After Swim By

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After Swim By

Postby Leanne O'Sullivan » Tue 30 Dec 2008 9:54 am

For those of you who do swim by with your dogs, what do you do once your dog is successfully carrying out the exercise? Do you move to a new pond and start again or do you run other exercises that link in with what has been learned during swim by?
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Re: After Swim By

Postby Joe Law » Tue 30 Dec 2008 4:58 pm

Leanne, I think the latter but no doubt others may have a different opinion. My understanding of swim-by is that it is a training drill to start dogs handling in water. On land your casts are almost always literal casts that if taken accurately would result in your dog arriving at the bird. Water work is not that simple and the dog needs to be directed in water to negotiate a path around, over or through various situations and has to be taught where and when to enter and re-enter the water both on the way to and from the bird. Swim-by is just the start of this process and is meant to ease the dog into the difficult process of being handled in water. Hope this comment is of some help. Joe
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Re: After Swim By

Postby Jack Lynch » Tue 30 Dec 2008 5:46 pm

Hi Leanne,glad to see that you are teaching swim by.When and only when the dog THOROUGHLY understands the excercise do I move on to a completely different area but a similar pond or dam to the one where the dog has been schooled. If you are fortunate you may get a positive result,or partial success. Whatever the result I would continue to teach the drill in the new area for a while until perfect, if it breaks down simplify by reverting to the original area for a while and so on.As Joe rightly states it is a really worthwhile drill to teach handling in and through water also assists in getting tha dog to take to water at distance.Good luck with your efforts . Kind regards, Jack.
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Re: After Swim By

Postby Prue Winkfield » Tue 30 Dec 2008 7:31 pm

Leanne - as I discovered whilst in Alaska - not only do you do it in different places, you are also supposed to do it when the dog is 100 meters away from you and for what they do probably 500! The idea is that if the dog starts to cheat water at a distance and it could be up to 180 meters here, the dog will take the command to get in or over, etc with or without the dummy in its mouth so you can teach line out and back. Quite an eye opener for me who knew about doing it in different places but had not thought about the distance as well. This I picked up from an informal clinic run during the trial by Jack Volstead who I think is judging their National next year. Prue
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Re: After Swim By

Postby Bill Allen » Thu 07 Jan 2010 11:31 am

Hi again Leanne & others.
Just wondering if you could recomend some info/literature etc in regard to 'swim by'.
I must admit to having limited, very basic knowledge of swim by & have not been able to find much info.
Thanks a heap in anticipation for your assistance.
Bill.
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