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The ultimate gundog, the field trial champion, trusts its handler implicitly. Nowhere is
this more the case than during a blind retrieve. Here's how top gundog trainer Howard Kirby
teaches dogs to pull off one of those.
With a blind retrieve you get asked to pick when you and the dog haven't seen the bird.
You may arrive in your truck and the keeper says oh Howard I have got a bird shot just
over by that bank, just by that post there. Well you the human knows where it is but you
need to convey that information to the dog. So you need to build his confidence so that
he takes a line, the line that we talked about earlier. When you say get out fetch, he goes
out in a straight line. Dogs if they are not trained to take a blind retrieve they will
just turn round and look at you and think well I didn't see anything thrown so I am
not going. I didn't see anything shot so we need to teach them that when we say go they
will find something out there. So we gradually build that up. We develop that up by sending
a dog a very short distance to somewhere where he has had several retrieves previously. So
basically you take him out into your garden or training field and you let him have several
retrieves out of this bush and then you turn h
im away or get a friend to plant a bird into the same bush without him seeing it thrown
in there and you turn him around and face him and say fetch and he will think well I
haven't seen one thrown in there, but then he will think I have had several retrieves
out of that bush so I will go and try. He tries it, he finds a bird, he comes back and
thinks I like my Dad, he is good at this, I believe him. If he says look that is where
I will go.
Howard Kirby runs Mullenscote Gundogs from Lains Shooting School near Andover in Hampshire.
Visit Mullenscote.co.uk. This series on gundog training tips is brought to you by Skinners
Petfoods, maker of the Field & Trial range of gundog feeds. Visit SkinnersPetfoods.co.uk
And you can watch all of our Skinners gundog training films by clicking on the link that
is appearing in the screen up there behind me.