By and large, I prefer for my marks to be downwind. Cross wind marks can be effective, but generally require distance to work.
Because people seem to have an easier time setting up blinds than marks, one way to think about creating a good mark, is to think about the elements of a good blind.
If a blind is easy, it is easy for the dog to run a straight line from point A to point B.
If a blind is difficult, it is easy for the dog to run a straight line from point A to point B.
At the most elementary level, if you want to make a mark difficult, you want to make it difficult for a dog to run a straight line from point A to point B.
We often speak of a difficult blind as having a beginning, middle and end. That is, there are elements throughout the blind - at beginning, middle and end - that make it difficult to run a straight line from point A to point B.
The more obstacles you put between point A and point B, the more difficult it is to run a straight line between those two points. So, for example, between point A and point B, you could put the following:
• a log
• a piece of cover
• a road
• a ditch
• a stream
Some obstacles, for example, a large bale of hay, necessarily preclude a dog from running straight. Others such as a log may do so, but do not necessarily do so.
As a general rule, you make obstacles more difficult the farther you put them away from the start. For example, if you have a log that is three feet from the mat, the dog is likely to jump it. If you put the log thirty yards from the mat, the dog has more room to avoid the obstacle, and may skirt it.
You can also make obstacles more effective if you arrange them so that a dog must navigate them at an angle. Shallow angles are generally more effective than steep angles in diverting a dog’s path.
For example, let’s return to our log. Imagine that the dog is running from 6 o’clock to 12 o’clock. The log is oriented from 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock. If the dog jumps the log, it is likely to remain on path. Now imagine that the log is oriented from 8 o’clock to 2 o’clock. When the untrained dog jumps that log, it is likely to square its exit and be diverted from its path from 6 to 12.
This principle - using angles to subtly divert dogs - is one that many good marks employ.
That’s all I can write tonight.
I am on the road tomorrow to the Sunflower field trial, so others can pick up the torch from here. Or I can continue next week.