Training solo can help you fine-tune what your dog specifically needs to work on.
July 22, 2024
By Jeffrey Karls
Retriever training with a group offers countless benefits. Advice from other dog owners, getting your retriever used to behaving properly around other dogs, sharing training gear, and the ability to set up training situations that require multiple throwers are all obvious benefits. Just the enjoyable social aspect is a good case for joining a training group.
Sometimes, however, working one-on-one with your retriever is the way to go. Obedience training, for example, is largely a solo exercise. We’ve all run into a time crunch that means getting to a group training session isn’t possible. This is when you should remember the cliché, “Work smarter, not harder,” because can keep your retriever sharp with marking drills even when time is limited.
We all want our dogs to be the best markers possible. Watching a bumper or bird fall and then locking in on the spot and nailing a perfect retrieve is not only gratifying for you, but the more chances your dog gets to mark and retrieve, the better its performance will be when bird season opens.
Here are some tips on how to tune up your retriever with marking challenges that you can set up when training solo.
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The Solo Checkerboard Let’s start by agreeing that any retrieving practice is good retrieving practice, even when it’s not formal training. Tossing “fun bumpers” keeps your dog excited and provides exercise, and it’s something you can do in your backyard. However, if you’re willing to go the extra step to invest some time and thought into creating meaningful training scenarios, it’s remarkable what you can do on your own.
Retriever training doesn’t require a big group. Sometimes, one-on-one marking drills can be just as beneficial in keeping your dog sharp in the off-season. To get started, all you need is a few bumpers, a blank pistol, and a couple of acres with a cover that’s appropriate for your dog’s experience. Maybe it’s a mowed field for a young dog or a fallow field with foot-high or taller grass for a more seasoned dog.
To set up a marking drill, you’re going to play the parts of both the handler and the thrower. Heel your dog out to a starting point, make it sit, and then walk off to a reasonable but challenging distance to get ready for the throw.
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A note before proceeding: If your dog won’t sit and stay while you walk out into the field, you have some retroactive obedience to take care of first. After all, a dog that isn’t steady while training won’t be reliable when hunting either, and that’s worse than having no dog at all.
Once you’re at your throwing spot, whether that’s 40 yards, 100 yards, or somewhere in between, give a big “Hey, hey!” or blow a duck call so your dog is keyed in on you, then pop off a blank pistol shot and throw a nice, high-arcing bumper. If your dog didn’t break, wait a few seconds and give the retrieve command. After your dog finds the bumper and delivers it to you, make it sit again and then walk off some distance and repeat.
Think of the field as a big checkerboard where you can move forward, back, or diagonally to create marks at different distances and angles in a relatively small area. Two acres is plenty. If you are lucky enough to have some water to work around, there’s almost no limit to how challenging you can make these solo training drills.
To get the most benefit, mix things up. Vary the throwing distances, angles, and amount of time after the throw before sending your dog for the retrieve. The whole point is that none of this should become routine; you want your dog focused and concentrating on watching every mark.
Launcher Tips A handheld dummy launcher that uses blanks to do the throwing for you is a blast, literally, to use during solo training. Depending on the type of dummy, the wind, and the power of the blank, firing a dummy to football-field distances and beyond is possible.
One potential downside to using a launcher with a dog at heel, particularly with a young dog, is that the dummy goes so far, so fast, that sometimes the dog doesn’t even see it. One way to remedy this is to make your dog sit while you move off some distance and fire the dummy at an angle so the dog gets a good, clean look at it.
Use a blank-powered dummy launcher to lengthen distances and add variety to your solo marking drills. To add a challenge to your solo checkerboard drills, use the launcher for the throw. These high-flying, long-distance marks will require your dog to really focus. It also teaches the dog that every object doesn’t automatically fall within that same 20- to 30-yard radius that they do when you’re throwing by hand.
More Variations A cool variation of the checkboard drill is to create a starting point that you make your dog return to after delivering the bumper to you. While the dog is on its way back to the starting point, you move to a new throwing spot, so each throw looks different from the last.
I’ve seen trainers use a place board or rubber mat for this exercise, but the downside is that if the grass is higher than a mowed field, the board or mat isn’t visible. A better option is to use an old travel crate. I had an old, cheap Pet Porter crate that I was going to toss in the trash, but instead, I kept the bottom half specifically for this drill.
So, now the routine is: Sit in the “kennel,” watch the mark and retrieve it, deliver it to you, and then, on your command, run back to the kennel and await the next throw. I hate to state the obvious again, but … If your dog isn’t obedience trained to the point that it will kennel on command, you need to work on this at home and get the job done. Otherwise, these drills are going to create confusion for your dog and frustration for you.
To set up solo marking drills for your retriever, you need only a couple of acres and some creativity. Another little wrinkle that you can take care of in these solo training sessions is to position decoys in the field or on the water, so your dog has to run or swim through and past them. Perhaps this isn’t a big deal if your dog has a season or two of experience, but I think we’ve all seen decoys cause a distraction, especially if the dog didn’t get a good look at a falling bumper or bird. So, use this opportunity to further “decoy-proof” your retriever, and that will be one more thing you can scratch off your pre-season training checklist.
And, finally, I’m a little embarrassed to mention this last variation because I’m stealing it from a trainer’s video on Facebook, but I can’t remember who it came from. During solo marking practice, rather than have the dog return to him, he trained his dog to take the bumper back to the starting point, drop it in a five-gallon pail positioned next to the starting point, and then go to its place for the next mark. Whoever posted that originally, thank you for a great idea!
Solo marking drills are limited only by your imagination. Most importantly, they allow you to work in lots of reps when time and space are limited while providing some legitimate off-season exercise for your retriever.