g a l o d y

Adam took Slate off for a walk so I could work with Grey on her directions.

I’m using the whole field, which is roughly the size of a football pitch, with 3 white poles.  Imagine a crucifix:  One Back, one Left and one Right pole.  Dog and handler start at the bottom of the crucifix.

To begin with, I sat Grey in the middle of the crucifix and I stood at the bottom and cast her BACK.  She was a bit sticky and kept sitting there for the first 2 repetitions of the cast, then her brain suddenly seemed to engage and off she went, back.  Great.

Next, I started with her at my side at the bottom of the crucifix and sent her straight to the Back pole, no stopping or redirections.  When you run the T-drill, the dog can start to anticipate all kinds of things, and this out-run to the Back pole needs to be kept strong.  Grey did this fine.

Next, I sent her in exactly the same way, but I blew the sit whistle as she hit the centre of the crucifix.  She sat immediately.  I then cast her RIGHT.  Again, she was a bit sticky and needed several casts, but took it well eventually.

My final retrieve was then that tricky out-run to the Back pole with no stopping, from my side.  Grey, however, ran out to approximately where I had sat her, and sat herself.  (I didn’t blow the whistle or tell her to sit.)  She was anticipating what I had just done and doing her best to ‘learn’ what I want, so although it was not what I wanted, bless her for trying her hardest to please.  I cast her BACK from there, and she ran on back to the Back pole.  This wasn’t going to teach her not to stop and arguably might only encourage stopping, but I just wanted to stumble through things.  (To fix this, I would have to run her loads and loads straight to the Back pole – which might fix my run to the Back pole, but isn’t teaching Grey about directions in the process!).

That concluded the first part of the session.  I then decided to work purely on the casts Left, Right and Back, without the out-run.  This gets around the tricky problem of her sitting herself when I send her from my side, and we get to work on her stickiness and reading my directions.  Each time, I ‘manually’ sit her in the middle of the crucifix and walk myself back to the bottom, and then cast her one of the 3 directions.  She got every direction right, when she finally went, but she was sticky every time.  It is a bit frustrating, her sitting there staring at me, whilst I’m doing my most energetic casts, but I know it’s just because she isn’t sure and is thinking about it.  Hopefully she’ll get more sure, the more we practise this and she will get faster!!

Today I put out all 3 piles/poles:  Back, Left and Right.  I put Grey in a sit-stay in the middle and directed her to each pile.

She did anticipate one direction:  I turned around and, before I had cast her anywhere, she started to run to the Left pile.  I blew the sit whistle, and cast her to the Right pile instead.  This went well.  I have to keep confounding her, until she believes that she can’t anticipate what to do and has to take the direction from me.

After she had successfully done each pile from the centre of the crucifix, I started her from my side.  She is a little confused and sluggish when running from my side to the Back pile, because she has to line between the Left and Right (which are much closer) and she is resisting the temptation to go for those instead.

After I had run her straight to the Back pile, it was my original intention to send her again, to stop her in the middle and then cast her to a pile of my choice.  However, she really bugged on this last line:  She wouldn’t look along my hand to the line I was giving and, when sent, she would just take a step and falter.  After two false starts like this, I just encouraged her out verbally (er, ‘Go and get it’!), and she, shakily and unsure at first, ran.  As she got closer to the pole and as I encouraged her, she ran harder, until somehow we just got through this last retrieve.  I didn’t stop her, after that.  So we didn’t get to practise a stop and a cast, after all.

Monday and Friday, we go to Stanmer Park.  When Adam is here, we practise marks/seens; throwing dummies for each other, handling a dog each.  When he’s away, I practise directions (left; right; back).

Stanmer Park is ideal for both marks and drills because it has a large football pitch area, where the grass is cut short.  This is essential for white dummies to be clearly visible on the ground:  Important for the dog to practise watching them fall from the sky and then practise targeting them lying on the ground.  Also essential for directions, because the dog can see where it is being sent to, giving confidence and drive to directions.  Plus, because it is used for football, there are white lines marked out on the grass, so I can make sure the T-drill is straight and things line up right.  I use pretty much the whole length and width of this field:

Stanmer Park

Slate is like a little direction machine.  She handles as well as your average field trial standard labrador in the UK.  (On land – not on water!).  Grey is not quite at Slate’s standard yet, although she tries her hardest.

Today, Slate has cut her paw, so I didn’t do any training with her and I focussed on Grey.  Slate cuts her paws more than any dog I’ve ever seen in my life and I have no idea how or why she does it so often.  Grey has never cut her paws.  They are walked in the same areas.  Weird.

Grey is doing the single T-drill at the moment.  The T-drill is an excellent handling exercise which I stole from US labrador trainers.  Essentially, 3 piles of white dummies are put out, marked with 3 white poles, at Back, Left and Right.  This makes the letter T.  (Well, it actually makes a crucifix.)

Back pole with dummies

I could attempt to explain the T-drill, but I think the explanation will read very badly!  For more on the T-drill see here.

We were running it with all 3 piles out, but I identified a few problems which needed some work a couple of weeks ago.  I worked the Left and Right piles on their own, and these last 2 sessions I worked the Back pile only.

Grey did great today:  From the centre and sitting at a distance, she took a Back to the Back pile straight off.  Then she ran straight to the Back pile from my side.  Then I sent her to the Back pile, stopped her at the centre point and cast her Back again.  I should really have then run her straight to it, to finish with, but it was a hot day and she was flagging.  Next time I will put all 3 piles out again and we’ll see where we are with it.