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Took Jäger to a local pond for a few retrieves this evening.
I've been working with him a little on straightening up his lines. Not by retriever trial standards by any means though.
The first time I sent him, he wanted to go around this brush, so I called him back, lined him up and he started going right through it, and then did so every time after.
Good boy!

Kind of a boring video, but here ya go.

Good boy!

Some guys here actually prefer their dog to run the bank and run squirrely lines

Eric Haynes wrote:Some guys here actually prefer their dog to run the bank and run squirrely lines

I'm not a stickler of it by any means. He's not going to be running in any retriever games in the near future.

But, I do like to see a straight forward attempt when possible. I don't like to see him run the bank laterally for 10-20 yards until HE thinks he's squared up, or HE thinks it's the quickest route. I'd just much rather see him take a straight line keeping focused on his marks from point A to point B.

Now,...having said that,...I hunt the river here by my house, (the same one you guys hunted on last year's NCH) a lot. Straight lines are damned near impossible on that river. Not so much on the send, other than the downed bird has more than likely drifted, but the return is almost always against the current which can be really strong at times.
I have a hard time faulting a dog that will find the bank and run it back instead of fight that current. It's what I'd do!

Eric Haynes wrote:Some guys here actually prefer their dog to run the bank and run squirrely lines

Any time it's more efficient in terms of time and/or energy and I see no pressing need to overrule the course:


that would be me. The need of straight lines for navigational purposes may be a human weakness but not a dog's.

Chute 'em!!

While I'm very new to the training game, my dog seems to be far smarter than I, particularly when it comes to finding things.

assateague wrote:While I'm very new to the training game, my dog seems to be far smarter than I, particularly when it comes to finding things.

Don't argue with Eric!