Bird placement: marks, blinds

For a dog not confident in her lines on marks, a rule of thumb for the fall might be: hard to get to, easy to find. For example, the route to the blind might be thru unavoidable cover, or across a side slope, but once the dogs emerges from that obstacle, the bird is in plain sight. Dogs who have repeated positive reinforcement from taking good lines gain confidence in their marking.

However, for dogs who already have confidence in their marks, and especially for running blinds, the opposite strategy may be appropriate. Throwing and planting the bird in cover during training can pay dividends in events, because it gets the dog comfortable with that possibility.

For example, let's say that a blind is screened on one side by a stand of trees at the midway point, so that as handler, you will not be able to see the dog if she gets on that side of the line after the midway point. An out of sight dog is likely to be disqualified. This means that if the dog is on the open side once she's even with the blind, you'll need to cast her toward the blind and then stop her before she gets out of sight. If the blind is in cover, that task will be easier if she already expects to find the blind in cover.

A similar example is if the bird is in cover just in front of a rise. Again, if the dog disappears over the crest, you've lost her. When you blow the whistle, you need her to be aware from experience that the bird may be nearby but not in open view.