Gun dog training my Golden Retriever

Lexie, the 4 year old golden retriever female attending the gun dog course last weekend.

 This weekend Link and I attended a three day course in gun dog training for retrievers. In addition to Link there were three Labrador retrievers, one female Golden retriever and one Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever. The instructor of the course, Vera Verlo, is a clicker trainer specialized in gun dog training. She has three Labrador Retrievers herself, that she competes with in gun dog trials for retrievers.

Link waiting for me to send him to retrieve a dummy.

 Friday

 Firday evening the instructor held a seminar. We learned the basic steps of gun dog training:

• Obedience - Not the dog sport, but basic gun dog obedience like heeling, being quiet and only retrieve game/dummy on cue
• Marking - Seeing where the dummy falls and remembering it
• Sending and directing - The dog should be able to be directed by the handler in the direction of the dummy. If the dog walks too far away from where the dummy is, you should stop it and direct it towards where it is.
• Delivering the dummy/game - Without shaking, chewing, spitting out on the ground or dropping one dummy to pick up another. The game or dummy should be delivered by the dog unharmed, right into your hand.

Todd, the second youngest participant of the course. He is a 1 year and 8 months old Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever.

Saturday

 Saturday it was time to get out into the field for some basic "hunting obedience", how to correctly use the dog whistle, how to search for dummies in a field search and how to direct your dog to find game that it has not seen where it fell.

Lexie and her owner showing us a perfect "hunting heel".

Link showed me that even though he can heel and retrieve under controlled conditions (indoor or somewhere outside where we often are), he was more interested in all the smells in the forest and running around with the dummy, than working with me. He was the youngest dog participating, so it was not so strange that he was the dog with the least previous training (well, him and Todd the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling retriever that was just a couple of months older than Link). Learning our limits is also important though, that is the only way to find out what we have to work on.

The chocolate lab called Iver retrieving a duck-shaped dummy.

We were also taught the basics of a "close search". I'm sure there is a better term for it in English, but what it means is that the dog searches for the dummy close to where it is. It is used for when you send your dog out to do a so called "blind retrieve", you give it the "stop" signal, followed by the "close search" signal, when it comes to the place where the dummy is.

Link learning the basics of "close search".

Sunday

 Sunday we were also out in the field and that day we learned more about marking both on land and in water, and how to send the dog straight out to the dummy. We also got a chance to try the "qualification test", which if you pass it gives you the opportunity to participate in proper gun dog trials for retrievers.

The 6 year old black labrador felmale called Kimmie, retrieving a dummy. She is also a therapy dog that we got to know during the first weekend of thearpy dog training in May.

Link and I did extremely much better this day. He did really well when we trained sending out. We trained using a bowl with treats, so he was instantly rewarded for running straight out. Between his turns we trained being calm and quiet. It was hard for him to sit there and watch the other dogs work, but he did really well.

Here I am sending Link out to retrieve a dummy.

Next time it was our term it was time to try retrieving on land and in water. We tested what Link would do if he was sent to a dummy on land (he wanted to get into the water so badly!), and then to the other one that was in the water. Link went directly out to the dummy we sent him to, ran back towards me, ran past me, dropped the dummy and leapt straight into the water to get the other dummy. He eventually brought that dummy back to me though. So somewhere inside him, he feels good about running/swimming out to things and picking them up. But taking them all the way back to me is something we have to work on.

Beautiful Eine, a 4 year old black Labrador. He is like Link, aspiring to become a therapy dog.

 We also trained directing to left and right using hand signals. The dog is then sitting in front of you and there are one dummy on each side of the dog, some distance away. Link responded well to these signals, even though we have never consciously trained this before.  

Cute Todd.

He did surprise all of us in the end though. He was sent out to retrieve a dummy out on a small pond, but instead of swimming back to me with the dummy, he got out of the pond on the other side. There he dropped the dummy and went away to... well.. shit. Just hang in there, that is not the impressive part! I called him back to me, and sent him to retrieve the dummy from the other side. He didn't manage to do it on the first try, but the second time he swam over, found the dummy and retrieved it right back to me! I was ecstatic! I could not hope for more. Considering that this is the first time in his life that he has been asked to do this, I think it is really impressive that he grasped the idea and preformed so well.

Eine retrieving from the water.

 We also got to go through a walk through of the qualification test. We did it as training, with rewards all the way for Link. We definitely was not ready to do it then and there, but it was good for us to see how the test is done. The things that you preform during the test is:

1. Sitting next to you while the judge greets you 
2. Heeling on leash
3. Heeling off leash
4. Stay
5. Recall
6. Sitting while dummy is being thrown
7. Retrieving dummy
8. Sitting while a shot is fired

Me walking 50 meters away from Link while he stays on command next to the instructor. The mountain in the background is Tromsdalstinden, the mountain Link and I climbed the previous weekend.

 We didn't fire the shot during our walk through of the test, Link was already exhausted, so I didn't want to put him through more. We had already trained getting used to and liking gun shots, both on Saturday and Sunday.

These are the things we have to work on:

• Heeling in different locations and terrain, both on an off leash

• Retrieving into my hand (first while on leash so that running away with the dummy isn't an option)

• Using the whistle: 
• Close search. Starting by teaching link the signal for it by putting treats on the ground around Link and letting him find/eat them on the signal (double whistle on the dog whistle)
• Stop. Blow the whistle once and the dog should stop. You start teaching this by blowing the whistle once and then throwing a ball or a treat to the dog. The dog thus learns to stop what it is doing and have all of its attention on you
• Recall. This I have already taught Link, but we still have to practice it under varying conditions.

•  Sending out to the dummy (using bowls with treats in the beginning), and directing the dog to the left or right using either whistle or hand signals.

When we can do all of this, it is time to start putting everything together and to increase the difficulty. And maybe then we could pass the qualification test.

The pond where we practiced retrieving from water.