# Hunt and Field Training Plan Oct. 7 - Oct. 13



## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

OK I guess I get to start the thread this week!
We were supposed to go train at Lazy J tonight but there was a lot of rain on the radar so I just went to the church field for drills.
Started with wagon wheel with Slater, our constant tune-up.
Then worked on sending long vs. short with voice inflection. Hand-thrown in-line double, first sent for the short "go bird" then long memory bird. That of course went fine.
A guy in our HRC club demonstrated with his dog, he has taught him to run right over short bumpers to retrieve deeper ones just on voice inflection alone, by doing yard drills just like this.
So I tried it, flipped it around and sent for the long one first. At first I just tossed the short bumper real close, then heaved the longer one way deep of it, of course at that point the longer one is much more exciting so the dog naturally went for it first. By the end of the lesson I was throwing the short one first at about 10 yards, the long one 2nd at about 20 yards and Slater would run right over the short bumper to get the long one. Pretty cool!! 
We'll train with the group tomorrow rain or shine.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

That sounds really cool, Anney. Do you use the same command, just a different tone of voice and/or volume?
We have no plans for this week. Tito goes to the vet tomorrow. He will be anesthetized (sp?) and have the growth on the back of his throat re-checked. Hopefully it's completely gone. If they have to remove anything, he will be back on "no activity" for 2 weeks.
Keep your fingers crossed for us.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Hi Barb, I send for marks with his name so I just changed the volume.
Hope everything is OK tomorrow with Tito!


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

The weather here has been amazing this fall, so we have been hitting water as much as we can. Working on getting her to look out at big water and take it with confidence, longer shoreline blinds, when to get on a point and when not to..... We still have a lot to learn but when I look back at my training log from midsummer we have come a long way. 
We're throwing a lot of singles and only running multiples about once a week. Also making sure to do our maintenance lining drill every week and trying to find the time to our marking blind drill, it's hard to fit it all in. 
The rain is due in toward the end of the week.


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

Barb,
Hope tomorrow brings good news for you and Tito.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Fingers crossed all is well with Tito.

It was Thanksgiving for us yesterday, so we are coming off a long weekend. One of my puppies is getting his OFA xrays done today, so his co-owner came down with him yesterday and we got in a bit of training. Two pairs of marks working on the long-past-short concept. We have now officially lost light to do much in the evenings, so I will be concentrating on handling drills with Bonnie during the week quickly after work, and getting in their marks on the weekends when we are not hunting. 

Bonnie had a bit of an adventure on Saturday (not a fun one for me!) that I will post about in a separate thread.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Back from the vet....

The growth on his vocal cord was about 60% grown back. So he removed it again, and took more this time. He had ordered a special tool so he could scrape more. He didn't seem real concerned that it had grown back, but he did send it out for biopsy again just to be "ultra cautious". So we are back to waiting again, and saying prayers that it comes back benign again (which it should). And 2 weeks of no activity again....


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

Oy Barb that is discouraging! Weird 
Fisher is still on "cone arrest" until his next eye appointment on Monday -- frustrating although not so scary, at least we know exactly what it is! He's not supposed to be training, but today I took him with us and he ran around (WITH the cone on) as we set up, by the end of it he was swimming with the cone, it was ridiculous. I'm sure that was NOT on the eye vet's to-do list.....anyways....

Sorry this is long -- I treat these training plan threads like my own personal training journal so here it goes.
Today we had a good and hopefully revealing training session with Slater. The good news is, the water is up in the "Training Pond" at Lazy J. This is a man made pond, very technical with many points. It has been dried up for the past 5 years. With all the rain we've had this summer there is now water in it and in the middle, deep enough for the dogs to swim! YAY! We got the word that others have been training in it for weeks with no gator sightings so this afternoon myself, Kristin and Bob set up there for the first time in months.
We had a neat setup, a triple with double blind. I ran Slater first, the go-bird was by far the most difficult and the results were a mixed bag. We just used bumpers (as I am loathe to do but nobody brought birds) and a winger shot the go bird, and whoever loaded it used a small white bumper. Well the mark was long, against the sky the bumper was nearly invisible, and there was a LOT of 3-4' tall dog fennel at the line that obstructed the view for the dog. I didn't expect the bumper to go as far as it did. End result is Slater did not see the mark at all but either caught the splash as it landed or heard it, and I sent him. Halfway to the mark was a point the dog had to traverse, and he actually took a great line to the point, got on it then instead of going straight off the backside of the point, he rather took right turn, got in the water and was heading to the opposite shore rather than back into open water where the bumper was. Hey, happy he went and it was a rather educated guess on his part. I started to handle, and for some reason he was giving me cast refusals to go BACK, and ping-ponging from point to opposite shore. Finally gave a sit-nick-sit and then he took my cast! Turns out that was just a difficult spot as Sophie (a more advanced dog) did almost an identical job of it, handling refusals and all, in the same spot. Anyways I was VERY pleased b/c after all that he returned and nailed both memory birds, yay.
Then the shenanigans with blinds began. The blinds themselves were to the right of the marks, not that long, but one was a short swim across a channel then shoreline it down about 20 yards. The 2nd one was too the right and deep of it, more of an open swim but past a point. The short, right hand bird of the triple landed on the shore near the closer/shoreline blind, providing some suction. Well Slater pulled this baloney of no-going on the first blind (closer/shoreline blind). He either looked at the holding blind or too far out in the water, when I got him sort of pointed in the right direction I would send him, he would crouch forward a foot or so then creep back. UGGGGGGGGGGGG Heel-nicknicknick, lined up and sent again, this time he flew in but flared wide a bit and ended up in line with the farther blind. This was the one past a point which he navigated with very little fuss, really his handling once he gets out there is quite good. When he got back I lined him back up for the shorter/shoreline blind again, he went when I sent him but tried to head back toward the other blind. Was able to handle him to the shorter one without much trouble. Houston, we have a problem. While he was swimming to one of the blinds I threw an orange bumper way off to my right across the water, and lastly I lined him up and sent him to this as a blind. He plowed into the water and took one cast to it.
So after everyone else was done we set up 3 more blinds from a different angle in the pond. I ran the one in the middle first, it had the squarest entry, Slater did really great and no hesitation on the send. The second one was an awkward blind, LONG entry that required the dog run on land parallel to the shore for about 35 yards, then enter the water and swim 40 yards. The holding blind from one of the previous marks was visible up on the land, the dog had to run by it. Sure enough Slater had a hard time pulling off the holding blind, committing to the line, and then no-goed when I sent him. EUREKA!!! Finally it was Kristin, sitting behind me, who said, "Anney it's the holding blinds, when he has to look off them to run the blind." Made TOTAL sense!!!! Now he's never gotten in big trouble so who knows why he has a hangup with this but now that I think back that is EXACTLY when we've had trouble with this! 
So I moved up even with the holding blind, sent him for the blind and he busted azz out there into the water. Hmmm. Backed up to the real line as he returned, turned and sent him to the blind from the full distance, he was off like a bat and lined it, it was really nice. Turned and sent him for the 3rd blind which was way off to the right and no holding blinds in sight, and he took off just fine and did a lovely job. I think we're onto something! So now I have my work cut out for me.
The other really good thing that happened actually was on that last blind. It was a 25 yard swim across open water then the true line was down the shore on a protruding point for about 20 yards, then up the bank another 15 yards. Slater got to the end of the point and was headed to shore, I stopped him and gave a straight back, he took the perfect cast, stayed in the water and made a straight line to it, in elbow-deep water right down the shore. We've really worked on this concept in a drill setting and it's so nice to see it stick and him understand what I'm asking in a field/cold blind setting. Slater if you can hear me, that was REALLY GOOD you are so smart and such a good boy!!!
Sigh. So this was a good session and I hope, a breakthrough on my part to understand how to address this issue with Slater. He is doing so well overall I hate that what is obviously a misunderstanding or miscommunication is causing trouble. My job as the trainer to work it out.


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## Claudia M (Aug 8, 2012)

Hope and pray it is benign and it doesn't come back. Poor Tito and you!


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

thanks guys. This is frustrating and still a bit scary. The last biopsy came back "inflammatory changes consistent with previous trauma". I did some research on inflammatory polpys and apparently they aren't really any cause for concern....so keep the fingers crossed and good thoughts and prayers coming that this biopsy comes back the same, which it should.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Sounds like the kind of things singers get on their vocal chords when they overdo it!


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

Sending healing vibes to Tito <3


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

yes, Shelly, it is the same basic thing. The strange thing is that Tito doesn't EVER bark. Ever. Really weird.
Best guess is that something got stuck in his throat at some point. Grass awn? Who knows?


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

More training today, more mixed bag. I swear this dog is doing this to test me.
I set up the drill I cooked up last night and I do think it was good and I will repeat it tomorrow. Basically I set up two blinds at about 100 yards, two holding blinds at about 50 yards, one between the blinds one to the left of them. This in just a big open field, nothing. Walked up and ran the right blind from even with the holding blind. Backed up and ran from full distance. Had a mark thrown from the nearest holding blind. Pick up mark, then run blind. Everything was fine. Repeated this on the other blind, which was between the two holding blinds. The only difference I saw was a little more effort looking off the holding blind and then he flared the gun that had thrown the 2nd mark. That to me says we are on something, there was no other reason than perceived pressure for Slater to flare it. 
We then went to the training pond and set up four marks, two were very long and technical, over multiple large points, two were short just on the opposite shore. The long ones were way to the outside, the two short ones inside. Twice Slater did a similar no-go on the MARK, when doing singles and he headswung as I was sending him, and rather than just going he takes a step forward then slinks back. Definitely he was expecting more marks to come out. I did not do any corrections, as I didn't want to make anything worse by adding more pressure to it. Frankly I'm mystified and fed up with it. He is overthinking this crap and making it worse. The frustrating part on all of this is, if he does go, from then on out things are totally groovy. He did superb on the two long marks and handles fine on blinds (we didn't do any water blinds today). If he were having trouble "out there" I'd assume it was he was avoiding the work. I really think it's a lack of communication, he is confused on if and when he should go. Why, I'm not sure, as he's had very little corrections on line for going at the wrong time, or being called back, bugging, etc, all of those weird things that happen at the line that can cause a dog to be unsure.
I ended the session but throwing three easy singles across the water but with the other holding blinds in sight. After the bird hit the ground I put my hand down over his head and held it there, until he sorta leaned forward, said his name and he was gone. I've done this before, everyone freaks out that he's going before sent but obviously if my hand is down, I'm sending him. Changing up this sequence helped early this year when he was doing similar things. This dog is WEIRD. If I could pinpoint the origin of this behavior I'd be much happier, but I can't.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

I will soon be off to the field to do some proofing of Buffy's return on retrieves. I will present her with distractions which will include: food, a toy, a thrown bumper. This hasn't been a problem but I just want to make sure she is drilled on this. Then I will try to think of an extremely tough distraction.

I really don't anticipate a problem. We have done two retrieving demos in the past month where there were distractions that included children and other dogs that walked on to the field. She also retrieved past an open trailer with sheep in it.

Also, this past week my training group has been training with the use of a platform. I can see why some people like this.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

We had a really good training session today.
I set up first 3 land blinds run from the same point, fanning out into a big open field. About 80-110 yards. Ran them cold, Slater lined the long middle one and I think two whistled the outside ones. Put him up, set out holding blinds between the blinds, ran him again. I liked his response, he definitely looked at the holding blinds but was able to focus between/around them to lock onto the blind. I did the right blind first and he did flare the holding blind but not enough to stop and handle, I'm really not going to worry about that now. Did a nice job on the other two. 
Then we went back over to Training Pond -- which is like, totally genius now that it actually has some water in it. I'll have to take pictures next time to show you. Google earth, the image was taken when the pond was dry to it's hard to appreciate it with water.
Anyways I did an almost identical setup on the pond -- three blinds, ran them first then put in the holding blinds and ran the blinds again. Slater did a really nice job and no problem at all today sending. He handled REALLY nice on the blinds, one was long with a lot of cover in the water, then over a point, the other was down the middle of a channel that eventually narrowed to only about 5-6 feet wide, and he stayed in -- yay!
We finished up the day with two singles, one very cheaty (even Slater cheated and got a correction, did it right the 2nd time) and one long and over a point, kinda cool mark.


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## hollyk (Feb 21, 2009)

Just a quick set up today, we did doubles off of multiple stations in the field or what we call double, doubles. She nailed the marks, then one long blind up the middle and one shorter blind that was actually set behind us. Turned out the line to the short blind was harder to get her to locked on to. Our cars were parked off to the side and she kept looking towards them. 
On blinds, it seem that we are starting to really gel at the line. I think I'm reading her better and she is understanding that I'm giving her the line. It's not perfect but we are getting there. At the end of summer, Winter had started to pick up a bit of a loop on whistle sits when at a distance. We have been working on it and it has disappeared for now.
Hope to get out again tomorrow.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

A half a dozen of us got together this afternoon to train in the rain. We started off with a triple with honor. We have been working our dogs from a platform. Buffy already has this behavior as I had taught her a table command when she was 8 mos. old but it is new for the rest. The platform seems to be helping some in getting their dog in the right place.

We then went to the adjacent pond to do water work. We had to cancel. There were 2 dozen geese and 4 swans in the water. Swans can be aggressive. I have already been bitten by a swan while fishing.

We went to another field and did some more marks to finish the day. I drove 40 miles out and 40 miles back so that Buffy could make a few retrieves. Too bad I left my access permits at home because I would have driven another 20 miles out to train in the technical ponds. Anyway, it was worth the trip. Someone gave me a neoprene dog vest, new and still in the package.

We have our Fall Hunting Tests next weekend. I expect our training group to grow.


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## Ljilly28 (Jan 22, 2008)

I hope Tito is absolutely fine!


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Thanks Jill. Waiting for the results is soooo hard.


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