Back in the days when I worried about having my dogs ready for fancy “handling” or blind retrieves the moment I put them in the field, I’d train them as pups using my “home run” method. Mind you, I have never read a training book or been to a dog club so I don’t know if I’m the first one to come up with this, but here’s how it works. It starts out as a two man technique. The training area consists of a field with what would be the equivalent of a baseball diamond marked off. The trainer (me) stands at home plate. The dog and assistant handler are at pitcher’s mound. The three bases are marked with flags initially. With pup out of sight, the trainer hides a treat at one of the bases. Assistant brings dog to pitcher’s mound. Trainer whistles and signals. Assistant points and/or guides the pup to the flag with the treat then lots of positive reinforcement when she finds it. Exercise is repeated with treats hidden at various bases until the pup gets the hang of going to the flag on whistle. Before long the training can be modified to where there are no flags at the bases and the training dummy is left for pup to find instead of treats. In the meantime the pup has been worked with straight retrieve of dummy in other sessions. Then it is a simple matter to train the pup to stay by itself at the pitcher’s mound, go to the hidden dummy on signal, and retrieve it to the trainer at home base. If the pup gets that down pat “handling” in the field and/or blind retrieving on signals will be a snap. It’s a bit labor intensive but this technique is almost guaranteed to work with any pup.

I used the 'baseball' technique to initially train my dog hand signals, and ill still do it from time to time. A different variation though. I started at home plate, with dog at pitchers mound, and just threw the bumpers at different spots. Might need a helper to hold dog at pitchers mound if the puppy is still breaking. As he got better I would add another bumper, and another. But the trick above simply helps keep him responding well, especially when i go a real long time without doing any real drills. I've noticed the more dogs do tricks the better they are at them. I've never used treats to train my dog though, just praise. The fact that the master is pleased should be enough of a reward. Although I guess the bowl of food is a pretty nice treat.

Teach your dog to stay on a hot (but not Africa hot) sunny day by placing him in a cool, shady spot under a tree. Since he wants to stay in the shade anyway- it really makes things easier. Remember to use 10 minute sessions and give him plenty of water.

I like to use a racquetball and racquet for training. I have my dog sit-stay while I hit the ball a good distance. Sometimes Sadie will see the ball land and go fetch. Other times she has to scent trail and sniff out the ball. On those occasions I use hand signals with lots of body language to direct Sadie. After some tries Sadie will look to me for the proper hand signal. This is her favorite game and she is learning hand signals. Racquetballs also last a lot longer than tennis balls. This works for me.

By the way, guys, I have seen one of these knives at the store and they are a fine tool. Doubt I'd ever use the fire starter gizzmo but it also doubles as a good sharpener for the blade. Gave it a few srokes and boy was that thing sharp. Nice how that steel tucks into knife handle. Not a very pretty thing but it seems quite utilitarian. Blade isn't real long (which is fine with me) and I can't see how anyone could ever misplace this knife. One dropped in the woods could probably be easily spotted with a satellite or spy plane.

Repel fleas and ticks, feed them a very small pod from a clove of garlic once a month. I've heard some say that it prevents heartworms too, and it may because it is excreted via the skin and may repel mosquitos that cause the disease. (I'm not trusting it to do that yet though)