Kooly's Timeline March 1-31, 2005
 

 Mar  5  one hour run in area seven at Blonhaven and got up two scratch pheasants
                     note: hunted cover extremely well & fast
 Mar  6  ran a Blonhaven "Euro" with Steve & Zues (taking turns), Kooly was steady, scanned
             and marked well plus his OB was excellent, even ran some simple blinds, again his
             focus on the marked birds was very good
                     note: his marking has improved and longer marks were easier, however these
                              are short marks (some 75 yards, but most much less)
 Mar  7 day off
 Mar  8 ran eight "poorman" marks (125-250 yards) near the Square Pond in the soybean fields
            angled across hay erosion strips, pinned 6 marks with style, but on the other two Kooly
            went into his "walk-about-mode" note: I just let him wander and eventually he strolls
            over and picks up the mark, these two marks he was way off line and then goes
            into "the mode", not sure why except he doesn't hit it, looses confidence and does not
            have a very solid hunt pattern
                     note: on a shot flyer his hunt pattern is more intense
                     note: for now this will be treated as a quirk in his mental makeup which will
                              be attacked with attrition (a ton of marks) with praise on pins or quick hunts
                              and zero reaction for a "walk-about" retrieve
                     note: ice on the pond is still at least a foot thick and makes for easy work on
                              the wood duck house (extend pole, add wood shavings and put a sheet metal
                              predator guard up)
  Mar  9  ran five marks at the Square Pond in the late afternoon, excellent pins on four and did
              the "WA" on one
  Mar 10 went along with Lick and Taffey on a guided hunt at Blonhaven (good company)
  Mar 11 trace of snow and surface of frozen ground light thaw, ran 6 marks at the Square Pond
              (100-250 yards), pinned five and started a "WA" on one (used one "Hey" at a time to
              start a mechanical hunt (worked well), pinned the last three including a 250 yarder
                     note: running hard and straight except for one up hill where he squared the
                              angled crossing of an erosion ditch and then slightly square the side hill 
                     note: did all six marks in less than 15 minutes and hardly took a deep breath   
  Mar 12 You know we're hardcore............when eight handlers meet at 8 o'clock in the morning
             in northern Illinois. It's in the low teens with a wind chill of worse. The four gunner
             stations are set up in a large bean field and about sixteen dogs are ready and anxious
             to run. With a couple of inches of snow on the ground, each of the gunners look like ice
             fishermen hunched over a tip-ups as they wait for the next dog.  very
             Ever try to reload a primer gun with freezing fingers? When your gunning turn is done,
             watery eyelashes are starting to freeze shut. An ATV quickly keeps bringing out a fresh
             batch of pheasants and the morning moves right along. In a little over two hours, it felt
             good to be finished. Two or three had to leave, but the others stayed to run a different
             set. Smiles and a few laughs.....hand shakes and see ya' next time. What fun!             
             Hey, the dogs did well. When is it going to warm up?
                        note: Kooly ran the four marks well (short middle, then left and right with a
                                 long in line up the middle
  Mar 13 morning session: today was the test of effects with early imprinting of the place board,
             the last time Kooly was on a place board was at seven months of age
                        note: early imprints consisted of 1) feeding on place board as a puppy, 2) heel to
                                 and from a place board during some OB exercises, 3) fun little bumper
                                 fetches off of and casts to treats in bowls at a few yards, 4) remote sit intro
                                 and 5) during short winger marking drills and honoring
            step #1 heel to and chain "place/sit", step #2 from remote sit "here/heel/place/sit" (both
            review), step #3 sit ten feet in front of place board at heel and take a chained "place/back"
            cast  & mix in heeling onto board out of the hole to get the idea across, show and teach
                        note: after ten minutes, Kooly is picking up 75 yard laddered marks (left & right) and
                                 taking a "place/back" send to the place board, turning sharply, sitting in the
                                 middle of the board waiting for the next mark....cheerfully!  
                        note: still not going on "place" alone, but continued chaining should take care of
                                 that, the place board location will be marked by a stickman handler for longer
                                 sends back to the line, after working out to 100 yards a field of multiple
                                 stickmen will be phased in
                        note: the whole lesson seemed totally fun for Kooly and keeping it short was key 
                        note: test passed with ease
          afternoon lesson: five fan cold blinds at the Square Pond soybean field, W shape 100-150 yds.,
          right to left down and up hill, every line started to the left, good momentum, poor angle,
          backs (wanted to drive), some ping-pong at first terrain break, third blind drove back 5 times
          on an angle back and did not respond to attrition, sit direct pressure and took the cast, handled
          pressure well (for him), last two blinds much better
                        note: still doing two "sit on the floor ear scratches time" per day           

               Starting today Kooly may have two sessions a day (morning and late afternoon), one will be
               some sort of marking drill and the other will be a lesson designed to sequentially develop
               handling........rationale in adjustments for "softness": 1) short lessons,  2) avoid boredom,
               3) reduce possibility of an extended conflict, 4) keep energy high, 5) play on anticipation
               and 6) maintain a fun attitude.  7) Birds.......lots of birds.  One possibility is to go two every
               other day depending on sharpness.

  Mar 14 Kooly is 16 months old today, ran three easy AKC length singles in the bean field near the
             Square Pond & an HRC Seasoned level concept double with a diversion (used remote
             wingers and big roosters)
                      note: lined up fine, relaxed, weak throws of heavy pheasants by cold bands were still
                               seen, good momentum and did the double with diversion well 

  Mar 15 ran an extension of the Mar 13th place board remote send & mark routine, white bucket to
              locate line and varied position of marks (not laddered), ran 15 marks from 75 - 175 yards
                         note: door to door time = 30 minutes
                         note: after three marks he returned to the line on "place" (no chaining needed),
                                  but had to revert to the "place/back" chain when the bucket was not easily
                                  seen (too far out & terrain blocked visibility), acted somewhat like it had
                                  become a cold blind routine & not unexpected as this is only the second time
                                  we've done this drill
                         note: very good momentum back to the line and "out of the hole" due to anticipation
                                  of another mark (big bonus!)
                         note: sending from the left side had a tendency to flare off to the left leaving the line,
                                  when sent back to the line from the right side, he went straight, checking to see
                                  if he was lined up correctly (he was) this is similar to what Taffey did for a while
                                  due to perceived pressure on early blind work, read -  Kooly is feeling some
                                  pressure from this drill due to it's newness and possible similarity to the double
                                  T drill work (not sure), a little finesse, reassurance and shortening the last group
                                  of marks to "ease up and back out" seemed to work perfectly   
                         note: huge rooster pheasant forced Kooly to get a better grip on the bird
                         note: kept it at one session today, marking very good, happy & fresh pup finishing
  Mar 16  (morning) trained with Brian at Bill's - tough derby double didn't go well because I didn't
               see the terrain change causing the long gun to be a retired gunner, saw the bird, took a
               great line and suction to the short gun when the long gun was lost, got help and picked it
               up, Kooly's memory was gone, no go, so ran the other station as a picked up single, needed
               some finesse today, (evening) ran about 12 walking "poorman" marks (75-150 yards) at the
               square pond, used bumper and he was having fun, marked all well except one 
                         note: need to work on shorter marks with big terrain changes first, distance then add
   Mar 17 wet snow accumulated to 4", perfect day to take off
                         note: learned of a new (for me) marking set-up called the Y drill which will fit right
                                  in with the remote send marking drill Kooly just learned
   Mar 18 ran the Y drill in three different positions relative to the remote place board line, combined
              with a send back to the line, this drill is really slick, three marks at each position - long
              angled back right........long angled in left.......long angled back left with an orange bumper
              and let him sort it out, used angled entries and exits across grassy erosion "rivers"
                          note: late afternoon, over cast, 25 mph wind, partial snow in bean field and 35°
                          note: Kooly marked all nine very well, ran straight lines, ran past the "old" short
                                   falls, good momentum especially when sent back to the line, up beat and
                                   zippy on the four fun bumpers afterwards
                          note: door-to-door gone less than 30 minutes
   Mar 19 Stickmen Training Day (Link) 
   Mar 20 ran 125 yard cold blind at Blonhaven and then did the "Euro" tower shoot, picked up 30+
              birds in the woods, spent a lot of very nice "sitting a watching time", his marking showed
              steady improvement as the day progressed finishing a series of very difficult marks (learned
              how to handle all the trees, shrubs, hay bale blinds, rock piles. fences, a trail bridge and
              terrain), handling on cold blinds was OK.....once he got out there, but "out of the hole" he
              was a total "whus" (need to find a way to address this issue)
   Mar 21 worked on solution to issue, 1) posted up on RTF Training Question (Link) 2) got an excellent
              answer from Joe S. (helped me with Taffey early on) and 3) got PM from someone dealing
              with a similar issue (different reasons) 
              plan -  basically no revisit to FTP, work on confidence a get rid of baggage
              rationale, first "go" & results:  "tweeked" a few things at the line this afternoon while
              establishing a short 125 yard pattern blind......bean field, downhill half way, with two erosion
              ditch terrain changes.  Kooly was looking at the horizon alertly, left the line nicely on "back"
              and took a couple of casts at 75 yards without a problem plus never popped once in the six
              runs. Used three big cock pheasants and the "tweek" was NOT saying "dead/bird" as a cue. 
              The "back" command presents no problems.  Previously, when working on using "place/back"
              he didn't slump as he does when "dead bird" is the cue.  BAGGAGE?  In theory (my idea),
              need to establish a new cue before this set-up by throwing fun bumpers and repeating the
              word "fun" (Hey, it could have been anything - so this is outside the box?)  Kooly was
              actually "leaning in" for the release on the last one with no "Stevie Wonder" action 
                        note: with "dead bird" Kooly use to instantly grow a fro, go blind and turn into
                                 a slouched Stevie Wonder               

Mar 22 ran the pattern blind three times well, won't do repeats anymore, plan on using this for
           the Four Phase drill (when the field is planted it's "over")
Mar 23 day off
Mar 24 decided to run the pattern blind again with four birds, did well some hesitancy on first
           two and got in a couple quick back corrections when glancing back at me, good "mo"
           and less flare (banana)
Mar 25 "Euro" shoot at Blonhaven (that's the reason for running blinds again yesterday)
            24 rounds with 16 birds released per round. four handlers and Kooly got 60 + live flyers,
            he was just super all day, marking long, dealing with the fences, handling crisply,
            delivering birds with a solid, soft hold and dropping nicely on command, even had an
            unplanned very challenging delayed poison bird (handled perfectly away to a blind on
            first cast - wow), one error all day and that was a switch when he got out of my sight
                          note: This pup is fun! 
Mar 26-27 days off, Kooly spent some time in the outside kennel while Taffey went to Kansas
Mar 28  ran phase A of the Four Phase drill with the 125 yard pile set up previously, 4 pheasant
            pile and three stickmen/Mini-My-Winger stations 5 yards right of the line to the pile out
            at  50, 75, 100 yards throwing 2" white bumpers wide wide right = line the pile, short
            mark, line the pile, middle mark, line the pile, long mark, line the pile, two fun bumpers
                          note: Kooly hammered it with enthusiasm!  
 Mar 29 phase B of the Four Phase Drill, ran all four blinds on the wrong side (banana line) of the
            gunners - carryover from yesterday's (same side) and feeling some pressure, didn't want
            to handle, but will repeat this tomorrow and "show" him the correct line
                          note: Mini-My-Wingers and Stickmen working well!
                          note: using dead bird/back now and immediately "de-popping" any pop & there
                                   are a few glances back in the first 10-15 yards (he never stops and has
                                   good momentum the rest of the way & it is getting better) 

 Mar 30 repeated phase B of the Four Phase Drill and as suspected needed to handle him to stay on
             line to the right of the stickmen, Kooly is an easy read - handled over to pass first stickman
             then a couple more times to stay on line as he tried to fade left, second run he passed the
             first stickman, but then needed handling on the second, next time he passed one and two,
             but then needed handling at the third, on the last blind he stayed right all the way
                     note: he marked all three falls well, used 3" black and white bumpers for # 1 & # 2
                              and a big "goose" size black & white canvass for # 3
                     note: got progressively "poppy'er" on the pile runs, therefore will spread this drill
                              out more with "buffering in between days" of marking for better balance
                     note: Kooly will not be entered in any competitions until this slight popping issue
                              is eliminated and it will probably be an HRC seasoned
                     note: buying some pigeons early next week & have plenty of frozen pheasants,
                              ducks as soon as the water warms up   
            (evening) ran several short concept doubles and triples (hand thrown) on factory property
                     note: ran hard with lots of enthusiasm, showing signs of locking on to next mark,
                              started to creep a bit (good to see), easy tap stick corrections were taken well
  Mar 31 too windy all day - 25-35 mph winds, but it died down late afternoon, ran seven "poorman"
             marks at the Sand Ponds - some lunging water and neat dry pond terrain, Kooly ran hard,         
             marked well, finished with four hand thrown concept doubles (3 land and 1 water)
                     note: Kooly was not ready to quit & was really wired, do some yard OB tomorrow
                     note: bought PVC materials and hardware to build fourth Mini-My-Winger