Need help with blind retrieves

[MadMax]

Hi, everyone I am new to training, I have an 8mo old English Springer Spaniel that I am working with. He does good at sitting, and retrieving, and we are working on his stay. He will retrieve bumpers with no problem and will deliver birds to hand. I have exposed him to gunfire and he did great, he is not gun shy at all. The only problem I have is having him do blind retrieves. If I throw out a bumper and he sees it, he will retrieve it, but if he does not see the bumper he will not go out to look for it. I have started to have my daughter go and hide a bumper without him seeing where it was placed, I will then turn him around and fire the blank gun and give him a command to go find it, this seems to be helping so far, but I still feel that he needs a little more drive. If anyone can help it would be greatly appreciated.

[MadMax]

Can someone recommend some good training videos for Springer Spaniels.

[Tall Boy]

I think it's the Cotton Pershall method that describes allowing your dog to watch you drop dummies by an orange cone then coming back to him and send him say his name and "back". Eventually you will be able to just send him to the cone retrieving a dummy he did not see get put there. This methods shows you that all you are doing is trying to get the dog to realize that if you say there is a bird there, then there is a bird there. I'm new to training retrievers to do anything more than flush game, but have been having success with starting close (hidden bumper at 5' in front) and using the dogs anticipation to carry them out the 5' where they stumble on the bumper. After progressively getting farther back the dogs get the idea, they line with there nose to ground and have not missed a single one..well maybe a couple !

The dogs that I have in training now started at an old age, they are 3 and 4 yrs now. For there prior life they were pets that strayed and got picked up. We rescued them and all last year they were used as check-cord cripple finders. Meaning that we just brought them in to find crippled birds during training of pointers, never marking or lining, or going on a real hunt,so I'm sure a puppy will be different, hopefully easier!

[MadMax]

Thanks TallBoy for your input I will definitely give it a try. A good friend of mine advise that I try it with white buckets, but I guess buckets or cones it does'nt really matter as long as the dog has a reference point. Once again I really appreciate your help.

[Tall Boy]

No problem, if you have any more questions don't hesitate to ask.

[MadMax]

I have encountered another problem with my spaniel. This was my mistake, I got some frozen dove, that i had in the freezer to have him retrieve them. The only problem was that the doves had alot of blood. I had read articles that said that the birds should be blood free, but did not really understand much as to why. Now I know, he started licking the blood off and did not retrieve the bird he ran and went to hide with the bird in his mouth. I was really frustrated and upset at myself for doing it. Before this, he was retrieving the frozen birds fine and was not having any difficulty retrieving to hand. I am going to stop training with the frozen birds and continue with bumpers until he is doing ok for a couple of weeks. Then I will attempt to introduce clip wing pigeons and hope he does ok. If anyone has a better option please let me know.

[gonehuntin']

What you really need is an organized training program. For all purpose, a spaniel trains about the same as a retriever. I would suggest Evan Grahams DVD's or Fowl Dawgs. Both are excellent.

Retrievers and spaniels are trained in a precise order. It is so involved it would be impossible to give you good and competent information here, when you know so little about training a dog. Get a program and follow it.

[EvanG]

Here's a clip to watch showing a young Lab just out of Basics, running a drill called BB Blinds (Bird Boy Blinds). You will be watching him run his first cold blinds. Powerful little drill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1il0xaGTXm4

EvanG

[MadMax]

Thanks everyone for helping out. Sorry for not replying sooner, been very busy at work and with my dogs. I hooked up with a great trainer here localy. Doing some day training program, he helps me out and I get to help him out and learn at the same time. I'm definitely purchasing some of Evan Graham's videos. Thanks Graham for the heads up on youtube. I now have a 5 mo. old black lab and still have my springer they are both doing great. Hope to do some dove hunting soon with them.

[boberosagundogs]

Smartworks is a great program by Evan Graham we have begun running all our springers through it.