Decided to try out a free search with my 6 month pup. A free search is when the dog is sent into an area that she must systematically search through to find what is there - in our case, dummies, (later dead game)
I put her in a sit stay and let her watch while I put three dummies down. This is our standard way when a young dog meets a free search for the first time. Then I tell the dog "search" (she has previously learned the cue by searching for treats) Nothing much to tell. She just did it. Worked nicely too - using nose and eyes, keeping in the area. No running aimless and confused around. Oh, well, and that was that...
Sometimes I almost feel that things are happening too easily with her, she never seems to be learning as much as she is just doing whatever I had in mind. I work had at splitting - but my dog is lumbing 
- sometimes I have a hard time keeping up with her LoL....
Christina
oohhh
thank you very much... I knew the method, but not the name for it. LoL So now I can call it things I have been doing by their name...
Christina
splitting and lumping
Hi Taysha, most dogs love this sort of thing and it is a very efficient way to burn energy, so good onya!
I liked you comment about splitting and lumping. Something I have noticed is that sometimes clicker trainers get so good at splitting that they overshoot the mark.
I used the 300 Peck method with a group recently, teaching the dogs to target a cone from a distance. 300 Peck automatically sets the criterion to where it needs to be, and it was fascinating watching the dogs all progressing at vastly different rates with essentially the same instruction. The timing, the prior learning opportunities, consistency of cues and distractions were all pretty much equal from one dog to the next.
Regards,
Aidan
http://www.PositivePetzine.com
Hi Aidan
Thank you for the comment.
I searched in vain for the 300 peck method by following the link - I got stuck trying to find it on the llamafly-site. Where can I read more about it? You made me real curious about it.
Apart from burning energy the free search is quite important for us, as our chessies are hunting dogs (we also do field trials, conformation shows, and we breed them (if they have the qualities we want)) It is great to do something the dog was bred to do and loves dearly, that in itself makes teaching a lot easier. I trained my 4 year old dog with positive methods - but adding the clicker has really made training with both the 4 year old, and the pup a lot easier, and more fun.
And, as you can see, attentuated my natural tendency to ramble on and on about my doggies. Sorry
Christina
a different link for you, 300 Peck
Hi Christina, try this instead:
http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1057
I thought Part II would come up under "similar entries" if I showed you Part I, but apparently not. I don't think Sue has anything specifically about 300 Peck on her website, but it is used in the Training Levels. There is more information in the Yahoo Training Levels Group:
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/traininglevels/
Regards,
Aidan
http://www.PositivePetzine.com
progress
Tried again today (the first free search was two days ago. Done nothing of the kind since)
Put out four dummies. Fetched dog. cued search. She did. Wow. She is progressing very fast indeed. Usually at this stage I would run out with my dog to help it - no need for anything like that. I am not actually using the clicker for this task. I did use it for the work going before - like sit-stay, the whole retrieve chain etc.
We also did a blind send-out for the first time (previously she has seen me put out the dummy (and before that the target pad) Once again - she just did it.
I love training.
But best of all - so does my dogs.
My older dog flipped completely out when she realized I was taking the young dog instead...poor darling...will play with her tomorrow...
Christina