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| e taught to get the spaniel back onto
his proper line and finally down wind of the blind bird. Teaching blinds for the Spaniel will naturally differ from the way that Retrievers are taught. Our goal is to assist by handling the spaniel into the fall area down wind of the bird. Once there, the Spaniel shall quest for the fallen bird by showing noise to locate the game and finally returning with the retrieve. The training equipment that will be needed one dozen white, one dozen orange, one dozen black retrieving dummies, 30 foot check cord, a retriever style whistle, one dozen or so small surveyors flags and naturally birds. Locate a spot in you area where you can set up training concepts and leave the area set up to return to daily while you are schooling. You will need an area that has relatively no cover to start. Eventually you will like to find additional areas that will offers many different cover changes for the final polish. Before we get started your Spaniel must have several basic things well schooled in advance to starting this form of training! They must not have any retrieving issues what so ever. They should find, pick up and deliver all retrieving tools used whether it is dummies or birds. Basic obedience must be completely engrained Hup, here, heel and no must be obeyed at all times. The spaniel also should be steady to dummies being thrown and only retrieve when sent. Also the spaniel should stop reliably on the whistle. We start to teach beginning stages of three handed casting. The lining drills can be done at the same time if you wish. However you will need two separate areas to do this in. This column will cover basic three-hand casting. Next column I will review the lining concepts. As I mentioned above find yourself a field that has little to no cover. The field should be a minimum of one hundred + yards long and at least sixty yard wide. Ok first before we start with the dog-training let us first start with you the teacher! Stand in front of a mirror and practice your hand casting signals. We must make sure that you are sending the proper hand signal to the spaniel and not confusing them! Remember the final stages of schooling your dog can be as far as one hundred + yards away. You must give clear solid hand signs to get the proper cast out of your dogs. Always start and finish with your hands in the prayer position. This consists of having both of your hands held together in the center of your chest. When you execute a cast keep the other hand stationary on your chest. Movement of the hand that is not giving the cast can cause the dog to become confused! Once you have executed the cast return to the prayer position. Making ready incase you should need to stop the spaniel for an additional cast. The first command is "back" step forward one step and throw your hand straight up over your head. As if you were reaching for a baseball that was hit right over the top of your head. Facing the open flat palm of your hand to the dog. The next command is the "over" lets do the left hand first. Take one step to your left and throw your left arm straight out to the side. This is the over command. Remember that when you give and over cast |
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