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Best Marking Drill

24K views 41 replies 28 participants last post by  Criquetpas 
#1 ·
I'd like to hear what folks here think is the best/most effective drill for developing pinpoint marking on multiple marks.
 
#3 ·
ABCD drill is great for getting dogs to develop marking in multiple gun pictures.

I also like the X pattern - throw angle back, throw angle in, and then flat - alternating sides.

The best drill to teach marking - is throw singles and make the dog focus before being sent. Singles teach marking.

To help with the memory development, you can do singles bird in mouth or 360 the mark.

Carol
 
#12 ·
Carol, where the heck have you been lately???

Judy
 
#16 ·
There hasn't been a whole lot to most recent discussions I felt I could add to and make a difference. This one got started when I got online this afternoon. If someone said what I was going to, I usually just don't add on.

BTW, thanks to all on the kind words about the book.

Carol
 
#5 ·
Walking singles develops pinpoint marking better than any other drill.
 
#14 ·
To the OP, some of the best marking drills may not be openly shared by the pro's, it is their lively hood after all. I have purchased Carol Cassity's book and am putting it into good use. (thank you Carol)
A regular RTF poster shared this link:
http://www.kwicklabs.com/drills.htm
(thank you Kwicklabs)
And thank you Mr. Nolan for sharing the KRD drill.
 
#19 ·
Y drill, sounds very similar to Carol's W drill.

Lone gunner stands about 75-100 yards away. First bird thrown flat to the gunners left. Next bird thrown sharply angled back to the gunners left. Third bird thrown angled in at 45 degree to the gunners right. All singles. This is a top drill that the Hillman's use. They prefer orange bumpers for it in initial stages.
 
#20 ·
others have already plugged the book, just want to add it's fantastic for beginners like me, I have no background in this stuff at all but can understand the drills.
Building a Retriever, Drills and More. A must own!
 
#24 ·
Brad:

No is the short answer. Drills for the Retriever ..... long title huh? was the predecessor to Building A Retriever. BAR has more drills and other retriever training principles and information. For the record, I did not invent the drills in the book and it is not a full training program. I do think it is a worthwhile effort and I do use the drills to help develop skills.

X marking is the angle in, angle back, flat throw – that’s what we call it, anyway. W, in the book, is setup as a blind running drill. You could use the same configuration to do marks, but the ABCD drill is what you end up with. I have found that lots of people run the same drills, they just call them different things. A field trial buddy of mine saw me running what I called “in-line blinds” and he said: “oh yeah, I’ve run those for twenty years and I call then Ladder Blinds”.

Hope this helps,

Carol
 
#25 ·
I love rolling singles but as a drill I feel I can get the most out of a w drill. Set up 5 stockmen in a w configuration. Distance depends on dogs. I prefer long stations in the 200-250 range and short stations at 100-125. You can work on punch birds by throwing short stations first as singles then throw the long ones. Or work on check downs by throwing long first then short. You can also get hip pocket looks and various other concepts. So as drills go you can get alot out of a couple of w set ups in a day.
 
#27 ·
Yes, I put long birds at 200-250, short birds at 50-60, and middle bird at 130-150. Its great to teach checking up in the face of a long gun, look long past a short gun, and run tight past a gun/old fall all in one drill. Then you can adjust the throws to get hip pockets/off the heels, pinch birds, you name it depending on how tight you want to run it.
 
#37 ·
Look, a mark is a mark. There are many so called drills that are great depending on the dogs level.
What is rarely if ever discussed here is how to Train the dog to run marks and what to do when things go wrong, pitfalls and the ramifications of not handling, recalling, correcting etc when necessary and at the correct time.
 
#42 ·
The original post was about pin point marking, maybe a little semantics here. Pin point marking on multiples Has a lot of natural born talents involved. Most well bred retrievers can be taught to run blinds. Marking is a skill that can be developed , but, marking skills with pin point percision is sometimes a born with talent as already stated.

I think there could be a good thread here on developing marking skills. As an example young dogs should be first taught the mechanics of a mark. Things already discussed such as the bird in the mouth to develop multiple skills or starting off with single marks easy to get to and easy to find. As marking skills are developed marks that are hard to get to,handling skills, but, easy to find once the destination has been met. Simple focus skills such as a hey, hey, or a single shot before the mark is thrown and as soon as the sit, then gunner is signaled for the real mark and a shot is fired. Young dogs very quickly learn to look out past short guns or stickmen. Remote throwers could fire an empty blank and as the dog focus on the station, the mark is then shot for those that train alone. Just a few ideas and others will have many more.
 
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