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DrahtsundBraats wrote:I haven't seen you work with the dog but be careful of praising before completion. Some dogs equate early praise with a release. It depends on the dog and the training sequence. By August, you want to be to the point where praise is given upon completion.
CohanseyDD wrote:If the duck is dead there is no possibility of escape. In your test...if you see that the dog is going to drop the game...just take it w/o any further commands and play it safe. If you give a command and she doesn't obey or deliver properly after that...you've lost another point with the command. The key is reading your dog. Most dogs do something improperly through training. That's why we train so hard...to test to failure so we know where the problems might be.
Sitting and dropping with a dead duck would likely only be a single point deduction, but again, it could be more. If it's only a single problem in the test it won't affect your score much because all 5 get averaged. Train for perfection and simply take what test day gives you.
Misskiwi67 wrote:Can I get a critique of this blind retrieve. This is our own pond, but all previous blinds have been at a narrower point on the pond. I did not know to separate the commands between search and retrieve, so she doesn't know the difference. Is this acceptable and is there time to change?
http://youtu.be/JsJEccUOvZs
CohanseyDD wrote:Hand or verbal assistance that are not deemed to be excessive will not result in any lowering of your score on the blind. Neither will what your dog did in the video. I don't know what the wind was doing or if there even was any, but I've witnessed several very good dogs pass within a few feet upwind of a thrown duck and not scent it on the first pass. IMO...the key to the blind is the fact you KNOW where the duck is...the dog DOES NOT. You are permitted to "help and assist" the dog to get to the downed bird as quickly as possible so the hunt/test can continue. If your dog was trained to take hand or verbal cues...when it started the empty pond search after being close to the duck initially...I would have stopped it before it got a chance to get to the other end of the pond and possibly get distracted by something else. Most judges are not going to want to see a blind take 15 minutes.
If you need to get the dog to the duck and it isn't going well...have a couple good size rocks (golf ball size or larger) to throw...but make sure you're able to throw accurately to the area where the duck is. If you can't...ask for the gun that will be there and fire a shot directly at the duck. Like Deuce stated...make sure the dog is looking before you do either. Both will result in a predicate drop, but you'll move on and still have a solid score working. A rock or shot the dog does not see will not result in a predicate reduction.
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