People, dogs and discipline casting!

Well, when you train at a new place, you must be ready for new things. At first glance this new park was a great place to train. It was quiet and big with open flat spaces to lay out a nice double T. In fact, there was a mound for a driving range where I could handle from and Devon could see me easily. It's so cool to look down on a perfect double T drill ... ok, I'm a field nerd.

Devon did a good job with this double T, except for her overs. After two days of blinds, she started coming in on her overs again. This is going to be life-long maintenance. I see double T drills every Monday after tests in Devon's future.

At one point I had sent Devon to the back pile set at 100 yards. Sat her on the back over intersection which was 70 yards out and looked to the right over bucket only to see a man and woman walking hand in hand directly for that over bucket. Huh, guess she was getting a left over instead! I sent her to her left, and she easily took it. The couple realized they were about to walk through my training drill and changed course.

In the meantime, Devon got her bumper and came running back into me, clueless about the two walkers. At least she's focused on me! When I asked her to mark her back pile, Devon sat straight up when she watched these two walk right behind her back pile! She went straight back and never missed a beat.

Next we worked discipline casting. We had to work through some no sits on whistles. This was frustrating, but I learned if I walked out to her and told her she must sit, it fixed the problem.

The next thing she did was refuse to go back with a bumper in her mouth. This was quickly fixed with a collar correction when I sent her back. This correction worked because it's one she understands. After one correction, Devon repeatedly drove straight back without turning around until I whistled.

Finally, the coming in on overs came out again with the discipline casting. I had to walk out and tap on the over buckets to get her to go straight. It was during this time that we had or second distraction session.

I looked up and a woman who had parked near my vehicle rolled out of her car with three dogs and no leashes. She had two medium sized dogs and a small dog. She saw me and I stood near Devon (who had a bumper in her mouth) and watched as the woman did her best to call the dogs in another direction. Once I thought she had them out of range, I left Devon and walked toward the over bucket.

Unfortunately, this is when the youngest of the group saw me and started running to me. I know he wanted to say hello, but I didn't know what he'd do when he saw Devon. I told the woman to call her dog and get him under control. She tried, but he wasn't coming. I headed back to Devon, who was still sitting perfectly with the bumper in her mouth. The dog kept coming and was coming fast. I ran the last few feet to get to Devon first. Thankfully 10 ft. short of Devon, the dog broke off and returned to his owner.

Whew! I was relived. And for some reason I took the bumper out of Devon's mouth. This was a mistake. Devon thought she was released from work, and she took off after the retreating dog. I yelled and she came right back. That bumper went back in her mouth so fast! Lesson learned: when Devon has a bumper in her mouth she's working and she's under command. No bumper, not working!

That little break in action must have given Devon time to think about her overs, because she did them well. I sent her to the back pile one more time, and she did three perfect casts and she was done!

I think the session was a great one for Devon. I learned how to correct her with a couple of different methods, and she respected the corrections and stepped up to the task. I don't use corrections unless I believe she knows her job. On this day she improved her performance, leading me to believe they were the right choices.

I doubt I'll use this park again during the summer. It has too much doggie activity for me even before I set up the drill. I can tell it's a place people let their dogs run, and I'm not comfortable with that. The three off leash dogs invaded the playground area on the other side of the park as I was cleaning up our drill. As much as this woman probably believes she has control of her dogs, she proved to me she really didn't. I'm going to seek out other places to train for a while!

Update on Devon's field training

This week I've given Devon a variety of field drills and blinds. Not only am I really pleased with how she's doing, I am seeing lots of break throughs for both of us. I am starting to see this goal of running Senior tests take shape!

We started the week with a double T in a large field. It went really well, so I threw in some discipline casting only on a back. Unfortunately the stress of something new and the distraction of kids screaming on the nearby playground frazzled Devon a little. She started pulling up short on her back pile, leading me to give her a couple of corrections.

It was also getting very warm, and ultimately I let Devon end with a successful (but not entirely "clean") run to the back pile. I realized she was getting truly hot and there was nothing to be accomplished by beating this issue into the ground. I again go back to the fact that Devon is an honest dog who gives me everything she has each time we train. I just pushed things a little too far on Monday, so I learned and we ended avoiding a no-win battle.

On Wednesday, I changed things up and gave Devon a wagon wheel. I kept the piles tight at only 8 yards apart. Devon did a very good job on the piles she could see. However, there was one pile she couldn't see; because of the cover I could only see the top half of the orange cone which identified it.

Devon sucked right to the pile next to it. However, she stopped when I gave her a whistle. I tried an "angle back" because this situation set up the "split cast" drill Mitch showed us at his seminar. Although I had never done this with Devon, she read it beautifully and turned right to the hidden pile. I tempted fate and sent Devon there a second time. She did the same thing, and she took the same cast correctly. Although it worked, I'm not going to test that one again until I talk with Mitch!

Thursday we had a really great session. I decided to break down the discipline casting on a back pile only. Devon learns best when you break things down for her, and I didn't want her double T and all handling to fall apart because of the discipline casting. I set out a 60 yard back pile and just worked discipline casting back to it. This worked like a charm and she handled it confidently. I threw in a couple of over casts even though there were no buckets, and she also did those well.

I also set up three blinds for Devon in the fields. The first blind was to a large round hay bale that we had used as a blind for marks the previous week. It was set at 60 yards, and Devon lined this blind on the first attempt.

The second blind was at a tree 80 yards away. When I walked up and asked her where her dead bird was, Devon's head flicked right and left but never straight out. Immediately I realized what I did . I set this blind between and behind two large round hay bales. The previous blind and two blinds we ran last week were to large round hay bales. She would have to push in between these two pieces of suction to get the blind. Wow, did I ever set up a challenge!

I knew she was pulling right, but I sent her anyway when she gave me something that wasn't a dead lock on the hay bales. She indeed sucked right immediately. I let her have some momentum, and then blew my sit whistle. She sat. I gave her an over cast, and while she looked confused, she took it.

Once on the correct line, I sat her and gave her a left back ... she turned left, but then sucked right again. We repeated what I just did and I walked up. Once back on the line I gave her a left back ... and she went left over - must be at the other hay bale!

I kept working this, walking closer to her until I was right in front of her for the left back. Finally, even though she didn't really believe it, she took the left back and held the line! Oh happy day! When she found that blind, she was surprised and I was excited!

I tried this blind again, and this time she really fought me to the hay bale. I let her get closer before I gave her the sit whistle, and she blew it off to hunt the hay bale. That earned her a correct of me walking out and firmly insisting using the tab on her collar that she get her butt back to where I told her to sit the first time. She also decided she didn't want to sit after my left over, again earning me walking back out and putting her where she needed to be. This was all the correction she needed, and she pushed back to the blind.

On the third time, we had several whistles, but she did eventually push back to the blind. At this point, I gave her a break, got her some water and worked Page. I then reloaded the blind with 6 bumpers. I wanted to get this one better. We had such success with her learning to push back, but she was still fighting the factors a lot.

After a water break, Devon came out strong. She nailed the blind in two whistles: she pulled right, but sat and took the over cast; then she nailed the left back to the pile. She got great praise and a fun bumper for that one. She repeated it on the next time, and I ended that blind with a success. I wasn't going to get her to line this blind with all the suction to the right, so two whistles and her obeying my casts was good enough!

The third blind proved challenging because of suction again to the right with trees and on the left with a house. I walked up during my handling and we worked through it. Then she lined it the next two times.

Even though these blinds weren't "perfect," I think we both learned a lot. Devon learned to trust me, that I knew where the blind was and she'd get her bumper if she followed my casts. I learned how it felt to give her momentum off the line, but how and when to whistle her and cast her. I also learned how to read the "fairway" and how she really would get the blind if I let her go on it versus trying to make her perfect right now.

This morning, we again revisited the double T. I didn't want her overs to get sloppy with the handling we'd done on the blinds. I think the double T will be a staple in our maintenance plan throughout her career to keep those over casts strong. The cover in the field was getting pretty tall, and I realized as I set the drill the farther left over pile was hard to see and the nearer left over pile would be impossible for her to see until she was almost on it. Devon did an absolutely fantastic job with this double T. She ran it to perfection! She didn't miss a cast or a whistle. It was amazing! And even when she couldn't see the over piles, she took the cast correctly until she saw the piles.

Because Devon did so well, I decided to throw in more discipline casting. I walked up on her to do it, using only the back over pile so it was really a "T" drill. She acted really confused, but she did a great job of obeying my casts. I had to give her a couple of back casts when she wanted to pull up early a few times. She reverted back to her old habit of coming in on the overs, so I had to correct that and identify the over pile for her once. However, all in all I'd say it was a really good job for only her second try at discipline casting. Mitch warned me it would be rough, and it was. But she generally did a really good job.

As I said at the beginning of the post, I'm really pleased with our work this week. I think Devon and I have reached a new level of teamwork. I know I learned so much this week about how factors work on Devon on blinds and how to overcome them. Devon learned that I really do know where those bumpers (or birdies) are, and if she does what I say, she'll get them. Seeing her finally push thru that wall of suction on her left back will be sight I don't think I'll ever forget. It was the picture of success for us this week!

The ups and downs of training

This week has been a great example that there are good days in training and bad days in training. Yes, I'd love every session to be perfect, for everything to go right. I'd walk away always thinking I was a great dog trainer of my brilliant dogs. But, we're human and our dogs aren't perfect, and that's how my week has gone.

The bad...

Let's start with the bad so we can end on a good note. After a brilliant double T on Sunday, I thought I'd take Devon to the same field to do it again on Monday to reinforce her success. It was a good idea, but we didn't have success. They were mowing at the school yard, and I wasn't sure when they would need the field I wanted. I set up anyway, but I felt rushed.

Devon struggled to find her back pile, but we worked through it. Then she started coming straight in on her overs. Overs have been a struggle for us, and I do not know why. To me, it's a simple concept, but for Devon it must be hard. In the past, Devon will be successful to the over pile once or twice, and then in the same training session fail at the over pile on the third try. Why she fails when she's already been there is beyond my understanding.

I tried to work through the over problem, but then they needed to mow the field we were in so I stopped. I took Devon to the pond for fun bumpers and tried to figure out what went wrong.

One bad session for Devon on Monday was followed by a tough track for Page on Tuesday. I laid a TDX track for Page on Tuesday morning. It was about 500 yards long and had a lot of interesting woods work; we ran it at 1 hour and 45 minutes. Now, before you say or think it: yes, I know Page is only 4 months old. However, this pup is tracking advanced work with ease. She is all puppy until you put her to work and then she's all business. What I gave her she's seen before and handled well.

Page didn't start this track very strong. On our first leg, it started raining. Oh well, you have to track in rain, too! We worked through the first woods obstacle, and Page worked hard to find the track. This was surprising as she'd handled woods fine in the past. She tracked through a clearing to a turn, which she really struggled on. Turns in moderate cover are easy for Page, but this one took several minutes to work out. Then it was back into the woods where she really struggled. It was damp and I saw lots of deer tracks. Page wrapped the line around trees all over the place and sometimes twice. All this untangling didn't help her tracking at all.

After we worked through this section of woods, I thought things were on the upswing. She tracked strong on short grass, got a turn before a road crossing and dove into high cover. She tracked great into another set of woods and found the turn pretty easily. Then we hit the wall again.

Page struggled to find the new leg. To make matters worse, I had run low on trail markers and I couldn't find the leg either. I tell people all the time that even if you think the area you are in looks unique, you must mark the track. When you come back things will all look the same. Well, it happened to me.

Page went in a wrong direction, pulling me over some fallen logs then wrapping herself around two trees more than once. After getting her untangled, I was disoriented. I couldn't help her at all, and to make matters worse, we were both soaking wet. I ended up abandoning the track and walking us out back to the van. I never found my end article, so it's somewhere lost in the high cover.

The good...

On Tuesday, I gave Devon a break from handling drills and worked one new sight blind and her permanent blind. Devon lined the permanent blind and was all confidence. On the sight blind, she didn't get it at 85 yards, but when I stepped up to 60 yards she lined it. We did it four more times from different angles and as far as 85 yards. This was a very successful session.

On Wednesday, I went back to a different field and gave Devon a double T that was slightly shorter (100 yards on the back pile and side piles of 20 and 25 yards). I also marked both side piles with buckets. I started the drill as just a T with the more distant over piles, then stepped back to a double T. Unfortunately, Devon's overs got progressively worse.

The "good" about this drill and training session was that we trained through it successfully. When Devon is stressed, she loses her sit on the sit whistle. She'll stop, but she won't sit. An e collar correction for this makes everything worse, so I've decided to use attrition. Unfortunately she was so stressed on Wednesday, that attrition didn't even work. I could have stood there all day and she wasn't going to sit. Instead of collar correcting her, I walked out to where she was and made her sit by touching her collar, then walked back to my position.

This walking out to her was actually what solved a lot of my problems. It made me realize that when she failed on the overs, I was calling her into me - reinforcing her coming in which I didn't want. Once I realized this, if she came into me on the overs, I told her no, stopped her, then walked out and put her back to where she was when she made the mistake. I then identified the over pile for her or later didn't go as far back out. She was successful to the over pile with this "correction" of just replacing her and trying again.

After several successful fixes, I put Devon back in the van to rest and get a drink. I took Page out and for the first time threw some marks for her. I kept her on a line, and after "trieving" (or keeping) the first couple of marks, she began to "retrieve" the marks back to me. Instead of taking the bumper right away, I petted and praised her with the bumper in her mouth. Page could tell she was very brilliant!

Then I reloaded the T drill and brought Devon back out for more work. This was risky; would she be too tired to work? Would she just shut down when asked to do another session? Once Devon had time to cool off and think, she was very successful. On her second session, not only did she nail her over piles, but she was nailing her whistle sits, too! This told me right away things were going much better! I'm so glad I backed up and started "teaching" her again.

On Wednesday Page also had some fun on a motivational track. I gave her a 400 yard track with five turns in high cover. It was aged 35 minutes. High cover is tracking heaven for Page, and she had a great time with this track. Below is the track from just after the start to the 4th turn where she gets the line knotted around some very high cover.

Lessons learned...

For Devon, this has been a very beneficial week of field drills. I've learned to read her extreme stress signs of not sitting; and I've seen that no sit go away when she's learning. I learned Devon coming in on the overs may be something I reinforced when I called her in instead of going out and fixing it in the field. And I learned how to work through these problems to a positive end.

For Page, I learned that there are things that stump her. I learned she needs more work on woods. I also learned I need to support her more and be ready when things are too hard for her. I also need more trail markers so I know where I'm going!!!

For me, I was reminded that a good week of training doesn't always mean each session was good. It does mean that my dogs and I learned something from each session.

Field set up for Devon

Today was heaven and hell for Devon. Her heaven was she got to go get ducks. Her hell was her handler doing a less than stellar job of helping her out. The last time this dog ran marks was probably the WCX test in October. That didn't occur to me until after we'd run the set up the first time.

As usual Steve and I set up marks that were harder than we expected. I can't tell you how long these marks were, but I'm guessing the "go" bird was at least 100 yards away. The fall was on the face of a hill, but the dog had to charge through a section of heavy cover, then charge up the hill once they cleared the cover. All the dogs thought the bird was closer to the cover than it was, and they had problems getting up on the face of the hill. The second mark was probably 70-80 yards out. Most of the run was in short cover with the bird landing in heavy cover, forcing the dogs to charge into the cover.

It would have helped if I had run this as two singles, then put them together as doubles. Nope, I ran Devon cold on a double. Bless her for hunting up both birds. She never gave up, although she buzzed the gunners stations to say hello to Steve and Janet a couple of times. I'm sure in her nicest way she was asking for a hint because her mother was such an idiot!

I remembered to set up a sight blind for her to run after the marks. I set the blind in heavy cover to the right of the second mark. I knew it was long, but it looked straight forward to me. Boy, was I wrong!

I didn't take into account the blind was less than 45 degrees off the line of the second mark. Devon wanted to mark the second fall instead of the blind. I finally got her to settle in and mark the blind, so I sent her. She got halfway out and pulled left toward the mark. She responded to my whistle to sit. I started to do a right over, but she popped and took off to the mark area. I blew another sit whistle, but it didn't matter.

I called her in and she ignored that too. I hated to do it since the whole thing was really my fault, but I knew she wouldn't come in without a collar nic. I blew the come whistle and nic'ed her and in she came. Good girl!

This time I walked up on the blind about halfway to diminish the influence of the mark. It worked. Devon settled in and lined the blind. Later I walked it off and once I walked up on it, it was a 50 yard blind. I'm thinking it was at least 70 yards from my initial line.

The second time I ran the set up, I did it as two singles, then a double. This helped Devon's marking. I also didn't ask her for the long blind, but again walked up to where she was successful the last time. She lined it again.

I asked Devon to honor several times, and she did a fine job. She watches the marks and occasionally flinches with the dog is sent, but she isn't even thinking about breaking for the bird.

Devon did a great job today, in spite of her handler. I really do think she'll be successful in senior even with her handicap of a green handler. It's a good thing she's a really great dog!

More on Devon's field training

On Wednesday, we had a good field session with a permanent blind and a sight blind with factors. I've done this permanent blind about 7-8 times starting last fall when I first taught it to her. But it's been the two times this spring that we've done it when I felt like Devon actually understood the concept.

After she did the permanent blind, I turned her 90 degrees and asked for a sight blind. I used a black stick in the ground fence post with bright pink streamers hanging 8-10 inches at the top. I put the post in front of a tree and put two orange and two white bumpers under it. 

The sight blind was about 65 yards away from us when I sat Devon and asked her "Where?" She had to go through knee high cover, then an open dirt patch and then back into cover before she found her bumpers. Devon seemed to lock right away, so I sent her. Much to my complete shock, she lined it! I was thrilled!

I decided to repeat it, and this time she surprised me, too, but not in a good way. She locked, she sent, she ran her line; but as soon as she got to the dirt patch, she got distracted and went to the left sniffing. I blew a sit whistle and she blew me off! I yelled at her to sit, and she still ignored me. So I walked toward her and she started eating something. I'm sure she was distracted by cat or raccoon scent and/or poop.

When I reached her (and she hadn't heard me coming), I grabbed her collar and told her to sit. Boy did that ever shock her! Me coming to get her and getting a hand on her and making her sit was more than enough correction for her to know she was in deep, deep trouble! 

At this point you might be wondering why I didn't give her a collar nick. That would have been an affective and warranted correction. However, the collar battery was dead. I realized it when I put it on her at the beginning of the session. 

From the point of correction, I had her sit and then gave her a right back to the blind. She did a nice job and got her bumper. We went back to my original point, and I ran it two more times. The next time Devon took a few steps to the right (opposite) of her point of correction and the last time she ran it straight. I would still call it a great session even with the correction.

Today we did another three in a row drill. I used the blind posts instead of buckets. The posts were 25 yards apart. I was about 30 yards from the first post and 65 yards from the farthest post on the angle. 

From the left, Devon does this drill very well. However, from the right we had to battle suction on the middle post. She sucked in twice before I started walking up. She sucked in two more times before she was successful, which was almost 30 yards closer to the post. Once she got it, I backed up halfway then all the way back to my original spot. Once at my original spot, she was able to go between the middle and farthest post just fine.

Although this problem was frustrating, I have to say she is far better on this drill than in the past. Before when she's struggled I've had to walk up and I've not been able to get all the way back to my original line. I really see such great improvement in her skills. That success combined with yesterday's success at lining in the water and for a bird on a blind, I can see we're getting closer to that goal of an SH after her name!

Now I know why she was so quiet!

Remember when I posted yesterday and said Page was mellow before her woods walk? I was surprised by this but attributed it to me waking her in the middle of a nap. She was also more subdued on her woods walk than I anticipated. Well, I finally figured out the reason yesterday afternoon. She has a bladder infection.

Deep down I knew it the day before. She was just pottying way too often. But by yesterday she really felt crappy. Devon went through this, too, but it was at a slightly older age; and Ian also went through it at 9 weeks. The next time I get a puppy, I'm just going to get the antibiotics at the first vet check!

Of course, I'm really lucky my uncle is our vet. I called him, and he called in a prescription at my local pharmacy. An hour later I went to pick it up. I gave the pharmacist my name, and she searched all over for it. She asked what it was, and I said pediatric amoxicillin. Then she said, "Oh! For the dog! I had it under Page." Now why didn't I think of that?

Even with just one dose at dinner, I noticed a difference last night. She was just feeling better. And she was also better with the older dogs, even though she tried! Devon gave her two good corrections when Page jumped on Devon's head. And Connor got a bone and laid down to chew it near her. When she got up to check it out, he growled. She sat back and considered. After that, all he had to do was flick his lip at her, and she'd get really respectful. Ian continued to watch from a distance, but he did approach her and sniff her a couple of times.

I also had the house leash on Page attached to me while she played. The little stinker figured out who was controlling her! She walked up close to me, grabbed the end of the leash attached to me and started tugging to get her freedom. What a little stink pot! And of course all the toys and bones in the room were piled within her reach!

The other really funny thing she did last night was air scent my dinner. I was walking with the plate from the kitchen to the dining room and she was standing there kicking up her nose following my plate! I suddenly had a vision of her mother Bizzy standing in my kitchen! I was only around Bizzy for two days, but we all knew how Bizzy loved food!

And speaking of Bizzy, I have to post this "free puppy ad" her mom Donna created when Bizzy was a puppy. Gambler is Donna's older Toller, and he really didn't like Bizzy's abuse. Devon would have told him to correct her, but apparently he was too nice. Donna reports he hasn't been as forgiving with future puppies! Bizzy wore him down!

Field drills are coming together!

I'm glad I challenged myself to give Devon a variety of field drills and not to repeat any drills two sessions in a row. This was a fun challenge, and I think it's helped her training. I know it's made me review my resource materials!

Yesterday, I went back to working "overs," but this time I isolated them and only worked "overs." I set two piles on either side of a tree, with both piles being 30 yards from the tree. I brought Devon out and sat her in front of the tree, and I walked back 15 yards. I identified the left pile, then sent her to it. She did great. I did the same with the right pile and we had another success. 

I sent her to each a couple of more times, then started to add a little distance away from her. She broke down and came right into me instead of going to her right over pile. I still don't understand after going to that pile three times how she could suddenly get confused. However, since she cannot verbalize her thought process, I decided not to even dwell on it and just fix the problem. I re-identified the pile and she was successful.

For the next 20 minutes I worked on getting farther back from her and still having her be successful on the over piles. It was nice she figured out her tree spot, because I was able to send her to the tree on a back and then sit her in front of the tree. 

The right over is clearly harder for her. She wanted to bow into me a lot, and one time I had to call her back in three times in a row because she continued to bow into me. However, we were able to work through it without her shutting down or me getting frustrated (I'm fully aware one leads to another). We ended with her being successful on both over piles with me 30 yards back from the over line. I was very pleased!

This morning, I got up early to race the rainy, stormy weather coming in to put in a track and do a field drill. This time I repeated the Three in a Row drill, but I used stakes with streamers on them instead of white buckets. I was curious if the moving ribbons on the stakes would bother Devon. I also did the drill in a different location than the last time.

Devon did fantastic when I sent her to each pile the first time. The streamers never bothered her; in fact I think she liked the new posts. She struggled only a little when she was working on the left side of the line and only got sucked into the middle bucket twice. However, when we were working the right side of the line, she really struggled with the middle pile sucking her in.

Once again I kept my frustration in check and we just worked through the drill. Devon showed some avoidance behavior by wanting to mark my discard pile and then got distracted by ducks quacking in the area when she failed three times in a row. After a couple of incidents of this, I took the tab on her collar and heeled her forward a few steps. She hates me grabbing her collar like this, and it was enough of a figurative "kick in the pants" to get her attention. She focused in and worked the drill, finally working to success!

Devon only really struggles with the suction of the middle pile when she's running this drill from the right. I finally found if I over compensate slightly to the left of the blind line, she was successful and didn't bend in to the middle pile. At first I thought I wasn't lining her up correctly, but I could clearly see she was bending the line to cut into the middle pile. 

I think these observations I'm learning are the teamwork we'll need when running tests. If I know there will be suction in a certain direction, I might want to line her up to the left of the line knowing she'll curve in slightly. The same is true of the over drill I did on Saturday. I learned to read her head to tell me when she was only bowing in slightly but would commit to the over and when she was coming into me too much and won't go to the pile. 

Going forward I'm going to focus on learning to read her versus trying to make her perfect to the drill. In clicker training, you move forward with an 80% correct behavior rate. It's interesting how we tend to want the dog to be perfect. However, most of the times the best lessons are learned when we aren't perfect. And my goal is for Devon and I to learn lessons that lead to more success in practical application!

Work ethic

Devon and I have done three sessions of field training this week. I decided to reviewing our lining drills to give Devon some variety in her training sessions. I also decided I didn't want to do the same drill 2 days in a row, again for variety. I'm using drills in the Gamekeepers Retrievers Transition Manual, since we train with Mitch White, as well as drills collected in Carol Cassity's Building A Retriever book. Carol's book is extra fun because it has Bizzy's littermate Blitz on the front and photos of him and Bizzy inside.

Tuesday we just beat out the rain and did a wagon wheel. A wagon wheel is a lining drill where you stand in the middle of a circle and there are small piles of bumpers around you at the end of "spokes" on a wheel. You're trying to get the dog to go straight away from you to each pile of bumpers without going to the pile of her choice. This is a drill that helps with going straight for blinds.

We only did "half" a wagon wheel with only five small piles.  They ranged in distance from about 25 yards to 50 yards. We were on a soccer field, so Devon could easily see the bumpers. She struggled a little with this drill since it's probably been last fall when we did it. She got the hang of it and did great after the first 3-4 bumpers. She picked up 20 bumpers in all (four at each station).

This morning, we threw bumpers with Beth and her dogs Reba and Denver. We set up two nice advanced singles for Reba, who has two legs on her JH, and shortened them up for Denver who is still a 1-year-old puppy in training. Both of her dogs returned to heel and held the bumpers like pros!

The singles transitioned nicely into a double for Devon. She wanted to focus in on Beth instead of her memory mark, but she turned and nailed her double and held steady until I sent her. We repeated it and she did even better, jumping some ruts she stepped through earlier. I liked seeing this drive.

Then I remembered I was supposed to do a blind after throwing marks, so I put Devon back into the van and set up a blind. I tried a walk up for the double and Devon did really well. I probably should have warned my gunner what I was going to do, though! The blind didn't go as well. Devon went out well, but curved to the right with the pressure of the hill. Once she winded the bumper she would handle and she forgot her sit. It was ugly but she got them. I think I'm going to do a sight blind next time.

This afternoon, I set up a Three In a Row drill in my side yard.  This is three buckets in a line and I put about 15 yards between them. Then you stand at angles to the buckets and send the dog to each one. This teaches a dog to hold the straight line as the go past "suction" or something that would draw in their attention. When they are sending to the middle or far bucket, they have to go past other buckets with bumpers.

Devon was eager to go outside, but she instantly found something to eat on the ground. I think it was the remains of a bird's nest, and I couldn't call her off of it. She had her collar on and I gave her a correction for not coming which she ignored. I checked the collar and it was indeed on. This was shades of things to come.

Devon worked the drill and was successful given the difficulty. She had some failed attempts, and when she was wrong, I gave her a verbal, "No, no" and called her back to me. She was slow to respond to coming back to me because she was wrong. We moved to the opposite angle, and this side was harder for Devon. She worked through it but was wrong twice in a row. I called her in and she didn't want to come. She finally stopped and stared off into space and just stood there ignoring me and my commands.

Many people would have said I should have made things easier for Devon. Many people would have said Devon was stressed and I was being too hard on her. But even you're clicker training, the best say when they stall out, don't make things easier; make them think. Devon knows to come when called. She knows absolutely to come when called in field where it could save her life. I have never and would never call her to me to punish her. I have also never punished her for making a mistake when she didn't understand. 

When she ignored my repeated commands to come and stared off into space, I gave her a collar correction. It was a fair correction for a known behavior. It was what most field pros would consider too mild of a correction. I don't "fry" my dog; I will correct her for ignoring a known command. The correction I gave Devon today was milder than an Invisible Fence collar correction. The correction worked. Devon not only came back to me, but she stopped fidgeting in heel position; she got down to business and marked her line on the first request; she cantered to and from the piles; and when she made a mistake, she never shut down again.

Mitch calls this reminding them of work ethic. Sometimes you fuss with a dog and work with them and the performance continues to spiral downward. The mild correction I gave Devon at the start of the session was so mild, she ignored it. It actually didn't do any good and allowed her to continue her poor work ethic. But all it took was one real, fair correction, and I got her attention and she realized she needed to step up. 

I compare what happened today with Devon to something that will occasionally happen in the workplace. Sometimes you know you aren't working up to your full potential. If someone nags you, you brush them off and continue on your way. However, one stern remark from the boss, and you kick it into overdrive and you get the job done with style. 

Devon just needed a little reminder today that she needed to get the job done. Once she was reminded, she stepped up and did it in style! Knowing Devon, we won't have this problem again for a long time.