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.