For best chance to succeed on marking series in competition, we want the dog to give every ounce of attention to each throw, then fully commit to retrieving that bird. Ideally, the dog watches the throw and then locks onto his or her line, allowing nothing to distract him unless and until the gunshot or duck call for the next mark sounds. The dog then gives that mark the same dedication, and perhaps then another, or even a fourth. Ultimately, the dog is sent to the go-bird (the last bird thrown), which he has been locked onto since the moment he turned to it. But meanwhile, pictures and thoughts of the earlier throws are also burned into his memory from the concentration he devoted to each of them.

A dog exhibiting that style of line work is to some extent a matter of breeding and of individual drive and focus. The handler also has a role to play that day, by not intentionally or inadvertently distracting the dog from each mark. But some of that commitment to each mark is learned behavior, and early learning is especially important. A habit of poor focus learned as a puppy could persist the rest of the dog’s life regardless of attempts at retraining.

In fact, even for advanced dogs who already run marks with that kind of mark-by-mark focus, many experienced trainers will often set up a series with three or four visible gun stations for practice and then have the dog run each mark as a single. Even if the trainer originally called for a multiple, if the dog swings his head on a particular mark without at least watching the bird to the ground, the trainer may send the dog to that mark instantly as a way to help the dog learn not to head-swing.

All of this pertains to the first stage of the PRT program I’m developing and using for Lightning. Because PRT is modeled on Mike Lardy’s TRT, and because Mike lists introduction to yard multiples as one of the items in the socialization and introduction to field section of his TRT Flow Chart, I have been giving Lightning a bit of practice running short doubles, first in the house, then in our yard, and lately at practice with an assistant. The same person makes both throws, and the throws are widely separated so that the handler can intercept Lightning if he tries to pick up the go-bird and then run, carrying it, directly to the memory bird without returning to the handler first.

But, because of my concern that Lightning could develop a behavior of looking for another throw rather than giving all of his focus and commitment to the first one, I always start and the end the session with singles, and most of the marks are singles. Also, while we run singles at distances up to 200y, the doubles are much shorter, in keeping with Mike’s term, “yard multiples”.

Lightning will learn to run doubles and triples during this first stage of his training, but far more of his experience will be with singles. We have plenty of time to work on multiples when his marking habits are more thoroughly established.