1st "cold blind" for Rex

[okie archer]

Rex is 11 months old today. I finished up T-drill awhile back and have been working on bird boy blinds/pattern blinds. Also have been working on casting drills in water and "swim by".
I felt pups confidence was strong enough to introduce him to cold blinds on land. I took him out today and hid 3 separate bumpers. I lined him up and gave him the *dead bird" cue. I sent him on "back* command. I was anticipating him to "pop" (turn around and look at me cluelessly.) He did not but I did have to whistle stop him and cast him to the blind. The blinds were only 50-60 yards but it was a successful start to running blinds. I will eventually stretch him further as well as transition this to water blinds.
A lot of hard work and time is coming together.
The pic is when he returned from the first blind retrieve. It was so cool watching his body language and attitude when he found the bumper. He was excited and happy.

 

[p_ham]

I love watching dogs work. I used to volunteer for gundog trials when I was in high school just to watch them.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

Excellent! My approach to "cold blinds", that is an unknown and new destination
is ladder drills during pups first winter. The idea is to plant bumpers down a linear corridor
with pup in the truck so he does not see bumper planted. The art is the spacing,
I want them such that pup does not loose confidence. So Day 1 might be at 25,50,75,100 yards.
The next day at a completely new location might be at 50, 100, 150, 200 yards.
The drill is designed to get them lining with confidence and lining past "old falls" since they
go directly over the previous bumper.
ladder blinds

The other thing I like to do with introducing cold blinds is to throw a mark in the field first.
Then run a blind to the end of the field where I plant 4 to 5 bumpers spaced out such that
ending successfully will be highly likely. As long as pup runs a fairly straight line, I let him roll:
first cold blind