[larrynogaj]

hands down

I use a hand down in three different manners as a visual cue to help differentiate distance. For anything out to 100 yards, I place my hand just barely in front of her eyes but high enough as to not interfere with her line of sight. From 100 to maybe 200 yards, I move my hand forward about 10" but always well above her line of vision. Out beyond 200 yards my hand goes forward another 10-12". Once positioned, my hand never moves. We don't generally do any retrieves beyond 300 yards and those are kept to a minimum, but she has picked up on the cue.

 

[larrynogaj]

Re: hands down

But she has picked up on the cue.

Body language. Cues, all wonderful. Knowing our dogs.

Talking about dog body language, how often do you see a dog, after jumping off a truck, and thinking while observing the dog,...........I reckon that owners in trouble before they start.

Ah yes, body language. From my limited experience, On a par basis I think that body language means more to a dog than a verbal command, though through training we get our dogs to react to our spoken word.

 

[larrynogaj]

hand down

Larry wrote:

but she has picked up on the cue.

Just curious, if you use the 300 yard cue on a 100 yard mark, does your dog go 300 yards?

Pete

Good question. First, a little background. This is the first dog that I've trained. 5yr old golden female. She has her Senior HT title but she's my meatdog and I'm working on stretching out her distances for when we need it, and besides that, I enjoy doing it and learning something new. I do almost all of my training by myself and I don't own a launcher, so most of the marks that we run are within 100 yards. With spring on the horizon, I'll enlist my wife for some assistance on some longer marks. So I've used this comcept primarily on blinds. I was getting some popping and she was looking for me to help her out. I've been working on the confidence factor and i'm happy with our progress. It was something that I threw into our preparation, hoping that she'd pick up on it. I started doing this back in december when duck season ended, so we've been at it for 3 months on weekends when we've been able to get out. I couldn't say for sure that it helped, but I know it hasn't hurt. Since I started doing it, I've never given her a false signal, but your question has me thinking. After we work on it a bit more, it would be interesting to set up an in-line double and send her for the long bird fist and see what the results are.

 

[larrynogaj]

Re: hands down

I use a hand down in three different manners as a visual cue to help differentiate distance. Once positioned, my hand never moves. We don't generally do any retrieves beyond 300 yards and those are kept to a minimum, but she has picked up on the cue.

Interesting. Do you also use verbel cues (easy, way out) or only the hand cue?

For long marks I use Waaay back, get your mark, Daisy.
For long blinds I use Waaay back, dead bird, Back