Mistakes: Handling Problems and Short-Stopping on Casts

written by Butch Goodwin
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Northern Flight Retrievers  

Last fall, a reader contacted me to say that, although he had watched all of the retriever training videos and read many of the books, his dog wasn't taking casts exactly as they had practiced them when training on lining and casting patterns. He said that he was at a loss for an explanation - until a friend casually shot some video of him running his dog at a Senior level hunt test. The friend gave him a DVD of the video, and my caller said he was shocked when he watched his casting. He saw that he had committed - the number-one mistake of handlers, that of having inconsistent or sloppy casting when faced with a variety of wind, terrain, or "suction ." As a result, his dog wasn't following through on, his casts. 

  All team sports and most individual sport athletes, like ski racers, all shoot video that they can later watch, slow down, and analyze to improve their technique and performance. In the past, I suggested to trainers that they practice casting by watching them­selves in a mirror. Now I recommend that anyone who wants to improve their handling or training skills purchase an inexpensive video camera and tripod. If you have a helper who can record the training and include your handling along with the dog's response out in the field, that's great. If you are training alone - just you and your dog - find a suitable location, set up the camera on the tripod, and let it run. You can also shoot video of some of the better handlers at a field trial or hunt test to watch and compare with your handling. Remember, you aren't filming a Steven Spielberg production; you're shooting to improve the handling between you and your dog, so the video doesn't have to be sophisticated. It really will help your training and perhaps open your eyes more than you would ever think. 

 Let's take a look at a few more handling and casting mistakes. 

  We practice the same drills or redundant handling patterns over and over in the same place, teaching our dog to run to "spots," and little or nothing about wind or terrain changes. Rather than repeating the same pattern drills day after day in the same spot, hoping to improve casting precision, try alternating with a drill such as D.L. Walter's "walking base­ball." The walking baseball drill can be used to teach your dog to carry casts to long distances over varied terrain and into all wind conditions. It is the most flexible of all of the casting drills, and it allows for an infinite variety of changes in terrain, wind direction, length of casts, and the distance you stand from your dog as you cast. It will teach him to continue to carry long casts and keep going until he gets to the bumper or until he is stopped and recast; it almost always eliminates a dog's tendency to stop short on "over" or "back" casts. 

  The walking baseball drill will also sharpen your dog's memory and improve his marking skills. And, by making him sit and watch the bumpers being thrown for his casts, it will help to make him "super steady." "When alternated with the "single-T" and "double­T" pattern drills, walking baseball can be called upon whenever your dog is having trouble with a particular cast, because you can repeat the cast over and over as you move around the field. The best part may be that you don't have to enlist a bunch of helpers; it's just you, your dog, two bumpers, and a field with varied terrain. Like D.L. says in his book, Training Retrievers to Handle, "You really can't overdo this drill." 

  We handle on marks. Whether it is to stroke your ego in front of your training partners or just because you don't see any harm in it, once' you have taught your dog to stop on a whistle and take basic casts, the temptation becomes great to stop and handle him to a mis-marked fall. But continual handling to marks is not a good idea - it will very quickly destroy all of the lining and casting work you have done and will, in short order, eradicate his marking ability. 

  Rather than taking good, consistent casts, dogs that are constantly handled to marks begin looking around, scanning the ground, and loosely hunting when they are cast. This ruins both their casting and their marking. They know there is a bird or a bumper in the area (they have seen someone throw it only moments before they were sent), so they don't turn themselves totally over to the handler and give him their undivided attention. 

It is best to remember that you are either running handling drills or you are teaching marking - not both at the same time. Marking drills should be just what the name says. When the unusual situation arises where it becomes absolutely necessary to handle a dog to a mark, insist that he follow your casts all the way to the bumper, and do not cast into an area and then allow him to hunt for the mark ­ do not allow it to become a "hunt 'em up" drill. And then, always repeat the mark so that he understands that it is a mark and doesn't begin to expect to be handled each time he can't find it. 

 We don't keep our dogs under con­trol at arm s reach. This means that they will never be under control at a distance. On the top shelf of the closet in my office are several dusty old folders that contain a collection of training notes and articles I have accumulated over the years. In one of those folders is a faded, dog-eared, yellow tablet from several decades back. My notes that are scribbled on the pages are from a training seminar I attended put on by a well-known, old-time retriever field trial pro who had trained many dogs and their owners and had developed quite a reputation for winning. I wrote down the first words out his mouth that day: "Field trials are won or lost within six feet of the handler." At that time, I can't honestly tell you that I totally understood what he meant, but I wrote it down anyhow. You see, in those days, I was under the impression that field trials were won or lost at great distances on technical water blinds and magnum marking tests. I had a lot to learn! Almost three decades later, after learning from some of the best and most innovative amateur and professional gun dog and field trial trainers - and, after looking in the eyes of man)" many retrievers - there is little that I have learned over the years that holds more meaning than that long-ago sentence. 

Everything the dog does at a distance out in the field is completely dependant upon the fundamental training that starts in the yard, at your side or the end of a leash.

Quite simply, it doesn't matter if your aspirations are field trials, hunt tests, or a dependable gun dog; if you don't have your dog under control at your side, you will never have him under control out in the field.    To further expand on what that old pro said, I add that many trainers tend to overlook or shortcut basic obedi­ence and close-in yard drills.

Heck, I certainly understand this - teaching these basics gets repetitive and can be pretty boring. So you think, I would much rather get right into the meat of my dog's training; right to the fun stuff like marks and blinds, and you end up shortcutting on the fundamentals. Don't feel like you are the Lone Ranger; most of the available retriever training books and videos, because the authors are allowed only a limited number of pages, tend to quickly get to the "meat and potatoes" of handling or marking without much of a thorough discussion of basic training. 

  But in reality, obedience training and the yard-training drills that you teach your dog are the basis - the foundation, if you will - that all of his future training is built and depends upon. And, just as with a house, if you don't build a solid foundation, everything you add will eventually crumble .