When my assistant Peter and I took Lightning out the last three afternoons to work on running marks with a thawed duck rather than bumpers, Lightning went thru one of several possible sequences for developing this skill.

In the first session, although some retrievers won’t pick up a duck at first, Lightning was at the opposite extreme. He was crazy about the duck, and his emotions put any thought of performing a retrieve out of the question. Instead, he needed time to figure out how to pick the bird up, and he also needed to discover that he would not be permitted to eat the bird. The 15′ check cord Lightning always wears at this stage when we train in the field was critical equipment for being able to prevent him from going into a game of keep-away, but aside from that, in that first session, he was just getting to know what a duck is.

In the second session, we began to shape a retrieve, using the check cord to gently draw him back to the start line once he’d picked the bird up. At first he remained overwhelmed by his excitement, but by the end, he performed an actual mark, picking up a thrown bird and bringing it back to the handler.

In the third session, after several marks continuing to work with the gunner calling hey-hey-hey, we introduced gunshots. We also found that for some reason, Lightning had better returns on longer marks, up to 80y, than at shorter distances.

By the way, in the course of the sessions, Peter and I alternated our roles, one of us handling and the other throwing for a few marks, then switching positions. Although my physical condition dictated that to some extent, I believe working with a variety of handlers and gunners also helps the dog to generalize the retrieve pattern as distinct from particular elements of context such as who the handler is.

That generalizing was in addition to other proofing we were performing, for a variety of training locations and placements of the start line, changes in orientation such as N-S for one session and E-W for another, randomly alternating between RTL and LTR throws, and distances of the marks. However, all the marks were thrown in the open, making hunting unnecessary and encouraging a habit of running directly to the fall.

One last point. From the first day we brought out a thawed duck, Lightning was unwilling to pick up a bumper, much less retrieve it, or even play tug with it. So this morning, I took him outside and threw a 2″ white bumper for him without a duck or duck scent present. He repeatedly retrieved the bumper with his usual enthusiasm. Over the next few days, we’ll gradually introduce duck scent, first at a long distance and gradually closer and closer to the gunner, until Lightning can retrieve a thrown bumper even when a duck is lying at the gunner’s feet, and even when the bumper is lying where ducks had previously been thrown.

I’ve seen at training days that some dogs have never been trained to pick up a bumper (typically for blinds) if ducks are being used (typically for marks) in the same session. I don’t want Lightning to be one of those dogs.