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FURTHER WORK RE DIVERSIONS--II The following is a drill I first encountered at a clinic given by pro, Don Remien. It is called the “Sugar Reitz Drill”. I use this drill with various modifications on a regular basis. It is something I can do when time is short and I want to do some meaningful work with my dogs. If I have a long drive ahead of me to attend a trial and have no time for a regular set up, this drill can be done in my yard or at a park before I load them in my car for the trip. The dogs enjoy it and it provides a variety of learning experiences. As Don states, it covers lining, angle back casting, diversion work, confidence building and team building. Don uses ten bumpers five red, and five white in piles of two. Often I will increase this to fourteen or eighteen bumpers, but the number of piles is always an odd number. One red bumper and one white bumper are put into each pile. I place a large white on top of a large red bumper. When starting, the five piles are in a row, and the distance between them varies depending on the ability of the dog. xx xx xx xx xx 1 2 3 4 5 ____Line____ Line to 1, then to 2, then back to 1, then to 3, and back to 2, so on. Have the dog deliver pointed at his biggest diversion and then move right or left to the next bumper to be retrieved. The first bumper picked up with the exception of 1 and 5 is always between two others. Distance may vary from tight bumpers at 20 yards to a wider spread at 100 yards. Obviously, by backing up the angles tighten so the drill can be set up in a permanent place and complicated by distance or angle as needed. (By angle, Don means a staggered line.) A row of trees or fence posts make excellent markers. This is not a No-No drill. If the dog goes wrong, stop and cast. It is excellent for angle back casting. The cast should not be broad; it should be given very high. Remember, a dog will accentuate a cast at a close distance. You can make this more difficult by involving a road, a ditch, or running on angles up and down a hill.
Again, as my dogs become very comfortable with
this drill, I do variations and pick them up in a variety of orders but in such
a manner that except for the first and last in line, there is always a bumper on |
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