Man what a nice day today, thought I would video and share our training season today. I have done a lot of t-work with molly, but this was the first time I tried it in water, she did really well on the stop whistle and taking a cast. I know, don’t tell me, my hands are not right with my casts, I know. And I know I do not follow what professional dog trainer’s do, but me and Molly do our own thang. Note I do not use an e-collar on Molly any more, I think she does better with out it!! Video is not long, I tried to cut out the swimming parts to make it shorter!!

2010 April Dog Training - T work in the water

Awesmone Guy.

Well some how I deleted ALL my videos on youtube!

Ok, reloaded it to YouTube and updated the link, still can’t believe I deleted all my YouTube videos!!

Cool video Guy! It looks like doin your own thang works real well for you. You said Molly does better without the e collar, was there a time in training when you found it necessary to use it?

That is a pretty good one.

Oh absolutely. That is how the dog learns to perform the commands promptly and swiftly. They perform the commands promptly and swiftly, and they avoid the correction from the collar. The dog learns if they show good effort, life is good, they are in control.

This is my dog’s 5th off season training, and it has been the last year I have stopped using the collar. I can tell Molly enjoys the training a lot more with out the collar, but most importantly, I think Molly has figure out if she gives effort, the collar stays off!

I will not hesitate to strap it back on again if needed. But I will tell you if I say “No”, that correction works well for her, it is almost as bad as a nik from the collar. But there were no corrections needed yesterday, she did great. Now I could have used a correction or 2 with my terrible casting!!

brother that is amazing! I guess the only thing that makes me feel any better is you are 5 years in... I thought i was doing good at 6 months but I will just shutup and go sit in the corner with my pup!

nice work man!

Outstanding work. I think I'll go out back and kick a pointer.

nice work! impressive to say the least.

I am sure I will catch a lot of heat for this but I am going to say it anyway.

Find a swim by pond and then do the T, using piles of bumpers, not ones you throw each time the dog is there. This is not a true water T. You will accomplish much more on the swim by poind and find a bigger challenge. The T in water is actually easier than on land, esp. in the way you are doing it. You are teaching the dog to no off of marks more than anything else. I see you have learned some good tricks of the trade though by healing your dog around, but when I say trick, it really does trick the dog.

Suggestion, wait for the dog to look at you, treading water, before you give a cast. The dog is actually auto casting on you. It will save you in the blind later down the road if you get in control of it now.

Good work, keep trying. Learning to no off a mark is critical in hunting, too many cripples need to be picked up first over the dead.

Eric

I know I invented it!!

j/k, thanks for the tips Eric!

Man I can't believe the pointer guys are being nice to me!!

Really enjoyed the video. Love to watch a dog that likes to train.

you have done a good job with her Guy

Good video....she looks good.

Eric, I tell you the issues I had with my dog last hunting season I’m trying to address this offseason.

Problem 1: Running strait lines/blinds

When I would line up my dog on a retrieve, normally a blind or the bird that was way out in the water, my dog would lock on something else in the water, a tree stump, or something else, I could see her head chocked in a angle. I would try a spin to realign her, sometimes it would work sometimes not. One time I just gave up and let her go where she wanted and she swam out to a stump poking out of the water and actually tried to grab it, it was funny, I brought her back to the line sent her again.

Anyways, been doing wagon wheel working on lining up and with every other bumper short and long so Molly has to run in-between 2 bumpers on the long retrieves, this has helped her a lot. The tighter I make the short bumpers (tighter T), the more challenging. I think Evan Graham calls it 2 tier wagon wheel.

That was another reason I did that water T, to get her to run strait out to the bumper, with bumpers on each side as a distraction. I did the casting really just for fun, I have never done that before with bumpers/training in the water, I have casted her in the water in hunting situations, but not training.

I’m also going to start doing blind retrives this off season in a field by my house that has grass about a foot high, will be great for those drills.

Problem 2: Long Back blinds
She does ok on short blinds (when problem #1 above does not surface) but not on long blinds. She will get out 60 yards or so then break off her line and go left or right or something looking for the bird, and will not take a cast well from that distance. So I’m not sure what to do here, other than do long blind retrieves.

Problem 3: Angled backs and long backs
She takes a left and right cast well (even from long distance), and a short back (left/right)well. But angled backs no so good, and if she is 50/60 yards out, and I give her a back to go deeper, she does not get it.

So plan on doing some 8 handed casting drills for the angled backs, long blinds and pile work for the long backs.

Guy

Problems 1 and 2 pretty much go hand in hand like you mentioned. Getting straight/long(100+yds) blinds come with a ton of reps and patience.

What I do is plant a piles of bumpers(I like the Avery ATBs white/black because they're big) basically like the baseball drill, but you're on mound with your dog. Line the dog to a pile and send her to a pile. When you start out, since there's a pile she'll be able to see them even at 100+yds. Then when she picks them up she'll remember them even if the piles get low to where she can't see them... another thing to try, and another thing i do.... go to that field by your house and take a mower. Mow down a nice path maybe 4' wide(a lane for her to run). Then plant blinds in the lane. Start short where you know she'll get them on a straight line then increase distance.

I use this dirt road as the running lane when working on blinds. After that right curve it goes straight for about 200 yds. I can plant a blind at the other end of that and Cali will run the whole thing straight.



Same goes for problem 3. It's going to take a lot of time and reps. She has to gain that confidence. Play lots and lots of 8 handed baseball(her on the mound you on home) I think you're already doing the right things, but this is where you have to have a ton of patience.

Only thing I can think of is you may be moving to fast? Not necessarily in the training process, but on the training days.

On days I work Cali on blinds I always start short and stretch them out. I can't even go out and plant a 100yd blind in low cover and expect her to run straight to it YET.(one day)

Good Luck!

No, actually our training sessions are going great. We just finished some 8 handed casting drills, and she did very good, best she had done all off season with 8 handed casting. The issues I point out above was last season hunting. We have not done any blind drills this off season, we are gonna start that soon.