Formal Obedience
Heel — Walking steady at the side without pulling.
Sit — Immediately sits on command.
Here — A movement command calling pup to come to you.
Off — All four feet on the ground and not jumping up.
Down — Laying down in a submissive position.
Whistle sit — At one whistle blast pup immediately sits down on ground.
Remote sit — Pup sits and stays as the trainer walks away.
Force Fetch
The process of teaching pup to obey the ‘fetch’ command.
Hold — Holding a training tool in mouth without dropping it on the ground.
Ear pinch — Putting pressure on the ear to teach compliance in force fetch scenario.
Deliver to hand — Retrieves bird/bumper and delivers it directly to trainers’ hand.
E-collar conditioning — The process of familiarizing the pup with an electric collar.
E-Collar fetch — A fetch added with the pressure from the e-collar.
Yard Work
The Ladder — A series of three to five bumpers, placed in a ladder rung formation. Pup is kept on lead and commanded to fetch each bumper in order.
Back to Pile — Pup running a straight line to a pile of bumpers, picking up a single bumper and returning to heel.
Simple casting — The act of guiding the dog left, right and back with hand signals.
Single T and Double T— From a whistle sit position, guiding the dog by casting left, right and back.
Marking and Blind Work
We begin to use these handling techniques around the third month of training.
Single retrieve — From a heel position, pup sees a single mark and makes a single retrieve.
Double retrieve — From a heel position, pup sees two marks and makes two separate retrieves.
Blind retrieve — From a heel position, pup is sent to a hidden mark and retrieves it.