Drahthaar marking questions

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chrisss
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Drahthaar marking questions

Post by chrisss » Thu Oct 01, 2015 5:53 pm

How well does your dog mark fallen ducks? My boy tends to not mark fallen ducks to good. Like the other day, he saw me drop a duck and 30 yards away and when I released him he went 20 yards and started to search the area. This works well when the wind it towards his face but not when the wind is blowing the scent away from him

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CDN_Cocker
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Re: Drahthaar marking questions

Post by CDN_Cocker » Thu Oct 01, 2015 5:58 pm

If he's not marking well its because you're not dedicating enough training time to it. Breed is irrelevant. All the sporting breeds should be able to mark ducks no problem. Sounds like he's used to 20 yard marks that's why he's stopping short.

polmaise
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Re: Drahthaar marking questions

Post by polmaise » Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:13 pm

chrisss wrote:How well does your dog mark fallen ducks? My boy tends to not mark fallen ducks to good. Like the other day, he saw me drop a duck and 30 yards away and when I released him he went 20 yards and started to search the area. This works well when the wind it towards his face but not when the wind is blowing the scent away from him
If he saw' you drop the duck ?..is this like a 'remote send ' ?..or a memory retrieve ?..
Any how, ...I do 'Marks' with a 'tail wind' !.....In training them !....It's the eyes you are training not the nose .
Forgive me , but 'line up' drills ''Not casting drills'' I'm sure would have been done ''with any breed'' before retrieving from a heel position would have been done?

Remote send from a flush and or find/point regarding 'marking' may be due to the dog ''Not marking the fall'' ?..ie ,,,looking at the handler? But I'm just guessing :wink:
Don't shoot the messenger.

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gonehuntin'
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Re: Drahthaar marking questions

Post by gonehuntin' » Thu Oct 01, 2015 6:53 pm

Dog's develop depth perception with practice. The greatest marking dog's are made with a retriever trainer because there is no thrower in the field to mark off of. Draht's are great marking dog's.

The other thing you look at is DID THE DOG SEE THE BIRD HIT THE GROUND? Just because you saw the bird hit, doesn't mean the pooch did. Might have been cover blocking his view? The blind? The side of the boat? The dog can't accurately mark the bird if he doesn't it hit down.

BellaSpinone
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Re: Drahthaar marking questions

Post by BellaSpinone » Fri Oct 02, 2015 6:04 am

I found launching bumpers on short grass where there is a slight incline and the dog sees the fall drastically improves their marking skills.

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