Training Day Post

Date: 1/19/13
Weather: 45 F, Wind NW 15-20 MPH, Sunny
Training: Strider – 4 singles, blank shots fired by gunner and handler
     Fowler – Same


    I met up with Rhett in the field that his uncle most generously lets us use when the winter wheat is planted for a morning of training. We've been making it a weekly thing, trying to work the dogs on Saturdays and Sundays to get them ready for the upcoming hunt test season. Hunting season is almost over here in Delaware, and we need something to hold on to for the long seven months until it starts up again. Enter the hunt tests.

    For those of you who don't know, hunt tests are just what they sound like. They are a simulated hunting scenario on which the dog and handler are given a pass or fail, depending on how they perform. The tests are broken down into three categories: Junior, Senior and Master. Four passes at the Junior level earns you a Junior Hunter title which goes on the end of the dog's AKC registered name as JH, and same for Senior (SH) and Master (MH) as long as you have the previous title. If you jump straight to Senior or Master without a Junior title, it then requires five passes instead of four to get them.

    One of the things I love about hunt tests is that they are all broken down into two separate categories: land and water. You must pass both in order to get an overall pass toward whichever title that you're going for. People often think that waterfowl hunters are limited only to hunting on the water (we are, after all, hunting WATERfowl), but there are several occasions when we will hunt in fields, and I really like the idea of testing the dogs on all of their needed abilities to be a good hunter.

    We recently got ourselves some blank shotgun shell poppers to use in training. We may be training for hunt tests, but at the end of the day they're hunting dogs and they need to be trained with gun fire. Strider has been a little jumpy when we've been hunting lately, so he was in desperate need of some discipline at the line. It doesn't take the dogs long to realize that the boss has both hands on the gun and not on their collars or the e-collar transmitter to give them a zap, and they're excitement often gets the better of them, causing them to break . If you don't keep up with their gun training, they will completely fall apart in the field.

     I'm a firm believer in the handler shooting blank shots at the marks in addition the gunners shooting. Create as much excitement as you can for the dogs in training so that a normal hunting scenario won't be as crazy for them, and they will (in theory) behave better when it counts. I once hunted over a Field Champion (which are the best of the best when it comes to retriever games) who wouldn't be steady to the shot if his life depended on it. As soon as we reared up to shoot, that dog was gone. Field Trial handlers don't have a gun at the line and don't usually train for it, and the dog knows that all of the handler's attention is on him. If he breaks, he knows that the handler can stop him and that there will be a consequence.

    We concentrated the day on staying steady, so we set up four singles that were pretty easy. Our main concerns weren't to challenge the dogs with a difficult test, we just wanted to make sure that their rear-ends were glued to the ground while the guns were going off. The test had the handler blow a duck call, then the gunner would answer with a duck call, throw the bumper and fire a shot. In a regular hunt test, that's the way that the order goes and the dog is then sent at the judge's signal. We added an extra shot from the handler immediately after the gunner's shot. This adds to the distraction and excitement of the test, and forces the dog to concentrate on his obedience rather than just the mark. The best dogs' line discipline have been drilled into them to the point that they don't even think about it. It's just part of the routine. Strider and Fowler aren't there yet, so I wanted to create a scenario that forced them to think through it.

    Fowler went first and did about what would be expected of a young dog with limited exposure to such things. He didn't outright break, but his rump would hover off the ground after Rhett fired his shot. Simple solution of making him sit before sending him had the dog rock steady by the time we got to the last two retrieves. Rhett has worked very hard with limited time with his dog, and it shows with the amount of progress that Fowler has made in the time that Strider and I have been training with them. He made very nice marks at ever increasing distances and made smooth deliveries to hand.

    Strider came RIPPING out of the kennel when I opened it; just a big black blur damn near barreling me over. He had been sitting in the back of the truck with all those duck calls and gunshots going off, and to say that he was ready to go would be quite an understatement. I eventually corralled him back to me and got him to sit, much to his verbal objections. With his e-collar strapped on, gun loaded and Rhett out in the field with the bumpers, we were ready to work. I half expected him to do terribly because he was so fired up, but much to my surprise after I fired my shot, I looked to see him in the exact same position that I walked him to. He wasn't shaking with anticipation, he wasn't whining; he was as alert and full of a calm intensity as I've ever seen him. I made him sit for a few seconds in order to simulate a hunt test judge waiting to make the call for him to go. He took off and nailed the first mark without an issue. His second went the same way and I couldn't have been happier with him. When I turned him for the third mark, he crept in front of me a little bit, but immediately corrected himself without a word from me. He stayed steady through the shot, but on his way out to the mark veered to the right a little bit. Rhett told me later that there was a snow goose feather out in the field that took his attention away from the mark, and that's what he was going for. Mark four went just as smoothly as the rest, and now it was time for the dogs to go through another steadying drill.

    We do this drill every week, and it's very simple but extremely effective. The dogs sit next to us and we're about ten yards apart from each other. One of us will throw a bumper out in front of them and fire off a shot. If one of the dogs so much as lifts his backside off of the ground while the other stays steady, then the steady dog gets the retrieve. If they both stay steady, then the dog whose handler threw the bumper gets the retrieve. If neither are steady, then we walk out and pick the bumper and then try again. In our case, it's usually Fowler that creeps up a little bit, and that's to be expected from a one year old. It only takes one retrieve from Strider in front of him (the indignity!) to make him rock steady the next time a shot is fired. I can tell you that dogs don't like being the one that has to stay, but Fowler takes it to a whole new level of objection. Listening to him, you'd think that somebody was breaking into his house with the way he carries on. I actually think that if Rhett didn't have a firm hold of the dog, he'd run out there and tackle Strider before he got to the bumper. But, this is what we have to do to get them ready, as at the Senior and Master test levels, the dog must honor another dog as a part of the test. If the dog moves while another dog is working, he fails. Fowler will get the idea with repetition, but it's not something that's solved overnight. He's a smart dude; I'm not worried about him.

    It was a good day of training and I felt like we really got something out of it for both dogs. Fowler made progress in his steadiness to the shot, and Strider did very well and was able to receive a lot of praise from me. I could tell that he was really enjoying himself, and that's why I love doing these things with him.

    Until next time, give extra scratches behind the ears and happy training!!