Adventures Outdoors'
In Wisconsin
Handling
By Rick Spoerl
The rules and regulations of the AKC field trials, as well as the hunt test rules stress marking (the ability a dog can pinpoint a location an object has fallen when seen) as the most important of the five main abilities that retrievers are judged on. Although marking ability is very important, as well as useful, and extremely important in field trials, handling (the ability to direct your dog using hand signals, whistle and voice contact to an object that the dog hasn’t seen) far outweighs marking in a hunting situation. Handling is used on blind retrieves (birds that the dog didn’t see fall).
As far as hunting is concerned a handling dog will always be more useful than a non-handling dog that has only been taught to mark. Most of the time when hunting, we are hidden in a blind, behind cover, or camouflaged heavily. Keeping are dogs well hidden is important. I’ve shot ducks that didn’t seem to notice my dog out in the water swimming and have also had ducks flare on me after seeing my dog move. To play it safe we can’t go wrong hiding our dog, as well as ourselves. But to be more successful in bringing back our ducks, the dog must know how to run a blind.
In my opinion, if you hunt ducks, you should have a dog that can run a blind. If you don’t, you’re going to either be throwing a lot of rocks or losing a lot of ducks. There are lots of other things out there for you to hunt. Conserve game and hunt with a handling dog.
Even if your dog is positioned to see the birds fall, he surely will miss seeing a few hit the water. Or he will be out retrieving a bird when you down another one, or you may hit and cripple a bird that lands far away, or even shoot one that lands way to the left or right of the dogs eye sight. There are a million scenarios of things that could happen where you would only get the bird through handling. In the last four years of duck hunting my dogs retrieved 138 ducks. Out of those ducks my dogs had 109 blind retrieves. I hunted using several different techniques including hunting along a wooded river, in a boat blind, sitting in cattails, and stalking in many different types of cover. The way we start blind training is through handling.
Blind retrieve training is made up of several different drills invented by many different trainers and handlers. Dave Elliot started the game of handling in field trials long ago. The methods he used have been greatly enhanced and improved upon by famous trainers like Charles Morgan, James Lamb Free, Rex Carr and Mike Lardy. Different trainers have different names for the handling drills they do. They call it baseball, double T drill, three handed casting and several other names basically all doing the same thing. Teaching the dog to take direction using hand, arm, body motion and vocal direction.
We are going to teach the dog to go straight out from us when sent, sit on one sharp blast of the whistle (sitting straight facing us), take hand signals straight back, to a 90 degree angle left and right, angle backs of 30 and 45 degrees to the right and left and also bringing the dog in at angles to a bird that he hasn’t seen fall. We want him not to stop going in the straight line until we stop him. These skills will enable him to locate nearly every bird we shoot.
Before we begin blind training the dog must be well schooled in obedience, be forced trained, collar conditioned (if an e-collar is used), and be at least started in marked retrieves (retrieves thrown for him that he sees land). By all means don’t stop running your dog on marks during these handling drills or you will find his marking skills diminish. Even if their marking does drop off a little, don’t worry, good marking will return with proper training. Also don’t run cold blinds (blinds the dog doesn’t see you plant) until he is handling fully. We will discuss the various types of blinds and the order we teach them later.
There are some little games that can be done when a pup is just starting out which could make things easier during blind training. After a dog learns sit and stay you can toss a treat to the right of the dog throwing your right arm out parallel to the floor saying "over". Let the dog run over and eat the treat giving him lots of praise. Next throw the treat to the left throwing your left arm out parallel to the floor saying "over". Some trainers use the words "right" when the dog is to go right and "left" when the dog is to go left. The theory here is that when his dog is in the cover and he is unable to see him, he can still communicate direction. Some have also used whistle blasts (one toot for right, two toots for left) I personally don’t believe this is necessary. The problem with this, is that it’s difficult to know exactly how to handle the dog if you can’t see him. And with wind noise and distance factored in, it’s not worth the trouble. In that case the dog must simply hunt the bird down after being cast back into the cover.
Note: After I'm done with handling drills and move into confidence blinds (blinds a dog sees you place out and does them over and over again to build confidence) I stop saying "over" and just give the hand signal. I just believe that after the dog has learned the concept to go right and left; all the screaming "over" does is drive the dog back away from you, kind of "blowing" him away from you instead of a 90 degree direction of right or left.
With a pup you may also hold the dog by the collar so he faces you and toss a treat back over his head. With your other arm hold it straight up over your head and say "back", let the dog get the treat and again praise the dog. Doing this a couple of times a day for a couple of weeks can be done with a very young dog, and also strengthening his bond with you as well as learning something useful. It’s also great fun for him. Be careful to only do this a couple minutes a session and don’t pressure the pup by yelling at him or applying physical pressure. This, as in all retrieves for young pups are supposed to be fun. If he quits on you or doesn’t respond to these handling drills, don’t worry. After you have gone through obedience, simple retrieves, force fetch, and collar conditioning than you can start the traditional handling procedure.
Other games can be done to develop a pups handling skills long before he actually needs to run a blind. I like to always train for the future, but I also like to try and kill two birds with one stone. While crate training a pup you can also teach him hand signals. Pups should learn to love their crate (a kennel or cage the dog waits in). But after the pup learns to retrieve he may just love to be out retrieving more than to be in his crate. That’s why it’s a great idea to plant the seed into the dogs head when their young. Basically you’re doing the same thing as you did before with the treats tossing them to the right and left and back only this time you will be tossing them into the kennel and sitting the dog to the left, right, or in front of the crate. Then releasing the dog when you throw your arm in the proper direction saying "kennel". Playing games like these simply teaches your pup at an early age to follow direction. Not saying you have to play these games at all to later have a handling dog, but it could give you a head start as well as giving the pup a little understanding. Later you can place the treat in the kennel while the dog isn’t looking, then bring the dog next to the crate giving him the same command. If he doesn’t go in, you can force him in by running a rope through the back of the crate around a tree or post and pulling him in, when he gets in the kennel he finds the treat. A couple of times doing this and he quickly figures out he gets rewarded. These games should not replace or delay any other training you’re doing or could be doing, but only be used if you have extra time.
You will need a place close to home to do this. A half-acre field is sufficient. I like a flat field with the grass cut short and at least 100 yards long by 50 yards wide. Really any area will work but obviously the bigger the better. It must be a place of convenience so you will do it on a daily basis. My Uncle did his dog in an alley which seemed to work fine. He didn’t need to trim that dogs nails for quite some time. The main thing here is to not make excuses to do the handling drill, just do it.
Begin handling by establishing a pile of dummies, than running the dog to that pile getting farther and farther away. Than teach him to stop on the whistle. And then the remote cast (casting him to the pile from the halfway point of the field or yard). Next you will teach the over piles one at a time along with the back pile he already knows. We also start diversion training during these drills along with lining training. Another great handling skill is teaching the dog to handle with the bird in his mouth. All these skills will be broken down in the following chapters.
You will see the progress in the dog nearly everyday and when your finished you and your hunting buddies will be quite impressed.
Practice, practice, practice. Soon your dog will do all of these handling drills nearly perfect. It takes time and effort on the trainer’s part. At times this type of training can become quite monotonous. Remember to keep doing marks, taking him for walks. Doing sight blinds (blinds the dog sees you put out) also wouldn’t hurt. If you do several sessions a day after a few months you will see a ton of progress, doing one session a day 4 or 5 times a week will put you on blinds in about six months, but once or twice a week and it will take you up to a year before running cold blinds accurately. But remember, dogs learn threw repetition not sitting in their kennel.