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SITE DIRECTORY Total
E-Collar Conditioning Total
Retriever |
Having
the Gun Help This
means that the gun station helps the dog who is lost in the field.
Helping can take many forms. The gun can:
The
gunner should help in response to a silent signal from the handler such
as an arm wave, or to a request by radio. Yelling to signal the gun
may attract the dog's attention back to the handler. The gun should
give as much help as necessary and as little as possible. It is always
better to have the dog resume his hunt in the fall area and find the bird
on his own. As the dog resumes his hunt in the fall area the gunner should
retreat to his chair.
If you intend to use your dog for hunting (I hope you are!) it is
helpful to have the gunner repeatedly use some cue such as "find the
bird" or "hunt it up" as the dog comes in to the fall area
while being helped. You will use this cue while hunting to encourage your
dog to hunt up a dead bird it did not see fall or to hunt up and flush a
live bird.
Gunner Assistance Gunner
assistance is the term used to describe how a thrower can help a dog who
is still at the handler's side. This is slightly different than having
the gun help -- a procedure
such as above for helping a dog who is lost in the field.
The gunner would normally sit down after throwing a mark. To assist
a dog on a memory mark, with the
dog sitting at your side, you would have the gun assist
by:
The idea is the dog will look out and remember the mark or will simply be intrigued enough to run out and check when you send him. You should always have your guns ready to offer assistance when teaching doubles to young dogs. Use a radio or have some pre-determined signal to indicate to the gun to escalate the assistance. Avoid no-goes by reading your dog's uncertainty and offering the gunner assistance before you send for the mark (on the first few taught doubles.). |
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