Drills for "Finished" or "advanced" dog

[Conecuh]

Well, my little girl is now 20 months old. She has been solely trained by me so I am extremely proud of her. This forum has been extremely helpful. With duck season ending on Sunday, I am beginning to get back into training mode. I am interested in possibly running some hunt tests in the future, but she is mainly my hunting dog. That being said, I am very serious about her training and keeping her sharp and in shape. I usually train 5-6 days a week. We have been through all four of the Fowl Dawgs dvds, and I believe she has done extremely well through all of the drills etc. that are contained in them. I am now trying to decide how I should procede with her training. What drills/ setups do all of you normally run with your "advanced/finished" dogs? I know I should base a lot of what we do based on what I think she needs the most work on. Most of the time I am training by myself. I do have a bird boy or two a couple days of the week. What would you guys recommend?

[Evan]

Before concerning yourself with which drills to run, you have something more important to do; a thorough assessment. Run a good variety of challenging set-ups and make detailed notes of all aspects of his/her skills that have fallen into disrepair. Be sure to run enough set-ups to determine if those issues are a pattern, and not just an episode.

When you have identified needs, then plan your training. It may a procedure or a drill or two, but it will be more meaningful if you have clear goals for your training.

Evan

[Mary Lynn Metras]

Well, my little girl is now 20 months old. She has been solely trained by me so I am extremely proud of her. This forum has been extremely helpful. With duck season ending on Sunday, I am beginning to get back into training mode. I am interested in possibly running some hunt tests in the future, but she is mainly my hunting dog. That being said, I am very serious about her training and keeping her sharp and in shape. I usually train 5-6 days a week. We have been through all four of the Fowl Dawgs dvds, and I believe she has done extremely well through all of the drills etc. that are contained in them. I am now trying to decide how I should procede with her training. What drills/ setups do all of you normally run with your "advanced/finished" dogs? I know I should base a lot of what we do based on what I think she needs the most work on. Most of the time I am training by myself. I do have a bird boy or two a couple days of the week. What would you guys recommend?

Last DVD on Fowl Dogs has drills. He has marking drills, handling drills, casting, keyhole and BBblinds. They are good. DT, swim by and WW are important. Are you going to do HRC??

[Conecuh]

Thanks for the advice Evan. I will run some setups and see what areas she needs the most work on. Mary, we have ran all of the drills that you mentioned, and I agree that they are all very good. Yes, I am planning on running HRC at some point in the future (hopefully this spring). I guess the main question that I have is what are some other drills that are out there that are not on the dvd that might focus on the same concepts. I am also interested to know if there are any drills that you periodically run with your older more advanced dogs to check up on these skills. For example, how often do you go back and perform swim by? Are there any certain drills I should avoid repeating?

[steve schreiner]

I agree with Evan on doing some work to find if and where your lack of proficiencies may be ....You must identify the problems before they can be resolved ....Then find the drill or exercise to bring up the skill level ...multiple blinds and marks set ups abound ...tune up drills...Steve S

[Chris Videtto]

Thanks for the advice Evan. I will run some setups and see what areas she needs the most work on. Mary, we have ran all of the drills that you mentioned, and I agree that they are all very good. Yes, I am planning on running HRC at some point in the future (hopefully this spring). I guess the main question that I have is what are some other drills that are out there that are not on the dvd that might focus on the same concepts. I am also interested to know if there are any drills that you periodically run with your older more advanced dogs to check up on these skills. For example, how often do you go back and perform swim by? Are there any certain drills I should avoid repeating?

If swim bye is done and done correctly, it is done and move on! If it is not done right or incomplete....or find the pup not doing the right thing.....step back and make sure it is tight!! Newbie opinion!

[JoeOverby]

Lots and lots of cheating singles. Lots and lots of lining drills. Lots and lots of ABC drills with a KRD or 2 mixed in.

[hotel4dogs]

Get a copy of Carol Cassity's book, "Training a Retriever, Drills and More". You can probably find some drills you'll like in there. It's an awesome book.

[Evan]

Thanks for the advice Evan. I will run some setups and see what areas she needs the most work on.

I'm suggesting a bit more than that. I'm suggesting that you spend the next week or two running thoughtful set-ups based on their conceptual content, and make sure you run those concepts more than once in your successive set-ups so can really assess where your dog is for maintenance.

Yes, I am planning on running HRC at some point in the future (hopefully this spring). I guess the main question that I have is what are some other drills that are out there that are not on the DVD that might focus on the same concepts.

There are a great many more drills than are on that DVD. But your dog may or may not need them.

I am also interested to know if there are any drills that you periodically run with your older more advanced dogs to check up on these skills. For example, how often do you go back and perform swim by?

If your swim-by work was thorough you should have no need to go back and put your dog back through the drill. Instead, you should maintain SB by using it often in the fieldwork and drills you will do. Cheating Singles are great maintenance drills, and should provide many opportunities to give your dog swim-by's. That's where you shine up that skill set as you use it. Other good routing spring drills are Wagon Wheel lining drills - mostly to sharpen accurate movement right & left for initial lines, ABC/Stickman drills, Tune-up drills, and so on. There are many, many more. But you don't know what your dog needs most yet, so going out and running drills without that knowledge may be more for exercise than for the help the dog really needs.

Are there any certain drills I should avoid repeating?

Unless a skill or skill-set was not properly taught in the first place, there is no need to go back and do the drills of Basics over again, such as T work or swim-by.

Evan