Re: Riley's training log I had a sneaky read of this at work earlier, but had to wait until I got home to comment. : Well, that's super interesting! I'm just starting T drills with my placeboards, but no dummy. I doubt anything would knock Charlie's enthusiasm...so I might not have to be so careful when (if!) we ever get to use dummies. But I was wondering...Riley could have made a mistake on nearly all of those exercises. I couldn't begin to do even basic versions without something...2 extra people to pick up the dummies, or a long line. What would you have done if Riley had made a mistake? Or did you really know he wouldn't?
Re: Riley's training log [quote author=bbrown link=topic=9765.msg141881#msg141881 date=1423148943] Obi pup got a run out too if anyone's interested in a spaniel training log I can write that up aswell...... [/quote] Yes! Yes! Yes! Please! Please! Please!
Re: Riley's training log The plan if it went wrong........ On the retrieves where there was nothing there there would have been no reward and on the ones where there was I had my glamorous assistant to pick up if he didn't stop. We tried to place the helper so he could get to any reeeeeaaaaally tempting dummies before Riley. There was plenty of distance between dummies so not much risk of double picking or swapping as we've done plenty of split retrieves over the months establishing our directional work. We've done steadiness to thrown dummies separately as well and I think it was important to only use components that we were pretty sure of separately. The only thing new was the stop and linking it all together. Could he have gone the wrong way or not been steady yes but they're pretty well established behaviours. If those things had gone wrong I would have used an alternative type of retrieve as reward or some food instead and worked on those again separately. Also the distances Riley was from me were quite short and the distance from Riley to the dummies significantly larger. So the marked retrieve was 30m and I stopped him at 10m so he was twice as far from the dummy as he was from me at all times. The only really tricky one was the dummy to my left with a left back to get to the dummy behind but I sent him right back so he was turning away from the tempting dummy in full view. He was a little star and I'm really, really pleased with him ;D
Re: Riley's training log Very interesting, thanks so much. I really struggle on my own to come up with exercises that won't go wrong. It's my biggest challenge to figure out...
Re: Riley's training log I guess it's all about the 3 D's. My working test friend is very careful that everything is practised and perfected in isolation before being linked together. To the point where her dogs will sit in front of her and when she blows her hunt whistle they put their noses down immediately. When I think of all the different ways we did two dummies out before ever considering using them in this exercise it would take me a while to write them all down and that's before you change the ground in any way If I can be any help with variations just shout
Re: Riley's training log It's so basic with Charlie... :-[. I can't trust him if I can't get to the dummy before him. Although it's better with the placeboards. Slooooow work... Hoping to get my dog walker helper back when the days get longer.
Re: Riley's training log I am enjoying reading your training log Barbara! Too lazy to write up my own, but it is great to hear what you are doing.
Re: Riley's training log [quote author=Karen link=topic=9765.msg142037#msg142037 date=1423214277] I am enjoying reading your training log Barbara! Too lazy to write up my own, but it is great to hear what you are doing. [/quote] Come on we all want to know what the head girl is up to and what exciting competitions you've got lined up ;D
Re: Riley's training log So we had another session yesterday with an assistant (spoilt! Two in two days!) I decided that we wouldn't do any specific stop training and wanted to really keep Riley moving so we did some work on stretching our distance for blind retrieves. Using some grassy tyre tracks in longer grass to help him hold his line we did a marked retrieve followed by a blind in the same area. Riley was travelling into the wind to help him - not quite directly as it was a strong wind and that can be off putting head on but predominantly into the wind. We did three sets at about 30, 50 and 70 metres. The first set went perfectly, a good mark by Riley and plenty of pace followed by equal pace on the blind and he turned on the wind to pick. The second pair he was unlucky, the mark was fine but he just turned slightly upwind as he got to the blind and so carried on beyond. I pipped him back towards me as he was getting out of area and asked him to hunt. He hunted well and persistently but his pattern was a bit wide. My throwing assistant was stood quite far out to the side of the dummy so to encourage Riley to tighten up his pattern he moved closer, he didn't say anything but by shifting where he was stood he brought Riley tighter into the right area. Riley picked on his nose and came home beautifully. On the third set which is starting to stretch Riley's limit on blinds at 70m on flat ground but longish grass he did another great job of the mark. When he headed out to the blind he was struggling to make distance so I called "back" to try and keep him travelling and straight. He put his nose down a bit short but held his line just squeaked past the dummy and turned as he winded it and picked. That was plenty after a hard work session the day before and he'd really stretched his legs and kept his pace up with lots of success so very, very pleased. Chilled out day on Saturday I think!
Re: Riley's training log Reading these in awe! I don't have anything useful to say, but loving the accounts- he seems to have really come in in the last year (I'm hoping this bodes well for Merla : )
Re: Riley's training log [quote author=Merla link=topic=9765.msg142484#msg142484 date=1423421954] Reading these in awe! I don't have anything useful to say, but loving the accounts- he seems to have really come in in the last year (I'm hoping this bodes well for Merla : ) [/quote] Probably even just the last 6 months Kath we had an epiphany in the summer(this gundog lark is supposed to be FUN apparently ) and seem to have maintained some momentum through the winter.
Re: Riley's training log [quote author=Merla link=topic=9765.msg142484#msg142484 date=1423421954] (I'm hoping this bodes well for Merla : ) [/quote] Me too...I fear in my case such hope would be a tad optimistic though... ;D ;D ;D
Re: Riley's training log We had a test in class on Monday we tied for second place! ;D A bit of a mixed bag though....I completely messed up the first exercise - two dummies out, a mark thrown in between which was retrieved and then a mark thrown again which was picked up. We were supposed to stop our dogs and redirect them. Unfortunately Riley winded the dummy to the right before I blew my stop whistle so picked on his nose : Luckily he didn't really do anything wrong but I did and I got told off for not reading the wind or my dog : Next exercise - two jump pens next to each other. A blind in one and a mark thrown into the second one. Dogs retrieves the mark and then gets sent back for the blind. Some of the dogs wind or see the blind but that's ok as long as they don't double pick. The blind is in another pen on purpose to dissuade them from swapping dummies. Riley does a lovely job of the mark and heads straight back into the same pen when he's sent(I don't think he spotted the blind) I blow my hunt whistle when he's in the pen so he goes round the whole pen and realises there's a dummy in the pen next door. Picks and comes home. Very pleased. Exercise three - six dummies out in an area, dog needs to find and deliver two. I start out by splitting the area into four in my mind and send Riley into the first area. He doesn't really hold his area so when he sneaks out to the right I stop him and send him back in. Stops beautifully and took direction, picked and delivered ;D Pushed him into another area, hunt whistle....he hunted well to start with but was becoming uncertain so started to head home. I stopped him, pushed him back and hunted him again. Found a dummy and headed home to big grins, he handled beautifully ;D But then...................the walk up with a dummy launcher : : : He was a quivering wreck from the first bang, absolutely beside himself with excitement and I foolishly had joined the end of the line which meant we'd go last. He sat to every whistle but was desperate to go and when it finally got to our turn he could contain himself no longer and ran in. And there went our hopes of glory in the vision of a little black dog disappearing into the distance to a dummy he marked perfectly and delivered beautifully : While everyone went back to their cars I popped a few dummies out most of which I picked up again and one of which I let Riley have so we finished without him running in.
Re: Riley's training log Lovely write up and well done both of you. How far you have come from those days when Riley was unsure about gun shot. ;D
Re: Riley's training log Thanks Heidrun.............it's almost hard to believe we're the same pair of idiots making such a mess of everything. Training today and we had training buddies for an hour so I wanted to work on our steadiness after our run in yesterday. We basically walked across a field throwing dummies out and asking the three dogs in a random order to retrieve so they never knew who was getting to go. Sometimes we'd stop them and give them a reward out to one side but we did that very much based on how confident the dog was. Anything less than a purposeful outrun didn't get a stop as we didn't want to make the dogs sticky. The dogs got to stretch their legs a bit too and we just stopped them at random times as we did a turn of the field and rewarded them with retrieves. It was really low key and lots of fun.....no serious labrador retriever training today! Lots of flow, keeping the dogs moving stops were short with reward following quickly and the dogs had loads of fun! We finished up with a clock. Two handlers, three dogs in the middle, eight dummies out. the ground has longish grass and is quite bumpy so I had no idea where the dummies were almost the instant they were thrown (thank goodness Riley is a better marker than I am!). We just worked zones to get all the dummies back if you imagine laying something that looks a bit like a dartboard over the ground but with equal sized sections. Riley did really well, his hunting definitely has a time limit though so if he's working well and not finding we put a mark out for him to reward him before he gives up. Also if he's unsure of the exercise he can be a little reticent on his outrun turning round almost instantly and jumping up, I made the mistake of pandering to this a bit and trying to be encouraging but that just got him worked up so I tried a different approach and lined him up as if I knew exactly where the dummy was and pushed him out with a very firm, positive "go back" and he was outside the circle in the blink of an eye. Turned him on his recall and hunted him back towards me and he found the rabbit skin dummy - YAY!!!!! That was more than enough for Riley so the big dog got pushed out for the last tennis ball which we thought was slightly uphill from us. It would have been easy not to get this one back, the ground could have swallowed it up completely! The dog worked 4 areas as requested and we were just about to give up, he was called home and picked on his way back - he'd been put in completely the wrong place but worked tirelessly as asked. He's an awesome dog to watch work and definitely an influencing factor on my desire for a dark yellow lab What a great way to spend a lunch hour ;D So time to take stock....... Our stop whistle is really coming on. I need to use it judiciously - looking for opportunities to use it but not overdoing it and it should go from strength to strength. Our steadiness was good today, anything thrown is reasonable. I may need to work on some shot with thrown and dummy launcher though as that really ramps the excitement levels up! Our heelwork is still rubbish and I must spend more time on it!!!!! A few days with little to no retrieving ahead probably so some extra yummy treats and heelwork focus. We can do this !!
