Lining a dog

[heyjack]

How do you teach a dog lining? Or teach him to believe to run as far and straight as he/she can until he finds the target. If I have a dummy at 30 yards and he didn't see it, when I send him he just runs all over the place. I don't know how to get him to stick to the line. Any help would be appreciated.

[BucksandDucks]

Identify a pile at 30 yards and run him to it until he's comfortable at 30, then continually increase the distance and as they gain confidence you can start to add other factors(wind, terrain, obstacles, brush...ect.) going to the pile.

I don't know where you are in training with the dog, but I would suggest getting a program and sticking to it. Evan Grahams's is good, Fowl Dogs is good also. But the area you are concerned with would probably start around the Force to pile section all the way through Pattern blinds, bird boy blinds, and then to cold blinds.

The first suggestion could be used as a "quick fix" to get your desired result but you will be happier in the long run if you get a program and start from the beginning to get the end desired result.

[EvanG]

Once all the force work is done, and pattern blinds have provided the dog with an understanding of blind running cues, lining skills are best developed in stages. I begin with Wagon Wheel Lining drills; first the standard 8-bumper drill that mostly teaches the dog to position by turning right & left for successive blinds. Then we begin actually training the dog to line with the two-tiered 16- bumper Wagon Wheel Lining Drill. That's the point at which the dog must really begin to focus on 'where' he is to go. Until that point he really only needed to focus on going and continuing to go for the distance of pre-identified destinations.

Bird Boy Blinds during this period train the dog to begin running to destinations not pre-identified, as well as to extend the principle of going as sent; lining over sequentially extended distance.

EvanG