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The Challenges of Training Alone
One of the difficulties for many amateur trainers is that they end up training alone much of the time. This can be a challenge for many reasons. When training alone or even with a few other people, it is difficult to mimic the excitement of an event or the environment of hunting. Which is why some people experience a totally different dog at an event or hunting than they do in training. Which is one reason why I have decided to put on some mock hunt tests on a consistent basis.
But though it may be difficult to duplicate the excitement of an event or hunting there are some things we can do in training that will come close to what will be experienced at an event.
One of the big challenges that can be experienced at an event that often is not duplicated in training is the factor of drag back scent. Drag back scent is when there is scent on the way to a mark or blind retrieve from the previous dogs retrieves. This drag back scent can create many challenges for a dog that is not used to dealing with it. There could be many examples given of how this can affect a dog, but the following is as good as any.
Your dog is running a mark that calls for him or her to, after a swim, cross a road then re-enter another piece of water. You are dog 25 to run the test. There have been 24 dogs dragging scent back over that road on their way in from the retrieve. The drag bag scent on that road can cause a dog to get hung up and hunt the road instead of re-entering the next piece of water. This can affect your dogs mark, and it's marking score, in a big way if your dog is not experienced at dealing with it.
The video included below will provide you with some ways to duplicate this drag back challenge, even when training alone or with just a few people, so your dog will be better equipped to deal with this at an event or hunting.
Click here to view video
Click here for more information for the Mock Hunt Test
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