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Thread: water entries

  1. #1
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    water entries

    I am wondering how many train their master dogs for a longer water entry. CKC rules say that the water entry can be 15ft back from the shore. On the weekend we set the line for the master blind about 10 ft back. It was an corner angle entry on a straight diagonal across the pond. I was very surprised at the number of dogs that had difficulty with this. Some balked at the waters edge, others went left or right on the shore line and were pulled way off line. How far back do most people run their dogs from? Are AKC master test run right from the shoreline?
    I tried the blind with M and she had no problems getting into the water on line, was pushed by the wind a little but did the blind in 2 whistles. We start long water entries as soon as we start water marks.

  2. #2
    Senior Dog IRISHWISTLER's Avatar
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    I routinely send me retrievers back across 100 feet of land before they make entry to the water. I also make them bring the bird all the way back across land upon exit from the water upon returning of a retrieved bird.


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  3. #3
    Senior Dog TuMicks's Avatar
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    Agree with IW. I think we do water force much like I've seen on training videos like Total Retriever Training. By the end of the first 3 days of it or so, we're sending them in from... yeah, I think maybe 100 to 120 feet. And when we're doing water marks we only set the line near the water's edge if there is no other way (we've had limited water and have taken whatever setting we could get.) And our blinds are always way back from entry and exit from the water.

    But here is what I think we DON'T do enough of. I've worried that we tend to throw our marks such that they land really near the water's edge. I am not sure why we do it this way. Maybe it has to do with how far we have to lug the ducks and other apparatus. Maybe it has to do with the fact that we are often working on one "money bird" and we make the distraction marks easier for the dogs and ourselves.

    But absolutely... a Master dog should go on the line they're sent and not cheat the water.

    I know that a lot of judges will set up a test that causes the cheaters to suck into a switch. (Like an attractive flier on the land near the shore, with the wind blowing across the flier toward the water, then a long angle entry that requires a swim that parallels that shore. This poses an almost irresistible temptation to flare and return to the flier pronto.) I've been at a SENIOR test where the judge's scenario was that the shore-line was used by white bucket fishermen and there might be broken glass up there, so a dog that cheated the shore might get their paw cut (not to mention DQ'd.)

    So, what you're describing is basic nuts and bolts IMO.

 



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