The Good, Bad, and the ugly - official Flora report

[B3]

Meeka, I went to the collar this time last year. I'd say it makes some issues at a distance clearer to the dog. The SIT-NICK-SIT is a nice tool after a couple of refusals way out there. I originally went to the collar because of a bad looping sit I couldn't fix the squeeze your own OJ way. I used a sport 50 I had for my birddog and it was fine.

[Marty N.]

Bill
I might be down to Mike's on the 13th, I am thinking of spending the weekend and training all weekend on his water. I think a dog is being brought in from Maryland for me to train and I have agreed to pick it up there. Check your calendar and let me know. Maybe we can stay at the cabin and train all weekend. If you really feel that you are not ready for Master why not enter Teal in a Senior at Nashville and spend the weekend watching Master and get an idea about what it is all about. I have some clients going so I could problable hook you up with someone to share a motel room with. Heck run the BEAST in Juniors, I have a Running with the Devil biatch that is ditto copy of yours running juniors so we could have a ball.
Marty

[goosebruce]

hehe...For anyone wondering what a senior test is like, well in the book it looks like Seasoned. At the line it doesn't. Great way to sum it up. Senior tests require much more training than a seasoned test. If there was one thing I could change in hrc, it'd be that seasoned would have similar requirements as senior. 100 yard blinds, often influenced by the marks, an honor, and walk up marks, are more like what Id consider a 'trained' hunting companion. I think that people trained with that inital goal in mind, they'd find it easier to go on when the time came. I really think people limit their dogs, by training for a seasoned dog. Your seeing a real push for seasoned marks to have some meat to them, but the 40 yard max distance on the blind will continue to cause stupid angle entries (because their isnt another 40 yard legal blind), cold water blinds, and not giving a chance to see if a dog can handle on land (cause the blind is so short). Dont get me wrong, cause Im not knocking an hr dog a bit, nothing in the dog world feels as good as that hr title... but I think people are held back in their training because of the low standards.

This is an awsome thread guys. You can read a thread like this and see how far this forum has come in a truely short time. travis

[Meeka]

And posting and reading the responses helps you work things out in your head. I have my ideas on what to do about the cheating now. But ever since early March when we ran finished at Amite River we have been concentrating in DTS and blind work in general, and that employs some cheating concepts, but using marks to work cheating will help us.

But in trying to work out what happened and re-reading this this morning I remembered some freak stuff that happened and I am wondering on how it all may have worked in concert to bring the devil out in my dowg. Here's the list:

First of all, the day before we ran everything smoothly and the last chore was a water blind with mild DTS suction and we managed it but the bird boy had napped and didn't plant the blind and Sharkey went by the spot once, then I got him back then lost him in cover for a while and he wound up in the bird station twice due to the thick cover.

Second, we tested on consecutive days and I noticed he was "loose" in the morning, though he tested very well.

Third, on the water series at the end of the second day that we have been talking about, a very, very sweet old lady and older (in dog years) dog, who was even slower than Sharkey ran in front of us and the holding blind was only about 5 yeards behind the line. It wasn't clean and she whistled and yelled, and pleaded and coerced a little, no big deal, until the blind and there was more of the same but the dog finally got the blind then promptly dissapeared away in thick cover, so there was more whistles and yells and conversation betweeen her and her husband, who had voluntered to help with the birds, and he was telling her what to do and she was telling him to leave her alone, and I was thinking the same thing. And her dog was taking a dump. Then after a little more of the aforementioned the dog finally appeared on the bank with bird and stopped to take another dump, turns out he was little ill, and more discussion amongst the judges and her husband and her ensued about what she should do, and why the dog was ill and what to do about that, then finally the dog worked it out and returned and everyone celebrated.

THEN, we stepped up to the line and got a "no-bird".

Then, we moved back to holding and let the guy taking the tax exam who had a finished pass run in front of us to give us more time and his dog ran all the way around the pond and got out of control and refused more than a few whistles before getting reigned in.

Then I sent Sharkey while seated and without the riminder finger above the face.

Now I'm not casting rocks at any of them in any way cause my dog didn't perform his best on this day either. But the point of all this is that there was a whole lotta crap going on that might have contributed to our running around the pond and getting the birds in reverse order fiasco. And I'm wondering what y'all think about all that stuff and how it affects, it it does at all, a dog in a test.

And this is not to say we didn't have unresolved issues, cause now I see it was a weakness that had never been exposed. I guess I see if you are rock solid in foundations that you get through annoyances and new stuff with your foundation, but there is a lot of difference between doing something for a little while in training and actually having a rock solid foundation in that so that you get danged near 100% execution.

[gator]

sure those things can affect a dog - esp a young dog...you train best you can, hope they don't happen on your run, but chit happens...you train in hopes that it won't, but i'm sure it does...did it cause what you're talking about, i dunno, dog's mind, man, are strange things...

gauge's CH run, the honor dog shot the first bird out - working dog was not to shoot as he would be shooting us in the head (didn't like the setup myself).....first bird out while we we're on honor, yep, young handler shot me in the back of the head....step off line, come back to honor - no bird....step off line, come back, and we make it....dog had to sit until the first bird was being brought back....as soon as that dog even looked at that bird, Rod Rombauer was "HANDLER your excused!!!" he KNEW it was my title run...and he had SEEN gauge, so he knew....of all the marks and blinds ever, i think that series is the one i'm most proud of....

anyway, you're exactly right, the foundation is the key to everything....i see that at every HT, i slacked early on line issues in order to get THAT mark, now i pay for it every HT......i can't tell ya how stupid i feel, i mean, how important WERE those marks anyway??? now, i got a dog that can do most anything, but just sitting still (such a rudamentary task) can come undone at any time....not his fault, it's mine, but brother, I WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN....i'm better for being able to look at my training and see my faults...

anyway, you're thinking right man, IMHO......gator

[goosebruce]

When you are running a test, the more you can keep things even keeled, the better. When you are in a holding blind, develop a routine... rowdy jumps up on me on command, and I love on him. Looks silly, but heck I love my dog, he loves me, and neither of get excited or nervous when we're loving on each other. Its a routine... if I forget, we suffer. We use a leash in training, so its not different when we're at a test. We use holding blinds in training, so again its not different. We train for no birds, breaking dogs, all the crap that happens. Anything your dog experiences for the first time in a test, or something outof ordinary, is gonna rock your game. Dont try new styles of handling in a test.. your dog knows its different, you'll be nervous, he'll bomb. And the expereinces leading up to a test, are likely to be repeted... if your dog beached early and hit the bushes on thursday, hes gonna do it sat morning, so be ready for it. Oh, and if your running a test, and theres no bird on blind stake, thats YOUR fault... you watch them plant your bird... it might be there, might not, might be 4 foot left of the stick. Its your test, dont trust it to a hot tired kid who didnt really care about it 6 hours ago when it started whose getting paid 30 bucks and aint coming back tommorrow. I look non-chalent running a test, cause I got all that stuff under control... it aint nothing but my buddy and me picking up a few birds. Hes kewl, cause Im kewl. Its just that simple. A calm cool handler will do better with an average dog than an average handler with a great dog, bet on it. travis

[Meeka]

Featherworks killin the senior blind that is in the shade to the right of the tree:



Lilwhite lie, aka Justin, with an easy Junior ribbon
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Toby Keith with his first of 2 Senior ribbons:
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Justin and Lillie honoring in Senior on Sunday:
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Sharkey taking a line on the same blind:
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[Hybrid Biscuit]

I think we could have done without the closeup of Meeka and lilwhitelie!

Justin and Lillie honoring in Senior
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Sharkey taking a line for the blind
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Featherworks and Blaze killin the land blind in Senior
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Toby Keith and Senior ribbon 1 of 2 for the weekend
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Lilwhite lie poses with Junior ribbon
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