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Handling (Blind Retrieves) A handling retriever can recover birds he has not seen fall, with the aid of whistle and hand signals. If you hunt in circumstances where your dog must be hidden and unable to mark the falls, or if you plan to run AKC Senior/NAHRA Intermediate/HRC Seasoned events, you want your dog to be able to do a blind retrieve. Your dog's ability to handle will also be valuable when you and your hunting partners shoot several birds down at one time and your dog cannot mark them all, or when you see that a bird has moved or drifted, and with the aid of a cast, or hand signal, your retriever can recover it quickly and get back to the blind to wait for more birds. The ability to do a blind retrieve involves several skills. A dog must know how to take casts, left, right, and back. He must understand that when his handler sets him up and says, "back," that there is a bird out there to be retrieved. He must always go when he is sent, even if conditions are forbidding. He must be able to "take a line" and hold it, that is, to go in the direction his handler points him without "breaking down" to left or right. Because dogs view directions in relation to the terrain, shoreline configuration, and wind direction, a dog must practice under the different kinds of conditions he is likely to encounter while hunting (or competing), just as with marking. Essentially, he must learn how to take each kind of cast under each set of conditions. Our program for teaching these skills is extremely flexible, as different dogs learn best from different approaches. In most cases we follow force-fetching with "pile work," teaching the dog to line repeatedly to a pile of dummies and to cast right and left. We usually do some preliminary forcing to the pile with stick and/or e-collar. We follow this with a similar pattern in the water, and with a program of forcing on back (land and water) in the field. Then we begin running blinds, using "cold" blinds to establish that if we say, "Back," there is something out there, and using school blinds and drills to teach the dog how to take the different casts in specific situations. From the beginning we emphasize carrying a line or cast. This approach gives a dog who runs blinds with confidence and goes hard, and whose lines get more and more precise with practice. The time needed to teach your dog to do blind retrieves depends upon both your dog's aptitude and on your needs. Blinds across water and well up on shore on the far side are significantly more difficult than 50-yard retrieves in open water. We may be able to meet your goals in as little as two months of work on blind retrieves, or it may take considerably longer. If we start your dog, we can usually begin work on handling shortly after finishing force-fetching, concurrent with steadying and marking practice. Early training on handling involves rapid learning of sometimes-confusing material and may cause temporary "backsliding" on marking and steadiness. For this reason we will not undertake to teach your dog to handle without a commitment from you for an amount of time we think will be sufficient to train your dog through this uncertain period until his work is solid once again. The better you understand the problems your dog faces in executing a blind retrieve, the better performance you will be able to get from him. For this reason we advise that you plan to spend more than one training day with us, either by visiting while your dog is in training, or by staying two or three days at pick-up time. Most dogs need regular practice to continue to run smooth blind retrieves, and we would like to have the opportunity to coach you in maintaining their training. If you are interested in having us train your dog as a handling gun dog, please email or call us at (910) 245-2603. If you want to have your dog trained for field trials or hunt tests, please visit our competition page.