The Skimming Drill

The Skimming Drill is an advanced lining drill. It's designed to train a dog to run thru corners and curved sections of obstacles, such as high cover and water, automatically when called for on a mark, rather than running around them ("cheating") unless handled.

Although the Skimming Drill is designed to train the dog to run these lining pictures without handling, handling is used for the training.

First Stage

Here's how the first stage of the Skimming Drill is run:

• Work in an area of mostly low cover, but near a corner section of high cover, so the dog can run thru low cover, then into the high cover near the corner, then out again, all on a straight line.
• Set your start line (SL) on the edge of the high cover, a few yards from the corner.
• Place a lining pole (LP) on the opposite side of the cover from the SL, in a location where the dog can clearly see the LP.
• Place an even number of white bumpers (WBs) at the foot of the LP, not touching one another.
• Run the dog straight thru the cover to pick up a bumper. If the corner points toward your right as in the diagram above, run the dog from your left, and vice versa.
• If the dog veers off line in either direction, either call her back or handle her. Too much calling back or handling can create confidence problems, and symptoms such as popping and no-gos. Therefore, use a set up where the dog can run a good line at least 70% of the time.
• After the first retrieve, run the dog to pick up another bumper, but this time from the other side. For example, if the corner points toward your right, this time run the dog from your right.

Repeat the drill from the same SL until the dog can easily run it from either side.

Increasing Distance

Once the dog can run the retrieve from the edge of the cover, move your SL back two yards along the same line and run the drill again. The dog is to enter the cover at the same point from this new SL as when you were starting at the edge of the cover. This is much more difficult for some dogs. If two yards is too far for the dog to run the line correctly, move closer again.

Developing Fluency

Using a variety of locations, continue to increase criteria during this session and on into subsequent sessions, the ultimate goal being for the dog to be able to run any picture involving a corner of cover correctly without handling, with the corner pointing either right or left, and the dog running from either side.

Gradually increase distance from the SL to the cover, and gradually decrease how far into the cover the line goes, until the dog can take just a small patch of cover without veering too far in and without cheating around the outside.

Once the dog can run good lines with a WB, switch to an orange or black bumper, and once the can run good lines with those, run the drill without an LP.

Ultimately, the dog should automatically take a corner of cover even on long marks. This skill enables the dog to resist being pushed off-line by skimming pictures and improves the dog's chance of arriving at the area of the fall without getting lost.

Other Obstacles

As explained above, start training the Skimming Drill with a corner section of high cover.

In addition, train for the following obstacles as shown in the diagram at the top of this article, starting at the beginning of the training plan for each:

• A curved section of high cover (more difficult than a corner shape because the entry is more angled)
• The corner of a pond
• A curved section of pond

You can wait to train on water until after the dog is trained for high cover, for example if you begin in winter when you're not training in water. Alternatively, if weather permits, you can use two set-ups and train both high cover and water in the same session, simultaneously making progress with both over a period of days.

Summary

The Skimming Drill is an investment in time and effort, and is not needed to be successful in Junior and Senior Hunt Tests. However, for Master Hunt Tests and Field Trials, skimming pictures will appear in a high percentage of events, and the investment may improve the dog's chances for doing well in those situations.

Sequence Sequence Sequence

One of my mentors, Alice Woodyard, believes that one of the most important aspects of retriever field training is not onlyhow each behavior is trained, but the order in which behaviors are trained. Her acronym for this concept is "SSS", for sequence-sequence-sequence. In Alice's experience, getting the sequence wrong can have negative consequences for a field retriever's career.

Unfortunately, no exact SSS for training a retriever exists. The reason is that a second factor, the "it depends" factor, is also in play. Different dogs need information presented to them in different ways, and only an experienced trainer can make the call for a particular dog.

Nonetheless, here is an outline of what I think might be an appropriate SSS for 2Q retriever field training [this is a draft; each item will eventually be shown as a link to a detailed discussion of the drill]:

• Show Me game (fetch without retrieve to hand). Note: Retrieve to hand (the cues Hold, Out, and Fetch trained in that order) should eventually be trained, but the training of retrieve to hand should be delayed until puppy has strong motivation for pick-up and return from Show Me game. Show Me can be played often, but with only 1-3 reps per session, always ending with the dog wanting more
• Wearing the dog
• Walking recall
• Here and Sit on voice and whistle cues
• Sit to say please
• Loose-lead walking (LLW): Here's a nice Gail Fisher video on how to train this
• Walking at heel and coming to heel
• Trained retrieve: hold, out, and fetch
• Hold-and-out game (dog is sent out for an tug-toy to retrieve; as dog approaches handler with toy, handler calls "hold", then grabs toy for game of tug; then handler cues "out" and immediately throws toy again; this adds high reinforcement history for "hold" and "out")
• Fetch game (dog is placed in short-distance remote sit with nearby bird; handler calls "fetch", waits till dog picks up bird, then leads dog on merry chase; this takes the high-reinforcement prey-chase value normally associated with the send-out, and adds it to the return as well)
• Walking fetch
• Line manners (fine tuned body behaviors such as return to heel, back into heel, one-step heel, pivots L & R, sit vs. down, etc.)
• Pile work
• Wagon wheels
• Bird-foot drill
• Baseball drill
• Double-T drill
• Diversion drill
• Combo picture drill
• Combo mark-blind drill
• Triple blinds
• Entering cover
• Skimming drill with high cover
• Running hillsides
• Hip-pocket and reverse hip-pocket doubles
• Shore-handling toolkit (Note: shore-handling toolkit and swim-by can be moved anywhere after double-T, depending on availability of swim-by pond, but both are of course prerequisite to cheaters)
• Swim-by (see previous Note)
• Cheaters
• On and off a point (be sure swimming past a point is well-established first)
• Skimming drill with curved shoreline
• Up-the-shore and two-up-the-shore
• De-flaring drill

Note that in parallel with the above sequence, the dog would also have on-going experiences with field retrieves, both in private training and also, whenever possible, with groups. Because those experiences would in some cases place the dog in a situation that requires a behavior not yet trained, care must be taken that the dog not have the opportunity to self-reinforce on incorrect behaviors such as not returning with a bird. In some cases, that can be prevented with management devices such as a long line. In others, the situations can be avoided entirely, for example by not running the young dog on a retrieve where the dog is likely to cheat around water even if others in the group are doing so.

But the obvious solution of simply never running the dog in situations the dog isn't trained for is unfortunately not feasible. The reason is that getting the dog completely trained for field retrieves takes months, and for an event retriever, the most important source of motivation is not the extrinsic reinforcers that trainers use while teaching the foundation behaviors, but the intrinsic pleasure of the chase and recovery of real prey in a field setting. As trainers who have attempted a strategy of keeping the dog out of the field until the retrieve is fully trained have learned, that approach risks losing the crucial process of building motivation for the overall game of field work.

Don't Dig Holes

INTRODUCTION

I call my approach to retriever training "discovery training". It's based on the idea that performing a high-quality retrieve is deeply self-reinforcing for a retriever, so training consists of giving the dog ample opportunity to experience that reinforcement. The result is an ever stronger history of reinforcement for the high-quality retrieve, and ever more fluent performance.

A crucial corollary is that the dog NOT experience reinforcement for performing incorrect versions of the retrieve. Doing so would dig holes, actually setting the training back. Unfortunately, executing this corollary is more difficult in field work than in other sports (meaning, other sports that I have experience with).

Several reasons account for the increased difficulty. Most important, because those incorrect behaviors occur in the dog's natural setting — the field, as opposed to, for example, an obedience or agility ring — the intrinsic value of those incorrect behaviors is likely to be extremely high to the dog, compared to the temptations for incorrect behavior in other sports. Secondly, distance erodes control, and field dogs work at greater distances from the handler than in other sports. Thirdly, a phenomenon called "instinctive drift", described by the Kellers in the landmark 1951 article "Misbehavior of Organisms", seems to be more prominent in field work than the other sports. In all sports, the dog has a tendency from the beginning toward certain undesired behaviors, such as flaring at heel in obedience, or leaping over contacts in agility. But in field work, the more the dog retrieves, the more she becomes aware of her instincts to divert from the correct version of the behavior in certain ways, and senses the great pleasure available from such diversions. The result is that a trained behavior that once seemed fluent gradually unravels, because even the intrinsically self-reinforcing correct response is not as valuable as some of the possible alternatives.

Difficult or not, it remains essential that the dog not rehearse self-reinforcing incorrect responses. The dog must learn that any attempt to intentionally divert from a high-quality retrieve will ALWAYS be unsuccessful. Failure to prevent rehearsing such diversions can set your program back months, years, or even permanently. And the problem is more serious for a 2Q dog than one trained with traditional methods, because traditional trainers have powerful +P and -R training tools -- most notably the ecollar -- that the 2Q trainer does not use. The moral: Don't let the dogs learn to perform those incorrect behaviors in the first place.

Let's get to some examples.

DON'T DIG HOLES

The general rule is straightforward: Don't allow the dog to repeatedly self-reinforce on incorrect versions of the retrieve. Here are some specific examples of behaviors that can rapidly become entrenched and a nightmare to correct. I've also included suggestions for how to prevent the dog from rehearsing these undesirable behaviors:

No refused recalls on open land retrieves: Recall may be the single most difficult skill for a 2Q retriever. An open land retrieve is the easiest recall situation. If the dog doesn't immediately pick up the article and come straight back, the retrieve is too difficult for one reason or another. Could be distance, could be distractions, could be the novelty of the article, could be microclimates, could be shadows from trees, could be many other possibilities. Immediately go out and get the dog, take somewhere she can succeed, and throw some marks for her or have someone else throw. Use a gradual, incremental approach to work back to where the problem occurred, in such a way that by the time the dog is asked to perform that retrieve, she's ready to perform it correctly.

No refused recalls in everyday life: Though everyday recalls are generally easier than field recalls, training even an everyday recall is a major challenge. Published programs include Susan Smith's "90 Days to a Rock Solid Recall", Leslie Nelson's "Really Reliable Recall", and Shirley Chong's "Recall Redux". I've had excellent success with my own program, "Walking Recall".

No keep-away: If you can't get the dog by going after her, because she goes into Keep Away mode, have her wear a long line attached to her yard collar. Don't use it to jerk her, just to create a "long dog" that you can catch. Make the line as long as necessary to assure that she won't succeed at Keep Away.

No refused recalls returning thru obstacles such as high cover: Sometimes a dog who can return well on open return path will stall if she needs to go thru high cover, wetland, into a depression, into headwind, etc. If that happens, pick her up immediately (that is, go out to get her), give her some successful easier retrieves, and then work on the issue she had a problem with at shorter distances and without distractions.

No refused recalls returning across water: Returning across water can be much more difficult for a dog than other returns. One reason is that the dog may be accustomed to leaping into the water in order to avoid the feeling of having the ground drop away from her as she wades out, and she may not be able to do that when carrying an article, or it may hurt her mouth if she does leap. Even if none of those apply, dogs can be intimated by whatever distance is "big water" for that particular dog's level of experience. This can be significantly more of a problem for 2Q dogs than traditionally trained dogs, because the mental/emotional barrier may be high one, and 2Q training tools are weaker than traditional ones. To avoid this happening, never send the dog on a retrieve where you won't be able to reach her if there is any possibility she will get marooned. If she does maroon, pick her up immediately. One method with which I've had excellent success is to pick the dog up and bring her back to the start line, but leave the article back where the dog stalled. Then send the dog again, and see whether she brings the article back the second time. If not, don't keep trying this. However, it may work. Retrievers do not like to leave the article behind, and if they believe that stalling will cost them the chance to complete the retrieve, they may rapidly learn to stop stalling.

No slow pick-ups: Most retrievers naturally have soft mouths and can carry a live bird without killing it. But some dogs do kill the birds by biting down too hard while carrying it, or even by killing it for sport or out of nervousness before picking the bird up. This cannot necessarily be cured, or it may only apply to certain game. If it can't be cured for your particular dog, don't train with birds the dog cannot carry without killing them. To try curing it, run out behind the dog after sending her, urge her to fetch the bird immediately when she reaches it, and take immediate delivery. Then run back to the start line together. As soon as possible, take the dog and the live bird to a field where you can work and throw it for her a few more times. Give her the opportunity to learn that the fun doesn't stop when she brings the live bird to you, and give her an opportunity to learn how to pick the bird up and carry it without killing it.

No slipped whistles:

No breaking from the start line:

No breaking from honor:

No head swinging:

No running banks:

AN EXCEPTION: Delivery to hand

To wrap up, I'll also mention an exception to the rule of not rehearsing incorrect responses: IMO, it is neither necessary nor even desirable to require the young dog to perform a correct delivery to hand at the end of a retrieve. Instead, the dog should be permitted to keep the article as long as she wants once she has returned to the handler. She must remain fairly close to the handler, and might even crawl up into his lap if he chooses to sit on ground and welcome her. Eventually she will lose interest in the article and drop it, perhaps when called to heel for the next retrieve.

I have the following reasons for this exception. Most important, I believe that delivery to hand is somewhat aversive to at least some young retrievers, and creates the opposite reinforcement history required to train a high-quality pick-up and return. Also, I think that the problem is relatively easy to correct once the dog's habit of returning is well established, so why waste time training it when the dog's not ready? The corrected behavior will be taught during the Trained Retrieve, typically after the dog has finished teething. As the dog comes to associate delivery to hand as predicting the next opportunity to retrieve, it's relatively easy to build higher reinforcement value for the correct response than for dropping the article, and the problem tends to take care of itself.

Walking Recall

Training with the Walking Recall

I've invented many recall programs over the years, in addition to using a variety of published recall training plans.

Recently, I invented a new plan for Laddie, and I'm pleased at how effective it has been in improving Laddie's recall in general, and field recall in particular. I call this plan the "Walking Recall". Here's a description (it's essential that you also read the following section, "Cautions"):

• Equipment: yard collar and long line. I use a 40-foot line in the city, a 100-foot line in parks. (See "How I Made the Long Lines" below.)
• Take the dog for a walk. In my experience, dogs don't like to walk at steady, human pace. They like to run ahead, then sniff and fall behind, then run ahead again. Let the dog do that, continuously looping the line up in your hand when the dog gets closer, letting the line out as distance builds. Dogs love this freedom, and I feel that it opens the dog's mind for the learning that is also taking place (next steps).
• Call the dog as needed. This might happen because the dog is getting too close to a passerby, or you're about to run out of line, or the dog is about to go out in the street, or she's going on the wrong side of a tree and the line will get hung up, etc. Or maybe it's just because you feel like giving her a treat.
• For each call, call exactly once, using your standard recall cue. For field dogs, that's "Here," using the same inflection you use in the field. If the dog comes, big party, whatever the dog loves. If the dog doesn't come, gently (no jerking, no recriminations) reel her in. I think rewards are good in that situation, too: classical conditioning to the effect that coming (even if the dog has no choice) predicts good things. In addition, you might want to reward the dog if she comes to you on her own without being called.
• In my experience, a variety of high-value rewards — one or more treats, petting, a tennis ball tossed a short distance, an enthusiastic, "Yay! Good job!" — in unpredictable sequence from one recall to the next is the most powerful method of reinforcing, because it adds the additional powerful reinforcer of surprise. Even the smaller rewards gain additional value because the dog senses she's "due" for a bigger reward the next time. Unlike some trainers, I believe in reinforcing every time.
• After each recall, as soon as celebration is over, resume walking and, when the situation permits, release the dog with an explicit cue such as "OK", again letting her set her own pace.
• Time your recalls so that at least 70% do not require the dog to feel any pressure from the line. Too much of that will result in the line becoming a necessary context for a successful recall, producing a "line-wise" dog and significantly reducing the value of this training plan. Always responding correctly may mean your dog has fantastic recall, or it may mean you're not taking her into challenging situations often enough.
• Don't lure the dog, for example with treats or a swinging tug toy. If you do, she'll be learning to come for that context rather than the context you want, which is the recall cue. For the same reason, don't reach for the reward until she arrives. You don't want her watching you as she comes and stalling if she doesn't see you reaching for a reward.
• On the other hand, be prepared to reward her instantly when she arrives. If you need extra time opening the wrapper, etc., use happy talk as a conditioned secondary reinforcer, or bridge, so she can recognize the association of her behavior to the reinforcing outcome. Without the bridge, the delayed reward is significantly less effective as a reinforcer for the recall.
• Do not say the dog's name when calling her, because in field work, she will learn that her name is how you release her to retrieve a mark. If you get in the habit of saying, "Princess, here!" one day you may say, "Princess, here!" when you don't mean to and inadvertently send her racing out into the field after a difficult honor or no-bird.
• Handling 40 or 100 foot of line with a dog attached is a learned skill. It may not go smoothly at first. :0)

Cautions

Please take careful note the following:

• Don't let the dog build up speed and suddenly hit the end of the line. That's a lot more dangerous for a dog than you might expect.
• Don't grab the line while the dog is running outward. You'll get a rope burn.
• Don't let the line get underfoot. The dog might flip you if she breaks into a run.

These problems are difficult to avoid. The only solution is to watch closely and try not let dangerous situations arise. When I first started the Walking Recall with Laddie, I needed to pay attention every second.

Mechanics

Here's my experience with the mechanics of the Walking Recall.

I've got two lines, one 40' and one 100'. Some evenings, I use the 100' in Prospect Park, a humongous park in the middle of Brooklyn. I use the 40' line for our mid-day walks every day we're there.

Even the 40' line is unwieldy, but I've gotten more skillful over time. I'll try to describe it:

1. I put my left hand thru the handle at one end so that it's around my wrist as a safety measure. Of course I attach the snap hook at the other end to Laddie's collar.
2. Starting with my right hand at my left wrist, I slide the line over my right thumb as I stretch my hands apart.
3. Lightly holding the line with my right hand, I move it closer to my left hand again and loop the line over the inside of the fingers of my left hand.
4. I repeat steps (2) and (3) over and over again, like an accordion, until I've taken up all the slack.

Now we begin our walk. Of course, when Laddie moves away from me, I let loops of line fall off my left hand one loop at a time. When he moves toward me, or when he stops and I'm catching up with him, I go back to the accordion motion, again taking up the slack. I proceed in this way the entire walk.

The key here is that the line is never slack. I'm essentially a human retractible lead.

Another key is that the distances I permit are based on the control I have confidence in. Yes, I want Laddie to occasionally need the line for difficult distractions, but I'm not going to let him get 30' from me and 3' from a kid. If I see a kid coming, I call Laddie and take up the slack before there's any risk of him having enough line to get to the kid. Every once in a while, someone will surprise us and step unexpectedly out of a doorway. I just have to hope he's not scared of sweet little Golden Retrievers.

Walking Recall versus Off-lead Walking

A similar approach to the Walking Recall is to walk the dog off-lead, only calling her when you're willing to bet $100 that she'll come. It may seem as though that approach would be similarly effective, but my experience is that the Walking Recall works better.

The advantage of the long line is not only as a safety net when you guess wrong, but more importantly, that you get to practice situations where the dog is not yet ready to come on her own. I didn't realize in advance what a significant effect that would have on the training, but when I thought about it later, it sort of made sense.

For example, the dog sees a squirrel and starts toward it. Without a line, you can't be sure the dog will respond to a recall so, being smart, you don't try, and the dog runs after the squirrel. Here was a golden opportunity to practice a difficult recall, but you had to pass it up. The dog didn't rehearse a failed recall, which is good, but the dog also didn't rehearse a successful recall, which is a missed opportunity. By contrast, with the line attached, the dog does rehearse a successful recall, either by choice or by no choice.

This sort of thing could happen a dozen times in a single walk. It may not sound like it would matter that much, but I'll tell you that just a few sessions of Walking Recall substantially improved Laddie's field recall after years of training recall in other ways.

Benefits of the Walking Recall

I've found that most recall programs produce skill in particular settings, with insufficient generalization to other contexts. By contrast, the Walking Recall seems to improve the dog's overall recall response. Here's what I found with Laddie, and what I'd expect with other dogs as well:

• Naturally the dog will get better and better walking on a long line with practice. For example, she will become less and less likely to approach strangers or other dogs, because every time she does, you'll call her, and either with or without the line, she'll come to you instead. With no pay-off for attempting to approach others, she'll gradually stop trying. Similarly, she'll become increasingly less likely to try chasing a pigeon or going into the street.
• She'll become better at walking on a short lead. Though walking on a long line may be more enjoyable for her, she'll be gaining skills that enable her to walk more comfortably on a short lead as well.
• She'll become better at walking off lead. Again, the same skills will kick in, and her whole style of interacting with you on a walk will change. In fact, I would suggest that you not walk the dog off lead until you can depend on her recall, even in confined space. You don't want to go back to having her learn that she can ignore you.
• Most importantly from my point of view, her field recall will dramatically improve. Granted, a field recall is different from walking on a lead, but my experience is that the dog's responsiveness to "Here", even from hundreds of yards away, improves remarkably after just a few sessions of the Walking Recall, despite years of previous recall training.

How I Made the Long Lines

I'll end with a note on how I made the long lines:

1. I went to an outdoors store and purchased climber's webbing, great stuff for this purpose. I got a little extra length to allow for the sewing.
2. I went to a hardware store and bought a snap hook.
3. I brought the materials to a shoe repair shop, and asked them to attach the snap hook at one end of the webbing, and to make a handle at the other end. I brought along a commercial leash to show them what the stitches looked like.

I'm sure the materials are available online if you don't mind waiting a few days to receive them.