I have a friend (ever heard that before) that has a 21 month old female lab. She is a great marking dog and gets quite wound up at hunt tests. This summer she has run two HT's and failed both. Here's the problem, she will run out and pick up every mark we throw for her in training but she will once in a while, on her way to or from a mark get distracted by a smell or a noise or movement and has to go check it out. In the hunt tests this year she nailed the first land mark but on the second, took a nice line and got within 20 yards and took a left hand turn and then back to the handler. She had never come back without a bird before. On the next HT she nailed the two land marks but on water took a great line and then within the last 20 yards saw or smelled something and took off to the left, got to the bird throwers and didn't get back to the bird. Anyone have a suggestion to get her to stay focused all the way to the bird/dummy. She does get quite wound up in the holding blinds but not so much in training.
Loss of Concentration on the Way to a Mark
Kent S
21 - 32 of 32 Posts
We hear UFF Dah quite often here in South Dakota but try going to North Dakota and Minnesota and I think they use it in every sentence. I'll be in Little Falls, MN for a hunt test this weekend and I'll try to count how many times I hear it.
Joined
·
5,248 Posts
"In the hunt tests this year she nailed the first land mark but on the second, took a nice line and got within 20 yards and took a left hand turn and then back to the handler."Kent S said:
So what did the handler do when the dog quit and came in? What did they do in training the following week?
Evan
G
Guest
·Have you ever or do you ever call her in if she's being unsuccessful on a mark?Kent S said:
and how often do you use human beings in the field?
-K
Joined
·
9,443 Posts
Do you ever have the BB help her out, say after an extrememly long hunt, even though she is staying in the AOF? OR have you tried to pepper the AOF with some extra birds/bumpers - try and increase her success for a while and build some confidence?Kent S said:
As an example my old man was running the last mark of the setup, but it was obvious that he was running out of steam (maybe shouldn't of even run that mark with him) but it was obvious to me that he just didn't have enough umph to get the bird and was going to break down a little early, so I threw an extra bird as he was starting to slow down, he nails the mark, goes back to the truck happy and pumped up rather than a little worse for the wear....did he need it, probably not as he is an old hand at this stuff, but did it help his confidence and moral, you betcha ya! Sometimes an extra thrown bird in route can help, it is not something you should do all the time, but maybe your dog needs to build just a smidge more confidence and that carved in stone attitude that "I know there is a bird here and I'm not going back until I find it!"
Good luck,
FOM
G
Guest
·ok, good and good... How is she with strangers? What was her attitude like when she turned to come in? Did she seem nervous? Comfortable? or what?Kent S said:
Joined
·
392 Posts
May I ask "if on any second mark has she taken pressure...not limited to collar pressure but also could include a harsh verbal correction of "what the ....are you doing dog"? This also could be an anticipation of pressure in the dogs head. Sometimes pressure issues crop up in weird ways.....in my opinion the biggest thing to remember is to NOT FIX pressure issues with more pressure. I tried that once or twice over the years and it all it did was turned into a goat rope and turned into more problems.
Just a thought..
KC
Just a thought..
KC
21 - 32 of 32 Posts
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
