I worked on pattern drills with Lightning for three days. The first day, I ran him on shortened versions of the left leg a few times, then the entire 100y left leg. The second day, I started by running him on the left leg, then ran him on the right leg, again 100y and at a 90° angle to the left leg. The third day, I ran him on the left and right legs, then the middle leg, again 100y and between the left and right legs. The second and third days, I neither indicated the piles with throws not ran shortened versions.

Lightning had no difficulty with any of the pattern drill retrieves, so it was time to move on to what Mike Lardy calls “blind drills” in his TRT program. Our PRT program goes to the same set of training objectives, except that we continue to use no physical aversives for force or corrections. 

For Lightning’s first day of blind drills, I used the same course we had used for pattern drills, but we didn’t use the middle leg. Here were the steps we followed:

1. With gun sitting in chair to left of left leg, run left blind.
2. With gun standing in front of chair, run left blind.
3. Gun stands, calls hey-hey-hey, throws dokken toward left leg, and sits down. Lightning picks up mark.
4. Run left blind. When Lightning veers off line toward old fall, blow sit whistle, then cast to blind.
5. With gun sitting in chair to left of right leg, run right blind.
6. With gun standing in front of chair, run right blind.
7. Gun stands, fires pistol, throws dokken toward right leg, and sits down. Lightning picks up mark.
8. Run right blind. When Lightning veers off line toward old fall, blow sit whistle, then cast to blind.

Additional details:

• All blinds were orange 2″ bumpers with ropes.
• I used a high value treat to reinforce returns.
• I randomly alternated which side I ran Lightning from on each retrieve.
• The blind piles were marked with orange lining poles.
• I forgot to use Lightning’s tab, and he broke on step 3. I walked out, took the dokken and gave it back to gun, walked Lightning on lead back to start line, and made a make-shift check cord out of his slip lead. We then reran the mark. Lightning did not attempt to break, and when I sent him, I let go of one end of the check cord so that it slipped off his neck as he launched. I didn’t use it again, and Lightning didn’t break again.

We’ll continue work on more complex versions of the blind drill tomorrow.