It wasn’t a particularly high hill. More of a mound than a real hill, but it sure gave the dogs trouble at last weekend’s group training. We ran several blinds over this hill from various directions. It ate the dogs up, so some dubbed it “Hamburger Hill”.
The first set-up was pretty typical of how the day went. It was a walk-up with a blind. The direct path to the blind, required the dogs to cross the hill. The Master and Senior level dogs all ran the same set-ups. The Junior level dogs do not know handling yet, so they just ran marks.
A walk-up tests a dog’s steadiness. A bird is thrown at a distance of 35-45 yards away in a surprise situation, meaning the guns are concealed and nothing is used to get the dog’s attention. The handler walks toward the mark with the dog at heel, once the bird is in the air, the handler gives the dog a verbal “sit” or blows a sit whistle before releasing the dog to retrieve the bird.
As you can see, we were using frozen ducks for the walk-up. Immediately after the walk-up, the handler had to turn the dog to run the blind. When birds are involved, it can be more difficult for the handler to get the dog’s mind off of the bird and onto the blind.
This blind was all the way to the back of the field. In higher level tests, the judges may use the phrase “challenge the blind”. Sometimes there will be hazards in field, like a hill, or a mud puddle for two examples. Dogs may be tempted to go around them, but the direct line to the blind may be directly through or over the hazard. Our trainer explained that when running a blind with a hazard, you should try to get the dog to take on at least a part of the hazard. The line may not be perfect, but it may be enough for the judges to give a passing score.
The hazard on this day was Hamburger Hill. All of our dogs had problems with this hill. I am posting pictures of Freighter, but they all had similar issues. If the dog tried to avoid the hill altogether, then the dog was recalled with a “no, here” and relined and resent. It took many casts to get the dogs over that little stinkin’ hill.
Because all of the dogs had such an issue, we ran this set-up twice. The dogs did a bit better, but still not great so all the set-ups for the day involved Hamburger Hill.
The second time through this set-up Freighter managed to take a better line over the hill and even came back over it. As his training progresses, we will require him to take a direct line out and back from a blind, but this time he did it on his own.
We will try to incorporate hazards into our training when we can. Unfortunately, the places where we train do not offer a lot. There is no group training this weekend because our trainer and some of our training buddies are off at a test. It is a bit too early in the season for our dogs because they have not been in the water yet this year. We will be out doing some training on our own.
This week must have been my week to run into cute puppies. This cutie was at training last Saturday.
Have a great weekend!
We are joining the Fit Dog Friday blog hop hosted by Slimdoggy, Peggy’s Pet Place, To Dog with Love.
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Freighter looks like he is wound UP but he stays at heel and sits. What a good boy!
Such a tiny little rise to cause such trouble! Although if we were short like dogs are, it might very well look like a mountain!
Birds make their brains into mush…lol. We are still working on steady. That will be what holds him back at this point, but hopefully one day he will be as steady as grandpa Thunder. You are right, I guess the hill (mound really) looked like a big scary mountain!
Like teenage boys sitting next to a cheerleader in math class. Equation? What equation?
LOL yep.
Great training day. Freighter was ready for his mark 100%. That little lab is cute. I finally got to go to Sandy’s this past Wed for some training the dogs did very well. Have a wonderful weekend.
That is wonderful to hear. Have a great weekend yourself. 🙂
OMD hazards indeed. We are amazed they are not bothered with the geese. Me I would be so at them and giving everyone the stinky eye if they tried to stop me. Well done we say. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
LOL Molly. They have been running through those geese for years. I think they finally figured out they are just dummies. 😉
It’s great to see all his muscles as he was sent to retrieve. I wonder too that they ignore the geese. Have a great weekend
We try to train them around and through decoys so that eventually they hardly notice them.
The lab is a real cutie!! I wonder if the hill is deceptive, like the dogs don’t realize the retrieve is behind the hill?
I hope you have some nice weather for training. 🙂
It is a beautiful day today and supposed to be the same tomorrow. 🙂 I think you are right, they don’t know what is on the other side. Might be a monster. 🙂
I have some real geese on my post today…you pups are welcome to come and take them away!
Can’t wait to come by and check them out!
I’m kind of amused by the fake birds in the pictures 🙂 That mound must have looked/smelled hazardous to health if all the dogs tried to go around it 😛
The fake birds got knocked over by the wind. 🙂 They will probably “move” to the bigger field soon.
Interesting that the hill would offer an additional challenge for them. Love that little black lab puppy 🙂 Thanks for joining the Hop.
That hill (really a mound…lol) was a mind blower for most of the dogs.
I guess you have to have some challenges like that in order to learn? At least it sounds like they all did OK in the end, and didn’t completely let the hill get the better of them!
Love the puppy! I’m glad it looks like the snow is all gone there too and you didn’t say anything about being cold this time, so the weather may finally be improving?
This is so interesting to me because I have always loved this type of “sport” but it seems like a lot of discipline goes into it. And that cutie pie at the end. Adorable. 🙂
Yes it requires a lot of hours of training for the higher levels. That little puppy is great at retrieving bumpers even for such a young pup.
Love the Canadian Geese not giving a shred of worry! haaha looks like another great day out training
This was the first really nice day we have had. Finally! 🙂 Those geese were falling all over…lol.
Hunting training sounds really complicated! Freighter looks like he did a great job, even though he initially avoided the hill. 🙂
Cant believe how technical all this is. Mental & physical workout for all of you. Looks like you had a great FitDog Friday
Good job, Freighter!
How funny that the goose decoys got blown over. 🙂
Hi Y’all,
Sorry we haven’t been around much, but the Humans are super busy this time of year and my Human Mama has been suffering from migraine, so we’ve been missin’ out.
I’m tryin’ to catch up a bit.
Y’all come by now,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Those are some nice challenges, and thanks for the puppy fix.
Love your action shots Freighter!!
I hope you’re having a fun day,
Your pal Snoopy 🙂