[swamprooter]

Howdy Howdy. I have a 15 month old male lab that I intend to run some senior hunt test this fall. He has 1 Junior pass which he did extremely well. At this point we have finished, Zigzag, 100+ yard Wagon Wheel Pattern Blinds, and handling work except 45's degree backs. I hope I'm training him MH standards. For the past week we have done some 20,30,50,100, 125 yard Cold Blinds. I started by placing a pile of white bumpers out of his site. Line him up, kick him off and usually about half way to the pile he sees it and accellerates to the pile. I started short and in 1 week he is doing work out to 125-150 yards with very few handling. For example his 150 yard cold retreive he can't see it till he gets 120 yards or sometime 100 yards. I rotate the distances and keep all piles true cold. His line will sway sometimes 10-20 yards then I handle but for most part I handle 1 out of every 5 send offs. I am able to block his vision of the pile becasue I'm in a dry lake bed of 1000s of acres with sporatic grass from ankle to waist high. Things have been going smooth which concerns me. Is this drill OK? Should I throw some kinks in it? We finish up with some single and double BB marks out to 100-150 yards in short grass. thanks for any advice

 

[Evan]

It's okay, but you and your dog would be better served to back up and run Bird Boy blinds for a couple weeks first.

Evan

 

[swamprooter]

Thanks Evan, I'm unfortuately a lone soldier. I have two remote launchers ( train right single launchers) that I hide behind 4' tall camo netting and run my single and double marks from. My sequence is now is that I pull up to the sand flats. Go and place 3-4 white bumper piles out 50 to 150 yards out of site, uncrate my dog and kick him off to 5-6 blinds.
Sould I add some Stickmen out in the field?

 

[LH]

Re: Starting Cold Blinds. What drill am I doing and is it OK

Howdy Howdy. I have a 15 month old male lab that I intend to run some senior hunt test this fall. He has 1 Junior pass which he did extremely well. At this point we have finished, Zigzag, 100+ yard Wagon Wheel Pattern Blinds, and handling work except 45's degree backs. I hope I'm training him MH standards. For the past week we have done some 20,30,50,100, 125 yard Cold Blinds. I started by placing a pile of white bumpers out of his site. Line him up, kick him off and usually about half way to the pile he sees it and accellerates to the pile. I started short and in 1 week he is doing work out to 125-150 yards with very few handling. For example his 150 yard cold retreive he can't see it till he gets 120 yards or sometime 100 yards. I rotate the distances and keep all piles true cold. His line will sway sometimes 10-20 yards then I handle but for most part I handle 1 out of every 5 send offs. I am able to block his vision of the pile becasue I'm in a dry lake bed of 1000s of acres with sporatic grass from ankle to waist high. Things have been going smooth which concerns me. Is this drill OK? Should I throw some kinks in it? We finish up with some single and double BB marks out to 100-150 yards in short grass. thanks for any advice

Hi!

May I ask, how did you learn how to do these drills? Any books you have read or other info sources?

 

[swamprooter]

LH...Zigzag and Wagon Wheel I read about in SmartWorks by Evan G. Placing bumper piles just out of site till dog reaches a certain distance I'm winging it. Only thing I really know is it's a different ballgame training by yourself.

 

[Kenneth Niles Bora]

Sould I add some Stickmen out in the field?

Yes, it is a good thing.
Are you training the dog to do a blind retrieve, or to seek out and run to a pile? Try putting out 2 spaced piles at your area and running a blind with only 1 bumper with a line that goes between the piles. That will tell you how you are doing.

 

[swamprooter]

Great tip Ken, will do tomorrow morning. I was thinking about switching to orange bumpers soon also.