This weeks training we ran big set ups with the marks being pretty tight. What I personally worked on with Kirby was an issue we call head swinging. When there is a double being thrown, one bird, then another bird from a different location, Kirby has the issue of looking away from the first bird before it lands and he gets a good mark on it. He "head swings" over to the other gun station to try to see that bird right away. To correct this I really reinforced my obedience standards and used a "sit" momentary stimulation with the electronic collar "sit" and made him stare at the first bird for a long time before I moved him to look at the second bird. Here are some of our set ups.


In this set up the left hand gun was situated so the left hand bird was about 125 yards away, the middle bird was 115 yards, and the right hand gun threw the right bird at a distance of approx 200 yards. The order was, middle bird as a single. The right hand bird thrown as a memory bird in a double with the left hand bird being the "go" bird. The key here was to get the dog to run through an old fall area and keep on going to the long gun station to pick up the long bird.

This next set up was a water set up we ran. The far left bird was about 225 yard. The middle bird 150 yards, and the right hand bird 100 yards. The middle and right birds were thrown as a double. The right hand bird being the go bird. The goal of the right hand bird was to get the dog to swim parallel to a peninsula in the water and drive up the hill to pick up the bird. The middle bird, the memory bird, the goal was for the dog to swim past a small point and take an angle entry and exit of the water and not to cheat the water by running the bank. The long left bird was pretty simple and the dog and to run down a hill through a valley and back up to get the bird. Most young dogs fade with the terrain and get lost and don't pick the bird up without help.