The Derby Stake

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Originally Posted by Jennifer Henion

Ok, so this is what I've gathered from this conversation regarding running your pup in the derby:

•Training: Do yourself a favor and get pup through Swim-by, water decheating. Make sure pup can do LOOONG marks and long tricky doubles.

•Maturity or Steadiness: If you have a crazy lunatic who is only steady with an e collar on its neck, may want to work on steadiness and let pup mature before running.

•Readiness: If you have a pup who's steady when flyers are being shot as the first mark of a double and remains steady for the second mark, can run a decent line through land/water combos and is a really good marker at 350 yards - then go and have fun at the derby.

Bonus: If you meet all the above requirements, you can almost immediately enter the next phase of competition when you have aged out of Derby (as long as you've been training for blinds).

Any corrections or additions?

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That's basically IT :), but there will be detours along the way. Something always comes up new & unusual.

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Originally Posted by Marvin S

That's basically IT :), but there will be detours along the way. Something always comes up new & unusual.

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Cool! Thanks everybody!! This has been a VERY enlightening conversation for me. I finally feel like I have a grasp on what the goals are.

And most of all, savor every precious moment on line of watching your baby dog work, it will fill you with unimaginable pride and joy!

Kathryn

I'll add something. Very few if any judges are going to shoot the flyer first. So not to complicate things don't train on that stuff now.
More important to run a boat load of singles off of multi guns. Teach dog a long complicated mark as a single then come back and run same mark as memory bird of a double. Find out the things you can do in training to prevent your dog from gun running and back siding guns.

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Originally Posted by kip

if i look pissed off its just my personlity, didnt mean any harm.

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I've seen you laughing at some derby judges before ;)