Running Two-sided Dogs

Many trainers train some or all of their dogs to launch and deliver to either side of the handler.

If you're running a two-sided dog, then in a marking series, you have a choice of which side to use for having the dog watch the birds thrown, having the dog come to heel when delivering, and launching the dog from, both for the go-bird and for each of the memory-birds.

Although exceptions apply to any rule, and exceptions come up more often in advanced competition, a few guidelines work for many situations.  Again, these are guidelines, not hard and fast rules: 

• For a single, run the dog on the side the bird is being thrown to.
• For a multiple where one of the birds is particularly attracting to the dog, because it's relatively close and/or because it's a flyer, use choice of side strategically at the line, so that your body position can maximize the dog’s opportunity to see all the marks thrown and focus well on each fall.  In general, place the dog on the side of you that is opposite from the most attractive throwing station (usually, the closest bird or the flyer).  Here are some examples:
• For a double in which the go-bird is a flyer and/or closer than the memory bird, run the dog on the opposite side of the go-bird.  For example, if the go-bird is on the left, run the dog on your right side.  The reason for this is that if you run the dog from the flyer side, and the dog decides to watch that station when the other bird is about to be thrown first, you are outside the dog's peripheral vision and may not be able to give her the visual information about which bird is about to be thrown.  If the dog is on the opposite side of the flyer and locks onto the flyer station as you await the first throw, you can step forward facing the first bird, and the dog will see you moving and see which way you're facing.  After the first throw, you can step back and face the flyer, communicating clearly that it's time for the dog to turn her gaze in that direction.
• For a double in which the first bird down is the flyer and/or close enough to be pulling your dog's attention, and from experience you think it possible she will not turn to watch the go-bird, run the dog on the opposite side of the first bird.  That way, you can step forward within her line of sight and face the go-bird after the first bird has been thrown.  If she is on the same side as the first gun station, and locks onto the first bird down, she may not be able to see you when you turn, even if you step forward.
• For a triple thrown middle-outside-outside, where the second bird is particularly attractive to the dog (flyer and/or close), run the dog on the opposite side of the second bird.  After the first two birds are thrown, you can step up and turn to the third gun station and the dog will see your movement.  If she's on the same side as the second bird, she may not see you when you turn to the less attractive third bird.
• For a triple thrown middle-outside-outside, where the go-bird is particularly attractive to the dog (flyer and/or close), run the dog on the opposite side of the go-bird.  After the first mark in the middle is thrown, if your dog turns toward the go-bird, you can step forward and face the second bird and your dog will see you.  If she's on the same side as the go-bird, she may turn toward the go-bird after the first throw and not see you when you turn to the correct second bird.
• For a triple thrown round the horn, you would usually run the dog from the trailing side, especially if the go-bird is attractive to the dog (flyer and/or close), since she might turn from the first throw to the go-bird and never see the middle throw.  If she's on the trailing side, you can step forward and face the middle gun after the first throw, and the dog will see you.  If she's on the leading side, she may not see you.
• However, if the first bird of an around-the-horn triple were a nearby flyer, running the dog on the trailing side might be disastrous, since the dog might lock in on the flyer as soon as it goes down, not see you turn to the other gun stations, and not see one or even both of those throws.  If you were able to anticipate that risk, possibly by going to school on the teams that ran the triple before you, you'd run the dog on the opposite side of the flyer, so that you could step forward and face the second gun station after the flyer is down, and the dog would see your movement.
• On a multiple, after the dog returns with the go-bird, send the dog for each of the remaining marks on the side the bird is thrown toward, even though the dog may not have watched the throw from that side.  Take up your position and face the next throw as the dog is running back with the previous bird, so that the dog gets all possible communication about which way you plan to send her next.
• If the dog delivers the bird and then lines up with a clear intention of running to a different mark than the one you had planned, consider accepting her selection.  Different trainers have different ideas about this, and one combination I've run into is that in training, the trainer always requires the dog to run to the station selected by the handler, but in an event, the handler always accepts the dog's preference if the dog expresses one.  A different pair of options, which both follow the aphorism, "Train as you compete, compete as you train," is to always run the dog to the handler's selection, or to always allow the dog to choose (which after some trial and error happens to be my approach).  So if you have decided to allow the dog to choose, and it sometimes happens that the dog is not on the side of the throw as a result, then don't send her yet, but first get her on the side you want her on.  You can arrange for that by swinging her around to your other side, but that has the disadvantage of causing her to take her eye off the target, and also of slightly changing the perspective.  To avoid both those problems, you can leave the dog in place and step over her butt to get to the other side before settling her and sending her.
• If the dog seems unable to lock into the direction you want to send her, you might try swinging her to your other side to detach her from her previous lock and giving her a fresh perspective before locking her in, hopefully in the correct direction this time, and then sending her.
• By the way, although not the primary subject of this article, I would like to suggest that you never send the dog on a mark or a blind unless (a) she's visually locked in on the line you want, and (b) her body is also aligned on the line you want.  It is remarkable how often you see a dog launch in competition on the wrong line, but on the exact line that she was gazing at the moment she was sent, or that her spine was aligned on.

I might mention that many dogs do not need all these guidelines for many setups.   Often, you can let the dog watch the throws from either side, and you can send her for them from either side after a delivery in a multiple, and she'll be fine.  However, if a setup occurs in which one of the birds really is so attractive that some of the dogs before you in the running order are not seeing all of the other birds thrown, that's not the time you want to start figuring out how to handle the situation when it's your turn, hoping your dog will understand what your body language means.  If you've been communicating in a consistent way the dog's whole career, even when the dog didn't need the extra help, you're more likely to be in sync when difficult situations arise.