RETRIEVING AUSTRALIA FORUM

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum!

I am a big believer in two-sided heeling with my Labs. I run US Field Trials and I feel that the added control and finess of handling a two-sided dog adds to the team effort. I for one don't beleive that a handler can have too much control of their dog when the birds are going down. I use it to help my dog interpret the series(test). I have had one-sided dogs in the past and couldn't imagine going back to it.

welcome to the forum Frank. Being from Liousiana ,you may now cat squirrel.Kevin is a regular contributer to this forum and we have found his posts very insightful.
The reason that Australian's are one sided is that we are recquired to carry a shotgun at all times and it would be frowned on to shoot ontop of your dog.You could compere our All Age to a master hunt test but not to a US field trial
thanks for being part of Australianworkingretrievercentral and hope you enjoy the site
regards peter betteridge

Thanks! Yes I know Kevin (Cat Squirrel) he has a nice female and is a wonderful Cajun cook.

I am an avid US Field Trialer with two of my males. One black and the other is yellow. I also own two females just for duck hunting. In a hunting situation, the location of where my dogs sits depends on where we are hunting. Sometimes I'll have the dog sitting at a remote location 6 to 8 meters away from the hunting blind and sometimes the dog is on the side of me the gives them the best view. I have hunted from a shooting stool with the dog between my legs! They have learned to expect just about anything from me in regards to where they are to sit.

If anyone has any questions about US FT's, the dogs, the training, the testing or the people, I may be able to answer those questions.

Hey everyone, I'm new to this forum!

Frank, watchers, they may take you for Merv Hughes over here. (Think Art Cantrelle with a bushwacker moustache.)

Anyhow, two-sided heeling is a boon with a cheaty dog for water entries, and also for "no-no"-ing a dog off a poison bird as we often have in US trials. I've got one that's just begun running FTs at six years old (breed just became eligible), and was one-sided up till a few months ago. I can't send her (yet) from the left, but dual heeling pulls her focus off the diversion or poison bird. And I think that's where most US trialers deploy it.

Cheers,

MG

That is the problem though in Australia, all our birds can be memory birds. Also we can most often "bet" that we will have to pick up a blind before the elected marks. We do not have the luxury of handler choice of mark.

I am looking forward to Becky Eckett setting up examples of AKC hunt tests and Bill setting up examples of US field trial tests in Australia. I am not a judge in Australia, but the differences I observed between our countries testing still remain firmly cemented in my grey matter.

Oh the confusion of it all. In all my US books etc the long bird is supposed to resemble a flyer to dogs??? I am starting to write out a loooong list of questions to ask Bill at the July seminar. Including pop up marks to keep momentum on blinds and the use of pops up on multiple marking setups. I personally enjoy all US exercises but marrying them with what is required in Australian testing gives me a semi permanent headache. Greater minds than mine think I make too much of a big deal about training my dogs. I am starting to believe them. LOL.

My dogs made my day today. Slowly but surely .................... I will probably stuff up in the next trial but I love training.

Hi all,

I think like Julie said our trials are very different from US trials. Our dogs at the upper levels are always expected to select. As a result I have come to the conclusion that double sided heeling does not carry with it as many benefits as it might in the US. I initally trained Monty to double side heel but don't bother anymore as it is not worth the regular maintenance to keep his heeling good on both sides (its bad enough on one side without having 2 sides bad). I suppose the best way of putting it is the return for work input is not worth while. I have HEAPS of other things that are more important to train on.

If you have heaps of spare time, like the grey haired retired set, then you may have enough time to justify the extra work required to maintain double sided heeling.


Gareth

Gareth,
one thing I am envious of the 'retired grey haired set' is their being able to devote so much time to training with their dogs. Winter is great for dog training on days off but during the week it is dark by the time I get home which really affects the amount of time spent training the dogs.
Garrick

Garrick,

I know exactly what you mean. My moto is train smarter not harder. Plan exactly what you are training for before each session, but be willing to modify if required. I often train in only very short sessions and it is amazing what you can improve on under the lights at home. Often all the little things help the big picture.

Gareth

I like to build upon when I train. For instance, lets say I go to new water. Depending the level of the dog's capability, I might start with a cold blind the first day. Next day run the blinds and add a mark. Third day, run the blinds add another mark and retire one mark (double marks with double blind) The the next day, throw one mark but run the two blinds first, then the marks plus another single. I'll have added another mark to the double so I'll run three singles. Then I'll come out, throw two marks, run one blind, pick up one mark, throw a third mark, pick up the second blind then the marks. In the end, I may have a quad marks with double blind with two of the marks retiring. Selecting marks and blinds in random order. I get the best results when I build to an entire All Age series on that one piece of water or ground. I like to keep several different areas on both land and water that I can build on.

Frank,

When you say you build an all age series on that one section of land or water. Does that mean you build multiple runs to build a complete trial? or each part of th run is built to make a complete run?
If as in Aussie terms you are building several runs that would make up a trial (3 different runs make up a normal All Age trial) do you run all 3 runs from the same start point or 3 different start points?

I hope that makes sense

Gareth

Kerry , I am also left-handed and heel my dog on the left side. I believe it a possible advantage for the dog to line under the barrel in trials. Yes it does take a bit of thought to keep the barrel out of the way of the dog while competing. Don't forget when the dog heels around he usually does his finish heeling around the right side and back to the left. One way or the other you still have to keep the gun out of the way. Just on the heeling side when I shoot in a swamp, wading through reed's etc I have the dog heeling behind me (I bash the trail, he follow's )I don't want him beside me we would trip over each other. I Believe this is great for duck shooting but causes him to lagg and gives me problems with a walk up in trials.

Gareth Tawton wrote:Frank,

When you say you build an all age series on that one section of land or water. Does that mean you build multiple runs to build a complete trial? or each part of th run is built to make a complete run?
If as in Aussie terms you are building several runs that would make up a trial (3 different runs make up a normal All Age trial) do you run all 3 runs from the same start point or 3 different start points?

I hope that makes sense

Gareth

Yes it does. When I'm finished in that area that I'm training on, I've completed one series of an All-Age trial (usually four series) in a US FT. I may start out with just the blind then add marks the next day and so forth. I may start out with a Qualifying level blind with Derby age double marks. When I'm finished, I have built a solid all-age setup (One series) that may consist of a quad set of marks with a double blind. Most of the blinds that we see in FT's are long distance to water entry with the line to the blind parellel to the shoreline either going over points are pass them or both.