Correcting your dog at a field trial is different than correcting him in
training. Anytime you are training, your dog wears an e-collar, and if he
knocks a bird, you can make a timely correction and stay in control. Since dogs
aren’t allowed to wear e-collars at field trials, correcting your dog becomes
more complicated. You need to get to him quickly to give a correction that
makes sense to him, and the correction must be physical. Making a physical
correction is tricky because most judges don’t allow you to make corrections or
do any “training” on the course.
Over the years, I have made a few corrections when no one was looking that
included a horse rein, biting an ear, and half-choking a dog with the ID collar
once I got hold of him. Fortunately for my dogs, these corrections didn’t work,
and I moved on to finding better ways to keep my dogs honest. I decided to
build better habits during training so my dogs needed fewer corrections at
trials. One of the first things I did was to wait longer before I ran a dog in an
adult stake. A dog’s manners had to be good in five or six consecutive training
sessions before he was ready to enter. Also, I didn’t enter him in multiple stakes
during a weekend trial until I could count on him getting around the course with
clean bird work in a single stake. A lot of dogs get so excited after they run
the first time that running them again in the same weekend is like pouring gasoline
on an already out-of-control fire.
If you think about it, the level of energy at a field trial can be off
the charts. Handlers are yelling and blowing their whistles, horses are
snorting, bracemates are running wild, and your dog has probably been confined
in a crate or on a stakeout chain for most of the weekend. His adrenalin will
be pumping when you break him away making it even harder for him to remember the
training. Some suggestions to help your dog remember the training at a trial
include arriving early and running him before the trial or staying late and running
him after the trial when it is permitted. Training with other people or putting
on a mock field trial can be very productive. Try to put your dog in as many situations
as possible that are similar to a field trial but where your dog can still wear
an e-collar.
Be consistent with your dog at a field trial and realize his success
has a lot to do with you. As a handler, you need to be able to read your dog
and don’t allow him to get away with mistakes. I’m sure you’ve seen handlers who
want to win so they let their dogs to get away with breeches of manners. Maurice
Lindley trains dogs for amateur field trialers and gives his clients some smart
advice, “Don’t excuse your dog’s bad manners at a trial. If your dog does something
at a trial that you wouldn‘t excuse during a training session, you need to pick
him up. Don’t wait on the judge. Go ahead and pick him up. It will go a long
way to keeping him honest at trials.”
During a field trial, poorly timed corrections and severe corrections
may work for some dogs once you ride them down and get your hands on them, but these
dogs get harder and harder to catch and you can ruin a lot of good dogs this
way. Some may lose style or become afraid of you. Now, that’s not to say you don’t
do anything when your dog knocks a bird. If I can get to my dog quickly, I
might whoa him and make him stand still before collaring him back to the horse
or whatever. Putting him in a roading harness or on the dog wagon may seem minor
but it puts you back in control and stops your dog from getting into more
trouble.
Even when you’ve done everything right and worked hard to keep your dog
honest, some dogs still get into trouble. One reason is because a dog has to want to be steady. He has to buy into the
training. I have a dog that was rock solid in training but she continued to chase
birds at trials. I ran her for two seasons and never got her around clean. By
the third season, I was feeling very discouraged. I talked to a pro trainer who
knew her well, and he told me to hang in there and be patient. “Some dogs just
take longer,” he said. The third season was almost over when I finally got her
around clean. She had a beautiful run with three finds and took second place.
Who knows why it took her so long but the switch had finally turned on.
Field trialing is a tough sport and not every dog is going to make it.
Some of your dog’s success is because of his breeding but a lot has to do with you.
Over the years, I have come to believe there is no good way to correct a dog at
a field trial. The path to having a winning dog doesn’t include cleverly
delivered corrections when no one is looking. Instead, it begins with building
good habits in your dog during training, entering him when he’s ready, and picking
him up when he makes mistakes. If you set up your dog for success and avoid having
to make many corrections at a trial, you give him a good shot at being in the
winner’s circle.
