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July 1st - (morning)
Gunny established his second pattern blind (longer) at the Industrial
DTA (part
of a KRD later) and did it with eight bumpers after identifying the pile =
good job
drove to BT's hay field - Daisy & Kooly ran six
cold blinds with pheasants
(left click
on thumbnail)
#s 4, 5 & 6 pheasant cold blinds |
Brian drove in with a truck load of dogs, so Gunny &
Daisy ran four mallard singles with
real gunners.....plus holding blind, Kooly did
four cold honors and was put up for the day,
went to the swim-by pond = Gunny did two
mini-swim-bys (left & right).....then did two full
swim-bys (left & right) = good job
(evening) Gunny & Taffey
each did a session of walking baseball
note: Gunny did white bumpers......just "overs"
and "backs".....didn't miss a cast
and is really good with this drill
note: Taffey did orange bumpers......missed
several straight backs.....takes an
angle and this is a definite maintenance "thing" with her
Interceptor
(all) - ordered 6 month supply of Interceptor for 4 dogs & new Preventic
collars for Kooly
July 2nd - (morning) trained at the Rockton
Sport Complex - five "inline" singles 50- 250 yards (range
finder) real BB using 3" Avery Flagged Flashers in short grass
Taffey & Kooly lines were like lasers on
every mark and fast
Daisy flared around the corner of an ag-lime
baseball diamond, but was fine on the rest
Gunny carried every mark, ran over to the BB
after the retrieve on the first three....did
a great job of "getting out there"
note: 74º, 14 mph wind out of the south, sunny & 65% humidity, dogs back to
the
cool house in about 1½ hours
(evening)
Gunny - ran wagon wheel (8 bumpers), ran both
pattern blinds with birds &
did two "swim-bys" (right & left) & finished with a couple little "cheaty"
bumpers on the
edge of the pond = got in the water when stopped on the cheats
note: not very good at treading water
note: had some issues with the Industrial pattern blind (mower working in
the
ditch.....not sure what) came back later and he did it well.....knowing it
was a pheasant probably made the difference
note: not too thrilled with the wagon wheel.....the routine was sloppy
because
1) he knows what to do and 2) he tries to leave on "dead bird" and not
wait for "back" = more "reps" and probably first thing in the morning
when he is fresher might be better
note: did a brief review of FTP
July 3rd - (late morning) trained at the
Rockton Sport Complex - ran an X-Box marking drill (1 more
mark than a Y-drill), Greg threw orange bumpers for the three older dogs and
2" flagged
Avery Flashers for Gunny
Taffey
did her usual "paying the penalty" for not focusing and had a huge, long
hunt on
the second check down mark, it takes awhile for her "run & hunt" mode to
succumb to
figuring out where a mark actually is (when we
haven't done this drill for awhile)
note: this drill sure goes a lot faster when I don't have to do it with
wingers (alone)
Kooly pinned all four marks like a laser & fast
Daisy did almost as well as Kooly (which is a big improvement)
Gunny did a decent job on all four marks except he went over for an
extended visit
with the BB on the first two
dropped the older dogs off at the house.....Gunny
ran two "swim-bys" and worked both
square corners of the pond with the concept of "not-cheating" (did well for
the first time)
Gunny's Swim-By (Link)
(evening) Gunny
- did an "intro" to the Zig-Zag lining drill using seven 3" Avery Flashers,
he needs work in locking on targets when lining, he seems to know where to
go, but the
"look" is not there yet except when marking, saw a hint of it when he
realized real birds
were at the end of his recently introduced pattern blinds
note: he is very good about lining up and leaving straight, he does not lock
intently on the visible bumper, but he gets the right one every time,
repetition on leaving straight, picking up the right bumper, coming
back to the correct heeling position and delivering on command is
becoming a solid habit........Gunny is maturing
and beginning to take
new things in stride quickly
note: the drill went very well with Gunny
understanding the team effort, he
understands how to work, specifically it was kept up beat and fun, yet
precision was expected.......this is the way it is all the time and he is
getting the message
note: Gunny seems to have a much better balance
about training at this stage
than Taffey, Daisy or Kooly did......which is looking good
note: putting off any upland until the end of August = want good long,
straight
lines with no hunting on his marking & cold blinds first
note: no hunt tests for him until next year
July 4th - (late morning) "roaded"
Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny (together) with
the ATV an easy
three in miles in and around a recently cut
hay field, 73º, slight breeze, humidity 50%
and partly sunny, used a weed eater to trim a
training mound and clear access to the
Johnny House (need to move it)
note: Gunny likes to run out front like Daisy
note: Daisy has accepted Gunny into the group.....mostly because he never
did
back down from any of her "tests"
note: they are "sawing logs" pretty good in the living room four hours later
July 5th - (morning)
Taffey, Daisy & Kooly ran the old 450 yard pattern blind (pheasants)
at BT's &
each did a 175 yard cold blind (pheasants) off the northwest mound (trimmed
yesterday)
(left click
on thumbnails)

"Daisy"
450 yd pattern
blind |

"off mound"
cold blind |

"behind mound" |

"side view" |
Gunny - ran both of his pattern blinds with pheasants, did two
remote winger/stickmen
doubles with pheasants at the Square Pond "grassy" area
note: a little hunt on the first double and pinned the second double
note: much more excited about the use of birds on pattern blinds
note: wandered off line on the shortest pattern blind & needed a cast.... he
"banana'd" the longer blind.....showed some improvement
(evening) Gunny -
repeated his two pattern blinds (with pheasants)
note: looking out more intently on "dead bird", ran hard
and straight on each
pattern blind.......lined both.........big improvement from this morning
July 6th - (morning) trained at BT's -
fresh hay had been raked so took advantage of the "terrain",
set-up four "check down" singles two for each side of heeling (165, 130, 95
& 60 yards
downwind) used holding blind, remote wingers & stickmen, primer report, 3"
flagged
Avery Flashers on the 2 longest marks, 2" flagged Avery Flashers for the 2
short singles
note: ran Taffey first as the test dog, the plan was to use 2" Flashers for
marks,
with the first one at 165 yards the background "didn't work" according to
Taffey....so I switched to 3" Flashers on the longest two singles
Taffey was right on the money with all four
marks with great lines angling across the
raked hay (no squaring) and the larger Flashers were much easier to see
Kooly moved on the line so he had to run two
anti-RSG blinds before the first 2 singles,
still marked them very quickly (small circle hunts on the first two with
good lines), last
two he stepped on
Daisy ran the anti-RSG blind before any marks
were launched, great lines angling
across the raked hay for the two long marks, over ran the third single after
missing it
by about a foot & then had a long hunt, stepped right on the last one
Gunny ran last, the two long wingers didn't
work, so he ran the two short ones first,
blew way past the 90 yard single by about 100 yards, but was persistent &
finally figured
it out, stepped right on the 60 yard mark with a great line across the raked
hay lines,
after fixing the two long remote wingers......Gunny "flat out" stepped on
both long
marks....going almost straight through and over the long, angled raked hay
lines
note: the 250 yard inline stretching work has paid off because 160 yards
with
terrain seemed "easy" for him
note: it was 82º and humid when we finished, dogs were OK.....I wasn't,
even with the ATV.....it was a long session
(left click
on thumbnails)

"check down singles" |

"wide view" |
July 7th - (noon)
rain this morning Gunny ran his 2
pattern blinds with pheasants & finished
with a short session of walking baseball = too hot and humid to accomplish
much
more than working on non-verbal "overs"
note: 155 yard was lined, 110 yard had him "sucked" to the right
by something he saw = one whistle and cast directly to the pheasant
Taffey, Daisy, Kooly & Gunny were run on a
steadying drill from the shade at the
Square Pond "grassy" area, Daisy was the only one wearing an e-collar and
all
were off leash
note: shot the cap gun, used a duck call and I picked up most of the
bumpers....Daisy didn't get any and Gunny was a very surprisingly
steady and calm, waited until I asked him and the drill went well
note: just too hot to do anything the rest of the day
July 8th - van in for repair in the morning - dogs off for the day
van to a different mechanic in the late afternoon
July 9th - no van this morning - all four dogs are staring at me as if to
ask "OK...What's up?"
July 10th-
Gunny ran his 155 yard pattern blind at the
Industrial DTA & then used 8 bumpers in a
pile establish a 2nd pattern blind at an angle of about 40º to the left =
worked that out
with some casting away from the line to the other pattern
drove to the Square Pond "grassy" area and set up a remote winger for a
diversion on
Gunny's pattern blind and a poison KRD for the three older dogs
Gunny ran his diversion mark first and needed
one cast on the pattern blind = good job
note: the Four Phase Drill will be run soon, after seeing him run
this.......it
should go well....without many issues
(left click on
thumbnails)

Gunny's diversion pattern blind |
Taffey, Kooly & Daisy ran their
easy poison KRD without any issues = nice work
note: this was a straight forward, under control, simple review
note: Kooly was suddenly demonstrating a rather large loop on his whistle
sits, need to address this immediately if it continues
(left click on thumbnail)

"poison KRD" |
Taffey, Kooly, Daisy & Gunny did an extended
remote whoa drill with a cap gun firing,
a bumper thrown (which I picked up), time out to take photos & lots of
walking around
note: kind of very boring........which is good!
note: all did a good job with this, it's been a long time since we have done
anything with upland work
note: the next 3-4 four months upland and retriever "stuff" will be done
on a regular basis..........with balance
note: checked on upland bird possibilities, need to move Johnny House,
do upland "stuff" at least three times a week
note: Iowa APLA tests in September & October
(left click on thumbnails)

"Taffey" |

"Kooly" |

"Daisy" |

"Gunny" |
Gunny finished off a busy morning with a
2 pile (four bumpers each) water push/pull
lining drill with a special focus on treading water, developing the
"locking" routine and
exiting water........"heel" to the correct side (right or left), "sit",
deliver the bumper on
"drop" and finish with the "shake" command......he is doing it with
consistency
note: water treading improving & responses to the whistle are getting better
(left click on thumbnails)
"lining drill" |

"Gunny" |

"working" |
July 11th - trained after the
morning thunder shower at the Industrial DTA - set-up a tight, cold
KRD for the older dogs with the middle (and last blind) "under the arc"
Taffey ran it straight up = mark, right blind,
left blind and middle blind (under the arc)
Kooly ran it as a poison bird = right blind,
poison bird mark, left blind and last
blind.....middle under the arc, Wow! he was sharp
note: on the few whistles he did = got in some corrections for the loopy
"thing"
that just cropped up yesterday
Daisy ran the poison bird mode like Kooly,
except she was so hyped she started "dart"
auto-casting on the first blind and it took until the third blind to get it
under control
moved the winger over and pointed it away from the line of Gunny's long
pattern blind
Gunny ran the diversion mark, picked up the 160
yard pattern blind (pheasant), move up
to remove the winger/stickmen station from the picture and ran the other
pattern blind
(the one established yesterday) = good job....with the exception of a few
ignored whistles
note: need to set up some drills to review sit on the whistle - this is
mostly
because he is so excited about the pheasants at the end of his patterns,
"birdiness" is getting too high and creating an out of balance issue
with responsiveness and control - go with it for awhile & let the drive
deepen
note: steadiness on marks continues to improve, the "herky-jerky" is
disappearing, verbal "sit" with tapping stick corrections appears to
be the most effective = using drills with other dogs, tennis shoes,
e-collar, short tab and stick in varying amounts keeps him thinking
about it
note: routine leading to the hand down on blinds before "back" is improving
(near dusk) Gunny
ran his two pattern blinds at the Industrial DTA (pheasants), he lined the
longest one "on fire", the shorter one was established out to about 75 yards
and it needed
further developing, however, had an idea that since he knew the last 75
yards adding on
the other 60 yards might prove useful to work on his whistle sits and
handling, it has been
kind of "hacky" to get him out to the 75 yard "more to go" position and
there is no question
the other pattern blind is producing suction.........but that's all good,
when he gets out
there far enough the light goes on and Gunny runs straight to it, the second
time we did
this he showed some definite improvement and more confidence in paying
attention to me,
the effect is not unlike a pop-up blind........this will accomplish a lot
note: whistle sits were much better tonight, mostly because he wasn't real
sure about where the blind was......at first he was looking for
something to see......then it turned into "show me the way"
July 12th - (morning)
2" of rain last night - trained in two "grassy" areas
Gunny did a quick two bumper push/pull lining
drill at the Square Pond DTA
Gunny ran his two pattern blinds at the
Industrial DTA with pheasants, the plan was to use
the second blind for some whistle sit work and casting
note: he lined both of them (155 & 140 yards)

went back to the Square Pond "grassy" area and set up the Hide Steady Chain
Gang Drill,
every step of the drill was followed plus adding a cap gun and duck cal
(with a goose call)
(left click on thumbnails)

"the chain gang" |

"Gunny" & "Taffey" |

"Gunny" yawn |

"Daisy" waiting |

"Kooly" steady |

"Daisy" steady |
|
Taffey went first and did a solid job
with no issues
note: Kooly got some corrections for noise on
the "gang", today was better
because he didn't bark once
Gunny went second & did not use the
"hide" = he was very steady with long times between
the thrown Dokkens with calling to heel from his steady position & over five
seconds with a
hand held down for the last cue before releasing
note: Kooly got more corrections for noise on
the "gang", upped the "ante"
Kooly went next and was went back to the
"chain gang" without picking anything up, he
would not stop the occasional whining, after Daisy ran her turn......Kooly
came back out
and went through the entire process a second time =
very good this time
with several
re-heels and backward heeling "tests"
Daisy went last and did a great job of
controlling her excitement = excellent on the
releases to retrieve with ZERO busy feet
drove to the Rockton Sport Complex and Gunny
ran two cold blinds (60 yards - pheasants)
note: the first blind started with a poor initial line, but he really
"fired" when
I said "back", let him roll for a bit then "hacked" him to the 1st pheasant,
he lined the second one
.....very fast off the line
note: these were his first two pure cold blinds
note: Gunny needs a full week of lining drills (alternate Wagon Wheels with
Zig-Zags) plus three days of walking baseball
note: no more cold blinds for awhile = way ahead of the game = don't push
(evening) Gunny ran a session of eight bumper
Wagon Wheel (left and right side) with
focus of locking on the correct line and using push/pull, no and good cues
to accomplish
it, after awhile it started to click and he was very good about telling me
how much fun he
is having = very good session, afterwards he did 3 very solid, steady
"poorman" singles
note: I like him!
analysis for Gunny - lining drills, pattern
blinds and a lot of marking drills (land & water)
work slowly, work on precise routines at the line including clean "drops"
2 weeks - start the Four Phase Drills
work on de-cheating drills in the water, corners of cover, side hills,
angel entries and exits
note: two-three week themes with similar marks toward the end
note: need to closely monitor his pattern blind phase, he is so sharp
on pattern blinds in such a short time = I don't want him to get
to deeply into the habit of needing to know where he is going
note: He has already shown his memory is exceptional so I don't
want to make it a crutch on blinds.
note: Make sure to not ask him for great initial lines on his early
cold blind work. Right now he wants to go...so let him.
note: start BB blinds
July 13th - (morning)
most of the day off for the trainer
(evening)
Gunny - did 7 bumper Zig-Zag drill twice (left & right side)
- Square Pond DTA
note: same focus and he is getting better at all the expectations
Taffey, Kooly & Daisy - three dog, off lead honoring, remote drop
drill
note: they have this down without any problems, the reason for doing it was
to exercise control at a distance & reinforce
the command up close,
the expectation is 1) I take a hold of the bird/bumper, 2) the dog drops
it so that it physically falls out of their mouth and 3) their head
and/or mouth do not follow the bird/bumper
note: they are getting very good at honoring another
dog's work
Gunny
ran his two pattern blinds at the Industrial DTA - lined the first and one
whistled
the second - he fires off the line on "back", the first whistle sit is not
real quick
July 14th -
(morning) train at BT's (checked Sunday night
to see how dry the road in was - It's good.)
setup "four down the shore" with remote wingers, stickmen, primer reports,
3" flagged
Avery Flashers......gunner at each winger for the two pups (duck call and
help if needed),
after running six dogs on the marks.....the four older dogs ran four cold
blinds across the
lines to the marks using mallards
(left click on thumbnails)

"ready on the levee" |

"four down the shore" |
"first three blinds" |

"last two blinds" |

"almost ready" |

"gunner's view" |
Taffey was test dog on the marks and blinds -
smacked all the marks and ran some
very nice lines to the blinds (concern for height of weeds was removed by
the levee
giving a much needed elevation, once past the little on the first blind the
dogs want
to turn right
Kooly was very straight on all the marks and
had a slight hunt on the last one, his
were not as sharp as usual. the high grass did not allow him to pick a
target to run at
so he did some meandering and on the third blind there were some series of
wrong
casts which resulted in an indirect pressure = good cast afterwards
Daisy nailed the first three singles and did
not see the last one (turned her head at the
wrong time (poor focus), reloaded winger and she was OK on that one, the
first blind
immediately went south when she went through the head high wall of weeds
entering
the water.......she went into total hunt mode with all the high grass,
bounced off terrain
and cover changes - wild........slowed down casting without much effect
except then she
started to pop and when cast go at half speed which for her is still fast,
not much better
on the third blind, got an indirect pressure which did "wake her up" and
then she
began to pout and give little effort, she was in the water on the 4th blind
when I decided
"enough is enough"....turned the transmitter down to 1.5 and gave an
indirect
pressure nick on sit (treading water), now it was clear what her attitude
had become
because she vocalized on the 1.5, so she got a back/continuous/back = that
did it,
she fogged straight for some time, whistle sat her cast back/continuous/back
and she
to the blind.......analysis - wide open long blinds do not provide the cover
to bring on
her hunt mode.......need to get her to run straight in heavier cover without
hunting
Gunny saw every mark, fired off the line and
got to each mark........his lines weren't all
that great because of the "wall of cover" in the water, still ran over to
say HI to the
gunner on the last two marks, got back in the water on the third, but
started to cheat
down the levee on the last one, whistle sat him and "by golly" he took the
cast back
down the steep levee and got back in the water
note: these marks were on the very fringe of his experience, Anne was
watching closely as he "got out there" and from his body language
he was "thinking on the move"
note: this is the first time in the few years I've trained here that there
was
any water let alone this large amount of swimming water
note: arrived at 8:15 am & got back home at 2:30 pm...long day & worth it
(dusk) Gunny ran a
five bumper lining drill with an intro to bumpers through a slot, ran
his two pattern blinds (with pheasants) at the Industrial DTA - fired hard,
ran fast
and lined them both
July 15 (early morning) trained at BT's hay
field - setup five stickmen in an arc 50 yards from the
line and put |