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Pop
Goes the Weasel I was asked to write a column about popping on a blind. What I am going to write is based solely on my own experiences with dogs I have had who have popped on a blind (every dog I have had has at some time or the other popped on a blind) and on dogs I have known or trained with that have popped on blinds. For a chronic condition of popping on blinds, i.e. it occurs all the time or a high percentage of the time, I feel you should contact a good field pro and work with him/her on the problem. I do feel that an excellent drill to try is the Long Distance Force Drill shown on Page 11 of Volume II of Training with Mike Lardy----a soft cover book I have mentioned here before. If you follow Mike’s program on basics and going through transition, you will raise your chances of not having this problem occur. If it does occur, this will provide you with some tools to help you work through it. Years ago when I was doing obedience, I used to do proofing around the perimeter of the training classes given by my local obedience club. I was the only one with an OTCH on my dog, and I had trained other dogs through the UD level. Someone approached me and asked me a question about some fairly basic aspect of training. I told her what I would do and that these were methods I had used successfully with my own dogs. In addition, I told her about some solutions I had learned while attending some excellent obedience clinics. I suggested some good reading on obedience training. A few minutes later, I heard her asking someone else the same question she had asked me. The person she was asking had never put a CD on a dog, although she had tried many times. A very nice person, but not someone I would go to for advice. When I went home, I told my husband the value of my opinion and how easily one could be humbled! Therefore, I am offering you my humble opinions on what I would do with my own dogs to overcome popping. Results may vary! I think there can be a variety of reasons a dog pops on a blind. Especially with young dogs (when I say young it doesn’t always mean age, it can mean little experience) popping can come from lack of confidence or confusion as to where it is going. Some dogs try so hard and worry about making mistakes that they can pop if worried about a blind. Some dogs have been pushed beyond their “comfort zone” and will occasionally pop until they learn to lengthen out and feel comfortable going longer distances. Some dogs have never had solid basics or been through a sequential training program. I have one dog, a FC/AFC, who is a hard running dog who when running through heavy cover, splashing water, etc., does not hear the whistle readily. When I have worked on this in training, he sometimes will pop when he thinks he hears a whistle---he is trying too hard. He has never popped on a blind in a trial that I can recall. I have seen dogs “pop” when they have heard a bird which sounds like a whistle. On one occasion when I was judging, we commented on how one bird was the “come-in” bird as it would make a long noise then a couple of beep, beep, beeps and sounded just like someone stopping a dog and calling it in. One area where I train is right near an airport with planes flying over. Another has construction going on around the perimeter. In both areas, I have had dogs give an occasional pop and I assume it is from sounds emitted either by planes or by noises from the construction. Some of the workers at the construction site think it is great fun to call the dogs or whistle to them. The dogs tend to ignore the calls and the whistles. If they should pop in either of these areas, I just raise my arm and say “back”. Some dogs pop because they do not have a strong work ethic, don’t want to do the work, or are unwilling to go where being sent. An example is the dog that always pops at the edge of the water. If this is what you feel is the problem with your dog, you might want to take him back through a thorough forcing program so that he realizes you are giving him a command and it is not a request. If the problem continues, this is when I would visit a good pro. It may come about that you have to decide if this dog is unwilling to do the work, whether you both would be better off giving your dog some other career choices. Before deciding what you are going to do to “cure” the problem, you need to analyze what you think caused the condition. Often persons do not realize how much pressure they have been putting on their dog and this combined with a low level of desire can lead to popping. Even with a dog that is highly motivated in the field, constant nagging and nitpicking can create a dog that becomes afraid to try, feeling that no matter what it does, it will be in trouble. Another problem I have seen which can lead to popping is someone stopping their young dog every few yards trying to keep it on the “perfect” line. The dog never gets to enjoy the success of running on a line for some distance. If you have always run your dog a certain length, say 100
yards, and you push a distance beyond that, you might encounter a pop when you
reach those 100 yards. If you are handling a lot on marks, a dog can lose his self-confidence and it will carry over into the blinds. The dog knows you will help if he doesn’t know where he is going, so he stops and turns to look for that help. Don’t try to cover a pop with a whistle. All you are doing is reinforcing what the dog wants to do and that is to stop and get help from you. If the dog pops, you want to move him out of that pop as quickly as possible and get him on his feet and rolling again. If it is an occasional pop, I just raise an arm and say “back” and let him continue even if off line. The worst thing to do after a dog pops and you get it moving is to stop it again quickly to “correct” the line. The tried and true method is forcing on back the minute the dog pops, which is giving a back cast with a verbal “back” and low nick and then the “back” command. Some dogs, will respond well to this, but it is important to have your timing down and be prepared so you aren’t caught flatfooted (this is with a dog that has a popping problem and you can anticipate it may occur). A problem with this can be persons giving such a strong correction that they overwhelm the dog. I tend to use an arm up and give a verbal “back” with no correction in many situations, dependent upon the dog and my read of the dog. The dog that couldn’t hear my whistle was a case in point. A dog popping due to hearing another trainer’s whistle is another. Often if I have a nervous young dog, I will do this and just work it through until its self-confidence level has increased. I bought a young started dog that would pop when it crossed the line to one blind while going for another. I have to criss/cross blinds a lot since I have very limited grounds. I would just raise my arm and say “back” and he quickly stopped popping once he learned he was not in trouble for crossing the line. This same dog popped when he reached a piece of land such as a spit or dike because he was worried about getting on it---my read of the situation. Again, I just raised an arm and said “back”. This dog went on to earn an FC/AFC. The main thing is to keep the dog moving and not let it stay “popped”. Again, some dogs work out of it quickly using the “back” low nick “back” method whereas others need the raised arm and a verbal “back”. This is where reading your dog is so important and analyzing the situation. Some solutions I have found for improving attitude (if that is the problem) or for just developing self-confidence in running blinds are the following: multiple blinds as the dog’s confidence usually improves with each blind run; clip wing birds at the end of the blind; for a young dog, lots of “escape” blinds so that if he pops and you give a cast you can let the dog roll and send to another blind so the dog has success. Escape blind(s) are bumpers placed in a variety of areas (obviously, you will know where they are!) and if you are having trouble with a young dog taking casts, you ignore the original blind and send him to whatever “escape” blind you can. This works for popping also in that if he pops and you get him moving and he is quite a ways off line, don’t fight to get him on line, but let him roll to an escape blind to build his confidence. You can always come back and run the blind you originally wanted on another day. If the dog tends to pop at a specific distance, you can have someone hidden yet who is watching the dog and just before the dog reaches that distance, that person makes a noise and throws the bird out for the dog. Do not stop the dog at or near that distance for a line correction, as you are just reinforcing the problem which is already occurring. Don’t overdo pop up blinds as then he will always start to look for someone to help him---it is a temporary method of getting him rolling again and moving through the barrier he had set for himself. Blinds set out so the dog can see the blind once he gets closer to the blind can get the dog looking forward. All of a sudden seeing the blind tends to speed up the dog and give it confidence as to where it is going. When I was starting, one method used was having a helper stand there swinging bumpers and tossing them one at a time into a pile while the handler and dog are watching. The young dog is then sent on “back”. Later the dog can be brought out again and sent to the same pile, but the helper has disappeared. Since I trained by myself so much, I couldn’t use this method often but used others where the dog knew where the blind was located before being sent. Permanent blinds with a young dog can be very helpful. You want to vary them and gradually move beyond them once the dog is running those with confidence. They are a teaching tool and the dog will then need to advance to cold blinds. When I first started and was training mainly by myself, I used to go up and work with a pro and his group once a week. I was so green that if I had laid down on a golf course, no one would have seen me. This dog was Luke and I would try to run the blinds they were running with all-age qualified and titled dogs. No one gave me much support or advice. Some days it was a real disaster. The next few days at home, I would go out and run a variety of permanent blinds I had set up. I would keep adding to them and in one place I had about eight I had worked on which had some terrain and cover. I would then run Luke on them in a variety of sequences with him knowing they were out there but not necessarily which one of them or the order in which I would be asking him to pick them up. He got very good at this and it really improved his self-confidence as well as mine. For all I know, I was doing it more for myself than for him! Sometimes after my sessions with that pro and his group, my self-confidence was pretty well shredded. Once Luke was doing them well, I would start stopping him and casting him to another one of them so it served two purposes; the first was he learned to take lines with determination and style; second, he learned to stop and take a cast away from where he knew there was a blind and go to another blind. With young dogs, often I will take the dog with me while I walk out to plant blinds for the older dogs. I will leave some extra bumpers at the blind(s) for him. Depending on the age and experience level of the dog, I will move back away from the blind----for a young dog to a distance where often so he can see the bumpers, farther for a more experienced dog, and turn and send for the blind. I will then move back a greater distance and send again, lengthening the dog out and building his confidence so that when I say “dead bird” he knows there is something out there. Gradually, I get so I can move all the way back to the line from which I plan to run the older dogs. Depending on how well he is doing, I will do this with the other blinds I have planted. After he is running with confidence and success, I will let him walk around with me seeing them being planted, and then will go back to the line and run them from there. Use common sense when doing this and have the blinds distinct enough so that the young dog knows to which blind he is being sent. Also, don’t extend the distance too quickly if the blinds are very difficult or involve a lot of terrain changes. Caveat: as stated at the beginning, these are different things I have done with my own dogs and seen others doing with their dogs to correct popping on a blind. They certainly are not necessarily the solutions for your dog or the only solutions. Read your own dog and does what you feel will work best for that dog. Again, if it is a chronic dilemma, don’t keep digging a hole. Find a good pro and have that pro help you through the predicament. A pro has probably seen this difficulty many times and will have experience with a vast number of dogs. If it is an occasional problem, you might want to try a few of the things mentioned above. After spending almost
four years writing about field work for Everything Golden, I felt all of you
deserved another opinion than mine. I
think it is very important to keep your mind open and to listen to a variety of
points of view. With that in mind, I
spoke to Lorie Jolly, and beginning next month, she will be writing articles on
field training for you to read. I
have enjoyed being a part of Everything Golden, but I do feel it is value for
you to get a fresh viewpoint on training for field work. Glenda |
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