The Circle Drill

written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  

In my previous column, I described the "pivot drill," which teaches your dog to pivot left and right with you as you turn. This is the drill that enables you to precisely line up your dog for running blind retrieves or to point him toward a fallen bird that he may have forgotten. It is also the first step in getting your dog to look where your gun is pointed or to watch when you swing it on a group of passing birds. But lining him up is of little use if he won't run or swim in the direction he is pointed. The "Circle Drill" (also called the "wagon-wheel" lining drill) will teach him to go in the direction he is facing.

Once your dog is doing the pivot drill correctly - pivoting backward and to your left when you step to the left and say, "Heel", and pivoting forward and to the right when you say, "Here"  - it is time to move ahead and line him for bumpers placed in each cardinal direction. However,  before moving on, I would strongly recommend putting your dog through a thorough force-fetch program and mastering the "fetch-it/leave-it" ground drills, if you haven't already done so. (See "Teaching 'Leave-It,'" The Retriever Journal, June/July, 1998.) To be successful when teaching him to pivot and run to the bumper that he is sent for, he must reliably retrieve bumpers and deliver them to hand. 

The circle drill is where your dog begins to learn basic lining. Lining is teaching the dog to run in a straight line away from the handler and toward an unknown destination; it's essentially the foundation of a blind retrieve. For now, lining drills should be taught separately from casting drills. When the dog becomes proficient at each (lining, stopping, and casting), the drills can then be linked together and practiced as blind retrieves. 

To start the circle drill, you should find a mowed grass area that is roughly about 30 feet by 30 feet (a lawn is about perfect), "where both you and your dog will have no trouble seeing the white bumpers (use only white bumpers for now because they are highly visible on the grass). Begin by standing in the middle of the grass and having your dog sit beside you in the heel position with a checkcord attached to his collar. Remind him to sit by giving a slight jerk on the rope, and hang on to it while you toss a bumper about 10 feet directly in front. You have probably already begun working on his steadiness, but if he breaks, stop him with your rope and bring him back to the heel position at your side, facing the bumper. 

When he is intently staring at the bumper and wanting it badly, give him the cue, "Dead bird," (or whatever you prefer) to begin conditioning him to understand that he is going to run toward something he hasn't seen fall. Then, put your open hand about eight to 10 inches or so above and in front of his forehead, and, after the silent count of about three, tell him, "Fetch," and watch him explode to retrieve the bumper. (Remember:; He just went through force-fetch and knows that when he is told to fetch, he must get something in his mouth - as time goes on, you should begin to slip in the word "back" or some other word of your choosing for running lines.) 

Whatever you do, don't get in the habit of moving or dropping your hand in front of his face when you send him, as this will encourage him to break when he sees your hand come down.Your hand should remain stationary when you send him ·and not move until his tail has passed under it.

The cues that you use are important. Saying, "Dead bird" and bringing your hand down conditions your dog to understand that he is expected to go in the direction that he is facing - running or swimming for something that he hasn't seen fall or may have forgotten about. You can change the verbal cues to meet your needs, if you choose to, but be consistent with all of the cues that you use.

When he retrieves the bumper that you have sent him for and returns to the heel position, take the bumper from him and throw it out to the same place as before. Then, tell him, "No" or, "Leave it" and, hanging onto the rope so he doesn't break, turn him to the right or to the left 180 degrees using "here" or "heel."

This is where we begin to put the previously learned "pivot drill" into practice. When he is facing 180 degrees away from the bumper, toss out another straight in front. (Now you should have two bumpers lying 180 degrees apart, with you and your dog between them.) Again, tell him to leave it and pivot to the right or left to face the original bumper. You might have to use your rope to encourage him to turn and not to break toward the bumper you just tossed out.

When he is intently locked-in, staring at the first bumper you tossed out, give your verbal cue, bring your hand down, silently count to three, and send him on "fetch." Be ready: He might want to spin around and go for the bumper lying in the grass behind you. If he does, stop him with the checkcord, bring him back to the heel position, and take a couple of steps toward the bumper you are sending him for. Then, cue him again with your verbal command and your hand, and send him again. Eventually, he will catch on to going to the bumper he is sent for just keep trying.

When he retrieves the bumper you are sending him for, bring him back
to sit at heel and toss the bumper back to the spot where he just retrieved it.
Repeat the process and send him for the new bumper. Remain mindful that he might choose to duck out behind you for the bumper that you just tossed out and turned away from.

After you practice with the two bumpers 180 degrees apart and he seems to grasp the concept of pivoting and retrieving the bumper he is facing, it is time to move on to four bumpers. It is also time to have him watch as you throw the bumpers in all four directions before he is sent for any of them.

With your dog sitting at heel, throw a bumper about 10 feet straight in front of him and give him a snap on the rope, if necessary, to remind him to sit steady. Tell him to leave it and pivot him 90 degrees either to the right or to the left and toss another bumper. Continue turning him and tossing out bumpers until you have four bumpers lying 90 degrees apart at the four points of the compass (the "A" bumpers in the diagram).

If you have been thorough in teaching the lessons up to this point and are confident that your dog will retrieve the bumper he is facing, begin selecting which of the four bumpers your dog will pick up and in what order. Pivot him left or right to line him up at heel beside you, facing the bumper you have chosen. Give your verbal cue, drop your hand in front of his head, count to three, and tell him to fetch.

After your dog picks up the bumper and returns to heel to deliver it, make sure that he is still facing in the direction where he has just picked up the bumper; throw the bumper he has just retrieved right back to the same spot. Tell him to leave it, pivot, line him up on the new bumper, and send him. With each successive retrieve, toss the bumper back to the spot from which he just retrieved it before moving on to the next one. Continue the drill until he has retrieved each bumper in whichever order you chose.

Since you are choosing the bumper that gets retrieved, keep in mind that you can turn him 90, 180, or even 270 degrees, left or right. The choice is entirely yours, and you can even pick up the same bumper several times make the selection totally at random.

It is at this point that you should begin intermittently slipping in the word "back" instead of "fetch" when sending your dog. If he balks, use "back" more intermittently with "fetch" to make it a more gradual transition.

After you have the basic four-point circle drill well under control, it is time to move ahead and hone your dog's lining skills even further by adding four more bumpers at the 45-degree positions (the "E" bumpers in the diagram). This eight-point lining drill is introduced in exactly the same manner as the four-point drill, and the new bumpers should be picked up right along with the original four in a random manner. The eight-point drill serves to perfect the dog's left and right pivoting movements, which consequently refines his alignment and tightens the line on which he can be sent.

At this time, you should also consider omitting the checkcord and throwing the bumpers out farther, about 30 feet, even if you have to move the entire drill to a bigger field. And if you feel daring, try tossing more bumpers (the "C" bumpers in the diagram) between the other eight - toss them farther so that the distances vary somewhat with each of the lines around the circle. This gives you a total of 16 bumpers with much tighter angles between each. Then, if you are really daring, you can alternate orange bumpers with the white ones. Dogs can't really see the orange ones very well against the grass, so this will force them to run in the direction they are sent, rather than to a white bumper they can see.

Through the use of the basic pivot drill- the circle drill, and with lots of repetition and review, your dog can be taught to line up in any direction you choose and go in the direction that he is pointed. Work on perfecting your technique and your dog's alignment by using the circle drill: It will pay tremendous dividends in the long run.