Hi Guest,
Sorry for the delay in responding, but I have been out of town for nearly a month. I know you said its been along time, but forgive me, "who are you?"
The ABC drill is all about teaching dogs to hold their line to marks, to improve their depth perception and not to be sucked to old falls. For the purpose of describing the procedure, imagine the face of a clock with you and the dog are located at 6 o’clock. A thrower is located at 9.00 casting from left to right and at a distance of 90 metres. Cast the Bird “A” and complete the single mark retrieve. Now locate a second thrower casting right to left at a distance of 120 metres and with the thrower located on a line 10 - 15 degrees right of the line to where Bird “A” fell. Bird “B” should be cast to land in line with the apex (or mid point) of the Bird “A” cast. Recover Bird “B” as a single mark retrieve. Located a third thrower at a distance of 150 metres and at a point on the line passing through the mid point between where the Bird “A” thrower is/was located and the point where Bird “B” fell. The third thrower is set to cast from left to right with Bird “C” landing on the line passing through the mid point between where Bird “A” and Bird “B” fell.
Re your question about Blinds; Cold Blinds are blinds that are placed with the dog totally out of sight and therefore has no prior knowledge of where the bird is located. Memory Blinds are blinds that are placed with the dog out of sight, but at allocation from where the dog has previously recovered a bird. Memory Blinds are good for encouraging momentum. I am not familiar with the term “Hot Blinds” per se, but I can only assume that these are “blinds” that the dog sees being placed and is sent to recover them after a short time delay. Other than early phases in teaching swim-by and some cheating water blinds and/or channel swims, I rarely use them.
Kindest regards, BFN, RWT