Texas Wildlife August 2010
by
Henry Chappell
You’ve followed the training approach described in “Retrievers 101,” in the July 2010 edition of Texas Wildlife, and your eight month-old retriever is a fetching maniac. When she’s not too revved up, she’ll even sit and stay for a couple of minutes and generally comes when called. You introduced her to water on your puppy walks in the field, and with no urging from you, she found her way in and loves it.
You’ve introduced her to birds – pigeons or pen-reared quail, perhaps. Ducks and geese will come later. When she was about six months old, you began taking a training pistol on walks. When she chased meadow larks you’d fire a round at a distance. Gradually, you’ve moved closer so that you can fire a round when you toss a dummy. Now she associates gunfire with fun.
Everything’s there. Temperament, retrieving instinct, hunting drive. From here on, it’s mostly a matter of learned obedience and experience.
Recall from “Retrievers 101” that a competent retriever should sit quietly until sent to fetch, take an 80-yard line, stop to the whistle and go left, right, or back in response to hand signals.
First things first. Your pup has to come promptly every time you call – not most of the time. She must sit and stay until verbally released, and heel loosely. Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. At feeding time, at the kids’ soccer games, while doing chores around the house. If your pup won’t sit quietly with kids and dogs running around, she certainly won’t remain steady when the shooting starts.
You’ll have more training opportunities if you raise your pup as a member of the family. She doesn’t have to be a fulltime house dog, but ought to get plenty of inside time. You may have to get up from the supper table while still chewing a mouthful of meatloaf to march her back to her pad or other designated suppertime spot.
This kind of informal training reinforces daily lessons and teaches the pup that she must obey commands everywhere, under all circumstances. Dogs are very place oriented. If you only train in the backyard, you’re teaching your dog to obey commands in the back yard. She won’t mind in the field, at vet’s office, or your buddy’s hunting camp because these places aren’t your back yard.
A retriever should respond to both voice and whistle commands: a short, sharp blast for “come” and a long, loud blast for “sit.” After she’s reliably obeying voice commands, have her sit at one end of your yard. Walk to the other end, call her, and then give one or two short whistle blasts. Likewise, order her to sit, then give a long blast. She’ll catch on in no time.
Meanwhile, even as you’re keeping fetching fun, it’s getting more precise and demanding. Your pup must bring the dummy straight back. No playing, chewing, or running in circles.
If she acts ups, simply issue a firm “come.” If necessary, let her drag a 25-foot check cord so that you can catch her quickly. But don’t get rough. Don’t jerk the cord. Don’t yell at her. If she’s sensitive, she may spit the dummy out. Now you have the makings of a real problem
Unless you’re flinging fun bumpers, your pup should sit at heel or at some designated spot until sent to retrieve. If you’ve been reinforcing “stay,” it’s only a short jump to steadiness. Simply sit your pup at heel. Emphasize “stay,” as in “staaaaay.” Keeping your hand ready to restrain her, toss a dummy a few yards in front of her. Early on, she’ll try to take off. Grab her collar or otherwise gently restrain her while repeating “stay.” After a minute or so of steadiness give the fetch command. Praise, praise, praise. Repeat, repeat, repeat. She’ll catch on quickly.
Unless she’s a bonehead. In that case, call her to heel and casually loop a six-foot length of rope through the D-ring on her collar. Don’t tie it. Keep both ends in your hand and repeat the steadiness exercise. If she remains steady until sent to fetch, simply release one end of the rope so that it slides through the D-ring when she takes off. If she bolts, hang on to both ends and get set. A few lessons should do the job. Hopefully, your shoulder, elbow, and hand will heal before opening day.
When she’s marking and retrieving long, single dummy throws, both on open ground and in cover, it’s time to introduce your pup to doubles. As always, start short, on open ground. Sit her at heel and toss a dummy ten or fifteen yards away. Make sure she marks it. Then toss a second dummy in a slightly different direction, and immediately send her after it. When she returns, take the dummy, praise her, then send her for the second dummy. Gradually increase the distance, until she’s retrieving doubles from cover.
Throughout hundreds of retrieves, your pup has learned that when you tell her to fetch, there’s something to be fetched. This confidence is the basis for blind retrieves – retrieves in which the dog doesn’t mark the fall and must be guided to it with hand and whistle signals.
A blind retrieve begins with a “line,” the straight course the dog should run to the unseen bird or dummy. Ideally, the dog should hold the line until she either smells the bird or literally runs over it. In practice, dogs can’t run a truly straight line any better than humans and will begin to drift off-line.
From basic conditioning, a well-started pup will run out a short distance in response to the fetch command. But she won’t run far before confusion sets in or she begins to search.
Lay the groundwork for lining by sending your pup to fetch along the side of a house or fence. Out of sight of your pup, place a dummy along the fence 20 or 30 feet from a corner. Now heel your pup to the corner. Even though she’ll spot the dummy, “give her a line” by turning your hand sideways as if to make a chopping motion. Place your hand just above and out in front of your pups eyes, pointed in the direction of the dummy. Command “fetch” and jab your fingers toward the dummy. Your pup will blast off and fetch it with aplomb.
Have I mentioned the importance of repetition? Vary and increase the retrieving distance until the dummy is completely out of sight. Here again, start short. Your pup must succeed every time at this point. She must know that when you give her a line, the dummy is out there. That confidence keeps her on-line.
After she’s taking lines and doing simple blind retrieves along a fence, you can go a step further my mowing narrow lanes in a vacant lot or pasture. Same principle. She’ll tend to run these lanes toward unseen dummies or training birds.
Of course nice clean lanes are in short supply under actual hunting conditions. Eventually a retriever must take lines in rough terrain and in water. Again, start short. The rougher the terrain, the more difficult the line. Simply crossing a ditch or creek can throw a dog offline.
How do you bring her back online? How do you direct her around obstacles? Recall, that a retriever should respond to hand signals. Sounds hard. It’s not.
Picture a baseball diamond with your pup on the pitcher’s mound, a dummy at first, second, and third base. You’re standing at home plate. Take an exaggerated step to your right, thrust your arm straight out to the right, and say “over! fetch!” At first you may have to skip sideways and repeat the command. Move closer and guide her if necessary. Repeat in the opposite direction, sending her after the dummy on third. Then, to second, with “back! fetch!” by stepping toward her and thrusting your arm toward the dummy. Slowly vary and increase the distances until she’s retrieving dummies hidden in cover. Very soon, you can drop “fetch” and simply command “over” or “back.”
Everything hinges on her obedience to the “sit” command and whistle. If you send her on a blind retrieve and she drifts off-line, stop her with a whistle blast. She’ll sit and face you. Send her over, stop her again when she’s back on-line, then send her “back.”
Expect setbacks and confusion as you move into actually hunting situations. You’ll never really stop training.
Yet good dogs catch on quickly. If you’ve gotten your pup through the simple steps I’ve outlined, she’s performing way beyond the average retriever.
She’s a sure-enough gun dog.