Dog blinking memory bird

[chessiedog]

Is it possible to post a video of this behavior? It may shorten the thread and eliminate any confusion on terminology. You can also get a more precise answer to your problem.

[Brad B]

When you're doing single is it with multiple gun stations out? Big difference in "doing lots of single" and in doing them with multi guns present.

[Evan]

Is it an "avoidance" behavior?

Not usually. Like so many behaviors, it's tied to expectations. A dog may start this because a handler is robotically slow in their sending cadence, or they pause too long in some other aspect before sending. The dogs develop the expectation of that timing, and their focus on individual marks erodes because of what they expect to come next. That's only one example, but it's common.

Kind of a two-edge sword because we teach handlers to slow down often because so many of them do nearly everything too fast. It's basically a result of the training being out of balance. Too slow too often, or too fast too often; each tend to produce unwanted side effects. It's much like handlers who absolutely have to go through their own stylized ritual on line; same moves, same timing, time after time, and they wonder why the dog's focus erodes.

Mix it up. Stay balanced. Do some no-hands sends now and then, for example.

Evan

[Breck]

Here is something else you can do. Refer to pic.
You need 3 chairs with white coats, 1 birdboy, bag o' bumpers.
Start birdboy at chair #1, Have dog watch, throw bumper and THEN make dog watch fall area WHILE birdboy slowly walks away to chair # 2.
When dog is able to watch #1 fall for a good 10 seconds WITHOUT looking over to birdboy walking, send to retrieve #1.
Repeat with Chair # 2 and have birdboy walk to chair #3.
If dog dogs does a good job let them have mark #3.
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Headswing Walkaway.jpg

[Howard N]

The problem as my training partner also noticed is that after the bird is thrown so will look at it then just turn her head before it hits the ground.

Evan, are you sure you would tell someone to speed up with the above problem? I think I'd rather go to redirecting the dog's attention to the fall and then releasing when I saw the dog's attention was firmly on the fall area. Maybe one or two seconds of focus time to make sure the dog's attention is really at the fall area before the release.

Ain't internet training fun? We've gone from blinking, to head swinging, to maybe bugging all on the same problem. Lord knows what I would really call it if I saw it in real life.

[Paul "Happy" Gilmore]

The old eye-blink head swing bug problems comes up around here and generates a lot of advice on a regular basis. Rarely does anyone agree on the Rx.

[Howard N]

Yup.

Another thing I might do is shorten up the marks until the dog is more confident on what I expect her to do.

[Evan]

Evan, are you sure you would tell someone to speed up with the above problem?

If the owner agreed with my assessment, and it's not a bugging or another attitude problem, I sure would. I've solved it that way with many dogs. Change the expectations and you change the behavior.

Evan

[cajundogman]

Well Howard I would call it smart a** answer if it were me. Maybe we're not all experts like you. As for everyone else thanks for any help that you have given me to fix this problem

[thelast2]

Ain't internet training fun? We've gone from blinking, to head swinging, to maybe bugging all on the same problem. Lord knows what I would really call it if I saw it in real life.

Distracted by outside source......?

Distracted by vehicle noise or a barking dog in the background, or my personal favorite, though unlikely in your case, someone cutting up in the peanut gallery!