Assume dogs are visible on line.
Assume that if dogs fade to the right after ridge where road jogs to the right, the dogs are out of sight.
Assume dogs can see handlers and hear whistle.
I have drawn the "ideal" line from mat to blind.
What are the criteria that judges are likely to consider?
What is the corridor for the blind?
Assume dogs are visible on line.
Assume that if dogs fade to the right after ridge where road jogs to the right, the dogs are out of sight.
Assume dogs can see handlers and hear whistle.
I have drawn the "ideal" line from mat to blind.
What are the criteria that judges are likely to consider?
What is the corridor for the blind?
Criteria: sun, wind, road and terrain or anything that suctions a dog (like a previous run mark nearby).
Corridor: Keep your dog on line suggested. Don't avoid any hazards. Take the instructions the judges set down.
upload photo to photo bucket
in dropdown menu of the photo left click on "IMG code"
in your message right click to paste the image code and you should be good to go
I think the factors of the wind ,bird crates, sloping terrain,;and road will push the dogs right.
I think the corridor is between the bird crates on the right, and the small middle hay bales on the left.
I think judges will want to see the dog stay on the road as much as possible.
I would expect the big dogs to want to go left not right. Keep them on the road, going off wont kill you but you better handle. Keep them to the right of the middle hay bale or I think you're done.
Walt
For reference, that blind is approx 300 yards. It is 345 yards if all the way to the treeline.
I agree with Walt, keep to right of hay bale, on the road til that point. For me, the big tree on the right would give me my visual corridor, going that far right after the hay bale would be trouble most likely.
I want to see dog take road if that's the line (some won't), get off road at the hay bale and continue straight without a battle to keep dog from taking the road further right or fading right with the wind.
I agree with Rainmaker about the line. Thank you Ted for starting this post. But Ted since you set up the blind at the end tell us the three parts of the blind (beginning, middle, end) that you as a judge are looking for. This is the hardest thing for me to determine what the judges want from the blind. Finding corridor is usually easy but the rest???
This one is a little trickier that it might look, with the disclaimer that I don’t really have an AA dog. Hill fades to left and the wind from that direction isn't the factor it might be further out from the line. Crate of birds on the right for suction that way. Lots of dogs are suspicious of running directly to an obvious road after being trained not to. A good initial line is going to be a challenge. For me, the first meaty part of that blind is the dog fighting the factors and taking a good line to where the road straightens toward the haybale. From there, the "middle" would be keeping dog on the road, or at least right of the bale, out to the haybale, away from the bird crates. At the crest of that little ridge, where the road goes right, I would likely stop the dog and give it a strong, possibly vocal, left back, assuming the dog is where I hope it is. Letting the dog go right at that point is trouble visually. Going left of the bale isn’t challenging that particular factor. Past the tree, it is going to be distance and wind at the end of the blind. You don’t want the dog getting to the right of that further bale out there and getting out of sight, but you want the dog downwind of the bird when it gets there.
Terrian looks to me to slope to the RIGHT all the way to the bird.
The wind is blowing to the RIGHT also.
The bird crates (suction) is RIGHT also.
Seems to me dogs go right.
The topic of the thread is Challenging the blind.
To challenge it, the judge has shown you his perfect line. It is right down the middle of the road. I would think you had better keep that dog on it, or very close to it to challenge it.
I dont want my dog right. I will then have to casrt into the wind to get him back on line..
Difficult blind right at the start.. many dogs wont want to stay in the road.. Remember,, Teds topic is CHALLENGING the blind.
Gooser
Here is photo - full size - I hope. In deciding what the corridor for the blind is, it is useful to consider what a judge's book will look like. That is, what features of this photo are going to make it into the judges' diagram?
I think that overiding hazzard is the road, and how well you keep the dog on line. Dog wont want to run down it. (Road)
Keep the dog on the road till hay bale #5..
There you said (intitial assumptions,) where road curves right,, that hill that falls to the right,, the dogs will be out of site.
THATS the big hazzard.IMHO
We train to angle across roads, not run down them. We run at small stand out objects all the time to complete our blinds. We do a lot of keyhole blinds through 2 hay bales. That's why I think the dogs will be thinking left, all those pictures point left.
I doubt there would be any special instructions from the judges on this blind, why box yourself in.
One thing for sure, the initial line on this blind would be tough, at least for me. But that's what good judges want to see, you handling your dog.
Walt
I am still learnin, so don't have a suggestion, except thanks to Ted. I have never thought about how to picture a blind based upon what is going to be on the judges notebook. A VERY good hint for me in the future. I will hazard a guess to Ted's question on the over riding hazard and that to me would be keeping the dog on the road for the length indicated from the photo. For me it is hard to get a dog to run down a road for any distance.
Sorry Gooser, the terrain out to the blind slopes left to right in general, yes, just that the mat is on a fairly sharp little hill that also fades left, which is why an initial line there is tricky, suction all kinds of ways. I shouldn't have posted, since I have run from there and know the grounds, so "see" more than what's in the photo.
I think there is too much micro-managing of the dog's progression with most of the comments. I set-up to run the blind by lining my dog at the inside left edge of the bird crate, that gives me enough room to make a pleasing left back cast if the dog is on line & enables a continuation of the dog's momentum. I'm not particularly concerned about being on the road directly (& most dogs are trained to not run a road so that attempt would make the blind choppy (ping-pong) for most dogs. During the first 1/3 or the blind, I see a little more leeway on the left side of the road than most have indicated. So my first 1/3 of the blind parameters are inside the bird crate on the right & almost to the first hay bale on the left). With a crosswind from the left as indicated I will want to keep the dog a little left of center anyway to compensate for what casts I'll likely get when casting into the wind. By mid-blind, I want the dog right of the middle hay bale but not much right of the road as a right parameter. Then as the dog gets past the middle haybale my concern will be for the dog's tendency to hold onto the road as it curves (especially with the cross-wind from left) so the road right edge becomes my right parameter at that point. From there with minimal casts, the dogs momentum should enable the dog to carry its line directly toward the blind. If the dog is slightly up wind as it approaches the blind, I would stop the dog and cast slightly downwind which should not be too challenging given the cross-wind so that the dog winds the bird from just right of the blind.
I can't put my dog that close to the bird crate, she turns strong to the right on a whistle sit. My main concern running this blind is, what am I putting in her head getting her down the road? For us, that's when the right hand factors become the issue. And the left side of the road is where I am looking as well, for that part of the blind.
Walt
My thinking is that my dogs will maintain a line past the crate before being casted. We all have certain querks we have to deal with with individual dogs. A loupy sit could be one of those that helps or hurts depending upon a right or left turner. Most of my dogs are left turners. My one dog that turns right reliably , sits on a dime so there is little concerned for that in this blind for me.
I didn't say in the first post that I like this blind. It has defined parameters & most of all enables a handler to maintain a dog's momentum with minimal casts which will yield a straighter, more aesthetically pleasing line in most cases.
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