Cobwebs, Conditioning & Cognitive

Jim Boyer

Active member
My four dogs and I took the rest of the winter off on December 22rd. The day before, two geese were picked up by Daisy. The weather went south and we went into "hibernation". I think the dogs like doing nothing for awhile.

However, it's over. The winter "rust" needs to be removed and muscles require tuning up. Taffey, Kooly, Daisy and Gunny are anxious to start (me too). About the first week in March, we make our move. Early on, a theme is selected at the beginning of each training season. This year it will be diversions with a specific focus - scent discrimination. All four dogs will work on "muscles, nose and skills".

This is the basic "look" of the first phase and a concept called "through the old fall". Presentations are flexible plus the pattern can be "picked up" and placed anywhere (with additional factors). Dealing with diversions properly is a high level skill.

We will be working on three C's at a time. It's not just "the nose that knows".

OldFallDiversionDrillFinal.jpg

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Interesting. I guess this would be considered an advanced drill?

No dog (yet). Hopefully one day, I will be lucky enough to pregress to this point in training! I'm curious if anyone else on this site has (?).

Sincerely

Anthony
 
Thanks Jim looks like an interesting and challenging drill. How would you progress a young dog through that?

Tim
 
A "young dog" would need to be well into transition before setting up a drill like this. Transition refers to teaching a dog to handle. Some of the sequence includes pile work, three-handed-casting, single & double T, swim-by, pattern blinds and finally late transtioning - cold blinds. Somewhere in there you have to work on de-cheating.

During the process there are diversion drills which teach a young dog to work "past", "under" and "through" distractions (like other birds/marks). This drill focuses on a specific skill - through the old fall.

One popular diversion drill is called the Key Relationship Drill. Once a dog becomes familiar with the expectations, those skills are more easily translated to the field.

Here's a link showing several different kinds of drills used in advancing a dog through transition.

http://kwicklabs.com/drills.htm
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good start jim i just started double t with my master dogs and will progress from there on tune up drills, but i keep throwing marks gotta keep them happy.As water warms up i will also do a quick swim bye just to keep control .
 
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