# A bit of water work today



## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I had the chance to take Tito out with a friend of ours and his (awesome retrieving) dog and toss a few bumpers in the water. We had a great time!
I had a few things in mind to work on with Tito. We haven't done swim-by, and I don't want to mess up anything that Dan has in mind for sequential training, so I kept it pretty basic.
First my friend threw out about 6 decoys. Yikes! Tito started the vibrating and whining, and then about ripped my arm off when he decided he needed to go get them. NO NO BAD DOG. Sheeesh.
So retrieving bumpers while ignoring decoys was first on the agenda, and I have to say I was quite pleased. We tossed some simple doubles, and he swam right past the decoys without a problem. He did swing his head to take a look, but quickly seemed to realize they weren't anything of interest now that they were sitting calmly in the water rather than flying thru the air.
My friend was quite amused by Tito's "big air" water entries. The bank was a good distance up off the water, and Tito did his dock diving style entries. I didn't think he would be able to get back out in that spot, but he did, although he had to vault up to get back to me. It was good practice for him, normally he has fairly easy exit routes.
We also did some very tight cheating singles, and I am proud to say that Tito didn't cheat at all! We stood on the same bank, about 20 yards apart, and my friend tossed a bumper just about 6 feet out in the water. Tito swam over to get it,completely parallel to the shore, turned and looked at the shore 6 feet away, and then swam back to me. GOOD DOG!
And the big thing I wanted to work on...the water honor exercise. This one is going to be really hard for him. We spent quite a bit of time on it, both dogs had a problem with it. Tito was able to sit still while the other dog did his retrieves, but just barely. Not nearly steady enough for a test situation like the WCX where you can't talk to them. I had to remind him "NO BIRD" several times. 
Of course, I didn't expect him to master the water honor in just one session as obsessed with water as he is, but we did make some progress. And it was a lovely day, and it sure beat working!


----------



## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

UUUUUHHHHH NO PICS????

Sounds like a real good session. If you made progress you had a very successful day.
Congrats.


----------



## AmberSunrise (Apr 1, 2009)

Sounds like an AWESOME session  Good boy Tito!


----------



## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

My video camera made the trip to FL with my husband, who is visiting our son for the next week, in the hopes that my son can figure out how to set the camera so that it doesn't take HD video, requiring many hours of upload time!
Meanwhile, my friend brought a small disposable camera to take a few pictures of the boys. Luckily for him, it was still sitting on the tailgate of his truck, right where he left it, when we got back from our water work :doh:.
Progress on the water honor is going to be baby steps.



Radarsdad said:


> UUUUUHHHHH NO PICS????
> 
> Sounds like a real good session. If you made progress you had a very successful day.
> Congrats.


----------



## Dallas Gold (Dec 22, 2007)

I'm glad you got the workout in today!


----------



## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

I missed a great op with Gunner today he met a Rooster. No camera and funny stuff!


----------



## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Very nice! And you are so lucky that he doesn't cheat!


----------



## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

He would much rather be in the water than on land, so Dan and I think de-cheating him is going to be pretty easy.
But his love of water comes with another set of problems...the honor exercise....




GoldenSail said:


> Very nice! And you are so lucky that he doesn't cheat!


----------



## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

Sounds like it was a great day! I love hearing about your training days.


----------



## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

Lots of exercises you can do to reinforce the honour. Are you using a different body posture? I stand facing my dog's shoulder on the honour. This is a cue that "These marks are not for you."

Win's brother developed an issue of breaking on water marks, his or the honour, as his owner did not maintain a good standard of steadiness, he broke several times and got the reward of the bird. We did a number of drills to reinforce that he was not to move. The first was tethering him so that if he moved a foot ahead he self-corrected (note, you give only enough rope that the line is slack when the dog is sitting so they cannot gain to much momentum and hurt themselves.) After that the other thing we did was have a member of the training group act as the "judge" (so that he realized the correction could come from anyone on line) use a crop across his chest if he so much as moved a foot or lifted his butt. Any movement from him was taken as intent to retrieve and he got a correction for it.


----------



## DNL2448 (Feb 13, 2009)

Sounds like a great time! I love hearing the exploits of Tito-Man!


----------



## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

Thanks Shelly for the suggestions. We did some work on water steadiness today, not honor but steadiness. He was excellent, sat still for the longest time while a live duck was swimming around 20 feet in front of him (feet taped and some flight feathers removed). But there was no other dog there, so it wasn't the same.
I'm going to start using the facing him body posture right away on an honor. That makes such good sense. That way he will know "you are NEVER going to get that mark" instead of, "if you sit still long enough, I'm going to send you for the mark". 




sterregold said:


> Lots of exercises you can do to reinforce the honour. Are you using a different body posture? I stand facing my dog's shoulder on the honour. This is a cue that "These marks are not for you."
> 
> Win's brother developed an issue of breaking on water marks, his or the honour, as his owner did not maintain a good standard of steadiness, he broke several times and got the reward of the bird. We did a number of drills to reinforce that he was not to move. The first was tethering him so that if he moved a foot ahead he self-corrected (note, you give only enough rope that the line is slack when the dog is sitting so they cannot gain to much momentum and hurt themselves.) After that the other thing we did was have a member of the training group act as the "judge" (so that he realized the correction could come from anyone on line) use a crop across his chest if he so much as moved a foot or lifted his butt. Any movement from him was taken as intent to retrieve and he got a correction for it.


----------



## golden_fan (Jun 6, 2011)

Congratulations!!


----------



## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

I vote for a shackled chicken just across a small patch of water. ;; With poppers not a blank pistol Hee Hee
Get ready to rumble.:--big_grin:

Oh and we want pics of that one!!!!

(With another dog of course)
Might need some Valium later (you and him)


----------

