Environment is half of everything

I think I had one of those ah-ha moments. It was another one of those things that my teachers have told me, but which I hadn’t really started to understand for myself. The moment occurred last Tuesday, while I was practicing Obedience with Tooey, and it maybe explains why she refused to go into the water at the last hunt test of the season.

Taken from the AKC Obedience Regulations, amended January 1, 2012, page 73

Tooey and I have been working on the broad jump. The broad jump consists of four white telescoping hurdles, all about 8 inches wide. (See the diagram.)

We’ve been gradually adding hurdles — starting with her jumping over one hurdle and then two. On Tuesday, after several beautiful jumps over two hurdles, I added a third. I gave her the command to “Fly” over the hurdles, she trotted toward them as usual, really slowed down as she got closer, stopped when she got to them, put one front paw on the nearest hurdle, and looked up at me.

Her expression clearly said, “What am I supposed to do now?”

Just that one change, from two hurdles to three hurdles, was enough to stop and confuse her.

My teachers (and many of the books I’ve read) have all said that environment and context are as much a part of the correct execution of a behavior as the command or signal. That a command to “Sit” in the living room does not necessarily mean the same thing to the dog as a “Sit” in the backyard or at the park. You have to practice it many times in many situations until the dog “generalizes” the behavior, and understands that “Sit” means butt down no matter where you are, who else is around, and what else is happening.

Similarly, to Tooey, “Fly” over two hurdles is one thing; “Fly” over three hurdles is clearly something else. She understood the first, but not the second. So I went back to the beginning, throwing cookies over the three hurdles until Tooey was as happily flying over them as she had been over two.

So, what might this say about her performance at the hunt test last weekend?

Tooey had made it through the land series really well. She did her usual workmanlike job of going out and retrieving the ducks, and she did it with little of the hunting around that many of the other Junior dogs were doing. We were pleased and very excited. This meant that if Tooey also got her two ducks in the water series, she’d pass her 4th retriever Junior Hunter test, and would have her Junior Hunter title.

But when she and Russ got to the start line at the edge of a deep pond, she was clearly distracted and confused. She sat at Russ’s side, marked where the duck had fallen on the other side of the pond, heard Russ send her, but then wouldn’t get into the water. She looked up a Russ a couple of times, clearly confused. He sent her again, and she moved out along the bank for a few feet or so, and then came back to Russ. That was it — she was out.

Russ leashed her up, and we went home, without the pass or the title, and ourselves clearly confused as to what the problem could have been. Tooey loves the water. She has always loved the water. Getting into any kind of water has never been a problem. If we had been asked to predict what might fail Tooey in a hunt test, not getting into the water would never have occurred to either of us.

But on Tuesday night, maybe the problem was at least partially defined: A command in one environment is not necessarily the same as the same command in another, new environment.

We’ve practiced at all kinds of ponds and rivers — still water and moving water, deep swimming water and shallow running water, and steep banks and flat banks. But this test was set up at water unlike anywhere we’ve practiced. This was deep water with a 90 degree drop for a bank, just the pond’s edge with tall grass. At the line, the dog sat on the edge; take one step and the dog is in deep water, needing to swim right away. Nothing gradual about it.

Tooey doesn’t usually do the water-spaniel leap like Cooper does (see the banner photo at the top of the blog). She usually walks in, at least part of the way. But to get into the water at this test, there was nothing to walk on. So she was confused, just like she was on Tuesday with the hurdles. Her look up at me on Tuesday was just like her look up at Russ on Sunday: “What am I supposed to do now?”

That is exactly the question. But now, at least, having formulated a hypothesis as to what the problem might be, we can keep working on it, and see what happens next year.

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Rose City Classical Conditioning

Almost one year ago today, at the Rose City Classic dog show, Cooper got his show championship. And that’s the last time I spent any time near a regular conformation ring. (I did show Cooper at the IWSCOPS specialty show in August.)

Today, even though the sun was out, our field training group was flooded out of its training grounds, so Russ and I decided to go to watch the Irish Water Spaniels at this year’s Rose City Classic. We left the dogs at home, hopped in the car, and drove the few miles over to the Expo Center.

About half way there, the area around my solar plexus got tight, I found it harder to breathe, and my stomach started to churn.

This went on for a few minutes until I realized, “Hey! I’m feeling nervous. Why am I nervous? I’m not showing any dogs in this show.”

Hmm…

I guess that I have been nervous driving to dog shows for a long time, ever since I started showing my dogs. So some part of me has made this dog show = nervousness into an automatic connection, one that I seem to have no control over.

It’s like watching Tooey start to drool when I start getting out the field training bumpers. She often gets treats when she retrieves those bumpers, and some part of her brain has made the connection bumpers = salivation.

We’ve both been classically conditioned.

I am beginning to realize that if I’m going to keep showing my dogs at dog shows, I had better deal with this. It’s understandable to be nervous when there is something to be nervous about. But when I start reacting for no reason based in reality, well, that needs some attention.

I think it’s connected to the high rate of failure at dog shows. Conformation shows are the worst at this — only one dog and one bitch can get points toward their championship — everyone else loses. I lost a lot — it took more than three years of regular showing for Cooper to get his championship.

And for Obedience, the problem has been me. Every dog who passes the trial, earns a leg toward the title. But the dog and handler have to be trained and ready to pass. I’ve been eager for Cooper to earn his CD title in Obedience (for a lot of reasons), and so I started showing him as soon as I thought he remotely had a chance — as it turns out, before he was ready. Resulting also in a high rate of failure.

So mostly my experiences with dog shows have been uncomfortable, linking a strong desire to succeed and a fear of failure, with the regular experience of failure.

So. What to do?

I am taking some steps. I haven’t shown Cooper in Obedience for quite awhile. And all that time, we’ve been taking classes, going to private lessons, attending matches, and practicing at home. Am doing my best to make sure we are prepared when we go next time.

But I am puzzled as to what to do with that extra layer of nervousness that appears to affect me without reason. What to do with that nervous feeling that arrives just because I am driving to a dog show. It’s got to be a mental game of some kind, but what, I don’t know.

Perhaps you do.

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When the weather breaks on a weekend, train

Most of this morning we watched frozen precipitation. It ranged from tiny particles, to fat flakes, to hail pounding on the roof.

But then we noticed sunshine. Odd… Hmmm… better go training now.

Tooey obeying the "Hold" command for a few minutes after an 100-yard blind

Cooper learning that he has to pay attention to his handler before said handler will throw the ball

We worked on

• a repeat of yesterday’s long V-blind, but in a new location for Cooper,
• a couple of 100-yard blinds for Tooey,
• a “Hold” practice for Tooey
• an honor for Cooper while watching Tooey go off for her blinds, and
• paying attention to the handler for Cooper

This paying attention is hard for Cooper when it comes to toys. For about a week, we’ve been working on a new rule: Cooper has to look at his handler before the handler will throw a toy.

Usually Cooper is so focused on the toy, or whatever else he’s distracted by, that he doesn’t even really know his person is there. This does not work well in Obedience, particularly during heeling, when the dog has to be paying attention to the handler so that the dog stays in correct heel position, no matter where the handler goes. So if we can convince Cooper that very good things happen when he looks at his handler, we are hoping that he will actually want to pay attention to his handler. This would, in theory, make correcting his tendency to get distracted during heeling much easier.

But you know, teaching a new thing can be dangerous. Students “forget” things they’ve long known while they are learning new things. This is normal, and it happens to people and dogs. Eventually, the new thing becomes integrated and the old things come back.

In particular, I’m hoping that teaching attention will not mess up his marking ability. Marking is crucial to fieldwork, during which he’s supposed to be looking out so he can “mark” where birds fall. We may have to re-introduce the “Find your mark” command, which tells him to look out and around for birds. He’s never really needed that command because he’s always been looking out without being told to.

So we got in about 1/2 hour of training. Then we noticed that the sky was getting suddenly darker, and that all the other people and their dogs had gone.

Hmmm… better leave now. And just as we got the dogs back in their crates and the bumpers and chuck-it put away, the hail started up again, pummeling the car and dancing off the windshield.

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How to know what’s best

How to know the best thing to do is WAY different from actually knowing.

And I’m starting to realize that the biggest task in being a beginner is learning how to judge what is best.

I am not one who learns well from books or DVDs. That may sound odd coming from a person with an M.A. in English. But I find instructional books and DVDs difficult to follow, mostly because the authors, despite their best intentions, fail to explain the one crucial thing I don’t get. Or they assume I know things that I don’t. Or they go on and on about stuff I learned long ago.

And with a book or a DVD, you can’t get help.

With a person, when you’re not getting what you need, you can at least ask, and they can explain again. And with a person, they can observe and make comments when you’re doing well or making a mistake.

Now, if there were only one teacher in the world, that would be simple. But there are many more than one. Many have credentials, others have long experience, and some have both. A few of those actually know how to work with people. And only a small fraction are available at the same time and place as I am.

So, those are the people I work with (or try to, anyway).

So here’s the problem: they don’t agree with each other. Here are two example:

In hunt tests, you stand with your dog at the start line, facing the area where the first bird is going to fall. Sounds simple. But no.

You have to stand correctly, and how “correctly” is defined is not universally agreed upon. Let’s take just foot position. I’ve been told three different things by three different (and successful) pro trainers. The dog is on your left in heel position, so the question is just where to put your feet next to the dog.

• both feet parallel to each other, toes pointing straight toward the area of the fall and even with each other, feet about 6″-10″ apart
• the left foot (the one next to the dog) is pointed toward the area of the fall, with the other foot slightly behind and angled with toe pointing away from the dog
• the right foot (the one away from the dog) is pointed toward the area of the fall, with the other foot slightly behind and angled with toe pointing toward the dog

All of these positions have advantages. The first one keeps everything squared in the direction you want the dog to go: feet, hips, and shoulders. The second and third provide a bit more ease in your ability to maintain balance on uneven ground, and still have a foot that can indicate direction.

Okay, now here’s another one — about how to hold the leash when you’re training your dog to heel.

• Hold the leash loosely so that the clip end of the leash hangs from the dog’s collar in a J-shape. The leash should never be tight, even when the dog is somewhat out of position. For Cooper and me, this equals about a 3-1/2′ leash. You keep the dog in heel position with rewards, food lures, verbal encouragement.
• Hold the leash so that when the dog is in heel position, the leash is loose, but whenever the dog is out of heel position, the leash is tight. For us, this is about an 14″ leash. Of course, you can still reward the dog when he’s in the correct position with treats or praise.

In the first case, the dog learns to heel without depending on information from the leash and collar. In the second case, the dog is given information when needed by the leash and collar.

I won’t even get into the discussion about what kind of collar to use.

So the point of this post is not to argue about which one of the suggested methods is best — it’s to help me think about how to know which method is best.

One obvious answer is that whichever one works for the dog is the one that I should choose. But it’s not that easy.

• First off, I am a beginner. I can’t really tell which method works better. With heeling, I’ve just begun to figure out how to see if the dog is in heel position without looking down and back at him when he’s behind me (another no-no). I will get better at this, but I’m not there yet. With foot position in the field, well… there are so many other variables out there that I have no way of knowing which might be enticing my dog off the straight path to the bird.
• I go to a lot of training classes and sessions because I want training partners and, other than my living room, I don’t have a training space of my own. So I end up in the company of a lot of experienced people who don’t agree with each other and who are trying to help me. I find this both helpful and very confusing.

It seems like I need to just pick one way to do a thing and stick with it. That way, my dog can get consistent information from me.

But then, what am I supposed to do when I’ve picked a way that seems to be working, but the teacher/pro/expert wants me to do it another way? Particularly in the case when I have developed a relationship with this person, am paying them for the expertise, and/or need a training partner or their training space.

I mean, I don’t want to insult these people, and I do want their help.

If I knew how to pick and could justify my choice, it’d be much easier to talk to these people about why I am doing what I am doing.

But that’s the problem.

It’s a circle, and one of those vicious ones, too.

I am getting dizzy.

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Late lesson (hopefully) learned

I learned a lesson today: Be at Obedience matches and trials much, much earlier than I think I have to.

You’d think that after the nightmares I’ve had about dog shows, I would already have internalized this lesson.

But apparently not.

This morning I was scheduled to run in an Obedience fun match put on by the Sherwood Dog Training Club. I try to go to as many matches as I can — they are the closest thing to a real Obedience trial you can get. But because they’re fun matches, and not real trials, there’s all sorts of things you can do in the ring. You can re-do exercises, correct your dog, give treats, play with toys, whatever you need to do to help your dog and yourself learn all the right moves and behaviors.

For this match, I thought I’d given myself a 1/2 hour buffer. I counted the number of people scheduled to run ahead of me in the Novice class, multiplied by 6 minutes per run, added that to the start time, and planned to be there 30 minutes earlier than the resulting time.

But reality interfered. As if often does.

I’d forgotten my entry fee money, and had to stop at a cash machine. That added 10 minutes to my travel time, leaving me with being there just 20 minutes ahead. And then, it turned out that about 4 people who were supposed to run before me were missing, and that right there equals about 24 minutes, putting me now 4 minutes behind. And then, some of the people ahead of me were faster than expected, adding probably another 3 or 4 minutes to the time hole.

Being kind and resourceful people, instead of eliminating me from the run order, some fellow club members filled in ahead of me. And when I walked in the door, I discovered that the person ahead of me was already almost through her run.

That gave me only about 1.5 minutes to get my dog out of the car, persuade him to pee outside, and be inside at the ring gate. Gagh!

I’m usually a very responsible, on-time type of person, so this is completely embarrassing. I hope it’s sufficiently embarrassing that I won’t do this again. Reality can bite in just these same ways at real trials, too.

I guess I can just be glad that I had an opportunity to learn this at a fun match, rather that at a real (and much more expensive and less forgiving) Obedience trial.

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Thanksgiving weekend training

Who would have thought that, after a week with 6 inches of dark, soggy, horizontal rain, we would get perfect weather, in a perfect setting near Monmouth, Oregon, to do some hunt test training? Any opportunity to train with a group is wonderful, but to do it in these conditions is truly a gift to be thankful for.

Both dogs are sort of rusty at the work. I’ve been able to take Cooper and Tooey out a couple of times in the last month, but neither time has Russ been able to go. Russ and Cooper are the good team, and when those two work together, it’s a real pleasure to watch, even if they are rusty at it.

Today we tried a triple with Cooper. That’s when the dog sits with his handler to watch 3 birds go down, and then goes out to pick them up and bring them back, one right after another. Cooper has done a triple before, but not at these distances (about 150 yards or so). Cooper did really well on his first two birds.

Cooper bringing back his bird

On that third bird, he needed a bit of help to remember where it had fallen. Since I had thrown that bird for him, I walked out of my blind and into the field, waving my arms as I moved toward the area of the fall. Seeing that motion perked up Cooper’s memory, and he found the bird and brought it back to Russ. That’s one thing about Cooper — he always brings back his bird.

We worked on some blind retrieves, too. That’s where the handler lines the dog up, pointing him in the direction of a bird (or, in this case, bumper) which the dog hasn’t seen fall. On a blind retrieve, the dog has to go out on faith, and follow the handler’s whistle and hand signals to direct him to the bird. Coop’s rusty at this, so today’s practice is just what he needed.

Russ directing Cooper toward the bumper

Cooper, having found the bumper, bringing it back

Tooey and I got some training in today, too. With Tooey, I still go into training sessions with the question in my mind — will Tooey pick up and bring back her bird? She marks the fall of her birds well, but she doesn’t always find them on the ground right away. That’s not uncommon for a “junior” dog.

But she’s also had some episodes where, even after she’d found her bird, she wouldn’t pick it up. And a couple of times, she’s found it, picked it up, brought it part way back, but then dropped it and wouldn’t pick it up again.

And on top of that, today she got a little spooked by the people who were throwing the birds for her. She’s usually a bit wary of strangers, and twice, a person popped up out of his or her blind while Tooey was running out toward the bird. All for excellent reasons, but of course, Tooey didn’t know that. (You can see a blind in the upper right corner of the picture above.)

Both times, that sudden appearance of people stopped her in her tracks. Like “Whoa! Where’d that person come from? I’d better step away and study the situation for a few minutes.”

So, lots of challenges. But thankfully, even with all that, today we had success. Tooey found all her birds (mostly frozen ducks), picked them all up, and brought them all back. Not surprisingly, the flapping pigeon was her favorite, much more exciting than frozen ducks. And she brought that pigeon back alive and unhurt, fit to serve another day. Good girl!

Tooey marking the fall of her bird

Tooey running out toward her bird

Tooey returning with her bird (hooray!)

Trice with Tooey showing off her pigeon

I want to thank Jim Davis of Oakhaven Labradors for his advice and access to this wonderful spot and equipment today. And also thanks to Hank, Donna, and Pat for throwing birds for Cooper and Tooey.

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Coopercam: The Director’s Cut

Cooper is a versatile boy. I have tried teach him how to make espresso coffee, but he is limited to drip only. Cinematography might be a new venue for his talents. I recently built a new collar out of steel and neoprene that is a camera mount for the GoProHD video camera.

In the video that follows, I felt it necessary to slow it down to half speed because Cooper’s motion is so quick, that the visual shakes would be too disturbing to watch at regular speed. Even then, when he shakes off the water, be prepared for some visual disturbances.

Cooper wearing his stylish GoProHD video camera

We spent this morning at St. Louis Ponds with the Northwest English Springer Spaniel Club at their monthly club training day. After a few drills, I stepped over to one of the ponds with Cooper and his new camera to record a bit of video. In fact, it is the very same pond that is in the photo at the top of blog, the one with Cooper leaping into the water.

Patrice and Tooey are away this weekend in Canada at a Retriever workshop on Vancouver Island, so us boys are staying home and doing boy things with our toys. Over time I will adjust or modify the collar to help stabilize the image a bit. But I think Cooper has a future in producing some bird hunting videos.

Now if I can get him to perfect those espressos . . . .

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Training steady, picture

Just the other day, I wrote a blog entry about our new regime to help Cooper learn what staying Steady means.

Today, Russ was able to take a picture of one part of our training. To do that, he had to step away from his normal place, which is with Cooper on his left, with Cooper’s head at Russ’s knee. You can just imagine he’s standing there, can’t you? Yes, I knew you could.

Throw the bumper! I'll stay steady, I promise!

The rules for this particular part of the game are that:

1. If Cooper is sitting, with all 4 feet on the platform, then I will blow the duck call. If he moves a foot off the platform or starts making noise, I stop blowing the duck call, Russ heels Cooper off and then back onto the platform, and we start over.
2. If Cooper is still on the platform with all 4 feet and is quiet, then I will throw the bumper. If not, then I don’t throw it, and Russ heels Cooper off and then back onto the platform, and we start over with #1.
3. If Cooper is sitting (again or still) on the platform with all 4 feet and he is quiet, then Russ will send him for the bumper. If not, then I go out and pick up the bumper myself. Russ heels Cooper off and then back onto the platform, and we start over with #1.

Oh, this is hard.

We moved on to requiring that he also be quiet today. He’s done well in the past couple of days with staying on the platform, even up to being able to retrieve 8 bumpers out of 8 throws. But we noticed that he’d increased the amount of “vocalizing” — doing this whine/bark that says, “I want to go NOW! Send me NOW! NOW!”

Can’t have that. Cooper needs to be quiet at hunt tests, and besides, he’s not in charge of deciding who gets to go when. So we added the quiet requirements.

We’ll keep doing some version of this every day. Let’s hope some of this sinks in deep in by Saturday, when Cooper is entered in a Senior retriever hunt test.

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Training steady

I took Cooper to a private lesson with Joan at Dog Days last weekend, and as part of our work that day, I described Cooper’s problem with staying steady at the line in hunt tests.

She said, “Oh, that’s just Stay.”

My thought, “Oh, yeah, right. Just Stay…”

But nevertheless, Joan did demonstrate to me that Cooper doesn’t really know that “Stay” always means Stay. She asked me to put him in a Sit-Stay and walk away 20 feet. After I did so, all she had to do was wave one arm, and Cooper moved.

This is the dog, who when told to Stay during field practice so Russ can walk out 50 yards to place a bumper, will stay butt solid on the ground until Russ returns. However, this is also the dog who so far cannot then stay at Russ’s side and wait to be sent for the bird during hunt tests.

Obviously, there is a gap in Cooper’s understanding.

So, we’ve started a new regimen. At the moment, it has 3 parts:

Part 1

Cooper must Sit-Stay before getting to eat. I mix up his bowl of food and put it on the table. Then I take Cooper across the room, I turn to face his mat, and tell him Heel, Sit, and Stay. When he’s got that, I go to the table, get his bowl, and put it on his mat. Then I return to his side and wait for a bit (this time is gradually increasing as we progress). Then I send him to his food.

The first couple of days that we tried this, of course he broke before I’d even returned to him — I had to rescue the food bowl before he could get to it and take him back to where I’d placed him. Now we’re up to about 15 seconds of waiting after I’ve returned to him.

Part 2

Cooper must Sit-Stay before getting into the car. (He loves riding in the car.) I put him in a Sit-Stay at the edge of the front porch, go to the car and open the back, and then I open his crate. Then I return to Cooper’s side and we wait. After a bit, I send him to the crate. Same issues as staying for the food bowl, and about the same rate of success.

Part 3

This training happens only in the field. It requires two people, bumpers, and a raised (3″) platform that is just barely big enough for Cooper to sit or stand on.

Russ places the platform so that it is squarely under Cooper when Cooper is in heel position. I go out 30-40 yards with the bumpers. When Cooper is sitting, Russ signals for the bumper, and I blow the duck call and throw the bumper. Then, if Cooper still has all 4 feet on the platform when the bumper lands, Russ sends him for the bumper. If a foot is off the platform, I go out and get the bumper myself.

This is hard.

At first, Cooper could not stay on the platform at all. Then he could keep 2 or 3 feet on the platform. Then he could keep all 4 feet on the platform for about 2 bumpers out of 8. Now we’re up to a pretty reliable 6 bumpers out of 8. When we get up to 8 bumpers out of 8, then we’ll up the criteria so that Cooper has to be with all 4 feet plus butt on the platform before he can be sent.

After that (whenever that is), we’ll have to figure out a way to “fade” the platform. I’m sure I can get Joan’s help with that.

Oh, and Tooey?

She’s very motivated by food and by riding in the car, so we are doing Parts 1 and 2 with her also. These seem harder for her than for Cooper, but she’s having gradually increasing success also.

However, Tooey is not so motivated by getting to retrieve, so Part 3 wouldn’t work for her. What we need to figure out for Tooey is seeing how we can get her to enjoy retrieving. But that’s another story for another post.

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Team Cooper turned around in Novice obedience

The fact that I don’t know my right from my left is not usually a problem. Oh, yeah, I might say the wrong direction when giving driving instructions. Or I might put the dish in the right hand cabinet after being told to put it in the left cabinet. But anything like that can simply re-done. No big deal.

But as I discovered in last Sunday’s Obedience fun match, that is not so easily done in an Obedience competition.

Take a look at the performance in the YouTube video below:

In this video, you can hear the judge say “left turn” or “right turn,” and then see the dog and handler execute the specified turn perfectly and without hesitation. In fact, this performance won a perfect score of 200.

In contrast, during Team Cooper’s turn in the fun match on Sunday, the judge said “left turn.” I then stopped in my tracks for a couple of beats to try to figure out which way is left. Cooper then also stopped and sat, which is what the dog is supposed to do when the handler stops.

But really, neither of us was supposed to stop. We were supposed to keep going and turn left together. And more frustrating, this happened every single time the judge said either “left turn” or “right turn.”

If that had been in a real Obedience trial, I suspect we would have NQ’d (not qualified). Sigh…

I need to work on it, probably on my own without Cooper so I don’t confuse the boy. But after many several decades of not knowing my right from the left… I don’t know.

Maybe I’ll get Russ out there with me to play judge, and when I do it right, I get a treat. That’s it! Positive reinforcement might just work for the handler, too.

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Cooper and Trice practice T-drills

I need to learn how to do this retriever training stuff, and my plan last night was to take Tooey out and practice a T-drill. She knows how to do them, having learned with Butch. But I didn’t have a clue.

Then Russ had a great idea: Why not practice with Cooper, who knows how to do this even better than Tooey.

Russ made a video, using his new GoPro HD video camera:

If the above doesn’t work, you can go to YouTube and see it there: http://youtu.be/_S-_iDAWd-E

And you’ll probably note that while Cooper knows how to do this, he still wants to play by his rules and go for the bumper he wants to go for. There are places in the video where you’ll see I sent him straight to the pile (marked with a white flag), but he decided to go off to the bumpers at the ends of the crossbar of the T.

I just called him back and did it again. Silly boy.

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Training in the flood for tests

This upcoming weekend, Cooper is in four hunt tests. (Yes, we may be crazy.) Two Senior-level retriever tests and two Senior-level spaniel tests.

So last night, we went out to one of our favorite training grounds to practice some blind water retrieves, a couple of land-water-land-water retrieves, a double retriever (one land, one water), and above all, being steady at the line.

Cooper (and Tooey, too) did great on the retrieves. Coop did better on being steady (sigh…). Overall, we were happy with the work and the fact that it didn’t rain.

Although rain would not have made any difference. Our training grounds are flooded. They lie along the river, which yesterday reached flood stage. So we had less land available to do land retrieves (and not enough to practice quartering for the spaniel tests), but a lot more water for water work.

After training was done for the day, we got our cell phones out and took just a few pictures — happy dogs and beautiful scenery.

wet and happy Cooper and Tooey

reflections of Cooper, Tooey, and the clouds

A temporary pond that is normally dry land

Patrice, Cooper, and Tooey on a spit of dry-ish land

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Hunt tests are a team sport

The Lower Columbia HRC had a training day today in cold but sunny weather. The training scenarios were set up to simulate the land series of an HRC hunt test. (Way too cold for a water series.) Our house entered two teams — Team Cooper and Team Tooey.

And, no doubt about it, hunt tests are a team sport. Team Cooper did really well.

Cooper was a rocket on a triple retrieve with a fourth diversion bird, plus a blind retrieve. First he marked the fall of three birds, and then went out and back to deliver each one, one at a time. Zoom, zoom, out and back. Then, as he was coming back in with the third bird, they threw a close-in diversion bird. The trick with a diversion bird is that the dog has to notice where it falls, but not to drop his current bird or divert his progress back in to deliver it. Then he has to go back out, fetch the diversion bird, and bring it back, too.

Then there was the blind. It was a real blind today, not a sight blind like we’ve been working recently. In a real blind, the handler knows where the bird is, but the dog doesn’t. (If it were a sight blind, the dog would have a visual clue like a white flag, to suggest the location of the bird.) The handler lines the dog up in heel position with nose pointing at where the bird is, and sends him.

Ideally, the dog goes out in a straight line until he finds the bird, fetches it, and then brings it back. The dog has to do this on faith, and that’s hard. It’s also hard to ignore the presence of paths, hillocks, ditches, bushes, and other things that a dog would prefer to go around, rather than straight through.

If the dog deviates from a straight line, he’s likely to miss the bird. So, the handler has to “handle” the dog — using whistles and hand signals to first stop the dog at a position chosen by the handler and then tell the dog which direction to go to find the bird. Cooper did need some handling to correct his course. But this is an achievement for Cooper because he understood and obeyed the handling and because he didn’t “pop,” which is to stop on his own and wait for directions.

Good boy, Cooper. And good job, Team Cooper.

Team Tooey did not do so well. Clearly, Tooey and I both need more training.

With me handling today, Tooey would not pick up her birds. She heeled nicely to the line. At the line, she marked the fall of her bird, went out when I sent her, and found it. But, darn it, she didn’t pick the bird up. Instead came back to me without it. This is bad.

I corrected her, lined her up, and sent her back out. She did go out, but veered off the straight line quite a bit. She re-found and picked up the bird, and then came back to me, but very slowly. And she didn’t want to come back to the heel position, where she had been corrected before. If I had been thinking more quickly, I would have moved my body so that the spot on the ground where she had been corrected was not the same spot as the heel position.

On her second bird, the first time it was thrown, she missed her mark (didn’t see the bird fall). So the bird boy threw another bird. She saw this one fall, went out, hunted around for it a bit, and then brought it back.

Good girl! What a relief. When I think about it now, I wish I had had a nice treat to reward this retrieve with. Something more valuable to her than just a “Good!” Lots of trainers don’t hold with this, and I don’t know what Butch thinks about it. But it seems like a good idea to me.

Tooey and I then took a short break to trim her topknot so she could see (you can see the problem in the last picture of yesterday’s blog entry). Then it was back to the line, this time with Butch handling. With Butch, she did fine. Mark the first fall, out, fetch the bird, bring it back. Mark the second, out, fetch the bird, back.

Clearly, I need training so that I can support my dog when she loses the thread of things. I’ll make sure I get it so that Team Tooey can succeed.

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8 weeks of training for Tooey, more for Cooper

Tooey did her first double marked retrieves today, at the end of her 8th week of training. In a double, the dog watches two birds fall, one right after the other, and then goes and brings back the 2nd bird first, and then the 1st bird second. For these retrieves today, the birds fell about 50 and 75 yards from the line, respectively.

On her first double, Tooey was naturally confused. Up until today, she’d seen one duck fall and be sent for it. So today, after she watched the two birds fall, she went for the 2nd bird down, which was a live flyer. In this case, the gunner had missed the duck, so Tooey had to chase it down in order to retrieve it.

Tooey chasing a live duck

And she still doesn’t much like live flyers. They flap, they fight back, it’s just hard to get a grip on them. After some chasing and encouragement from Butch, Tooey finally caught and brought the duck back, still very much alive.

Then, of course, since this is a double retrieve, she’s supposed to remember where the first bird fell and go get that one. Butch lined her up at the line facing the correct direction and sent her off. But after all the live-flyer drama, she’d forgotten where the first bird fell. So to help her out, the gunner threw out an additional bird (this one already deceased). She saw that one fall, and brought it back.

Tooey bringing back her duck

The next double went much better. Pre-killed ducks were thrown out from each gunner’s blind, and she saw and retrieved both ducks. Good girl! And on top of that, she then did a 200 yard sight blind retrieve, in which the dog does not see the bird fall (in this case, bumpers instead of birds). A sight blind retrieve has a flag or other marker to help the dog see where the pile of bumpers is.

The picture below shows the distance from the line out to the white flag marker. That’s Russ and Cooper out in the field, where Russ is sending Cooper on a couple of shorter blind retrieves, just to get Cooper into the swing of things.

Cooper and Russ walking out toward the pile of bumpers

Later in the day, Cooper did a very nice triple retrieve. The first mark was very dramatic, with Cooper splashing through a ditch filled with cold, cold water. He hit the far bank at full speed and did an ass-over-tea kettle roll, popped back up to his feet, grabbed the duck and returned as though nothing unusual had happened. The return through the ditch was more sedate, at just a moderate run rather than full throttle.

After the other two retrieves, he then laser-lined a blind retrieve like a well bred Lab, splitting between two of the previous marks, and covering the 200 yards in just a few seconds. Both of us (Patrice and Russ) just looked at each other with a surprised look of, “Wow, is that our dog”? All the Lab owners in the field thought that Cooper had just done his usually good job. “Oh, sure,” we said, “he always goes hundreds of yards and never deviates from a perfect line . . . he is an Irish Water Spaniel after all.”

Right.

I just want to post one more picture, of Tooey smiling in the blind. There’s no story — I just like the picture.

Tooey smiling in the holding blind

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Add something new, confuse something old

At just over 5.5 weeks into training, Tooey’s doing a nice job on going to the back pile. When that’s all she’s doing, she’s got that down.

But now Butch has just added overs to the back pile drill. He’d already taught her the over command by itself, but adding it to the back to the pile drill is new. (It was just too cold and wet to keep videoing, so I’ll just explain it.) This is what he did:

As she went out to the back pile, Butch would throw a bumper over to the side. About the halfway mark of her return , he’s whistle once to direct her to sit facing him, and then use a hand signal to send her “over” to the side at a 90 degree angle to get the bumper he’d just thrown.

Tooey’s smart, and that got her into some trouble today. She figured out very quickly that Butch was in a rhythm of about 2 backs and, then on the 2nd return, would add in an over. So on every other return, she’d slow down while coming back in, anticipating that she’d get the whistle-sit.

The problem with that is that Tooey was thinking that she’d be rewarded for performing this new pattern, when instead, what we want to reward her for is following instructions. Once this became clear, Butch started varying the pattern. That got her confused, and Butch had to encourage her to come in when she slowed down (you can kind of see this slowing on the video during the return). At one point, when she got a whistle sit, she flopped into a down instead of sitting. She looked like a border collie, doing an instant down. Butch had to go out and show her what he wanted.

But then, she did it right! She came in, delivered the bumper, got a whole bunch of praise, some petting, and that’s where they stopped for the day.

This whole time, I was just sitting off to the side and watching. Butch set out a chair for me, and asked me to sit there. He’d mentioned that today I would just watch, and not interact with Tooey at all. Tooey didn’t see me while they were working, and my chair was upwind from them. Then, when all the beginning dogs were done at the back pile, we all went over to the back field, where Butch some of the more advanced dogs on marks and sight blinds. At that point, the dog truck was parked down wind from where I was standing, and I know Tooey realized I was there. She started wagging her tail and whining and doing this whisper bark. But since Butch had asked me not to interact with Tooey, I restrained myself from going over to the truck.

But then I got an unexpected treat. At the end of the session, we all went up back up the hill, and when we passed the entrance to the kennel, for some reason, Butch changed his mind, and let Tooey hop out of the truck to greet me.

There was no question that she recognized me. She was just as happy to see me as I was to see her — not only did she jump up on me, she burrowed up under my jacket and tried to get her head and shoulders as high up under my jacket as she could get them. I tried to take some pictures, but my fingers still had not thawed out from the horizontal rain, sleet, cold and wind. None of the photos turned out very well.

Tooey wet after training

Next Saturday is Christmas, so I won’t be going out that weekend. Looks like it’ll be another 2 weeks before I see my girl again. But I’ll check in with Butch in the meantime. He said he’s very happy with how she’s doing, and I trust him to know.

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