Hello.
Does anyone have an idea how they teach dogs to search 'go-left' and 'go-right' using hand signals from distant?
Thanks

Edmond,

although I could write the chapter about Advanced fieldwork here instead I'm going to suggest a book to you. Training the Hunting Retriever by Jerome Robinson has a very nice long chapter on Advanced field work that covers how this is trained. It's a series of steps involving targets and the send out.

Good luck!

Melissa

Finally, something I've had some experience with!... sorta...

I think it does not take much. I would say a good gun dog just knows how, like a border collie does too. What I mean is that the behavior comes so naturally you just have to start signalling and the dog does it.

Our Llewellin setter pup was "quartering" by 6 months without really being trained. We just did a lot of off leash walks in the woods. I would suggest to him "this way!" and use an arm motion, and turn my body that way, and he just knew what to do. It did not hurt that oftentimes I would point out something I knew he would be interested in, some sort of game animal, and he was quickly very eager to go where I pointed.

A friend of mine has a border collie who, through similar interactions, runs out a hundred yards, left, right, etc at the wave of a finger.

Of course you have to get the dog looking at you for direction, so first thing is to teach him to respond to his name by looking back. That's not hard with marker training, as I"m sure you know!

I was working with "link und recht" with Erika with some success with and E Collar. Never followed up because I kept getting my left and right mixed up and confusing myself

I know hand signals are popular for fields trials, but I've never found them to be of much use in the real world.
One, I live in densely a wooded land and two even in open land or water a dogs vision isn't that good beyond 75 yards or so, depending on the dog.
I've always found teaching the dog with hand signals at close range easy, but it was always just a bridge to teaching the dog to respond to the whistle. He'll be able to hear the whistle no matter the cover, water conditions or distance.

While all dogs of the breed type will display behaviors that we can call quartering, and that we can call directing it's different than just saying it doesn't take much. To get the dog to perform this in a way that would be acceptable in the field it takes a series of steps to get it to that point. Since the finished product is done leashless, and often in wide open spaces with usually many hunters there are severe consequences for getting this wrong.

For instance a directed blind retrieve involves teaching the send out, sit with a yell or whistle, look at me and then directions either left, right, or away, and recall. This is usually taught to a dog fairly grounded in obedience and retrieve manners.

Quartering as taught in upland game is done slightly different teaching the dog to turn at whistles while searching. This is usually taught to a young dog on a long line.

To the OP: If you're looking for the upland game version of turning the same author wrote a book called the Ultimate Guide to Bird dog training. It covers this kind of field work in great detail. The reason I recommend this guy's books is because they're great about steps, prevention of issues, and is a collection of wisdom gained from a lifetime in the field. Some of it is a bit old school but it's easy to adapt to modern training methods.

Good info. Not doing Schutzhund yet but that would be great for directing when they lose the ball in the air and can't find it in
deep snow.

When I trained our working Border Collie, I was told by her breeder who also competes, to start with a long pole with a cow tail tied to it. Drag it slowly at first, then swing it, different directions, giving her commands so she'll eventually associate the two. She picked up on it very quickly, and I would think any appropriate toy would work equally well. She also went nuts over a water hose, so we even used that some in summer. I would hold the hose straight up and make her wait, then give the command, and she would head out even before I could turn the hose in that direction.

I trained FEMA style directional work and used targets to train my dog. I started with something he could jump up on then slowly added distance. When he had that down, I set up one a short distance behind him and trained a go back. Then I set up a baseball diamond shape and added in go right and go left. I use my arm to point in the direction I want him to go when I give a command.

My targets were only about 5 ft apart when I added in new ones, and I gradually increased the distance. I worked very close in so it was easy to be clear in what direction I wanted him to go. I rewarded with his frisbee and that made him very eager to learn!!

I have a smaller dog, so I used things like apple crates and large log cut offs. Wooden wire spools work well for larger dogs. After my dog had the idea down, I sometimes used things like carpet sample squares.

thx awesome replies!