with a find of a dead bird. Choosing their
own initial line will not produce a find for them! Once properly
schooled, move to other areas on the pond and run this drill.
Our goal is to do this as a cold blind drill in a virgin area.
It will be quit obvious when your spaniel begins to understand
this training technique. They will look for different objects
in the landscape to swim towards. This is where your queue of
no and good will pay off. This drill will help your spaniel to
taking the proper initial line and focus on an object in the
landscape to swim towards while taking the initial line.
Our next advanced training technique will be the "re-entry."
This would occur when we have to send our spaniel through water
up onto land and back again into another body of water for a
blind bird. Choose your area carefully. We will need a body of
water that will have a peninsula in the middle of it. However
we also must have the ability to get out onto the peninsula should
we need to during the training session of this drill.
Choose a starting point of the line so that the line will cross
close to the center of the peninsula. This will help to keep
our spaniel honest when they reach the land segment of this lining
drill. Should you set the initial line to close to the end of
the peninsula? They could attempt to scallop around the end of
land |
and not get out of the water. The other extreme can
happen should you be to close to the inner section of the peninsula.
This can cause the spaniel to get out onto land and tempt them
to bank run the last water section of this lining drill. We want
to keep this drill as simple and clear as possible. The peninsula
should not be protruding so high out of the water that you cannot
see the water on the opposite side.
For this technique we will use the floating blind concept.
With you spaniel tucked away where they cannot see you set up
this drill, toss a few white dummies out fifteen yards into the
second water pond from the furthest bank on the pen
|
insula from the starting point. You should
be able to see the white floating dummy at your spaniel eye-level.
Make sure you do get down to there level of view and can see
those dummies!
Retrieve your dog to the starting point. Once he locks onto the
floating blind, go through your sequence and send him for the
retrieve. Now the first part of the line out to the land should
go fairly easy if all has been taught properly. Once your spaniel
gets up onto the land, be ready to stop him if he loses the initial
line. Some will automatically think that this piece of land is
the find area and start to seek out a bird to retrieve. Others
will stay focused and carry their line on into the next body
of water and make the floating dummy retrieve. To those dogs
that stay honest for the first time you run this drill, "Hurray"
- and let them make the find and retrieve. However you are not
out of the woods yet! The time will come when the land will be
more intriguing than the floating dummy so stay ready!
For those of us that lose our dog to this land area, hit the
hup whistle the second you determine that your spaniel has lost
the line or is "going" to look for a retrieve on this
land area! Once they are hupped, cast them with a loud and hard
"BACK" command. This should cause them to fly back
into the water making the dummy retrieve. However you may get
a cast refusal and you spaniel will remain sitting there not
willing to cast. Should this occur, keep him hupped and walk
around the land and out onto the peninsula getting, in front
of you spaniel. Repeat the "BACK" command telling your
dog to cast into the water. Should you get another refusal after
this attempt to get them back into the water? Simply throw a
white dummy over his head |
