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Blind retrieves


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How do you lads train for blind retrieves, I have owned and trained gun-dogs for 30 or more years and although I do not trial I like to have a good dog for shooting and picking up.

I recently took part in a working test with my 22 month old Lab bitch and although she done well on the marked and shot fired retrieves she failed on the long blinds.

I train for short times most evenings on left and rights, go backs and blinds, she does OK on the blinds along cut grass tracks etc but if I attempt to send her on a total blind in longer grass she struggles to grasp it and begins to hunt close in not wanting to go out in the line I have sent her.

What methods do you guys use ?

I have seen some of the guys in these tests and some lads while picking up sending dogs hundreds of yards on blinds.

My older bitch could do it when wildfowling sadly she has gone and to be honest she just had it in her to go out with confidence and after she had retrieved a few long distant geese she got the message.

This young Bitch just seems to lack the confidence to go.

Thanks Eddie

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I am no expert but I use a memory blind. By that I mean I always start with the corner of a field and throw some close in marked retrieves into the corner of the field. Once the dog is confident you can throw the mark, turn around and walk back 10 yards and send the dog.

 

As long as you consistently use the same corner, the dog will soon go back quite happily whether or not it's a marked or blind retrieve. You can extend the distance as needed. Hopefully that makes sense.

 

I am sure there are a lot better methods than mine that people use though.

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I suspect that your dog doesn't understand a blind, all it's doing is memories & once you move the game to new ground & actually give it a blind, it's clueless. I've got one the same. Have you tried doing similar style drills with an assistant? Have a dummy thrown, retrieve it, then have a dummy dropped in the same place & send the dog back. Start on easy ones & then increase difficulty. You also then move this up a level by introducing shot, so hopefully when it hears a shot, you do the line up drill & it should go. I suspect it'll take a lot of patience & a great deal of effort. I'd be using tracks a lot to help it understand to go straight. You'll need to ****** about a lot as one thing you must do is not allow the dog to fail as it'll fold up & then you'll have to go back to basics again.

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Like so many aspects of training there are umpteen ways to teach a blind retrieve, and it may just be a case of finding which is best for your dog.

 

The main thing is not to demand too much of the dog otherwise she'll lose confidence in both herself and you. Patience is the name of the game, building up things up slowly but surely.

 

It can sometimes help to take a friend along with you. Have him stand 10 yards or so from you and throw a 'seen' retrieve (he can clap his hands first or fire a pistol to draw the dog's attention).

 

Send the dog for the same 'seen' retrieve two or three times in exactly the same manner (i.e. to the same mark and distance). When you feel confident the dog is anticipating what's coming, you can now try an easy 'blind'.

 

To do this get your helper to throw a 'seen' retrieve. Line up the dog and send her out in exactly the same manner, however when she's on her way back to you with the dummy have your friend throw a second dummy to the same spot, out of the dog's view.

 

Next, line up the dog and send her out for the 'blind'. Hopefully the earlier repetition will have instilled the confidence she needs to trust your commands. As PERCE said, never let her fail as it'll shatter her confidence. Go out and practically show her the dummy if need be, giving plenty of praise when she finds it.

 

Over a matter of weeks slowly build up the distance - 10,15, 20yds and so on. Failure is usually due to trying to progress things too quickly.

 

I wish you the very best of luck!

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some good advice above but i'd add dinae be scared to do the 'easy' blinds on very short grass even sit the dummy up so it is easily seen, idea being just as ur dog gets to 'the ;limit' and wants to hunt it should see the dummy. I actually seen a dummy advertised recently designed just for that so it should stand up when thrown.

When u move into heavier cover drop the distances down massively to get it's confidence up.

Possiby walk throu the cover and drop a memory retrieve, as most will be dropped on the track as u go for ur normal walk, will help to get it's confidence up at distance in cover

 

Also sound's really obvious and school boy stuff but mind the wind direction as that will help too, sometimes when u get more advanced u forget about throwing dummies into the wind, also rub dummy in ur hands/spit/armpit to get more scent on it.

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