Hi Teresa,
Your question is way too broad for me to develop a detailed response. I liken your question to the fellow who telephoned the other day and said, “I have a well bred 8 week old pup and would you please tell how to train it to win a National?”
Without knowing exactly where you are in your overall training program and what sorts of difficulties you have experienced along the way and how you overcame them, I do not know what specific advice I might offer.
The following are generalised comments and observations that may be of some help.
1. A dog can not do something it had not been taught to do.
2. If a dog cannot satisfactorily perform an exercise in a controlled environment (the yard) it certainly will not perform in the field.
3. Just because a dog can perform an exercise in the yard does not guarantee a satisfactory performance in the field. All exercises taught in the yard must be transitioned into the field.
4. Dogs learn their lessons quicker on land than they do in water.
5. If a dog is not handling to near perfection on the land, you can be assured of a significant deterioration when the dog is working in water.
Teaching dogs to handle is a step-by-step process wherein the previous step becomes the foundation for the next step forward. For a variety of reasons, certain steps can or are inadvertently overlooked, or the handler decides “my dog doesn’t need to do that”. These courses of action inevitably lead to disappointment in tight competition when the dog fails due to the inherent weakness in its foundations created by these oversights.
With a focus solely on how to teach a dog to handle on the land, the following sequential steps are relevant:
1. Condition the dog to the whistle, “sit” and “come”.
2. Simple three handed casting games, including left and right hand back.
3. Force Fetch, stick fetch and stick to pile.
4. 4, 8 & 16 handed lining drills.
5. 4 & 8 handed casting drills.
6. Single “T”, double “T” , modified Double “T” and Run-by.
7. Walking baseball.
8. Lining and casting drills with diversions.
At this point you start to transition the skills mastered in the yard into the field through:
9. 3 leg pattern blinds.
10. Taught or memory blinds with and without diversions.
11. Field equivalents of lining and casting drills.
12. Simple cold blinds.
13. Cheating water MARKS.
You are now ready to teach your dog to handle in the water.
14. Swim-by
15. Stick to pile
16. Taught and memory blinds with and without diversions.
17. Walk around blinds.
18. Field equivalent of lining and casting drills.
19. Simple cold blinds with diversions.
20. Channel swimming.
21. Tune-up drills.
I hope the above all makes sense and I will be interested to hear your comments and/or of your progress.
Regards, RWT
PS I have just read Julie's most recent input and striving for and maintaining a good attitude at all times is an essential ingtredient, please refer to your Eckett notes.