Labrador Retriever | Essential Training Skills Episode 4
welcome back to the bluegrass on this
beautiful April day it’s about 70
degrees we’re on a big adventure on the
farm if you’ll notice I have a great
pyrenees with me his name is Reagan I’ve
got a little black lab with me her name
is echo and that guy was a funny little
story kind of her mom is in the State
Department and she was on her way to
Sweden and I guess she got put on
lockdown with some other State
Department employees and so echoes ended
up by coming down here and hanging out
with me for the duration of this covert
lockdown so we’re going to make sure
that she has a good experience Reagan
he’s a cool dog he came from a great
pyrenees rescue organization and his
owners wanted to be able to stay on a
farm they wanted to be able to make sure
that they could walk around on their
farm and it didn’t regen not get too far
so that’s what we’re practicing with him
today and we thought it would also be
kind of fun to see if we could get
Reagan and echo to go swimming with mr.
no-name I don’t know if we can get this
pyrenees to go swimming but we’re going
to give it a shot so all things
considered what we’re going to try to do
try squeeze into this lesson it’s a
little bit of ground blind acclamation
show you show you guys about them we’re
going to do a little bit of retrieving
drills with my dog no-name and then
we’re gonna see if we can get this
pyrenees and echo to go swimming so all
along all right now so for you guys that
aren’t familiar with ground blinds what
this is for is this is a little portable
doghouse that you can use to camouflage
your dog from incoming Birds when you’re
out hunting
ok so eventually what we need to be able
to do is to tell the dog to go into the
ground blind and stay there until
released okay now here’s sight kind of
some of the mistakes that you’re going
to make if you don’t watch out you come
out here to the cart to the farm
environment and you get your ground
blind out and you’ll go right to wanting
to work and on getting your dog to go in
the ground blind well they’ll get
distracted and they’ll go off and then
you’ll get a little fussy and and and
and things will go south so what you
want to do is go out to your training
environment let the dog run around let
them get a little tired having it all
it’s a little tired makes acclimation to
the ground blind easier you know so what
we’ve done with that go we let her kind
of run around hang out with no name
follow him around
some things and you know kind of kind of
burnt up a little energy right now what
I’m going to do is just try to convince
her to go in this ground blind all I
need to do is you get her to go in it
today and maybe stay like five or ten
seconds I’m not looking for much okay so
I’m gonna take a little treat here and
I’m going to toss it in the ground blind
and you might notice that they go in
there they might just stick their head
in there at first and not want to go all
the way in well resist the urge to fuss
at them or give them a command just kind
of you know just kind of help them toss
your treat in there good and then let
them come out very nice toss you treat
in there
good dog see like right there see
they’ll go in there sometimes this thing
the wind will hit it or you’ll start
moving around it’s a little scary to
them so don’t worry no big deal
can’t take my treat throw it in there
good now what’s up you know once I can
get the dog to where she’s kind of going
in there on her own then I’m gonna try
to get her to stay in there for a little
while not very long just at first just
five or ten seconds because really all I
have to do is convince the dog that if
they’ll go into the ground blind and
wait patiently something Goods going to
happen and we start that lesson off with
just a little simple treat work but then
that comes in handy form later when
they’re hunting because that’s exactly
what happens they go in there ground
blind and they wait patiently then you
shoot some birds and then they get to go
get the birds okay so we’re making a
fair deal with them and we’re trying to
explain to them how wading in the ground
blind leads to good things so I’m going
to go in the ground blind now I’m gonna
try to hold her in the ground blind so
I’ll get her to go in I’m gonna get it
uh well I’ll try to get her to go in
since you’ll go in this time
alright now so then every so often I’m
just going to toss her a treat in there
just to keep her in there you know and I
got a kind of account in my mind let me
turn this around so you can see a little
better I got a little count in my mind
it’s gonna kind of go like this I’ll put
her in the ground blinds gonna go treat
treat treat treat five treats see in
there she goes all the way in and I
watch one two three four five okay very
nice okay now the way that you build on
that is each week you just add
little bit of time in between your
treats well mr. no-name says I’m tired
of waiting I want to come play mr.
no-name back out of the scene Hey
he’s such a camera hog nowadays okay so
we’re gonna get that code to go back
into her kennel and what I was saying
before is what you how you keeping them
in there’s like treat treat treat up to
about five okay now so here’s what we’re
gonna do
come on echo come on we’re gonna get her
to go in there there we go so that was
her treat paws treat paws treat paws
treat paws treat up to five okay and
okay do a good doggy you’re very smart
dog and in a couple of days after that
then you just add two pauses you know so
you’re like kennel up you know and then
pause pause Oh treat pause pause treat
pause pause treat pause pause treat
pause pause treat okay so you kind of
get the idea
we’re just everyday we’re just adding a
little bit of time in between treats and
the next thing you know what you don’t
need treats it off okay well you’re just
as you Marty very nice all right so
that’s enough with echo now I’ll show
you with mr. no-name how you progressed
those drills a little bit now spend a
lot of time on this part of the drill
guys because this ultimately is what
ends up making this drill look cool in
the long run so you really want to be
able to make the dog understand that
when you point at this dog blind he
should run in there and then what you do
is you just start saying kennel up or
whatever you want to say before you
point so we’d look at something like
this you know kennel up make your
sweeping hand motion you should go over
there and you know you you want to get
them to where he’ll stay in there a
couple of minutes at a time before you
start backing up and adding distance to
this drill and I know that’s what you
want to do is you want to back up and
show off to your neighbors how far your
dog will run and get his dog blind okay
but remember what I said dog training
progression is based on mastery so if I
don’t master it up close then all I’m
doing is setting the dog up for failure
as I move farther and farther away okay
so just every day take a few minutes
stand pretty close make you a sweeping
hand motion into your dog blind and
before you know it like it
dog will just come out he’ll see you put
the ground blind down you’ll sit down
and look at you and he’s waiting for you
to tell him that he can run in there and
get in the ground blind because
something Goods gonna happen okay now
after he gets pretty good at it then you
can start making a game out of it by
calling him out of the ground blind and
sending him back to the ground blind so
he’s over there I’m gonna move back a
few feet okay no name heal I’m asking
forgetting the heel position so gets in
the heel position and then I’m going to
make a sweeping hand motion and tell him
to kennel up but I’m gonna have a
slightly different posture okay so it’s
gonna be like kennel up and you know I’m
just kind of direct any mouth that way
you know this is the same thing when
we’re directing them to go find stuff
you know now watch I’m gonna back up a
couple of more steps okay and this time
I’ve got a high-value treat waiting for
him if he comes out here and he gets
into position very quickly okay no name
he’ll very nice so I like this spot that
he’s in okay and again we’re gonna go
back we’ve added some time and we’ve
added some distance here can look very
good and every so often you might want
to throw him a treat while they’re in
the ground blind you you know the thing
with Treat work guys is like once a dog
gets a little older all it is is it’s
just a fun way for you to you know
express a physical manifestation of your
pleasure I’m gonna back up a couple of
more feet okay no no good boy heel very
nice now as we back up no names gonna
get a little bit distracted because
there’s a dove box over here behind us
or a pigeon box I mean no name kill it
very nice stay all right and that’s kind
of it right there guys that’s a good
little progression to get you started
start with your puppies and remember
with all our training we start in a low
distraction environment and we gradually
introduce those drills to higher and
higher distraction environments and we
do progression based on mastery so you
want to take each individual part of
this drill break it up into a digestible
part master that part and then add a
little bit of complexity the dummy
launcher drill we’re going to run today
is basically the same as last week but
we’ve changed environments it’s very
important when you’re running drills to
master a drill okay
then to make sure that you master that
drill in a variety of environments
before progressing to your next drill a
lot of times you’ll kind of you kind of
get a false sense of security because
you’ve went out and you’ve run or drill
ten or twelve times and it’s worked
every single time okay
but what you didn’t take into account is
that you did it in the same spot every
time okay
so make sure that when you’re doing your
drills you do them in a wide variety of
circumstances okay Georgie good dog very
nice dog you a fine animal very nice dog
oh my gosh you’re such a good dog
in heel position for me please very very
nice all right
so what we try to do is just get a
couple of repetitions that because it’s
getting kind of late I got a guy from
Florida coming up with a Malinois puppy
so we do this one more time then we’ll
head over to the pond
and let the dogs get wet for a minute
all right Georgie
No
good dog very nice dog
you’re a fine animal come on good dog oh
my gosh you’re such a good dog
very nice dog very nice in the heel
position for me please
yeah oh very nice okay so that was two
solid reps that’s plenty for today and
guys like look watch my progress you’ll
notice my dogs do pretty well and I keep
that rep volume down pretty low okay so
we do lots of sets but lower reps and
that’s the key to success with dog
training now let’s head over to the pond
all right now just for giggles we
thought we would try to see if we could
get this pyrenees to get in the pond
before we had tried to get echo in here
and i’ll be damned if as we were getting
the camera ready
he didn’t just walk right on out here so
we’re gonna just kind of move out the
pond a little ways and see if we can
coax him to get out here you know and
kind of my strategy is always the same
I’d like for him to just come out here
to about chest level if we can get that
today I’d be super happy ooh
oh no waters getting my waders I’m gonna
have to get a little bit more shallow
spot oh come on Reagan look at this
that’s awesome
Reagan you are an awesome dog now go
back there mr. cameraman or mrs.
cameraman and see what’s going on there
there’s echo following right along we
would like to see that
I think Reagan’s about had his fill come
on out go you want to come out here
oh you wish we’d all get going
you’re a very nice dog look at gosu she
swam right out here now we’ll turn her
around so she can kind of motor back
towards the bank if she wants to oh oh
good dog very nice and that’s what
that’s all I needed to see how to echo
just to get her out here and make sure
that she was comfortable in the water
good now she’s gonna go back over there
see what Charlotte’s gonna do Reagan’s
making his way back out here see if I
can call that go echo come on there go
good and I don’t know if that girl’s
gonna come back but Reagan’s making it
out here come on buddy what you doing oh
you a very good dog Reagan there you go
good dog oh my gosh you’re awesome water
dog water Pyrenees
a water Pyrenees very nice good if Echo
comes out here which it looks like she
might be coming out here then I will
consider that a win for the day
come on Echo who can do it Echo now kind
of show him what she’s doing there
cameraman she’s going all around this
pond trying to find her what she
considers a good entry way over to the
area where I’m located now and she found
her one oh my gosh so we’re gonna pedal
of on her oh you’re a good dog well pet
love on Regan because he’s a good dog of
course no names a good dog and we’ll
wrap this session up and we’ll consider
it a big success
we got some good drills in with no name
we got this great pyrenees to walk
around here on this farm and not run off
which was awesome echo went swimming and
Reagan went swimming so hey can’t beat
that
alright guys hope you enjoyed this video
and I hope your covert lockdown is going
smoothly with not a hiccup in sight
