with my son, Buffy, and my Fox Sterlingworth sxs.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

gdgli said:


> sterregold
> 
> Good luck on your tests. I'm sure you will do OK.
> 
> How is your weather up there? I love the Fall weather. I hope to get out into the grouse woods in October with my son, Buffy, and my Fox Sterlingworth sxs.


It is definitely starting to feel like fall here--the days can still be warm but it is cooling off at night and the leaves are starting to turn up north. Our early goose season just wrapped up, but I did not get out as the fields I hunt in still have crops on them. Regular season for ducks and geese opens on Sept 22nd, and pheasant and grouse open in the WMU's I hunt on the 25th. My trigger finger is getting itchy as well, and my Citori wants some exercise!


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

<---- little novice here. 

On Sunday our little Rose retrieved the dove three times and brought it back. I was so so proud of her. It is amazing to see their brains develop. While she is too young for actual field training I have to work on her stubbornness. I am afraid I may end up chasing her chasing the squirrels or deer poop instead of retrieving the bird.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

Claudia M said:


> <---- little novice here.
> 
> On Sunday our little Rose retrieved the dove three times and brought it back. I was so so proud of her. It is amazing to see their brains develop. While she is too young for actual field training I have to work on her stubbornness. I am afraid I may end up chasing her chasing the squirrels or deer poop instead of retrieving the bird.


Keep it up! It's so much fun to work with a puppy.


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

yes it is!!!!!!! I am trying my best to hold myself and her back. Her memory is amazing. She completely obeys to hand signals for sit, lay down, whoa, come. Working on heel and leave it this week. 
She is so easy to train but I keep on re-reading Free's fundamental#4.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

I agree. Let your puppy be a puppy.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I took the monster boy swimming for a while yesterday, no real training, just swimming although I did run some water blinds because he won't swim unless he's retrieving something and I didn't have anyone there to throw marks for him. I wanted him to get some exercise and do some long swims, so I walked to one end of the cold pond(about 100-110 yards long), dropped a bumper, and then walked to the other end and sent him for it. Then I did the same thing a couple of times going across the pond instead of the length of it, the pond is about 50 yards wide. It was pretty simple because it was a straight entry and exit each time, just a straight line across, so he got some decent swimming in. Mostly he just retrieved hand thrown bumpers for fun, though.
Today I ran the "Bill Totten's Double Drill" (page 64 of the latest GR News) with him, the "Converging Marks Drill" at the bottom of the page. I used bumpers, but since the alfalfa field is really long and thick right now I scented them with quail scent. He did a good job with it. I am very proud of myself, as I actually got out and TRAINED him this week!


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

So we have had a hopefully productive week though feeling a little tremulous about it. Tip-toeing the line of "pushing the envelope"/intense skill development vs. overdoing it.

Sunday we went to the L-pond and set up 5 white stakes with bumper piles down one shore, about 25 feet separation between each stake. Ran from the right end of the other side, even with the #1 pole. Sent to #1 first, then #2, then #3, etc. Of course the angle gets tighter as you go. This was rather difficult. I found with BOTH of my dogs, the hard part was getting them to settle down and line up correctly; once they were out there if I needed to handle to the correct pole they handled really well. I had it out with both of them for not heeling and getting out of my way. Ugg. Not pleasant but necessary. 
After everyone went through once, we flipped it around and this time ran it from even with stake #5, so this time the water was on the dog's side. Both my guys did much better this time around and even lined the long one the first time. So a hard session but definitely lesson learned.
Monday I was sick so did nothing.
Tuesday I went to the church and set out an identical setup but instead on land. Just ran Slater. He did REALLY REALLY well. Both lining and each time when I sent him to the farthest stake he actually flared a tad and lined it. All of this under the watchful eye of the Gainesville PD, parked in the field! Guess I didn't do anything illegal. 
Tonight I drove out to Lazy J and set up 4 blinds for Slater. Good and bad. Right now with his blind running fundamentals the two things I'm working on are lining up (no bugging, sit straight) and he's got to get better at taking my literal cast the FIRST time. I've discovered that indirect pressure via sit-nick-sit for cast refusals means nothing to him. Actually, to him it means run harder in the direction you were headed. However if I sit him and yell NO, he takes a perfect cast the next time! But being that "NO" isn't actually a correction, it's not making him better next time. I need to get a way for him to understand a nick from the collar means NO in this setting, so today any cast refusals were met with a sit-nick-sit-NO. Did it work perfect? No, but I think it's what I need to do. He's at a point that he has to start getting the right cast on the first try, not the 2nd or 3rd or 4th. Attrition might get the job done but he needs to take some responsibility.
So basically tonight I set up a set of 3 blinds, placed in a "V" formation with the two outside ones deep of the short one. Ran the short one first (he lined it), then the other two. Got plenty of opportunities to correct for cast refusals, trying to return to the short blind. This session didn't leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling but, well, you gotta learn it at some point. His speed was good. I do think by the end of the lesson he learned something. The 4th blind I had set out was separate from these, and through the woods, kind of a mess but I got him out there. Shouldn't have messed with that one. 
Tomorrow we're back at Lazy J with Bob & Kristin; will do more blinds plus a set of marks.
Fisher has another UTI so was off duty today. Probably will do marks tomorrow. I want to finish his HRCH in the upcoming tests.


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

I thought I was done running tests this year....

Two weeks ago we headed to Oregon, ran and passed. The land test didn't look that hard but saw a lot of dogs break. It was set in a field with knee high dead grass, the line was on a little knoll so the dogs had great sight lines. This seemed to really amp the dogs. Winter picked up her marks, 1 whistled the blind and we moved to honor. She held the honor but not by much. I could see every muscle in her shoulders and by the time the working dog was sent, after a reheel, her butt was a good 3 inches off the ground. Water was uneventful and we picked up the pass.

This past week I had to work M-Th and drove to the test on Friday. This time we went to Eastern Washington, the club is called Sand & Sage and that is what you have. Sand, rocks, sagebrush, tumbleweed and burrs, very different from western Washington. We got in early enough to throw a few marks and run a couple of blinds to get the dogs used to the setting.
Saturday, Winter picked up the marks, 2 whistled the blind and then we moved to honor. Before I even sat her I knew I was in trouble, holy cow she was amped. Both of the marks go down and Winter breaks on "Dog". I did get her back quickly but the working dog didn't go, so we were out on interference. (Where is that fire breathing unstoppable Lab when you need them?) I spent the next few hours thinking I should have been alot more vocal trying to hold her on the line. I think she would have passed the water portion but of coarse we'll never know.

So we really are done testing for the year, unless I hit the lottery. We are sitting on 3 Senior passes. I wanted that last Senior leg this year but can't really complain. Last year about this time, we were melting down on land blinds and were sent all the way back to FTP. Water blind work didn't start until this spring. So after she learns to keep her butt on the ground for honors we will pick up that final leg next spring. However, we already are setting our sights on Master.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

We did basically the identical drill at Dan's last week, but we only ran from one end. This week we will set it up again and run it from the other end. It was a bit of a swim, and time was an issue, so we only did "half" of the drill!
When will your website be back up?



K9-Design said:


> Sunday we went to the L-pond and set up 5 white stakes with bumper piles down one shore, about 25 feet separation between each stake. Ran from the right end of the other side, even with the #1 pole. Sent to #1 first, then #2, then #3, etc. Of course the angle gets tighter as you go. This was rather difficult. I found with BOTH of my dogs, the hard part was getting them to settle down and line up correctly; once they were out there if I needed to handle to the correct pole they handled really well. I had it out with both of them for not heeling and getting out of my way. Ugg. Not pleasant but necessary.
> After everyone went through once, we flipped it around and this time ran it from even with stake #5, so this time the water was on the dog's side. .


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Did a full test-sim setup last night with my JH/WC people. We had the holding blinds out, chair and umbrella on line, someone playing judge, decoys, etc. We did two setups on a very hilly rolling hayfield. Each had two marks with gunners out int he field that the little dogs ran as singles and the bigger dogs ran as doubles. For Breeze and another Master dog we added in a breaker bird thrown from line. Mr. Butch broke on the memory bird in the first setup and ran right through the inital collar correction, but luckily I was able to get him stopped before he go the bird. So that was a good correction for the test this weekend. Since I started working him again he has been a different dog--just intensely driven, so I think his show layoff was good for his working attitude! Bonnie was rock-solid.


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

Sunrise said:


> snorfling a burr or seed.


hee hee snorfling :--happy:


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## boomers_dawn (Sep 20, 2009)

The days are getting shorter and work is getting back to normal so I might not be able to troll around here during lunch break much more. ... 

This week: was supposed to do marks Tuesday but got rained and tornado warning-ed out - still went to field class
Today (Thursday) Gladys went on the school bus with our trainer - not sure what they're working on
Tomorrow (Friday) - no training, maybe some drills in yard - volunteer work and grooming are priority activities
Saturday - all day dog event (Land and water doubles + trailing test - should get by on natural ability) + grooming 
Sunday - all day dog event + volunteer work

Continue yardwork/drills - baseball, over and back, over drill, work on going when and where sent, etc.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

We had a good session at Dan's today. We started off with the second half of the water blinds drill from last week, and then added in some longer land entries on a tight angle. The monster boy did a good job.
Then off to the field, where Dan had a few things up his sleeve for Tito, lol. First, he released a duck (not shackled, but wings tied) and let it run in very heavy cover, then told Tito to "hunt it up". Well, Tito had a blast. It took him quite a while to track down the bird, and I use the term "track" intentionally. I'm sure it was the highlight of Tito's week. Heck, probably his month.
Right after that, we did some steadiness drills with live birds thrown about 20 feet in front of him. Not surprisingly, he broke on the first one after having chased that live bird for a while right before! So we fixed that issue. 
Then some great singles with live birds. The idea was to get Tito to have to really hunt to come up with the bird, which he did have to, and he put up some very intelligent hunts. We were pleased with him. Very heavy cover, lots of cover changes, and distances ranging up to 200 yards. The idea is to get him hunting hard for long periods of time on singles, so that when he has to hunt up a memory bird he will have more confidence in his ability to hunt, and will know that it's permissible. The last one was a short single (60) yards, right after a 200 yard single. Of course, he over-ran it. But he did check down on his own, put up a nice hunt, and came up with it pretty quickly.
Since the birds were live, the monster boy had an AWESOME time for himself!


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

I started my day training at the water without my group. I am working on keeping Buffy honest in the water and I must say that we had a successful time. I then met up with my training group to work some on marks in the field. Buffy did well there. (Oh, in between I stopped for a slice of Sicilian. Glad this place made it the right way, sauce on top of the cheese.)


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Just picked Faelan up from the doggy day training 'bus'.

Apparently, Saint Faelan has forgotten what STAY means - had to have some remedial work on that. Then some drills including T.

Boomers_Dawn: Good luck this weekend!! Don't forget to take pictures of Gladys after spa day!!




boomers_dawn said:


> Today (Thursday) Gladys went on the school bus with our trainer - not sure what they're working on
> .....
> Saturday - all day dog event (Land and water doubles + trailing test - should get by on natural ability) + grooming
> Sunday - all day dog event + volunteer work


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

Sunrise said:


> Just picked Faelan up from the doggy day training 'bus'.


Does this make you the dog equivalent of a soccer Mom?


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Nice training session today with Kristin at Lazy J. 3 singles & 2 blinds all with birds. Both my guys did nice jobs. 
Dog show this weekend then need to get some water work in next week.


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## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

LOL - you know it just might!! The back of the Xterra is covered with HS Golden magnets and my rearview mirror has some blue neck ribbons hanging, so even that look is in place  



hollyk said:


> Does this make you the dog equivalent of a soccer Mom?


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