and cast on the "BACK" command.
When he enters the water for the retrieve, run back to the starting
point of the initial line for the delivery. Continue to run this
drill until they are taking a complete line to a pile of orange
and or black dummies without any assistance from you. I would
suggest run this drill twice at every training session. This
will help to develop the proper picture for them.
You can now start to move the floating blind out further into
the water if you wish. Or maybe you would like to get your spaniel
to the shoreline and teach them a through water, up onto land,
through water and up onto land again for a find. To keep everyone
honest, one out every ten blinds that I run here will give the
dog a find on the peninsula on the initial line. Finally, we
must be able to run this as a cold blind in a new virgin area!
Well, it's time to bring the boat into the scheme of things.
You thought that I forgot about the boat didn't you? This drill
will be to an island of high heavy cover of swale grass and cattails.
This area is so thick that once your spaniel is on the island,
you will loose complete visual sight of your spaniel. The only
clue that you will have as to where the dog is will be by the
movement of the cover. Sound familiar those of us running hunt
test should be familiar with this scene.
Set your assistant afloat in the boat with a few dead pigeons.
While he is rowing out to the island, choose the line that you
wish to run out to the island. With the use of the marked blind
technique. Have your |
assistant throw a dead pigeon a few yards onto the island
while you spaniel watches. Naturally as the bird disappears into
the high cover give the "dead bird" queue to your spaniel.
Now wait till your assistant has rowed completely out of the
picture. Then go through your sequence and send your spaniel
for the find on the island. Should your spaniel slow down or
drift off its initial line, have
your assistant throw a dead bird over the top of your spaniels'
head onto the island. This will suck your spaniel to the find
area. Now in the case of having such heavy cover and we know
that we will not be able to handle our spaniel. We will give
the dog a new queue to use. Once the dog reaches the island and
gets up onto the land, I will give them a "find it"
command. This will teach them two things: one to stay on the
island and find the bird; second, there will be no help from
the handler on this find. As you start to run this as a cold
pattern blind, remember to have
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your assistant ready to toss a bird over the dog's head
should they slow down or veer off their initial line while they
are in route to the island. Naturally we will be able to run
this blind cold and in a virgin spot.
Remember during all of these drills at the beginning stages of
training keep their finds relatively easy and close to the shoreline.
As they gain in confidence, make the finds further back and more
challenging!
With the use of the many drills that I have described above as
your foundation, you can expand the training your dog receives.
There are many different training drills that can de created
for challenging your spaniel on water. The concepts are only
limited by your imagination.
Well this column has concluded my series on "Mastering The
Blind Retrieve". Hopefully many of you are enjoying the
water training and the season that goes along with it. Until
next Issue, good Spanieling!!
David Krassler hails from Middlefield, MA
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