11/01/2024
Working spot $300
Audit $50
Per Lise Pratt from the Art of Pressure seminar they hosted:
The content of this seminar was REALLY complex, as you saw over the days you were here. Please indulge me as I share with you a list of things I felt are really important to remember:
1. First and most important: Be Fair! Ask yourself why your dog failed and then decide what to do. If you find yourself saying “He knows this!” stop and ask yourself, “does he really or is there a hole in his training?”
2. Remember we correct for two things: lack of effort and/or a poor choice!!! What does that look like? It’s a dog not trying, NOT a dog making a mistake! Here are some examples:
· If you remember Pal, the golden, stopping on the way back from a mark and lifting his leg on a bush? That is lack of effort on “here”.
· Casting a dog that knows the cast and chooses to not take it, instead heading to where it just picked up a bird (suction of an old fall) that is a poor choice.
3. Be Prepared…
• Get into “The Zone” when you get into the holding blind
• Before you leave the holding blind, put the whistle is in your mouth
• Put the transmitter in your hand
• Stay in the zone while you are running your dog! (Keep your eyes on your dog while you are working!)
• Do not talk with people while running – talk about what happened and why once your dog is done working and under control.
4. The e-collar is only one kind of correction. Always consider the dog you are training and choose a correction that is just enough to change its behavior without being overwhelmed. Not all corrections in a training session need to be the same. Which of these would be most appropriate for each offense:
• Voice
• Attrition
• Work
• E-collar
5. Teach behaviors on the drill field. Remember that the environment will affect the dog’s ability to do the task. What they know on the drill field will be different when they get into the field. How much you expect from your dog with its level of training has to be flexible based on how exciting/distracting the environment is. Should you make the task easier/teach or should you correct?
6. Your dog MUST understand the correction. Applying corrections without your dog knowing why it was corrected WILL cause fallout, so I repeat, YOUR DOG MUST UNDERSTAND THE CORRECTION! When you are going to correct be sure you understand what you are about to tell your dog to do or not do and be sure that s/he will make that connection. Have a plan before you run the drill/setup. Where might you expect your dog to need a correction? What correction are you going to start with? How will you increase the correction, if necessary?
Here’s an example: You are running a water mark. The mark goes down and your dog runs to the shoreline and ditches left to go around the corner of the pond 15 yards away, so you use an e-collar to correct the dog. What did that correction tell the dog:
• Don’t run around the pond?
• Get in the water?
• Being near the water hurts?
• Don’t leave your side because it hurts out in the field?
A dog that has not been fully de-cheated (being taught the correction) could think any of the above. Always ask yourself will my dog understand the correction?
As Mitch has shown us, training is an art and the more you do it the better you get at it. Be thoughtful and have fun
