I went to a dog club training yesterday. It was pretty informal. The guy's with more experience and better trained dogs helping those of us with no clue. Most of us had pups, a few older dogs that acted like pups. They did two drills with us beginners.
Drill # 1. Every one leashes their dog. Single file we walk down a road 25 feet a part. The person in front stops. All dogs are whoaed. The person at the back of the line walk his dog forward to the front of the line weaving around the other dogs. When he gets to the front the next person comes forward. Any time your dog moves you pick it up and put it back. We did this several times and reversing the direction at the end. I saw a lot of improvement in a short time.
Drill # 2. They planted a pigeon in a trap. Two finished dogs were hunted towards the trap. Both dogs went on point. The rest of us then walked our dogs in on leash. We formed a circle around the two dogs on point. A handler then walked into the circle and started to release birds one by one. Every time your dog moved you picked it up and put it back. The 2 dogs on point never moved. I didn't seem to get as much out of this as the first drill. I have a dog just under a year and one just over. They were pretty amped up and wanted to chase. Looking back I guess I got more than I realized. In one drill the dogs were exposed to 12 birds. I was nice to get the help. Me and my boys are just getting back into bird dogs after running hounds for years. Any one have any thoughts on these training methods.
Afterwards they went onto some drills that were for the advanced dogs. Very interesting to watch.