Lining drills and blind retrieves

[TylerS]

Well, as some of you know, Remy and I are gearing up for the NAVHDA Invitational in September. Part of what he needs to do is a bit more in tuned with lab work than pointer work: a 100-yard cross-water blind retrieve, as well as a double-marked retrieve.

I'm not too concerned about the double-marked. Remy has a pretty darn good memory, and I've sent him on multiple triples during duck season. I think it's just a matter of going through the motions a few times until it becomes routine.

The blind, however, has me a tad worried. I can send him on a fetch without a gunshot or a mark no problem, but he gets his wires crossed a bit on the water. I blame this on the Utility Test duck search. If I send him on a blind on water, he has a tendency to cross the entire stretch and start searching the far side. Total product of our training, since this is exactly what I taught him to do for the duck search. Now I'm trying to undo all that work a bit for the blind retrieve.

So how do you get him to kick the urge to search?

At present, I'm just driving him to pile. I also have a flag at the pile as a visual reference. We're still relatively close quarters, but he's going 50 yards cross-water fairly easily.

My plan is to gradually lengthen this distance until I have him going 200+ yards, which is double what he is required to do for the test. At this point, I'll remove the flag and start back at closer distances before gradually stretching him out again.

Does this sound right? Any other tips or tricks from the HRC guys? I actually just joined the local North Dakota Retriever Club, so I'm looking forward to picking those folks' brains. They have really nice training grounds less than 10 miles away, so you can bet I'll be there very, very frequently.

Thanks!

[TylerS]

Well since nobody seems to train for blinds or marked retrieves any more figured I'd give an update.

Remy is "dialed in" on his stead to wing, shot, and fall that we accomplished last year. It took a few training runs to get him solid, but just as fast as everyone said it would after letting him get loose over the hunting season. Once my buddy runs his dog on UT in a couple weeks, I'll have Remy's brace mate available for our early work on backing. Very much looking forward to that. The one positive about this uncommonly cool weather is that the dogs can work for a long time without over heating.

As for blinds, I've backed off from the water for the time being and have concentrated on land retrieves. Super basic right now, despite the fact this is sort of old hat for Remy (we did similar drills during force fetch). I start at 50 yards with a pile of bumpers marked with a flag. After each send, I back up 10 yards while he is racing to the pile. Eventually we stretch it out until he falters on the line. This usually happens around 125+ yards. At that point, I shorten it by 10 yards and rotate 10 yards to the left or right and continue sending him on fresh lines. This seems to be working. I think he's associating the flag with bumpers, so the transition to water should happen naturally (knock on wood).

That's as far as I've gotten so far. I'm not 100 percent sure when I should remove the flag and start ladder drills, or if that's something that happens after I transition to water. Any thoughts?

I did a double-mark on water last weekend with no issues. Remy stayed sitting through both marks and both sets of gunfire. He retrieved both marks as I instructed, and has no problem retrieving either the old mark or new mark first. I've thought about switching to triples just to make it a bit more difficult, but I don't want to be presumptive.