The current issue of Retriever Journal has a good article on the long distance force drill, which came at an opportune time for me. I took the dogs out in the pasture and played Frisbee with Sophie and Dakota prior to training, primarily to reduce Dakota’s energy level. Sophie got her share of Frisbee catches but I focused on Dakota and had her running non-stop for a good 15 minutes.
Sophie:
I began transitioning Sophie from voice commands to the whistle. At the same time, working on long distance force drills. She caught on rather quickly and we had a good training session.
Dakota:
Dakota cramped up while I was working with Sophie but was ready to go when I let her out to train. Her energy level had lowered from her normal “10” to about a “7”. I worked with her on long distance force drills and she caught on quickly and did rather well. Having burnt off a lot of energy playing Frisbee, she did a much better job of staying.
One thing I’m beginning to find is that Dakota will only train on whatever we begin our training session with. If I begin her session with a wing-on-a-string, she retrieves wings beautifully; if I begin her session with wings tied to a bumper, the bumper is all she will retrieve. The wings came off the bumper as we were finishing up and she refused to retrieve them; rather, she raced about the pasture looking for the bumper that I was holding. Even so, it was an easygoing and productive session.
Tags: bird dog training, casting drills, double retrieve, hunting dog training, retriever training problems
