very slow on blinds

[Boomer]

My dog is a very good marker her problem is her speed on blinds. It is all most a walk till you give her that first whistle. After that she goes well. We have tried giving her nothing but blinds and that helps some but her marking then falls off. Any body got any ideas that have worked for them. Had this problem for over a year and at trials it gets worse.

[mojojojo]

Maybe she's anticipating that first whistle too much.

[Boomer]

Tryed not giving that first one by putting our a lot of blinds so where ever she goes she will get one. Did not work

[Charles C.]

Looks like you've really only got 2 options. Go back to a pile scenario and do some forcing or put out shackled birds at the blinds. Take heart, though, as I've seen lots of walking pigs win trials.

[MF]

Try bird boy blinds, and start short (30 yards). They are great momentum builders. I would not force unless the dog is not properly forced to begin with. Forcing is very unlikely to speed a dog up.

[Boomer]

What is a bird boy blind?

[MF]

Bird boy drops white bumper and walks 5 to 7 steps away from bumper as if it is a flat throw. Send dog for blind. After dog gets blind bird boy drops another bumper where he is standing and moves 5 to 7 steps. You keep doing this until dog has lined a few. Then move bird boy 50 to 80 yards away and repeat process. You should switch to orange once dog grasps drill. On longer blinds bird boy needs to walk 7 steps. Within a couple of days it is possible to be out to 150 to 200 yards. The Carr/Rorem tapes have a good example of bird boy blinds in them.

[KwickLabs]

Sometimes you can do all the right steps and a young dog will just not see the fun in blinds. Backing up doesn't necessarily restore fun. So you make adjustments to deal with whatever is out of balance. Not all the adjustments have to be made by the dog.

Try putting five orange bumpers at fifty yards in a fan shape. You might even go out and plant them in full view of the dog (kind of a "poorman" bird boy "stuff"). Throw a fun bumper off to the right (after you have gone back to the line) and act like this is the greatest thing since "sliced bred". Receive the fun bumper and quickly line the enthused dog up. Send and accept whatever line the dog takes because it will certainly be toward one of those orange bumpers. The momentum and drive from the fun bumper carries over to the blinds.

I feel some dogs learn that "dead bird/back" is a nasty cue for bad things are going to happen......inspite of all the good intentions to teach otherwise. Giving the dog a fun bumper off to the side before each blind is designed to get the blind cue back into a positive frame of mind.

You don't have to have the dog pick up all five. Make it fun and focus on reducing any preceived stress. Confidence through success and hightlighted by your enthusiasm can do wonders to alter a young dog's perceptions. If you find training has become a drag, frustrating and/or disappointing, the dog is going to feed off those emotions. The fun bumper is not just for the dog, it seems to have a positive effect on the trainer, too.

Another thing that works quite well is to start using birds for the blinds. One step "higher" (and later) are the use of clipped winged pigeons or shackled ducks.

[huntingrdr]

Try bird boy blinds, and start short (30 yards). They are great momentum builders. I would not force unless the dog is not properly forced to begin with. Forcing is very unlikely to speed a dog up.

Sounds like this is what I need to try. How many days do you work on this for?

Thanks Robert

[Boomer]

Does anyone have a idea how much time this takes as an average?