At training last Saturday the dogs ran a series of set ups beginning with a Y Drill.  For those of you not familiar with retriever training or the Y Drill, it is a basic marking drill.  You can use it in many different situations to teach a variety of concepts.  It is a good drill especially if you have dogs at many different levels training together because any level can run this drill.

It is a series of three single throws: angle in, flat, angle back.  One thing that I did not know when we first started throwing marks for Thunder way back when is that the direction of the throw and the arc of the throw can mess a dog up.  They need to learn the different directions that marks can be thrown and the Y Drill is good for that.

The optimal is if the dog marks the fall and goes directly to where the bumper is without hunting around for it.  Freighter has been doing marking drills since he was a puppy so he did very well with this.  Storm also ran this and did well.  I am just posting about Freighter today since we are really concentrating on his training this summer.

Our trainer likes to build each series on the one before.  So the second series was the same Y Drill with one bumper thrown out in the field and then a hand thrown bumper throw by the handler to the opposite side of the mark.  This made the drill a bit more difficult because the dog had to turn off the first mark to watch the second.  Also, the hand thrown bumper worked to wipe out the first mark for some of the younger dogs.  There were some dogs just starting out and they ran this as three singles just like the first go round.

Again the best is if the dog goes right to where each bumper fell without hunting too much.  Hunting is OK but as the dog’s level of training increases, they should not have to hunt too much in order to retrieve the bumpers.

Freighter did well on this.  He did not need to hunt.  His marking is really coming along as his training progresses.

OK fun and games over.  Now comes the hard part.  After the dogs ran the first two series of marks, our trainer put out two blinds at the back of the field.  Blind retrieves require the dog to retrieve something by relying on arm signals given to them by their handler.  The dog does not know where the bumper is in the field.

This set up was very difficult because the dogs had already retrieved a series of three singles and a series of three doubles out in the same field.  In order to retrieve the blinds, the dogs would have to run over the areas where they had just retrieved the marks.  Dogs tend to want to go back to the area where they picked up a bumper but you do not want that.  Also, the dogs would have to run under the arc of the marks which adds difficulty.  The blinds were out about 125 yards.  Distance can also pose a problem when handling a dog to a blind retrieve.  Finally, the gunner remained in the field which also adds difficulty because the dogs must run right past that person to get to the blinds.  Young dogs may be tempted to visit but you do not want that so you have to handle them away.  Older dogs have been taught not to go to the gunner so they tend to avoid which can also pose a challenge to the handler.

For the dogs the set-up looked like this.  I have included all the marks that they previously ran because this is what the dogs remember.  There were no bumpers laying out in the field when the dogs were running the blinds, they are just in the dog’s memory.  Younger dogs moved up closer to the gunner to make it a bit easier for them.

Freighter did not move up and ran from the original line.  He did really well with the first blind to the right.  Hubby has been working on Freighter’s handling and his whistle sits have improved a lot from last summer.  Freighter used to tend to get nervous when he was made to sit and he was far out in the field.  He would swing his head or move on his own rather than sitting and waiting for direction.  He looks much more confident with ears up when he is sitting.  Hubby could slow down a bit with his casts, but that is something to work on.

Now the last blind which is to the left.  This was a tough tough blind.  Many dogs got out there and zoomed over to the first blind because they were kind of close together.  That is what Storm did, (but she was not the only dog to do that).

When hubby first sent Freighter, he flared off in the direction of the first blind.  That was not right so hubby recalled Freighter to resend him.  I could see the light bulb go on in Freighter’s brain and he understood that hubby was sending him a different direction.  That is what training is all about.  Freighter took a much better line the second time and did a decent job of taking all the casts to get to this very advanced blind.  The other thing I noticed that I think indicates that Freighter is gaining confidence on these harder blinds is that he did not run with his nose to the ground.  Sometimes when a dog is unsure, it will try to follow the scent of the dogs who have run before.  You don’t want that because it will be a recipe for disaster at a test when there is scent everywhere in the field.

Despite it being very cold, it a good training day.  Freighter can do more advanced work.  We just need to get him steady so he can pass tests.  We will be working very hard on this over the Spring and Summer.

Thanks to SlimDoggy, MyGBGV Life, and To Dog with Love for the FitDog Friday Blog Hop!