Bassetmomma asked a couple of great questions about yesterday’s post. First she wanted to know if these training sessions are for hunting or for competition, or both.  This training is for both; however, I bet we would have skipped being out on Christmas Eve in the freezing cold if we had until next hunting season to get this training done.  😆  But seriously, this training is set up for all levels of retrievers and is adjusted slightly for the lower level retrievers/handlers.  It is useful for hunting dogs and for those who are training for tests.  Last winter we took the coldest part of the winter off, but as with anything, our dogs’ skills slipped and it took us some time to get the 2 brown dawgs back to where they were before we took the time off.  We were determined to do some sort of consistent field training over this winter so that hopefully their skills will not slip too far.

Bassetmomma also asked whether we have to constantly mix things up to challenge Thunder and Storm so that they think about their choices.  When I say that the dog makes a bad choice, I mean it is told to go in one direction, or it is looking in the correct direction, and chooses to go in a different direction when released by the handler.  That is a matter of basic obedience.  I sent you this way and you chose the wrong way so you are called back without the prize (the bumper or bird) and will do it over.

However, hunt test training involves a lot more than teaching the dog obedience or fetching a mark.  This is why we are so thankful to be training with Darrin because he is such an experienced trainer.  He sets these training days up based on the skills he wants to work on that day.  Every scenario has a specific skill or skills that he wants to work.  Even the drills that seem the easiest all have a greater purpose.

On this particular day there were all levels training, even our trainer’s dogs that have passed Master tests many times over and his puppy Phury.  Phury is about 6 months old, (I think I have his age right).  He is pretty amazing and is already working on handling, but he is still a young dog so he was getting single marks and help with marks as needed.  I bet he will be doing triples in no time!

In these pictures  he is working on his obedience and sitting quietly while watching other dogs run marks.  He was even pick up dog for another puppy who was pulled off line.  🙂

Going back to Bassetmomma’s question, sometimes we work on scenarios that Darrin has seen over the years Master tests he has run.  He is fond of telling us that because he has run so many dogs, he has failed more tests than we will ever run.  😆  (He is being a bit modest because he has trained many dogs to their Master Hunter title.  I think if he isn’t at 50 Master titles yet, he will be when our season starts up again in Spring.  He really has a lot of test experience and a lot of tricks in his training bag.)

One of the scenarios that we trained on this day was a blind set right in front of the gunner’s station.  This is not a place where a judge would normally place a blind, but it is done on occasion by certain judges.  Most dogs figure out, or are taught, that a bird is never going to be right next to the gunner’s station because generally they are thrown out and away from them. Most dog’s are reluctant to go to the gunner’s station because they have been trained to avoid that area.  We ran this set-up just to show it to the dogs in case they ever see it at a test.

Thunder did well on this and lined the blind.  We never really taught him to stay away from the gunner’s station.  (Which wasn’t necessarily a good thing and cost him a couple of Junior passes…hey we were very novice trainers when he was young. :))

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Now we probably won’t run this again because you don’t want to teach the dog to go to the gunner’s station, just to show it to them.  So much of the training at the various levels is to show the dogs different set ups and scenarios so they do not get fixed on one order, or one way of doing things.  Hunt tests can be set in unlimited ways and chances are you are going to test on lots of different properties.  Remember the cabbage patch pond?  The stick pond?

Another thing that we did was to run the dogs off a box.  This is something that shows up at a test from time to time where the dog will need to run from a dog stand or off a special mat and you don’t want the dog to see this for the first time at a test.  It can also give the dog a visual for coming straight back to heel.  Thunder and Storm are used to hunting off a dog stand so they took the box in stride.

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We also trained a wipe-out triple that sort of blew Thunder and Storm’s little minds.  This diagram shows how it was thrown.

What makes this a tough triple is that #1 is thrown first, then #2, then #3.  When #3 is thrown right in line with #1, it sort of makes the dogs forget all about #1.  Our dogs were sent to pick up #3, then #2, then #1.  For an inexperienced dog, it would be really difficult to get them to pass up #3 since it was right in front of them.  So they were sent to pick that bumper up first.  They did fine on that one, and #2, but had trouble with #1.  Both Thunder and Storm need to work on this because this sort of triple is something they very well may see at a test.  Also, this scenario could very well happen while hunting too.  Thunder did retrieve a quad (4 ducks fell at once), and this kind of training is great should his hunter ever be so fortunate to have that kind of luck again!

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We had a really great training day.  Thanks to Bassetmomma for the great questions!