okay so i finally finished my homemade wingers and took them out to train. my mistake was thinking that because we had worked on doubles i could set up a mock derby marking situation. big mistake and i know it. in the past we've trained with a group that primarily runs hunt tests so all the multiple marks are within 25 yard distance or so within each other and not too far off of each other. or if i had a helper id have them throw two dummies simulating a down the shore scenario on a treeline etc. so while i had one winger finished i worked on distance till i could get more finished. he was marking 275-300 yard singles pretty dang good.
so saturday i went out put wingers at 250 at about 2o'clock from the mat. throwing right to left. and then another winger at 125 at about 10.5 o'clock from the mat throwing right to left. kind of like i saw in the 1st series of a derby recently. planned on running as singles first then reloading them and run as double took the dog out used the car as a holding blind. to simulate actual scenario. then walked up sat on the mat. went through the routine of showing the guns. i planned on showing him the long gun first then the short gun. then back to long gun to throw the mark. couldnt even get him to look at long mark as soon as he came up he was locked in on short station. heeled him away and while he was heeling correctly body wise his head was still locked in over at the short station. i tried everything i knew walk off walk back up heeling on other side. finally put the dog up and took up short winger and just worked on long singles till i could get more advice
the only things i could think of were this: add stickmen although the wingers are made of pvc and clearly white. i had planned on this eventually just waiting to let the wife get over sticker shock of wingers first. but it seems that once i pulled short mark he keyed in on the long one fine so im not convinced that will do it. second thing was maybe this is something wagon wheel will fix? isnt wagon wheel supposed to get the dog looking out straight from where he's heeled? im just through swim by so ive got a ways to go before that comes up in TRT.
sadly the 4 derbies we planned on running in april and may are probably out of the question till we get this resolved (glad i didnt enter or book hotel yet) hopefully when fall season gets around we can run derbies and quals till he ages out next march
so saturday i went out put wingers at 250 at about 2o'clock from the mat. throwing right to left. and then another winger at 125 at about 10.5 o'clock from the mat throwing right to left. kind of like i saw in the 1st series of a derby recently. planned on running as singles first then reloading them and run as double took the dog out used the car as a holding blind. to simulate actual scenario. then walked up sat on the mat. went through the routine of showing the guns. i planned on showing him the long gun first then the short gun. then back to long gun to throw the mark. couldnt even get him to look at long mark as soon as he came up he was locked in on short station. heeled him away and while he was heeling correctly body wise his head was still locked in over at the short station. i tried everything i knew walk off walk back up heeling on other side. finally put the dog up and took up short winger and just worked on long singles till i could get more advice
the only things i could think of were this: add stickmen although the wingers are made of pvc and clearly white. i had planned on this eventually just waiting to let the wife get over sticker shock of wingers first. but it seems that once i pulled short mark he keyed in on the long one fine so im not convinced that will do it. second thing was maybe this is something wagon wheel will fix? isnt wagon wheel supposed to get the dog looking out straight from where he's heeled? im just through swim by so ive got a ways to go before that comes up in TRT.
sadly the 4 derbies we planned on running in april and may are probably out of the question till we get this resolved (glad i didnt enter or book hotel yet) hopefully when fall season gets around we can run derbies and quals till he ages out next march