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  1. #1
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Still a struggle

    We shot fliers yesterday and she failed. That's OK. Coming to the line I gave her a solid SIT. She took a proper position at heel... but saw the gunner and began losing it. Jumped forward maybe 6 to 7" and I heeled her off line and back to the truck. Ran a blind with her later and she lined past the flier station and tons of scent, which was good. So in conclusion... we gotta go slow and demand 100% in training.

    Meanwhile, doing the dinner drill... I totally want her in proper heel position

    -dinner-drill-jpg

    And she is still slow to do it (assume the position I want.) I think the drill has some value, but maybe because she knows she will eventually get the food, she thinks dancing around before being sent is part of the game. (I won't deny her food. It is dinner time, after all.)

    Meanwhile, she has to be in proper position for everything she wants. Going in and out the door, going to the truck, getting in the truck... absolutely everything.

    She was doing well, but I had to take a week off to go help my mother through some minor surgery. There seems to have been major slippage in my absence.

  2. #2
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    Tu Mick's I admire your tenacity and consistence. I wish I had more self-discipline with my lot. M and are Huggie are from the same lines but you would never no it. M is much like are RD in in her build. She weighs about 62 LBs and is slight in build. Huggie on the other hand is built like my very first dog, sort of like a Sherman tank. I ran them in a trail this week end. M is qual and Huggie in junior (derby). M came to the line cool and calm and did not offer to dance about and was steady as a rock. Guess the short breaking stuff paid off. Huggie on the other hand would forge to the line and get ahead of the mat. When I would say heel she would jump in the air and swing her butt into the heel position. The judges got quite as kick out of this stocky little beast putting on a performance. Guess which one came home with a ribbon.

  3. #3
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    Just read my post over and there are some dandy typos and grammar mistakes. My excuse is I'm beat. Will get some rest and then describe the tests. They were dandies.

  4. The Following User Says Thank You to Anna Scott For This Useful Post:

    Scoutpout (08-21-2016)

  5. #4
    Senior Dog Scoutpout's Avatar
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    was this the HRC down puslinch way? wanted to get over there today to watch after Scout's training this morning, but i had some stuff to take care of at the office bah humbug.
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  6. #5
    Senior Dog Labradorks's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TuMicks View Post
    We shot fliers yesterday and she failed. That's OK. Coming to the line I gave her a solid SIT. She took a proper position at heel... but saw the gunner and began losing it. Jumped forward maybe 6 to 7" and I heeled her off line and back to the truck. Ran a blind with her later and she lined past the flier station and tons of scent, which was good. So in conclusion... we gotta go slow and demand 100% in training.

    Meanwhile, doing the dinner drill... I totally want her in proper heel position

    -dinner-drill-jpg

    And she is still slow to do it (assume the position I want.) I think the drill has some value, but maybe because she knows she will eventually get the food, she thinks dancing around before being sent is part of the game. (I won't deny her food. It is dinner time, after all.)

    Meanwhile, she has to be in proper position for everything she wants. Going in and out the door, going to the truck, getting in the truck... absolutely everything.

    She was doing well, but I had to take a week off to go help my mother through some minor surgery. There seems to have been major slippage in my absence.
    Have you thought about using a placebox for her? If you add a lot of value to the position you want, it may help. If all value is "out there" and no value is in heel position, you'll have a lot of conflict. The box makes things easy at first and gives the dogs some muscle memory. You have to use it for a while, not a day or a week, etc. but consistently. Because I know my dog won't have a straight front in obedience, I don't even ask for a front if I don't have the box. If I had him sit crooked and fix it, it becomes part of the exercise, like you are saying the dancing around is part of the game. And that will be hard to fix. Of course, you cannot carry around a placebox with you everywhere, but it can help with drills. I use one, mostly for position in obedience, but have used the platform for field work. And yes, I agree, 100% in training. Always. I was told by a great obedience trainer/competitor once that you'll get about 80% in competition that you get in training. Why? Because of stress, your stress, the dog's stress, distractions, etc. So, if you are really asking for 80% in training, you are getting 60% in competition. Strive for 100% in training and that 80% in competition will be pretty good! I actually write out every exercise and the criteria I expect. Speed, attitude, everything and that is what I strive for every single time. If I don't get it, I break down the exercise and perfect each piece independently. Sometimes I just break out one part and work in it (like the front).

  7. #6
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Thanks all. I think I see your point Labradorks. The "mat", an integral part of FT and sometimes used in HT's, is very much disparaged in my training group because it isn't used in the hunting situations my pro and fellow group members apply in their hunting. But I have several squares of rubber mat (12" x 12") that I think I can use at home with various drills. After all... what I do in my drills at home is just about RD and me... how we communicate. We have no further HT's this year (I decided against Sage Hens) and won't do anything until mid-late February at the earliest. So that gives us quite a while to get our lines of kinetic communication cleared up.

    Oh, Anna! I can totally visualize the pirouettes your dog is doing on line. Now you and I just need to get our dogs to do the pas de deux with us, instead. Oui?

  8. #7
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    Scoutpout, this was the field trail at North Bay. Junior HT and junior (derby field trials are different.
    TuMicks the mat is something we use in our training, even for the HT stuff. Huggie knows where she is supposed to be positioned, hence the pirouettes. FT don't seem to put the emphasis on the line control that HT do, at least in junior (derby) and qual. I watched and listened to one pro that had quite a battle getting a youngster to line up. A friend had a dog that always beat him to the line but was a field trial champion. We will continue to work with Huggie so that her eagerness to identify the gun stations doesn't become a huge problem. She is not really built for the FT game. Much too short and stocky so will be running more HT where the control is necessary.

  9. #8
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    I have not pulled out my mats from under debris in the garage. I will be cleaning the garage out after Labor Day. Meanwhile, thinking about my experience at Hills Ferry with her surging... I thought about the blind drills we'd done in the past. She should heel with me like a lady as we go to and from the blind. Well, obviously she didn't. So thinking again about obedience (per Labradorks!) I started trying to insist upon the Pas de Deux. We went to the park at 0700 while it was cool, and just did heeling with emphasis on proper heel position and auto-sits combined with pivoting into her and away. If she surged, we heeled away from the bumper and tried to pivot (into her or away from her) again. If she surged, we did more heeling with auto sits. When she behaved with her proper position and auto-sits, we tried to address the bumper again with pivoting toward it and so on. After an hour of this (it's great to have a dog so motivated she will do this!) we looked more like a pair of ballerinas.

    As an aside... you all know RD does not like other dogs. One little yappie dog ran up to her while we were doing this and she was so focused on me she forgot to get bowed up at the dog even though he was snorting and barking at her.

    Nothing is fixed. It's just an exercise we can easily do over the winter and until I find my mats.

    -pas-de-deux-drill-jpg

    Nobody in my training group does drills outside of field work and they would deride me for it. But they don't have Rocket Dog and... why not try to teach her control outside of the excitement of field work and then try to get similar compliance with all the distraction and excitement of birds and guns? What do I lose?

  10. #9
    Best Friend Retriever LucyTudeOn4Feet's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TuMicks View Post
    ... but maybe because she knows she will eventually get the food, she thinks dancing around before being sent is part of the game. (I won't deny her food. It is dinner time, after all.)
    ...
    You wouldn't have to deny her dinner, but postpone it a few minutes - long enough to "put her up", let her forget about it, and then try again? 10-15-20 minutes or so?

  11. #10
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LucyTudeOn4Feet View Post
    You wouldn't have to deny her dinner, but postpone it a few minutes - long enough to "put her up", let her forget about it, and then try again? 10-15-20 minutes or so?
    I'll give it a try tonight. We did a "holding blind" type thing with her breakfast. She had to heel with me from behind a bunch of lawn furniture and stay in position before she could go to her bowl. This is at 0615. I'd had a migraine the night before and was groggy and dizzy. I almost fell on her. (Somewhat of an exaggeration...) but if she can heel with me when I'm staggering...

 



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