You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

I thought I would use this Follow-Up Friday to answer some questions.

My Brown Newfies and Pamela Webster wanted to know what the brown dawgs thought of our new trailer.  They really haven’t had a chance to ride in it yet, although Thunder has been in it several times.  Freighter is still off with the trainer and Storm is off with her breeder so they have not even seen it yet.  We only took Thunder with us to Iowa.  Since it was such a long trip home, we let him ride in the truck with us.  No sense in putting him in there to have a potentially bad experience when we could not control it.

Pamela also asked if we did anything special to make them feel comfortable.  We don’t plan to do too much.  All of our dogs have been with a pro at one time or another and have been in a dog trailer.  It has been a while for Thunder though so he will start out with shorter trips, but I don’t anticipate an issue.  He is already happy to jump inside and once he figures out inside means training or hunt test, we will be golden. 

The nice people at Ainley sent this picture taken on a sunny day.

Jodi Stone wanted to know how I got the water droplets to show up in this picture:

Storm and the magic water droplets.

No idea.    I put my camera on the sport or action setting and hope to get–something.  Seriously, I have noticed that if I put my camera on a fast speed I can catch droplets.

Lots of hunt test related questions on yesterday’s post, Long Day.

Basset Momma wanted to know about the lilies and whether it is hard for the dogs to get through them.

A picture of Thunder and his handler at the line. Can you spot them? The handler is sitting on a bucket behind a clump of grass with Thunder next to him.  The person visible is the judge.

The dogs can easily bust through these lilies.  A few dogs broke some of the leaves off so they were floating around.  The real problem was that the dogs were hitting the bottom of the pond.  In this picture you can see the trail Thunder churned up.

Mark #2

Basset Momma also wanted an explanation of the term “honor” dog.  The higher level tests require a trained retriever to “honor” the work of another retriever.  Translation: one dog must sit quietly and watch while the marks are thrown for another dog.  The dog watching does not get to pick up any birds.  The other dog picks up the birds.  The dog watching is often referred to as the “honor” dog and the dog that is picking up the birds is called the “working” dog.

The black lab is the “honor” dog and Thunder is the “working” dog. In HRC tests, the handler of the working dog fires blanks over the head of the dog to show the marks. The handler of the honor dog also fires one shot toward where the blind is planted. Even though he has not seen the test, Thunder has already figured out where the gunner station to the right is located.

Honoring can be a tough thing.  The dogs do not honor until after they have run the test and already picked up several birds.  It can be difficult for them to sit there and not pick up a bird.

Thunder is the “honor” dog and is waiting for the next “working” dog. Thunder’s handler is having a little chat with him about the need for him to remain steady.

Jodi Stone wanted to know whether the length of the day could have contributed to Thunder’s inability to take casts.  Maybe.  But it is something he has to learn to deal with.  If he were hunting, I doubt the length of the day would have mattered to him.

My Brown Newfies wanted to know if the lilies were throwing him off.  Yes, I think so.  They can hold a lot of bird scent and he has been “tricked” by them both times he has had to run a blind from that spot in that pond.  The reason a test may be set through things like those lilies, or in a stick pond, or a field with a lot of grass is to try to “trick” the dog.  It may make it more difficult for a dog to mark a fall.  Some dogs do not want to tackle a hazard, ie bust through the lilies or heavy grass.  And some dogs, Thunder, let their noses get the better of them when there is strong scent.

Thunder was a heated up pup after put on a big hunt for the middle land mark.

I hope I answered all of the questions.  Sorry if I missed any.    Thanks to Jodi Stone for coming up with Follow-Up Friday.

We have a busy weekend planned.  We are going to visit Freighter tomorrow.  On Sunday Thunder is entered in a Working Dog Qualified (WDQ) stake which is a program offered by the American Chesapeake Club.  It is certification, not a title, but the requirements are very similar to those of a retriever hunt test.  There are various levels from basic to a little more involved.  (I summarized the requirements for WDQ which are pretty specifically called out in the rules.  If you want to see all the requirements, please follow the link.)

Requirements for WDQ
1. Land Double.  Dead bird and shot flyer.
2. Land Blind. A dead bird should be placed in light to medium cover about 80 yards from the line.
3. Water blind. This test must contain at least some swimming water. A dead bird should be placed about 50 yards out so that it is not visible from the line.
4. Combination Triple. This test is to be a triple mark consisting of two birds in water and a third on land.

We look forward to seeing lots of Chessie friends there, including Misty Shores Chesapeakes.  To answer your question Misty, we don’t plan to bring the trailer because we are only bringing one dog Sunday. 

Have a nice weekend and best of luck to all who are entered in the WD/X/Q!

Thunder ran a test on these grounds in May that sort of blew his mind.  He did fine on the water portion, but the land test was too much for him.  He picked up a hot blind instead of the mark and failed.

I suppose there are other pieces of land to hold a test on these grounds, but for Saturday’s test, the judges selected the exact same field and the starting line was in the exact same spot.  The only difference was that the hot blind was to one side along a tree line and almost in line with a mark.  (Hot blind=a bird placed in the field before the marks are thrown.  Usually blinds are to be picked up after the marks.)

I managed to get a picture from almost the starting line.  This field is pretty narrow and quite hilly.  It is tough to fit a triple and a hot blind in the space.

Marks Are Black X’s and The Blind Is Orange (Click On Picture To See It Larger)

There was a lot going on in this test.  It was a triple with the marks going down as numbered 1-2-3.  A diversion was thrown as the dog was coming back with the last mark.  The blind was 81 yards down to the right and under the arc of mark #1, but almost in line with it.  Finally, there was an honor.  Whew.  The wind was really swirling and if the dogs got up over mark #1 they headed straight for that hot blind because it was so close and there was a lot of drag back scent in the field.

Waiting For The Marks (Honor Dog Is To The Right)

Thunder picked up the marks 3-1-2.  He nailed the first mark (#3), but mark #1 he needed to be handled because he ran over it and his handler did not want him to pick up that hot blind.  On mark #2, he put on a kind of big hunt.  He was playing the wind and went as far as the corn, but since he has had enough hunt test experience, he knew it wasn’t going to be in the corn so he circled back and got the mark.  The diversion almost landed on him, but he held his bird and then picked up the diversion when directed.  He did fine on the blind.  He needed a few handles, but eventually got it. He did fine on the honor so it was onto water.  This was a very challenging land series with only maybe 3 or 4 dogs out of 30 going through clean.  All and all, we were happy with Thunder’s work, but he would have to be clean on the water marks since he already used his handle.

Off To Mark #3

He Is On It

Good Boy!

Sending For Mark #2

Coming To Heel

Thunder Is The Honor Dog

To Get To The Starting Line The Dogs Had To Walk Through The Test – Thunder Is Finished And Just Waiting To Exit

Exiting The Land Series

The water test was a triple with a water blind.  Pretty straight forward.

Water Series

The marks went down 1-2-3.  The hot blind was under the arc of mark #2 and required the dogs to pass quite close to that old fall.  The wind was still swirling so mark #2 was floating around.  The blue arrows show how it was moving.  The darkest blue arrow is the direction Thunder’s bird floated.  Many dogs had trouble with these marks.  Dogs had trouble hunting up mark #2.  Mark #1 landed on the bank of the pond.  Many dogs got up on the bank and headed toward the hot blind and had to be handled back to mark #1.

Thunder’s handler and I discussed the order to send him to pick up these marks.  We figured he would pick up mark #3 first no problem.  It landed in the open.  But that #2 and #1 mark posed a problem.  Would it be better to send him to mark #1 since he is comfortable picking up marks outsides first and then middle?  Or would he do what the other dogs did and get on the bank, not see that bird and swing around to the hot blind figuring mark#2 would be an easier mark?  Thunder’s handler decided to send him to mark #2 before Mark #1 to take that mark out of the picture.  No problem, Thunder picked up both mark #2 and mark #1 without a problem.  In fact he was one of the cleanest of the afternoon on those marks.

Heading To The Water Series

Directing Thunder To Stop Messing Around And To Come To Heel

Coming To Heel

Mark #2

He Has Mark #2

The last thing he had to do was pick up that blind.  It was a long day and it was a challenging blind, but doable.  Thunder was already being a bit of a pain and playing with the birds a bit before bring them back.  His handler lined him up…sent him to the blind…and he peeled off to the left.  OK stop and give him a right over.  No.  Stop again.  Over.  No.  After a few of those he was called in, but he wouldn’t come back and continued to hunt in the lilies to the left.

We are not really sure what his issue was.  His head has been a bit in the clouds due to Storm being in season.  But we sent her off a couple days before so she wasn’t even there.  Those lilies were Thunder’s downfall in a previous test we ran on these grounds.  He did the same thing on the water blind, he followed his nose and not his handler’s direction.  It was well after 5pm by the time he ran the water series and the test started at 8am.  It was a long day to have him blow it on the last element!  He did a lot of good things during the test, but it can get aggravating when they blow something that has been solid in training.

Tomorrow some follow-up to questions left in comments.  I am still trying to catch up and haven’t had a chance to go back and respond to each comment, but at least I can try to answer questions. 

Here I Am Sitting And Waiting

Oops I Thought He Said “GO”!

Waiting Again

Finally

Look I Brought You A Big Bumper

Didn’t I Do A Great Job?

This is a Blog Hop.  Thanks to  Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Luna, a Dog’s Life, and My Brown Newfies for setting up this hop.  Please go to any of the sponsoring blogs to find out who else has been mischievous.

Monday Mischief

Water Triple

These kinds of triples can be difficult.  The mark thrown toward the dog can tempt the dog to break.  Marks which fall in a line can be hard because once the dogs picks up the closer mark, they don’t always remember the farther mark.

We have seen this type of water triple at several of the tests we ran this summer so we were happy to have an opportunity to train it.

Here are some photos of Thunder’s work.

Off To The Close Mark

You Can See The Closer And The Farther Mark In A Line

These Marks Are To The Right Of The Handler

Taking A Nice Line To The Closer Mark

Thunder Has The Closer Mark

Almost Back To His Handler

The Other Mark Was Off To The Left

Driving

He Has It

Off To The Far Mark To The Right

Huge Splash

Swimming

Almost There

Good Dog!

Storm tried a bit of mischief with her triple and that will be the subject of our Monday Mischief post.

This weekend Thunder is entered in a Finished test.  We had Storm entered, but had to scratch her when she came into season.  Also our dog trailer is finally done.  If I am a bit scarce this weekend, it is because we have to have to pick it up!

Have a nice weekend!

[NOTE:  If you are not comfortable with hunting or the shooting of birds for dog training then you probably want to stop reading here and not watch the videos.  I am posting the videos to show how a young dog is introduced to shot birds, but if it not your thing, that is OK too.]

Finally the big day arrived for Freighter to fetch his first shot flyer.  Lucky for us, the trainer was shooting flyers for a bunch of his training dogs on the day that we were there.  Freighter’s first bird was a “cripple”, meaning that the shot must have missed a bit and it was not dead.  You hope to kill the bird, but it doesn’t always happen and the dog must still fetch it when told to do so.  This is where “drive” and “birdiness” and training come into play.  You can see how Freighter handles the cripple in the video.  By the second bird he figured out that loud bang=bird.  He was much more excited which translated into him pulling on his collar, not sitting, and being quite vocal on the line.  He tends to yelp and bark when he is made to wait.  Hopefully that will lessen as he matures.  He is not at all steady yet.  In lower level tests you can hold his collar; however, you better have a good grip!  He also got a gentle reminder to “sit” which I don’t think sunk in since he was so busy yelping at the bird.

If the video doesn’t play, try here.

We were very happy with how he handled his first and second shot flyers.  He showed that he has no problem retrieving a cripple.  Long time readers may recall that as a younger dog, Freighter was not great on bringing dead birds back to his handler.  Thanks to his training, he heads straight back now.  He still has to work on his holding, but that should come with more training.

Thunder and Storm also got shot flyers.  It is a good idea to train with live birds every once in a while because the dogs’ excitement level definitely increases and you can work on all sorts of things, including steadiness.  You might be able to see other dogs in the video.  The higher level dogs got to work on honoring, (sitting and watching), the dog that was getting the flyer.

Grandpa Thunder lives to hunt and retrieve birds.  He is an experienced hunter but in hunt tests he does not always like to give up his birds.  That is something we work on with him all of the time. 

If the video doesn’t play try here.

Storm was the last dog up.  You can see her excitement level increase once she figured out that it was a shot flyer.  We have been working on her steadiness.  She jumped a bit, but otherwise did fine.  She was not at all bothered by a longer swim when there was a bird to be had.

If the video doesn’t play, try here.

After we trained on the birds, the rest of the training was on bumpers much to Thunder’s dismay.  But that is for another day.

Everything is going along fine…

Freighter Watching A Water Mark

The puppy swims out…

Freighter To The Bumper

And does a nice retrieve…

Good Boy!

Heads back…

Almost Back

And then it happens…

Oh No

Nature calls…

But I Am Holding The Bumper

Ah well…carry on…

Back To Business

This is a Blog Hop.  Thanks to  Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Luna, a Dog’s Life, and My Brown Newfies for setting up this hop.  Please go to any of the sponsoring blogs to find out who else has been mischievous.

Monday Mischief

Tomorrow some video of Freighter’s first shot flyer.

We ran water blinds and a nice water triple which I will share another day.  We also ran a long, and rather challenging, single mark.  I am not going to even try to diagram it.  The bumper landed on the land on the far side of the pond.  It required a slight angle entry into the pond, then the dog had to swim the pond, exit and jump in the smaller pond, swim that, exit and then pick up the bumper.  The difficult part was getting the dogs to carry the line which took them through the small pond.  Many dogs had to be handled when they saw the smaller pond because their inclination was to cheat around the edge of that smaller pond.  We want them to carry the line through the small pond.  So they were handled into the small pond.

Thunder was up first.

Thunder Is Off

He Has The Mark In Sight

Splash!

In the next picture, the arrow shows the mark.  You can see that Thunder is taking the correct line to the mark.  You cannot see the smaller pond, but it is in between the large pond and the mark.

On Line

Still Taking The Correct Line

Going Off Line A Bit

He was still OK even once he exited the large pond, but he wanted to cheat around to the right so as to avoid the small pond.  He was handled into that pond and that sort of confused him.  He lost the mark so he was handled to it.  That is OK.  It was a technical mark and he got pretty far so we were happy with his work.

Thunder Has It

On His Way Back

Good Boy!

Storm started to get a bit confused when she hit the point of the island on her way over so she was handled from there.  Long swims are not a favorite for Storm.  However since we are teaching, handling her was OK.  Once she got through the small pond, she had no trouble grabbing the bumper.

Storm Is Off

Taking A Nice Line

Good Girl Storm

Still On Line

Oops Confused

Storm Has It

We are supposed to have another hot weekend.  We have plans to train this weekend.  Hopefully the weather won’t cut it short.

And Storm came into season.  Hunt tests are over for her this year.  Phooey!

Have a nice weekend.

Often when we are out training at the park we turn into people magnets.  Maybe it is the dogs.  Maybe it is because the dogs are doing something more than sniffing.  No idea.

We usually try to park in shade near where we are training and usually try to find a shady spot to train if we are working land.  The designated parking area at this park is mostly sun this time of year.

Parking Area

So we picked a shady spot a bit away from the group.  Besides the shade, we prefer to keep the dogs away from cars and people while training.  Before long we became a magnet.

OK So You Have The Entire Park And You Have To Park On Top Of Us

Maybe these people could not see we were training dogs right there.  Again, no idea.  The lady in the car to the right was from Ontario.  For some reason she felt compelled to park on top of us and take her book and sit on a picnic table almost in the middle of where we were training. OK fine just a distraction which the dogs should ignore.

The car to the left was a man and a mentally challenged woman.  She kept trying to get in our van since the doors were open to allow air for the dogs.  She was in there at least two times.  The guy had to come and get her out.  Of our van.  She is lucky Storm was not in there at the time because Storm would not welcome a stranger in our van.

Then as we were working the dogs a kid came running up with a million questions.  Is that a real gun?  (We have purchased a wooden silhouette gun for training and to work on Storm being steady even when her handler has a gun.)  Are those real ducks?  What are you doing?  Can I watch?  We finally had to ask him not to come closer and run up on the dogs because we were training.

But the best was when a lady riding by on her bike heard the whistles and came up to watch.  We were just about done so she had a few questions.  More questions.  She parked her bike in between our car and the one to the right.  While we were talking, the woman in the car got in and somehow managed to back right into and almost over her bike.  I could not believe it.  We shouted at her to stop.  Finally she asked what she had hit.  Luckily it wasn’t a bike with a kid on it.  Could have been anything.  We are at a park after all.  You should kind of be paying attention.  At that point we made our exit too.

So ended another training day at the park…

Last Saturday was a beautiful day in Michigan.  We finally had cooler temperatures and less humidity, so it was just about perfect.  It was a great day to train and to visit with Freighter.

When we pulled up, the trainer was working with a Chessie.  Who is that dog?  Could it be?  He has to be told to sit for marks.  Yep that dog is Freighter.  He sure has matured in a couple of weeks.

Looking More And More Like A Big Dawg Every Day

Unlike our last visit, Freighter actually seemed happy to see us.  He even licked me.  I am not one to encourage a dog to lick on me, but since I missed the pup, I was OK with a lick or two.    I guess maybe the excitement lead to his being a bit uncooperative with the show dog stuff.  Hopefully we redeemed ourselves because my husband got to run him on a couple of water marks.

But first Freighter had to watch a younger puppy run the marks.  Better hang on tight to that collar!  He was so impatient he barked at the bumper in the water.  It was as if he was saying: “Let me.  I can get it.”  Of course it could have been: “Get out of my way!  That is my bumper!”

Watching Another Dog Run A Water Mark

His water work is coming along very nicely.  He goes straight out to the bumper and comes straight back.  He still needs to be reminded to hold the bumper as he exits the water.  That will come with training.

He sure loves the water…

Splash

Off To The Mark

Almost There

He Has It

On His Way Back

Hold That Bumper

Good Boy!

His land still needs work.  He goes straight to the mark, but won’t always pick it up quickly.  Again that will come with training.  We are very pleased with his progress so far.  Darrin is doing a great job with him.  He is a male Chessie and I am sure he can be a stinker at times. 

We are trying to figure out our hunt test schedule for late summer and early fall.  We are not sure whether Freighter will run a test this season.  There are certain skills we would like him to have before we test him.  Working with our first two dogs has taught us a thing or two and one of them is how easy it is for the dog to pick up a bad habit at a test, like poor line manners, bank running, or dropping birds.  You then have to spend time training that bad habit away, or the bad habit may never really go away and can show up again at higher levels. With Freighter we would like to avoid those frustrations.

Later this week, some of Thunder and Storm’s work.

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Update on Thunder’s leg injury… It has been two weeks since he has been on the medication regime that the orthopedic vet prescribed for him.  He is taking a very low dose steroid daily as an anti-inflammatory and another medication that is a pain reliever/anti-inflammatory on days that he is not training/testing.  The combination seems to working because we have not seen the limp even after heavy training/testing.  We spoke to the vet last night and he was happy to hear how well Thunder is doing so we will probably keep him on this regime through Labor day and then re-access.

We plan to do some training and to visit Freighter this weekend.  Since we were busy testing last weekend, we did not visit him.  It has been two weeks since we last saw him.  Of course he will probably be preoccupied.

Have a nice weekend!

A few random things from last weekend’s hunt test:

Several of you commented on the dog rigs in the picture that I posted yesterday.

This particular test usually draws a lot of professional trainers because it is one of the last opportunities to qualify for the Master National before the year-long qualification period ends.  To qualify to run in the Master National, dog have to pass 6 Master tests in a year.  There were pros at this test from as far away as Texas.  They have fancy dog trailers.  Nothing like the little one that we have on order which is delayed due to the company being behind schedule.  :|

This is Freighter’s brother Woody.  He and his human stopped by the test to say “hi” and visit.  To was great to see them.  He must have brought his Grandpa Thunder good luck for the last series.    He sure is cute and a lot calmer than his brother Freighter.  Except when he heard one of the guns and then he just wanted to GO!

Woody

Finally, this is a cute chocolate lab puppy that one of the out of state pro’s brought along.

Chocolate Lab Pup

He was adorable.  His name is Bad Bad Leroy Brown.  Not sure of the spelling or his kennel name.  Who knew that I would meet two dogs with basically the same name in my lifetime.

The Other Badd Badd Leroy Brown From The Cobo Dog Show Last Winter

Haven’t met Leroy the Newfie?  Stop over and say “hi”.

Storm was the mischief-maker at this past weekend’s hunt test.  She went to the line for the first series which was a triple with a shot flyer, a land blind and an honor.  She sat next to her handler waiting for the birds.  The first mark went off (the flyer), she crept two feet in front of her handler.  The second mark went off and she was three feet in front of her handler.  The third mark went off and she took off to fetch the duck.  A break and she was out of the test.  I don’t have any pictures from this past weekend, but here is one of the excited girl from April.

Fanny To The Ground Storm

We will be working on Storm’s steadiness because in Master’s when the dog breaks it doesn’t get to run the rest of the test and misses the thing it really wants to do, which is retrieve the ducks.  We hope Storm will eventually understand this.

Those of you following this blog’s Facebook page already know the big news from the weekend.  Thunder earned his first Master pass!  No mischief from him.  He did a really good job.  Congrats to Thunder, his handler, and a big thank you to Darrin for all of his help with Thunder’s training.

Thunder had a bit of mischief played on him during the test, but that will have to wait until tomorrow’s post.  For now here is his ribbon picture.

Thunder’s First Master Pass

This is a Blog Hop.  Thanks to  Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Luna, a Dog’s Life, and My Brown Newfies for setting up this hop.  Please go to any of the sponsoring blogs to find out who else has been mischievous.

Monday Mischief

It is a good thing that we had the two training days last weekend because we got very little in this week due to the weather.  The extreme heat earlier in the week made it impossible to train after work.  Once the heat broke, we got storms and some much-needed rain.  Oh well.  Training this summer has been in fits and spurts.

The training day last Sunday was a Club training day that was open to members and guests.  It was set up as a land triple with a couple of blinds.  The junior dogs started and ran the marks as three singles.  It took forever to get through the junior dogs.  The senior dogs ran the three marks as a double and a single and ran one or both blinds.  They moved much faster, but by the time they got to the Master dogs it was late and it was hot.  It was decided just to run the triple and even that was tough.

Club training days can be a bit of a challenge.  It is a lot of hurry up and wait if you are running a Master dog, but it is important to help those with dogs at the lower levels especially if they don’t have a lot of experience.  We did not have much access to this when we were starting out so I am glad our Club puts these kinds of days on.  There are a lot of experienced trainers in this Club and many members are also hunt test judges.  It is great to train with them when we get a chance.

The triple was in cover with bumpers rather than birds and all-in-all we were happy with Thunder and Storm’s work.  I got some nice pictures and I did a little extra processing on them.  I like how they came out.

Storm first:

Thunder next:

Have a nice weekend!

Today’s This ‘N That Thursday is a little bit of three different training days.

One of the things that we constantly work on during training is control, or trying to change the dog’s mind.  Running blinds is all about the handler and the dog working together, but more important, the handler has to be able to control the route the dog takes to the blind.

We run blinds in a park near our house periodically because the tree line can cause problems for the dogs.  The break in the tree line can be very attractive.  There is a small run-off creek that runs behind the trees that is also attractive and can pull a dog over.  It is a good place to train control.

This is Storm having a hard day.  She is bound and determined to go everywhere except where the duck is even though she almost stepped on it.  She went left, she went right, she was in the woods, she tried to go to a dead duck (not one we put there), that was around the corner.  She looks like she never ran a blind before.  Eventually she got the bird, but this is hardly what you want.  There was a second blind to the left and she did better on that one.  Here is video of the first blind:

If the video doesn’t play, try here.

This is Thunder running the same blind along with the second blind.  The handler has to work to change his mind from going to the opening in the trees.  This is a more acceptable run:

If the video doesn’t play, try here.

After Storm’s wonderful performance on that blind her handler has been working on blinds with her.  During training on Saturday and Sunday we worked two nice set-ups to train changing the dog’s mind.

The first one was a poison bird mark and a long (about 110 yards) water blind.

Poison Mark And Blind

The dog watched the mark fall, but was not to pick it up before the blind.  The mark was a poison mark.  The dog could not see the blind and had to rely on its handler to get the dog there.  This is where the handler must work to change the dog’s mind from heading to that poison mark.  Both Storm and Thunder did well on this.  Storm did a bit better than Thunder who got up on the far side of the island and had to be directed back into the water.  Storm took a very nice line to the blind.

The Arrow Marks The Blind And If You Look Closely You Can See Storm Swimming Toward It

Good Girl Storm

Storm Getting The Poison Mark

At our Club training day on Sunday the dogs ran the following water blinds.

Water Blinds

These blinds were run in number order 1-2-3.  They were difficult because there was an angled water entry and the blinds were all in close proximity to one another.  Also, when you run the closer blind first it adds difficulty because you have to push the dog past a blind they have already run.  Thunder and Storm only ran the first two blinds because it was a long hot day and it was getting late.  They both did a nice job on this.  Storm even took the angled water entry and didn’t square to the water as she does sometimes.  One thing we have learned is that stopping when you get what you want in training can be more beneficial than pushing too hard and undoing the benefit of the exercise.

Some pictures:

Storm Heading To The Blind-She Took A Nice Angle Entry

Storm Swimming

Storm Blind #1

Storm Bringing Back Blind #2-You Can See Blind #3 In The Background

Thunder Off To The Blind

Good Boy Thunder

Thunder Came Back Nice And Straight Too

Tomorrow pictures of a nice land triple they ran at the Club training day.  Since there were two group training days last weekend, I took a load of pictures. 

I feel like this slide show needs a bit of explanation (so not wordless today I guess).  This is Thunder last Saturday watching the combination land water triple marks fall.  (This is a rough drawing of the set-up.)  In the higher level AKC tests the handler has to use a handler’s gun.  In HRC the handler must shoulder and fire the gun (with popper loads).  It pays to practice once in a while.  One of the members of our group brought this cap gun and allowed anyone in the group to borrow it.  (Sure beats the broom handle we use in the park.   Thanks Karen!)  You hope the dog swings his head with the marks.  Thunder doesn’t really need a gun to cue him to swing his head, but sometimes it helps the younger dogs.

The first series was a water triple.  The marks were thrown as numbered 1-2-3.  #1 was in open water.  #2 was behind a little ridge of land.  #3 came from behind the dog as a sort of breaking mark.  Thunder and Storm picked them up in reverse order 3-2-1.  Freighter ran mark #1 as a single.

Water Triple

Freighter Heading Off To The Mark #1 (Indicated By The Arrow)

Freighter Has It

Freighter Heading Back

Good Boy Freighter

Thunder and Storm ran the triple and both ran it clean.  We were really happy with how they did on this series.

Storm Watching The Mark

Storm Off To Mark #3

Good Girl Storm

Storm With Mark #2

Thunder Off To Get Mark #2

Just Over The Ridge

Thunder Has It

Storm Off To Get Mark #1

The next series was a combination land-water triple.

Combination Land Water Triple

All of the marks came from the right side.  The marks were thrown 1-2-3.  Thunder and Storm picked them up 3-2-1. To get to mark #1 the dogs had to go down a little bank and swim a bit and go up the bank on the other side.  That made this mark hard because sometimes the dogs loose sight of the mark with hills and swimming involved.  Also, there was a hill toward the back of the field that kind of messed with their minds.  The #2 mark wiped out #1 since they were basically in line with one another.  Sometimes when marks are thrown in a line, once the dog picks up the close bumper, he or she figures that is all there is and has trouble remembering the long one.

Thunder and Storm did pretty well on this one.  They both hunted around the hill on mark #1 but Thunder was able to hunt over and find the mark.  Storm’s mark landed behind a tree and she just couldn’t come up with it so she was handled to it.  Little by little we can see improvement in their triples.  It was not that long ago that marks thrown from the center out (series 1) or in a line (series 2) would have blown their minds.  They still need more work on these, but at least they have a shot at picking them up clean.

Storm With Mark #1

Freighter ran this series as three single marks from the same line as Thunder and Storm.  He ran #1 first.  He got out to it with a little help which consisted of throwing and extra bumper or two to get him to the mark.  We were pretty happy that he got to the other side of the water without help.  He still needs work on picking up the bumper quickly and bringing it all of the way back from that distance.

Mark #1-No Freighter You Have Yo Bring It all Of The Way Back

Freighter did a really good job on the other two marks.

Mark #2

Good Boy Freighter

Mark #3

We also saw Freighter’s sis Sunny.  She at least acknowledged her people.  She is coming along very nicely.  Both Sunny and Freighter seem happy and content.

Nice Retrieve Sunny

Good Girl Sunny

Thunder and Storm ran one more series but I will have to save that for another post as this post turned out quite long.  We also trained on Sunday and I will have those pictures later this week.

Storm was very enthusiastic to train, but her marking was not as good as usual.  Her handling kind of stunk too.  She is due to come into season and Thunder has been showing a lot of interest in her so that may be why she is just not focused at times.

Some pictures of her work:

Getting Ready

Go!

Splash

Coming Up For Air

Good Girl

Next up was Thunder.  He did great on both marks and the blinds.  I have video of his blind work, but I haven’t had a chance to upload it.  I will try for next week.

Go Thunder

Big Splash

He Has The Bumper

Good Boy

Thunder spent yesterday at the vet.  On and off this summer he has come up lame in his front leg after training.  We rest him and it goes away, but then once he starts running again, the limp reappears.  We have him entered in some tests coming up and I was starting to worry that maybe he needed total rest.  The clinic where we take our animals has an orthopedic vet on staff.  By chance I called yesterday to see when he would be seeing patients and he was seeing them that morning, but only for a couple of hours.  I threw Thunder in the car and headed off.  While any of the vets could have handled this, I really wanted the orthopedic vet to look at him.  Usually when we have a dog with a limp, they will gimp all around the house and then you get them to the vet and presto no limp.  I was pretty sure Thunder would limp a bit at the vet. 

First the orthopedic vet had me move Thunder down the hall so that he could watch his gait.  Then he felt and manipulated the leg that was not affected, and then the one with the limp.  He said he didn’t feel anything out-of-place or loose.  Thunder is getting older and he is  a big dog that runs hard.  I asked if maybe we should just retire him from training/testing.  It is supposed to be fun and not cause the doggie to come up lame.

The vet did not think total rest or retirement was necessary.  He felt he could manage the issue with medication while Thunder is training/testing but wanted permission to take a couple of x-rays of his joints.  He said that he doesn’t like to just throw medication at a problem without knowing what he is throwing the medication at.  Also, he likes to take a holistic approach where appropriate.  I was fine with this approach, (and figured he would want x-rays).  Thunder’s elbows OFA’ed normal when he was about 2 years old, but the orthopedic vet was looking for any injury or arthritis.  He was also going to check his wrist for injury or arthritis and shoulder for injury, arthritis and tendonitis.  Unfortunately they would need to sedate him to get good pictures so Thunder spent the day.  (No hard feelings Thunder, right?)  It was good timing because the vet had a light surgery schedule and would be there to go over results when we picked up Thunder that evening.  Sometimes things just work out.

The good news is that his x-rays were clear.  The vet went over them with us in great detail, and explained what any problems would have looked like.  Actually, Thunder’s joints look very nice.  I think the vet was a bit intrigued by Thunder’s case because he took a couple of extra x-rays for his own information and did not charge us.    We decided to put Thunder on a course of medication for about a month to see if we can make the limp go away.  Then we will probably introduce some supplements for his joints and maybe manage with additional medication, but we will wait and see how he does in the next month.

We have two training days planned for this weekend.  Hopefully we will see some improvement.

Have a nice weekend!

Thunder

The first single was quite a challenge.  The dogs had to cross a small strip of water and then cross some land and then swim a larger pond to the mark.

First Single Mark

Thunder had a bit of trouble with this one.  He has not had that much experience running these kinds of set ups.  At first he wanted to cheat the bank and run to the large pond and start there.  He was recalled and resent and he did what most inexperienced dogs do, he kind of squared up to the water.  He got out to the mark, but with all of the messing around at the beginning he lost sight of the bumper and had to be handled at the end.  The white line is the desired path.  The next diagram shows Thunder’s path in orange.

Thunder’s Run

Eventually Thunder Got The Bumper

Storm also had trouble with this and she had trouble the entire day.  She was in no mood to do long swims.  Maybe it was the heat?  This mark should have been easy for her because she has had a lot more of these than Thunder has.  But Storm was being Storm.    A mark like this is too difficult for the younger dogs that were training that day.  They ran this mark from the edge of the large pond and did not add in the extra strip of water.

My pictures are not the best.  Truth be told, I was sticking to the shade and it was a bright sunny day so some of the pictures have too much shadow and others are too light.  Then my batteries died so I had to go back to the car for fresh ones so I missed some pictures.  Oh well.

Storm Getting Ready To Run

On Her Way Back With The Bumper

Coming To Heel

Got To Shake

The next single was about 120 yards with a long swim.

Second Single

Again this was a challenge for Thunder because he doesn’t have a lot of opportunity to get these super long swims.  At one point he got to where there is an opening to the other part of the pond and he winded some ducks.  His nose went up and he seemed to be thinking duck? bumper? duck? bumper?  He went for the bumper but when he got out of the pond, he over ran the bumper and had to be handled back to it.

Thunder Ready To Go

On His Way Back From The Far Side Of The Pond After Getting The Bumper

Long Swim

As I said, Storm was in no mood for a long swim, but eventually she got the bumper.

Was That So Hard Storm?

No group training this weekend, but we hope to get out on our own and train.

Have a nice weekend!

Freighter’s Sister Sunny Looks Happy

Watching A Mark

Hopefully they have a good week 2.

Next our pal Jodi Stone asked about the mechanics of a double mark which I tried to describe on my last post about training.  Whether it is a single, double, triple, or quad mark, it works basically the same way.  The dog sits at heel and watches the gunner either throw or launch the bumper or the duck.  If it is a single, only one is thrown at a time and the dog goes out and retrieves it.  If it is a multiple mark (double, triple, quad), the dog watches all marks fall and then goes out and retrieves each one (in any order).  When you get into multiple marks, the dog’s memory must come into play and it becomes more difficult.

Here is a video from YouTube of a Master series which is pretty typical.  It starts with three marks, (a walk up triple) and then there are 2 blinds.  The rules have been changed so that the handler is supposed to aim at all three marks which I do not see him doing here, but the video is decent to give you an idea of what it looks like.  The dog retrieves the three marks first and then runs the blinds.

If the video doesn’t play, try here.

Third, here is the latest picture of the Thunder and Red puppies.  I understand mama and babies are doing well.  Thanks to Red’s people for this picture.

Puppies At 2 Weeks

Finally, this is a short week for me with the holiday and all, but I do have some posts scheduled.  Tomorrow my Independence Day wish and a bit of fun video, Thursday some long overdue Thank You’s, and Friday training pictures from last Saturday’s training.

Thunder Training

From a distance these may look like real geese, but they are actually decoys.

Thunder Training

It is a good idea to train with decoys because whether the dog is hunting or hunt testing, they will spend a lot of time around decoys.

Hunting Saginaw Bay

Decoys come in all shapes and sizes.

Storm At A Started Test

Sometimes they look like geese.

Storm Training

Sometimes they look like ducks.

Storm Seasoned Test

Whatever the decoys look like, they can cause mischief.

Storm Junior Hunter Test

So it is a good idea to put all kinds of decoys out in different situations so they ignore the dog and more importantly, the dog ignores them.

Storm Training

Decoys can cause particular mischief for young dogs as puppy Glory from Sand Spring Chesapeakes discovered in her first Started Test.

Thunder Training

Thunder had his own experience with a decoy causing mischief when he was running a Junior Hunter test.  Actually he finished his title the previous day, but since we had already entered him, we let him run an extra leg.  The water series was set up so that one of the marks fell behind a strip of weeds in the pond.  There were decoys all around and behind the strip of weeds.  As usual Thunder went charging out and got the duck, but he was taking a long time to come back.  We think one of those mischievous decoys may have got to him behind the weeds.  We can’t be sure but we think he may have been checking out one of the decoys, may have even picked it up, and may have been considering bringing it back instead of the duck.  We will never know because the weeds obscured our view of him.  Eventually he brought the duck.

Thunder Finished Test

Decoys can be terrible mischief makers….

This is a Blog Hop.  Thanks to  Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog, Luna, a Dog’s Life, and My Brown Newfies for setting up this hop.  Please go to any of the sponsoring blogs to find out who else has been mischievous.

Monday Mischief

The first series we ran was a land double.  The younger dogs ran this as singles.

Land Double-Marks Were Thrown As Numbered (#1 then #2) and Picked Up In Reverse Order (#2 then #1)

Storm did an awesome job on this double.  I think she is feeling much better now that her mouth is healed.  Her enthusiasm for training is back and she is holding the bumper much better with no dropping.

Storm Off To The Mark

She’s Got It (Holding The Bumper Much Better)

Thunder also did a good job on this double.  As you can see there is some cover in this field so that was good because we can never find it around here.

Thunder Off To Mark #2

He Has It

He Has Mark #1

Good Boy!

After all the dogs ran the land series, we moved to water.  Darrin set up a water triple.  The younger dogs ran this as a double and a single, or three singles.

Water Triple–Marks Thrown In the Order Numbered (1-2-3) And Picked up In Any Order (Ours Picked Them Up In Reverse Order 3-2-1)

The way the triple was set up, Mark #3 was thrown right at the dog and was sort of a breaking mark, meaning that it might be tough for the dog to stay steady for this one.  Mark #1 required the dogs to exit the pond and pick that one up on land.  It wasn’t always visible depending on where it fell because the land has a sort of hill.

Both Thunder and Storm had trouble with the middle mark (#1).  We do not have this kind of water set up available to us and they kept getting pulled off that middle mark (#1) because they were focusing on the gunner who was throwing both #1 and #3, (you can see him in the next picture).  This series was excellent training for them.

Storm Watching The Marks

Good Girl

Thunder With Mark #3

Thunder Off To Mark #2

Trying To Line Thunder To Mark #1–He Keeps Looking To The Gunner And The Area Of Mark #3

Good Boy!

With so many dogs, it took a while to run this series.  That was OK because it was comfortable and cool to watch all of the dogs work.  After we finished the water triple there was just enough time to run a long single.

Thunder Single Water Mark

The white line shows the desired path.  The dogs had to swim the pond, exit the water, cross a strip of land, then re-enter the pond, swim the next section, exit the water and get the bumper on land.

Thunder did pretty well and got out to the bumper, but some how passed next to it and got too far out on land.  He was handled over to the mark.

Storm Running The Single Water Mark

Storm was a little rusty on this.  She got out to the strip of land, but re-entered the pond at the wrong angle.  She did not correct so was handled to that mark.  We need to get her on long water marks again.  Thanks to Darrin for a great training day!

We hope to train with the group again tomorrow if it isn’t too boiling hot.  This week has been tough for us to get out and train due to temperatures near 100 degrees a couple of days.

Have a nice weekend!

If you are a regular reader you know that we have spent the last few months building Freighter’s enthusiasm to retrieve without correction or pressure.  Now it is time to formalize his retrieving including “fetch” and “hold”.  This will be done through a process called “force-fetching”, “force breaking”, or ” the trained retrieve”.  I imagine some of the positive only trainers reading this are thinking to themselves: “Yikes! How can anything that has force in its name be good for the retriever?”.  Force-fetch may be one of the most misunderstood and under valued training processes by people unfamiliar with retriever training.  So what is force-fetch and why is it important?

Freighter Watching The Mark

Anxious To Go!

Two well known retriever trainers, John and Amy Dalh, authors of the book, “The 10 Minute Retriever“, have described it this way:

Force-fetching is the process of making a dog absolutely reliable in its bird/dummy handling and delivery. It converts retrieving from a matter of play to a matter of obedience. It provides a foundation of confidence for advanced training–no matter how confusing or stressful a situation, the dog knows that going when sent is the right thing to do. This confidence is the basis of greater style and intensity than is possible in any play-retrieve.

Although many owners are uncomfortable applying systematic direct pressure (i.e. pain) to their dogs, it is far more humane to force-fetch, and yields infinitely better results, than to situationally reprimand a dog that lacks the foundation to understand clearly what its trainer desires.

First published in The Retriever Journal, February/March 1998

Source

In other words it is a training process, using some form of compulsion, to make the dog go and pick up an object in its mouth, carry it, and then deliver it to hand.  But if the dog naturally retrieves why the need for force-fetch?

Nice Retrieve Freighter

Oops…Off To Play

A Primer On Force-Breaking is an article written by another retriever trainer author, James B. Spencer.  This is an excellent article that goes over the basics of force-fetching, including what is involved, the reasons to do it, and a brief history.  Spencer writes the reasons for force-fetching are as follows:

Most experienced retriever trainers routinely force-break their dogs for several reasons. First, it insures reliable delivery to hand. The non-force-broken retriever often drops birds rather than delivering them. This is especially aggravating in water work, where the dog drops the bird on the shoreline to shake water from his coat. A force-broken retriever normally won’t drop birds, but even when he does, he’ll pick them up again on the command Fetch.

In multiple marks, reliable delivery to hand improves the dog’s marking by smoothing the between-bird transition. The force-broken dog delivers each bird at heel and then focuses on the next bird to be retrieved. The non-force-broken dog may play various games with the bird, tossing it up, dropping and picking it up, lunging after it and so on. These not only waste time, but they also dim the dog’s memory of the birds remaining to be retrieved.

I have highlighted two reasons that are important to us.  Long time readers to this blog might remember that I mentioned that Thunder did not start formal retriever training until he was almost 17 months old.  This was because we did not know anything about hunt tests.  He was going to be a hunting dog, and as such may not have needed formal force-fetch.  However, once we decided to play the retriever games, I can tell you that he had many of the problems that Spencer writes about in his article.  He would go out and do a very difficult retrieve and then blow it by not bringing the bird directly back to his handler.  Even though he was eventually force-fetched the problems he had early on before force-fetch still rear their ugly heads at tests now and again, ie dropping birds in the water and going around the back of his handler before coming to heel to deliver the bird to hand.  We wish we had done force-fetch when he was younger.  Heck, we wish we knew then what we know now about training.

Duck Not In Thunder’s Mouth

Not every dog playing retriever games is force fetched and I don’t want to suggest that they are, (a majority probably, but not all).  Some people do not feel they need it, which is their choice.  You can google “force fetch” and no doubt read all kinds of horror stories about brutal methods used.  Maybe some trainers use those methods, but the ones (plural) we have known do not.  There are various methods and as any good trainer will tell you, no one method or process will be beneficial to every dog.  I will not lie and say it doesn’t include some discomfort for the dog, but when Freighter is finished with the process, I expect him to be the same happy-go-lucky puppy.  However, he will understand that fetching is his “job”, including holding the bumper all the way back to his handler, coming directly to heel, and delivering to hand.  But force-fetch is much more than fetch and hold.  The things he learns now will provide the base for learning more advanced retriever skills later.  Force-fetch is about introducing the dog to control so that eventually we hope he will retrieve the things we want, in the order we want, and bring them back in the manner we want.

Freighter Watching A Water Mark

Right On His Bumper And Ignoring A Bumper Left In The Water By Another Dog

Good Boy!

Back To Bank Time To Drop The Bumper

And To Play With The Bumper

Some readers have asked how long Freighter will be with the trainer.  Right now he is there for at least a month because that is how long it will take to complete force fetch, (could be longer, could be shorter).  Darrin, our trainer, does his force fetch as a very gradual process.  Many people do their own force fetch, but we would rather have the professional trainer do it because if done incorrectly you can set your training behind when you have to redo parts of it and we really want Freighter to have a solid force-fetch.  Some people do it a bit younger than 7 months; however, Darrin has worked with Freighter since he was small and we left it up to him when he felt that he was mature enough.  We are in no real hurry because we hope Freighter will have a long retrieving career.  In all likelihood Freighter will probably stay longer than a month to get some training beyond force fetch, but we will decide that toward the end of the 30 days.  Of course we miss him, but we plan to be at Darrin’s training this weekend, (provided the weather cooperates), and will hear about his first week. 

It is not always easy to travel with our pets to be sure.  Now that we have three dogs, we have to put more effort in to planning our travels with them.  If at all possible, we prefer to crate our dogs while they are in the car.  In our van we have three crates set up but as you can see there is little room left over for our stuff.  We always seem to have a lot of stuff.  We end up piling it on top of the crates which is not exactly safe for the people.

Thunder And Storm In The Van…Look Close…Freighter Is Toward The Front

We also have crates in the back of the truck.  When it is very hot or very cold, that is not an ideal situation because while the cap on the truck is insulated, it is not meant for extreme weather.

Freighter And Thunder In The Truck At A recent Hunt Test

Often we put a pop-up tent over the truck, but that doesn’t always provide enough shade.

Our Set Up

The other issue with this set up is that we often have to walk away from our dogs and leave them if we are at a hunt test or a dog show.  Sometimes we pad lock the crates, but if someone wanted to mess with the dogs they could get to them.  Believe it or not some people go around to doggie events with the purpose of messing with other people’s dogs.  That is not as much of a problem at hunt tests, but we have been at a dog show when an announcement was made that someone was letting dogs out of crates and to check on your dogs.  Just crazy.

After thinking long and hard, we decided to buy a dog trailer.  For those of you not familiar with dog trailers, they are quite a nice way to transport the dogs.  They are made of stainless and aluminum, well insulated and usually have a built-in fan.  Some even have air conditioning.  They are divided into compartments for the dogs.  I have heard stories of bad accidents where the dogs were OK as long as they stayed in the trailer.  (Of course nothing is full-proof, but they do seem to provide better protection for the dogs than just a crate in a car.)  Many trailers come with water tanks and storage.  Some of the large ones have a place to load an ATV.  Here is one that I drooled over at a test last year.

Nice Rig

Ours will not be as big or as fancy as that rig.  We are only buying a smaller 4 hole trailer which will look something like this one.

4 Hole Trailer

This is not exactly our trailer because we are having some customization done to it.  They are adding three inches to the length since Thunder is such a big dog.  Instead of the storage on top, we are having a “breeze-way” built.  You can see what a breeze-way looks like in the picture of the larger trailer above.  It is a compartment with a door that swings up and will allow air to flow through the trailer and help keep the dogs cool.  I think we are also getting a larger box on the front.  That box holds the battery for the fan, but we wanted a little extra  storage so they are making it a bit bigger.  Ours will have a 20 gallon water tank so we will be able to carry water for the dogs and to rinse them off if needed.

We ordered our trailer back at the end of March from Ainley Kennels.  (If you have a chance check out their site and all of the different kinds of ways they have for transporting dogs.)  It is scheduled to be built and finished by the end of July.  We are very excited to see the finished product.  It has been a long wait since March.