May 15th Assessment & Two Month Focus 

Well, I learned a valuable training lesson this weekend. Kooly was given a steady diet of shackled ducks on blinds and some live flyers for the last two weeks. His training desire was not good. We were getting weak "out of the hole" efforts on blinds and poor focus on multiples. He needed to be "jacked up". He went from slow into the water to airborne entries in that short period. He became a different pup.....intensity had returned.

The entry in HRC Seasoned was part of the plan to see just where we were with this focus. The skill level was there and everything appeared to be very solid. His OB has always been a strong point. However, in retrospect the "old" OB was relative to a pup that was at times lacking in confidence. So now with all this new found enthusiasm for training (using lots of birds), it quickly became apparent the "new boy on the block" had lost his "kool" so to speak.

This past winter the fire was there when hunting, but he has always been inconsistent in training and especially does not care for any drill work unless it is short and fun. Even at 18 months he is still very immature about some things. Interestingly, he has four siblings that were running derbies at 14 months.

My main concern for the test was the short marks. The longer field trial set-ups in training have created a tendency to "run over" a short mark. We have worked on a lot of short marks and check down drills to deal with this. First mark this morning was about 80-90 yards out with a vast marsh extending beyond (my first feeling was.....this will not be good). He blew way past it and proceeded to make a huge, wild, out of sight (into the cattails) hunt and then handled poorly. He never figured it out and I still can't believe he didn't wind it (even asked the judge to make sure it didn't get buried in the slop). He missed his mark and lost him mind which is not all that unusual a result produced by an inexperienced, but normally good marking dog. I could have handled him earlier, but this was not about passing or failing a test. Handling on an easy, visible mark (sparse cover) is inconsistent with training. I needed to know if he could sort it out.

I picked him up (later than the judge would have preferred) and scratched from the water
series plus the next day's test. There was no sense in allowing any more repetition of mistakes, and I have learned that hoping a dog will self-correct obvious training holes the same day (or the next) can prove to be a costly mistake. Kooly never picked up one bird, but I know what we need to work on. It was an evaluation....not an ego trip. However, I was a bit surprised to get the answer so quickly.

We will work on getting predictable consistency in my newly awakened fireball. I was positive we had turned the corner in training, but didn't realize Kooly had temporarily left the road out of control. His new found enthusiasm (while encouraging).......needs to be focused. Can I spell..........PROJECT?

Temporarily, to provide more time with the family, training will be mostly at close-by areas.  Kooly gets a 6 month program and more  time to mature. There is a need to check the possibility of neutering and stick to one format - field trial (white coat set-ups).

When Kooly went to California for two months in Jan/Feb, my pro friend was well aware of his softness and immaturity (for his age). Kooly at times displayed some flashes of excellence, but in all honesty was considered a probable washout.........too inconsistent and unable to produce the expected progress. This has been supported by the last 5 months of training. His immaturity and softness continue to hamper developing any consistency. Individual skills are excellent, but in combination present problems.

In conclusion, his immaturity will eventually disappear and softness seems to be very slowly changing for the better as his understanding increases. The long term goal is to produce predictable consistency and 6 additional months should give a more definitive answer. As for his ability to run tests, that remains a mystery, but his hunting skills more than justify keeping him around for a long time. The big questions are "When will he grow up?" and "Will he ever put it all together?"

The neat thing going for both of us is......I really like working with Kooly. 

             note: The neutering is out after reading an opinion of Amy Dahl's.
                      Reasons To Leave Intact (thread link)
             note: Kooly had improved so much during the last part of May that the hunt test at
                      Madison Retriever Club was entered - result = 1st hunt test ribbon in AKC Senior
                      Kooly is really not that far from putting it all together! Maybe he is growing up more
                      quickly than expected.

Kooly’s Two Month Focus

Organized Confusion Drill  (OCD)  at Macktown Nursery  (ducks)

ABC  Drill (remote line – water & land) at Stoughton  (ducks)

Four Station Remote Winger Doubles (RWD) at Gallagher & Stoughton
        (water & land, white flagged bumpers or ducks)  

Key Relationship Drill  (KRD) at Rockton Road DTA  (ducks)

Walking Baseball (WB) at the Square Pond  (orange bumpers)

Definitive Casting Drills (DCD)  starting with the Square Pond  (white bumpers)

Retrieve-R-Trainer singles at RockCut (foam bumpers)