Last Saturday we got out to do some training on state land.  We found a nice big field with some cover.  It was a warm sunny day.  There was still some snow patches in the woods, but the field was clear of snow and mostly dry.

Since we had space, we able to run some nice long marks and a nice long cold blind.  A cold blind is where you place a bird (or bumper) in the field and the dog does not know where you put it.  He does not see it fall and it is not part of a pattern or drill that the dog has already run.

This was our set-up:

Thunder and Storm ran the triple with the blind, but Freighter ran this as a double.  He ran Mark #1 and #2.  He did not run Mark #3.  After the marks we took a bit of a break because it was so warm.  Then Freighter ran the blind.  The blind we set up was 153 yards.  (We purchased a range finder at the end of last season so that we can measure the length of our blinds and marks rather than estimate them.)

Freighter has a comfort level with blinds that is around 80-90 yards.  When the blind is longer, he starts to get a bit nerved up.  It is as if he is thinking: “Crap I am out here all alone, what do I do?” He tends to not hold his sits, swings his head around rather than look at his handler, and does a little spinning move when he hears the whistle or is cast.  His handler has been stretching him out to build his confidence when he is out working at a distance.  Also, his handler is working on getting a longer initial line out of him.  One way to work on this is long cold blinds.

I took some video of Freighter running this cold blind.  In the beginning, his handler is trying to get him lined to the blind, (remember Freighter has no idea where it is in the field).  You can’t hear it, but Freighter’s handler is saying “dead bird” and Freighter is looking out in the field.  If he looks in the wrong direction, his handler says “no”.  That is Freighter’s cue to look somewhere else.  When he looks in the right direction, his handler will say “good” and release him with the command “back”.

The optimal is that the dog run in a nice straight long line in the direction he is looking when he is released.  You can see in the video that Freighter gets pulled off line pretty quickly.  We still had a holding blind that we used to conceal Mark #3 in the field and it caught his attention and pulled him over to it.  He might need to check it out.  🙂

At that point Freighter’s handler stopped him and recast him.  His handler is giving him mostly angle back casts.  The handler uses an arm signal to let the dog know he should move at an angle rather than straight back, but the verbal command is still “back”.

A few times Freighter did the spinning move when cast and one time he got all confused and turned in the wrong direction, which took him totally off line.  I also think there was something in the field pulling him to the right since he tried to go there a couple of times.  Because he is off line, Freighter’s handler had to give him an “over” command to get him back in line with the blind.  The farther out the dog is, the more difficult it is to get that over cast.  Freighter had one cast refusal, but took the second “over” cast.

This was the first long cold blind in cover for Freighter this season, so we were pretty happy with how he did.  We ran marks right next to the blind which could have tripped him up, and there was a lot of scent and cover in that field.  But Freighter relied on his handler and got the bird.  Good boy.

In the video, the blind is marked with an orange stake.  If you have sharp eyes you might spot it.  Because I was standing off to the side, it is generally to the left of Freighter.

If the video won’t play, try here.

After we ran Thunder and Storm on that blind, we ran Freighter a second time as a confidence builder.  The second time around it really isn’t a cold blind because he knows generally where it is.  He did a very good job on the blind the second time and only needed a couple of casts to keep him on line.

After the first run, I moved out in the field to plant blinds for the dogs so I got some pictures from a different perspective.

Being Lined To The Blind

Sent With A “Back”

Running Hard

Stopped Because He Was A Little Off Line

Re-cast

Almost There

At The Blind

Good Dog!

When hubby and I are doing field training like this, it is also a good work out for us because we are constantly walking back and forth to resupply the birds, reload the winger, or plant blinds.

Have a nice 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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