IMPROVING POD WITH THE AIR SCENTING SARDOG:
TRAINING FOR CONTROL AT A DISTANCE, RANGE, AND SEARCH PATTERN
Tom Osterkamp © 2002
Part 2 of 3
Part II. © 2002 Tom Osterkamp
Casting
With food training, it is important for the pup to realize that she cannot get the food until you give the command. It may be necessary to have some pups on a leash or to have a helper grab the bowl to enforce this rule. During the initial training, do not try to line and cast at the same meal. As with lining, once the pup understands the concepts of casting, substitute toys for food.
Casting to the right and left
Kneel on the floor and place the pup in front of and facing you, holding her by the collar in your left hand. Place the food bowl to your right as far as you can reach. After coercing her into a sitting position, get her attention with your right hand in front of her face, then sweep it toward the bowl simultaneously releasing your hold with the left hand and saying "over". Most hungry pups will make a dive for the food bowl. Divide her meals into 2 to 4 portions to get several casts per meal. Gradually work to get her to sit and wait for your hand motion.
When she appears to be steady and will wait for your command, try to release the collar with your left hand before giving the command. Work toward getting her to sit and wait while you place both hands in front of and just below your chin (prayer position) while speaking to her and maintaining eye contact. Sweep your right hand outward with your arm horizontal and your palm vertical and facing her. Increase the wait from a second or so up to about 5 to 10 seconds. When she will sit and wait without making a move for the food bowl, back up a few steps and then gradually work your way into a standing position. Repeat the same procedure for the left hand side when she has consistently gone to the food bowl on your right.
There are two spatial variables, pup-to-handler distance and pup-to-bowl distance. Change only one at a time. Get as far as you can in the house and then move outside. Start with short distances, increase them gradually, go to different places, and add cover and distractions.
* A modified version of this paper has been published in SAR Dog Alert, Winter, 2003.
Casting back
A left and right hand "back" can be taught when she sits reliably. The bowl, pup and handler should be in a line about 5 feet apart. The handler and sitting pup should be facing each other with the food bowl behind the pup. To teach a right hand back, the pup's body should be at a 45 degree angle to the line. While kneeling or standing in the "prayer" position, get her attention and then raise your right hand straight up over your head. Rotate your palm toward the pup and simultaneously command "back". A hungry pup is usually waiting for any excuse to head for the food and the "back" command used for lining seems to translate to this setting. The pup will turn toward the food that she can see with her left eye.
Gradually reduce the angle of the pup's body to the line. She will eventually be doing a right hand back while facing you. If there is a failure to turn in the correct direction, just increase the angle for a few days and then start to decrease it again. The left hand "back" is taught by angling the pup's body to your left and using your left hand for the command. As in casting to the right or left, there are two spatial variables here and only one should be changed at a time. Increase the distances as far as possible in the house, then move outside, start with short distances, increase them gradually, go to different places, and add cover and distractions.
Stopping
This is the most crucial part of training for control at a distance. It is important to continue each step of the training until the pup is absolutely reliable at sitting quickly on command. To stop the pup, we have to get her attention. While this is possible with a voice command, it becomes difficult at a distance, in the wind, or when the pup is running in noisy cover (dry leaves, mud and water). Many trainers use a single, sharp "tweet" on a whistle to get the pup's attention.
It is assumed that the pup heels and sits reliably on leash. One procedure is to heel the pup on leash and to give a whistle "tweet" followed immediately by the "sit" command. Eventually the pup will sit on the whistle and the "sit" command can be faded out. The whistle sit can be reinforced at feeding times. Put some food in the bowl, and with the pup near you, whistle and give her the food when she sits.
Next, take the pup for a walk on a 20' to 25' leash and again use the whistle as a sit command 2 to 3 times in a 15 minute walk. Reward with praise and a kibble but do not let her break the sit until you release her. Require her to sit for increasing periods of time. Start with the pup close, gradually increase distance up to the end of the leash, go to different places and add cover and distractions. Include walks where the whistle is never used. If the pup starts to pay more attention to you than the smells and sights along the walk, then reduce the use of the whistle until it runs freely. To test her reliability, do a right or left hand cast to a food bowl while on a long leash. When she has covered about half the distance to the bowl, whistle and, if she stops, give verbal praise and then repeat the cast to the bowl. If she does not stop on the whistle, use the leash to stop her and then try again. If the training has been thorough and she continues to refuse to stop, then the help of a professional trainer may be required.
If she stops on the way to the food bowl, then continue the walks with whistle stops with the pup off leash in a familiar setting, starting with the pup only a few feet distant and slowly working up to 50 yards or so; then go to a new place, shorten the distance and repeat and, finally, repeat with distractions. Advance very slowly through this process and try to avoid any failure to sit on the whistle.
Come in whistle
Place the pup in a sitting position, walk 10' to 15' away, turn and face the pup and put the food bowl at your feet. Give a sharp "tweet, tweet" on the whistle followed quickly by the "here" command. As before, gradually fade out the verbal command, increase distances, go to different places, and add cover and distractions.
Putting it together
Generally, lining, stopping and casting should be extended to about 1 ½ times the distance at which you would like to work your dog. At this stage, it is desirable to increase range, control and precision. This can be accomplished with drills, described in books on retriever training, that are designed to hone control skills both on land and in water. "Wagon wheel" drills, "pattern blinds" and "bird-boy" blinds for lining and "baseball" for casting are especially useful. The "double T" drill and the "moving baseball drill" combine lining, stopping and casting, putting them together in a dynamic setting. A "swim-by" drill in water is valuable in developing the skills required for directing your dog from shore while searching for a drowned subject.
A problem that often develops is that of a refusal to line or cast toward an unseen reward. Lining or casting in short cover where the toys cannot be seen until the dog is close to them helps. Start short and gradually increase the distances. At longer distances, some trainers scatter several toys about which allows the dog to find one quickly. The retriever training drills mentioned above also help with this problem. Set up a dozen or more sites with a variety of cover and settings and teach two or three pattern blinds (100 yards plus) at each site. These help build the dog's confidence in moving away from the handler. Run several sites two or three times a week so that it takes about two weeks to run all of them; then repeat. If the dog has been trained to do runaways, do the following drill. Have the subject hide a short distance away, out of sight and upwind of the dog. Bring the dog to where it can see the hiding place but not the subject. Sit the dog at your side, have the subject appear and attract the attention of the dog and then disappear. Immediately line your dog toward the subject giving your usual reward for the find. As always, change the parameters (wind direction, distance, time to wait) gradually until the dog will do the drill downwind to a distance of 100 yards or more.
K-9
Specialty Search Associates
