There's a couple things I left out CJ. First, pick the right toy. I didnt, and here's what can happen when all he wants to do is kill it and really isnt interested in bringing it back to you:

Oops
Also, anchor it down better. The conduit will stick into soft enough ground, I just got lazy.

These clips are a sequence of moving the toy around and then into the blind. It can be as many small steps as you need as long as he will go out to get the toy.

Blinds 1

Blinds 2

Blind 3

Now the line off the toy:

No line

The final step is keeping the toy hidden as you walk around the blind then after you send him, calling him to you for it. Another reason a pillow wouldnt work with some dogs, he may not leave you if he can see it.Another part I didnt explain very well is after sending him, I move to the right so I'm in his sight a little better, to make it easier with recalling him to me. Andy was very reliable about running two blinds 3yrs ago. His speed came from hiding helpers in the blind on the field though.

My shepherd got fast for a toy, but the first night with a helper, it fell apart. I think I lost sight of it being an obedience and really just made it a little too much like chasing a toy. I think the problem was too few recalls before a reward. But anyway, have fun with it CJ.

OMG, loved the "Ooops"! That's so going to be us with me attempting to maneuver a long line with detailed precision like that. I think I had that pictured before you posted it.

We practiced a little on him getting the hang of just running around a stump with my direction. Haven't done a lot of luring with Vince so once we got over the no, mom's not teasing you, just follow it for a minute and no, this IS NOT the "touch game", he did pretty good.

I really like the way you're doing it there. Now that I've got him going around the stump I'm going to try it again later this evening, see if we can't get some good reps with minimal direction.

I think he'll probably be able to do what Andy’s doing pretty quick.

Again, thanks so much Steve, those really break it down nicely.

Taught 2 different dogs both differently to search blinds for SchH. Both dogs I just showed how to go around the blinds by starting the dog on the backside of the blind & sending them around with a hand signal, since they already knew a send out & around command & then recalled to play tug. Every couple of sends I would move further back away from the blind. My female would look into the blind on her way around. My male I had to teach differently. In order to insure that he would actually look into the blind...I put a few pieces of hot dog way into the back of the blind...so that he HAD to go into it to get the dogs & then was recalled to me to play tug. I taught the blind search at first away from the SchH field to teach the pattern before adding a decoy to the mix.

Lots of ways to teach the same thing, taking into consideration the individual dog. My dogs both WANTED the decoy...so in order to keep their attention on the learning of the pattern...teaching it before adding the decoy allowed them to be able to concentrate on the pattern without distraction. When the pattern was learned the decoy was the motivation & the bite the reward.

Bascially it is just teaching another obedience pattern.

Thanks Anne, that's pretty much what Ana was saying too with it really being simply an obedience pattern.

He's got a pretty good send out and right back and he heels nicely around stuff but I've never done any kind of send out around stuff if that makes any sense.

And I messed up his speed to begin with, with too many downs and I was hoping to get this one right from the start.

Like you and Steve have both said, I really should save his high value ball (kind of like your decoy work) for the big run arounds to pick up speed, which I will.

He plays with the orbee nicely so I was just dangling that and I'll save Venus for the long, speed building retrieves once he gets the idea. Something about sinking his teeth in that rubber really gets him worked up.

Had a lot of fun tonight (3rd session). We only practiced this for about 10 minutes but he was into it the whole time.

Since the predisone, I can get a bit of food drive going around the house, if he's really hungry, no distractions and liver treats.

Strict orders for a really small breakfast this morning and besides his wonderful self just wanting to work, baked liver was the motivator tonight. I really want to save his balls for when he gets better at this. I think he learns better when he's not in that higher drive state either.

I was sending him out and round the stump. Actually named it tonight. "Round" with a circular directional hand motion. It was only from about 4 feet away but he was heading out, going around and coming right back.

I'm going to try to phase the whole hand motion out a bit tomorrow. Start just lowering my hand by his head with the "round" command. Hopefully, by this weekend, with just the go round evening practices we should be ready for a toy, a long line and the blind 10 feet away.

Hubby has yet to make them though. He's been pretty busy, he grumbled a bit. Just routine though.

So, if I wanted to make 6 of those mini blinds, does anyone have any idea of the amount of material I would need. Tarp and what size of conduit pipe? I've got a Home Depot close to work and I could pick it up if I knew exactly what I was getting. I think I can get the zip ties.

Maybe if I could help hubby out and have it sitting on the picnic table, he might be a bit more eager to put them together for me.