This is the third part of the training permanent blinds mini series.
In Part Two we established some permanent blinds, and lengthened them out a little.
We also introduced your gundog to several permanent blinds in new and different locations.
In this article, we are going to look at teaching the dog that he needs to respond appropriately to this ‘back’ command, even when there are enticing alternatives.
The following is an excerpt from Passing Grade Three
Introducing distractions
Now that your dog is now confidently running out to several permanent blinds without any hesitation, we can move on to Exercise Four.[wp_ad_camp_1]This exercise is designed to make sure that the dog understands the ‘back’ command even more clearly.
We want him to know that he must run back blind, in any location you choose, on your command, even if he can clearly see a retrieve in another direction.
You will be using the familiar permanent blind locations at which you have already trained, but because you are adding a new factor of difficulty (a distraction dummy) you will make the retrieves much shorter again to begin with.
Exercise Four
‘INTRODUCING A DISTRACTION’
- Just as before, place a dummy at each of your permanent blinds without the dog’s knowledge.
- Heel the dog to within twenty yards of the PB.
- Take another dummy out of your bag and make sure the dog has seen you do so.
- Toss this ‘distraction’ dummy lightly a short distance to one side and slightly behind you. If the dog seems very interested in the distraction dummy tell him ‘no’, ‘leave that’.
- Heel the dog forward five yards, away from the distraction dummy and towards the blind.
- Line him up at heel as usual. If he turns to look at the distraction dummy repeat your ‘leave that’ command and praise him as he turns away.
- Make sure the dog is pointing and looking at the PB.
- Line the dog ‘back’ as usual.
If the dog is clearly finding the distraction very tempting, repeat steps 1 to 8 at each of your other permanent blind locations. Repeat each session until the dog is competent.
If the dog is successfully running to the blind and is clearly not being tempted by the distraction, you will move on to your next blind and make it a little harder.
In the next exercise you will put out your distraction dummy as you did in Exercise Four, but you will send the dog without heeling him forwards first.
Exercise Five
‘A MORE TESTING DISTRACTION’
- Just as before, place a dummy at each of your permanent blinds without the dog’s knowledge.
- Heel the dog to within twenty yards of the PB.
- Take another dummy out of your bag and make sure the dog has seen you do so.
- Toss this ‘distraction’ dummy lightly a short distance to one side and slightly behind you.
- Remain in position and line the dog up at heel. If he turns to look at the distraction dummy give your ‘leave that’ command and praise him as he turns away.
- Make sure the dog is pointing and looking at the PB.
- Send the dog ‘back’ as usual. If he is successful (not tempted by the distraction) move on to the next exercise. If he struggles with this, go back to the previous exercise for a while.
It is time to make the distraction dummy even more tempting. You are going to progress to throwing the distraction dummy in clear and tempting view to the side of the dog.
Make sure you do this gradually. Don’t try to progress through all the next stages in one session. If at any stage the dog is too tempted and fails to ‘line’ back without hesitation, back up a stage and make things easier for him.
The dog has already run a similar exercise to the next one when you practiced three handed casting to marks. But this is harder for him because the dummy you want him to collect is a blind (albeit a very predictable one), rather than one he has not seen fall.
For the first couple of times, remember to heel the dog forwards a few steps before sending him. Make sure he is focused ahead before you give the ‘back’ command.
Exercise Six
‘ADVANCING THE DISTRACTION’
- Over the next few blinds, gradually put your distraction dummy less to the rear and more to your right, until it is directly to the side. Each time you make the distraction dummy more tempting, heel the dog forwards and away from the distraction before sending him for the first time.
- Next, on each blind you can begin to throw the distraction dummy out to your left. This is more tempting for the dog as he is also on your left hand side. As before, make it easy for him to succeed, throwing the dummy rather more to the rear to begin with and moving gradually to throwing directly to the side.
- Now you will put out two distraction dummies, one to either side of the dog, before lining him ‘back’.
- Make sure that your dog will line out ‘back’ at any of your permanent blind locations despite these two distraction dummies.
When you can answer yes to the following question, you can move on to True Blinds.
Q1. Does your dog run out confidently and without hesitation to any of the three permanent blind locations, after distraction dummies have been thrown to either side?
Passing Grade Three is available from the Gundog Club bookshop
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