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Northern Flight Retrievers!
Published in |
written
by Butch Goodwin Northern Flight Retrievers
Speaking
of which, this leads right into getting started learning correct casting and
lining techniques. You need to make sure that you have the correct techniques
and body positions for teaching lining and casting before you ever start trying
to teach this to your dog. Before
you get too far along training your dog, you should consider practicing some of
the arm and body casting and lining positions. That way, you will have a solid
foundation; and when it’s time to teach the dog to run lines and cast, you
will be ready and not handicap him due to bad form. Part of this practice should
be to watch yourself in a mirror so that you can see the movements and positions
that you are actually doing rather than what you think you are doing; and then
practice the correct positions. Another part of that practice could be to have someone else shoot some video of you casting from about a hundred yards or so out in the field, so you can see yourself from the perspective your dog will ultimately be seeing you. Next, have them take some more film when you are teaching your dog the basic casting and lining drills in your yard so that you can watch your form. Then, have them shoot more video when you get the dog to the point of running him and casting him on real blind retrieves in the field. I think you will appreciate the effort and be amazed at what you see and by the overall improvement that comes with practice and experience! Training a solid-performing retriever has enough pitfalls. By using proper form on your casts and lines, you can make things a lot easier for both of you. Lining You set a dog up (or line him up) with his body and head pointed in the direction
that you want him to run, and then you give him his cue, put your hand down, and
send him. Sounds pretty simple, right? Well, as you will discover, any level of
success that you hope to achieve running blind retrieves all begins at your side
with correct technique. If you don’t have control of the dog’s movements and
direction at your side, you will never have control of him out at a distance. When you first heel your dog to the spot from which you intend to send him on a blind, or in training each time you practice lining him (sending him to run on a straight line), give him an initial verbal cue to let him know that he is running a blind retrieve. Tell him something such as, “Dead bird.” This will tell him that he should expect to be sent for something that he didn’t see fall or get thrown, in a direction that you will choose, and he may be stopped and his direction changed by your cast. You will eventually learn to recognize when your dog has “the picture” in his head of the line on which he is being sent, and when he doesn’t. When his body is pointed in the correct direction, his ears go up, his body tenses, and his gaze is fixed in an intense stare at a distant point, he is ready. At this point, it is good to give him another cue to which he will have been conditioned in training, letting him know that he has the direction (the line), pictured correctly. I have heard handlers use a drawn-out, “Gooood” or tell their dogs, “That’s it.” You choose the cue, but be consistent and condition your dog with the same cue each time you practice.
Once his attention is fixed and he is intensely focused in the direction you want him to go, put your hand well out in front of his head and in a straight line between his eyes where he can look right past it at the line he will be running. Do not move your hand left or right once you put it down in position. If you need to change his line, take your hand away and realign his body, not just his head. Once you are satisfied with his body alignment, his gaze is fixed, and your hand is
in the correct position, give yourself a silent count of three, and send him by
saying the word, “Back.” (Trainers commonly use “back” for sending dogs
on blind retrieves, and the dog’s name for sending on marks). Do not hesitate or make him wait a long time once he has the
“picture” in his head, or he will lose his focus. Do not use a “bowler’s sweep” of your hand and arm when you
send him. Keep your hand perfectly still and don’t move it until the dog has run and his tail has passed your hand. The reasoning for not moving your hand is that the upsweep of the hand will unavoidably move it to one side or the other. Any movement of the hand to either side can cause the dog to follow the hand movement and hook off to the side when he is sent, rather than running a straight line. Our goal here is to get him to run straight in the direction that his body is facing, and any hand movement could pull him off of that straight line. “Over”
The “over” casts are given with either the right or the left arm and hand extended straight out from the body. If you put your hands together and place your wrists on the lower portion of your sternum, you will be in the correct position to begin practicing giving “over” casts. From this point, take your right hand and arm and extend it straight out to the right side with fingers extended. This is not a sweep up from your waist to the horizontal position, and it is not a move higher than your shoulder that drops down into position. And this is not extending your arm and turning your body away so that your arm goes backward. This is straight out to the side from your sternum with your body square to the dog until your arm and hand are fully extended to the right. Remember to keep your hand and arm level and go straight out from your sternum. Go and look at yourself in the mirror and see if you are keeping your hands level and going straight out; if not, practice until it is. This is the movement that you want to achieve with your hands and arms when giving either of the “over” casts. Once you are happy with this, learn to take an “influencing” step to the same side that you extend your arm and hand. This doesn’t have to he a giant step like you are trying to avoid an unexpected cow pie lying in the field; just take a step and give the “over” hand and arm cast at the same time. Try giving casts like this to both sides, and watch it in the mirror.
“Back” Learning to give a “back” cast correctly may be more important than learning to give correct “overs.” My reasoning is twofold: First, most casts are not straight “over” casts. Rarely should you allow your dog to get so far off the line to the blind to have to cast him on a 90-degree straight “over” Secondly, if the dog’s body is aligned correctly, facing the blind, and he has been taught to go in the direction that he is facing, he might be influenced by suction from land, cover, previous marks or blinds, or he might be blown off course by the wind. The most casting that you should have to do is to correct his line to the blind as opposed to letting him get way off course and expecting him to take huge “over” casts. So, from the same position with your hands in front of your sternum, try practicing your left “back” cast while looking in the mirror. To do this correctly, the hand and arm should be extended straight up with your left thumb almost hitting you in the nose on the way up. Extend your hand and arm upward with your palm forward and your fingers outstretched. I
see a lot of, for lack of a better description, what I call “Nazi salutes,”
where the arm goes forward from the shoulder as if the handler wants to
“push” the dog away from him. And, very often it’s accompanied by a step
forward on one foot, like the handler is fencing with an invisible adversary. It
doesn’t work. If you want to see what this looks like to a dog, have someone
go and shoot video out in the field of you casting like this at about 100 yards
or so, and you won’t see any cast at all - or at best it will look pretty
wimpy. Practice your straight up left and right hand “back” casts in the
mirror and watch it on video.
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professional trainer will tell you that training the owner is typically more
difficult than training the dog. Beyond the dog’s possible genetically
inherited misbehaviors, trainer-handler error is the cause of most retriever
training-related problems. As a trainer, you need to be aware that while the dog
is learning from you, you should also be learning from him. Most novice trainers
(and some experienced trainers, too) simply refuse to accept the fact that they
could well be at the root of many of the training problems that arise — it’s
easier for a dog to read a human than the other way around. As a trainer, if you
have recurring problems, you need to consider taking a long hard look in the
mirror before necessarily casting the blame on your dog.
