DS500: Retriever Sports Blind Retrieves - Start and Build Your Skills

How to gamify the concept and gamify the teaching!

In this lecture, we are going to create our gamification mindset! 

And we'll look at how we're going to use the gamification process to create joy, speed and accuracy in each of the blind retrieve skills:

• Preparing to run a blind
• Lining out for the distance
• Whistle Sitting
• Casting
• Obstacles & Distractions

This is the real reason I wanted to present this class. To show that we can succeed with a complex skill like running blind retrieves, by GAMIFYING the process! Really making each part fun for the dog and fun for us! 

Gamification doesn't mean we lose precision or criteria! To gamify a complex skill set like this is a specific process that we can replicate for other skill sets, too, like water honesty or honoring, etc. 

So, in this lecture, we will outline the Gamification Process so you truly understand how it works. 

Recently, a skeptical student asked "What's the difference between a game and a drill?"

In my view a game is fun and I want to play it. It still has criteria and can be won or lost but it’s not the end of the world or end of fun if you lose. And that's how I want my dog to view it, too!

An exercise can be academic and boring. A drill can be demanding and repetitive.

But the big difference is the mindset. And the underlying goal that effects how we train. The goal of gamification is to prioritize the dog's joy and clarity, with high quality interactions between ourselves and our dog! 

The goal of an exercise or drill often prioritizes the result over anything else. 

So let's start with our Mind Set!

ATTITUDE - MIND SET

When thinking about the blind, what part do your thoughts play, in creating your dog's attitude and willingness to do precision focus forward lining - especially when you have to do some fiddling to get the dog looking on the correct line? What part do your thoughts play in creating the dog's willingness and attitude to GO on the line sent?

• If the handler is thinking: "I'm sending you on a blind and you need to go when sent no matter what and you need to go straight and you need to whistle sit and cast to get to the destination so we can accomplish this!" How does that reflect in the dog's attitude and performance? 
• If the handler conceives of the blind as : "Hey, you want to play this game? My goal is that you have joy and speed for Go! I will shape you to go straight and long and go over obstacles with joy. Have joy for each whistle sit, For each obstacle and for each cast."

Not only does that effect the way we teach, if effects the way the dog wants to play and the dog's accuracy.

It's super easy to fall into the trap of the first mind set - especially when you're surrounded by people who aren't using positive training. In the first one, you tend to sacrifice joy and clarity for one skill over the other, depending on which one you are working on at the time - which leads to confusion and draining of drive/joy for one of them. 

In the second mindset, which builds joy and speed for each, the skills can be combined, where one cue becomes the reward for the previous behavior - just like in agility where the obstacle is a joyful opportunity for reinforcement. And the reinforcement used to train it, gets fully transferred into the obstacle behavior itself. That's what i want for each cast, each whistle sit, each Go Out, each water, each cover!

What is an amazing blind?

The dog is clear what the blind task is and what the cues are. They know the behavior chain and are rewarded well for that chain and each part. The dog is aware of the key distractions and they have practiced and are proofed on these temptations with gamification! 

Applying Gamification to the 5 skills - Pump Up the Value!

Let's look at what the gamification process is and how it gets applied to the 5 major skills. And don't worry - we will use the rest of the course to gamify each one together as a class!

1. At it's core, gamification is creating amazing value for each behavior and cue! 

And that leads us to our first step of the gamification process. 

Break down your skill set of a Blind Retrieve into it's individual parts.

• Preparing to run a blind - the dog knows what's about to happen
• Lining out for the distance
• Whistle Sitting
• Casting
• Obstacles & Distractions

Now lets look at how to pump up the value for each of the 5:

What do we need first?

An amazing reward! The value of our reward will get transferred into our behaviors. So find a GREAT one! If it's food, make it amazingly high value food. If it's a toy, ball, bumper, make it one your dog leaps for in excitement. 

Preparing to run a blind - The Blind Game

Before we can have value and clarity for actually running a blind retrieve, the dog needs to know what it is. What's about to happen and why are we doing it?

So, this isn't as clear cut as a whistle sit or a cast. But it can be super fun and much easier than you might think. 

At core, what is a blind retrieve? 

The concept is "hey buddy! Something is going to be hidden & guess what?! We're going to go find it! Together!"

Yep, that's right, it's basically Hide & Seek. This is a super fun game that's easy to teach our dog on a small scale, inside our house or yard. Of course, we need to hide something the dog really LOVES to make it even more rewarding. 

What's cool about this game, is that we can add our cues and our triggers here. The cue lets the dog know what game we're about to play "Dead Bird" is the common cue used in the sport. 

Triggers are emotion filled terms that get the dog excited and or FOCUSED on the game. I typically say "Are you ready to go find it? Do you want to go get a dead bird?" with an OH MY GOSH! This is an amazing opportunity here, buddy! Kind of emotion and tone in my voice. 

Assignment: 

Which toy or food will you use to create excitement and value for this game?

Which cue will you use to name the game? "Dead bird" or something different?

Which focusing/ value building triggers will you use for this game?

Lining Out to a toy or food at a distance

This part is the GO! Leaving your side on a line going forward to get to a destination. 

We want to build value for going out on a straight line. We build value for it by shaping it and rewarding it with high value toy or food. 

We will add distance to this process in a strategic way later in the course.

This is different from a marked retrieve, where the dog watches a bird thrown and land. This is something the dog knows is there, but it's not something he watched get thrown as he sat on the line with you. 

So we really want a different cue for this - something other than the send cue you use for a marked retrieve. "Back" is a common cue used in the sport to send a dog on a blind. Personally, I find the word Back a bit harsh when up close to the dog, so I soften it by using the word "Beckham" - don't laugh!! [yes, I was watching the Netflix show on David Beckham at the time! ]

Assignment:

Which toy or food will use to create great value for lining out?

Which cue will you use to send your dog out on a line to a blind?

Whistle Sitting

This part is the Stop and look at me!

We can build huge value for the whistle sit, by making it a game by itself during walks! 

Of course, we first need to shape the whistle sit behavior indoors and make sure the dog can respond at a distance away from us. When we cue the sit, we want our dog to sit where ever they are at the moment - even if it's 8 feet away from us. 

Once you have that, we can start our outdoor game to grow our distances. 

To start, you need a super high value reward. For my younger dog, Harry, that means his favorite white ball.

This reward is best if you can throw it! So if you must use food, use something like a Lotus Ball. 

We want each whistle sit cue to mean "Massive Reward coming!!" Kind of like the same effect of a clicker! When the dog hears the click, he knows reward is next!

Assignment:

Which whistle will you use and what tone? Will it be an ACME 211.5 with one crisp toot? or a loud blast from a Gonia whistle, like the orange "Answer" whistle?

What reward will create super fast, accurate, joy filled sits? A large white ball? A bumper, a dead bird, a lotus ball filled with cheese chunks?

Casting

Same goes for each individual cast - we want to separate each one into it's own value building, distance building game. 

Don't worry it goes faster than you think. 

For this course, we want the 4 basic casts

1. Left Over
2. Right Over
3. Left angle back
4. Right angle back

Bonus points for straight back casts, too!

Our casting game building will be very similar to our Lining out games. This is going to be a super fun and effective strategy to introduce long distances, obstacles and major temptations! 

Assignment:

1. What do you each of you arm cast cues look like? Film yourself - set up your camera and perform each of your casts to your camera, as if it were your dog. Analyze each one. Can you tell the difference between your over cast and your angle back? Can you tell between an angle back and a straight back cast?
2. What rewards will you use to pump value into the casts? What does the dog get as he completes the cast? A ball, food? Bird?

Later in the course, we will talk about the obstacles, such as water, tall patches of cover, tules, etc. As well as the major temptations your dog will encounter when running blind retrieves, such a gun stations, old marks, and much more. 

For now, please complete your assignments in this lecture. Gold Students, please post your answers in your personalized Gold Level Homework thread. Silver and Bronze, please post your answers as well in the Discussion forum!

Next lecture, we'll cover how to progress all of these skills over the course of the class. Plus we'll jump in and start training our dogs to play "The Blind Game"!