# Any tips on lining?



## Gettinbirdy (Jun 15, 2006)

My 8 1/2 month old has trouble trusting me when I aim him with my hand and send him out. If he doesn't see the duck sitting in the water he'll of piddle around by the shoreline. Any good tips on getting him to trust my line and go straight until he hits/sees the bird?


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## ryanps18 (Jun 23, 2006)

You are talking about a blind retrieve.

I use the command "back" does not matter what word you use as long as you are consistant after time the dog will associate the word to him having to rely on you to giude him to the bird or handle him.

The way I started to teach the command back is by memory marks, meaning toss a bumper a few yard in fornt of you and have your dog at heel. heel the dog in the other direction a few paces and stop him. With the dog facing you hold your hand up in the air and sort of filp your wrist and command "back" at the same time.

Repeat this at further distances and until the dog is going back with confidence.

next you can do the same drill with dog at heel with your hand over the above the dogs nose and give the same command.

Some people will use a strait edge like a fence to keep the dog in strait lline.

Also another drill I use is put a pile of dummies and heel the dog so he can see them on the ground send him and as he is comming back to walk back another 10 yards or so and repeat. He will soon be running back at a distance of 100 yards and longer as he gains confidence. the key is to put the dummies in the same spot for every training session to build confidence.

After that you will be able to get into baseball drills and others, but first the dog needs to be able to stop on whistle.

It may be a good idea to lay off of simple marks for a while and work only on handeling, your dog has learned that he can find them without your help and might hinder his training.

There are many books on the maket that will explain the process much better than I have.


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## gonehuntin' (Jul 27, 2006)

It is a fairly involved subject and if you're serious about training your dog you should get a book (Not Wolters) or tapes. In a nutshell, you start him in the yard going to a pile with 6 bumpers on it he can see. Start close and back up continually until you can get him to ge 100 yards on the pile. Then add piles. Start with 3 piles in the shape of an inverted T. Send him from the center in three different directions. Start the piles close then work them out farther. Once he is doing this, take him to a field and a pond. Walk him out with you, drop the bird, bring him back and send him. Keep this up taking him to different spots. Always plant the bumper or bird at the exact same spot at each spot. When he can do these confidence blinds in the field easily out to 100 yards, start in the water. Put decoys out and ALWAYS plant the birds past the decoys. That's about it. Practice makes perfect. It's really more involved than this but this will get you started. Please buy a good book. This is just too involved to write about here.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

GH, Nice post :beer:

I told you guys he knows what hes talking about....

You really need to go to the trouble of detailing it, I know its kind of tiring at first ( I hate the typing) but you have a lot to offer and there is a lot of confusion for some of the young guys, think back to the 60's and what we knew 

Don't you wish we could of went to something like this,( and not been watching "flash gordon") if we had a training question.

The internet is really a miracle.

And to the youth on here, no "flash gordon" was not a setter :lol: :lol:


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