At six months old Homer was learning lots of new things. Now that he had his “Basic Training” down pat Homer was ready for “BASEBALL”. This was the beginning of his advanced “Handling” training. Baseball is how Homer learned to take hand signals to the left, right, or straight back. The game was made very simple with short distances at first, as he got better the distances got greater and greater.
Homer learned this game in less that a week. Distance is what took time. My biggest mistake at this time was trying to stretch the distance too fast. I’m sometimes impatient and wanted him to go 50yards before he had 5yards down pat. My best advise at this stage is to go slowly with distance. I sometimes hurt Homers confidence by asking too much too soon.
This is a game that is difficult to explain in “Print” that’s why I’m so glad I had the “Water Dog” and “Game Dog” DVD’s . Both give outstanding demonstrations of how to teach your dog baseball. The “BLIND” retrieve is what separates a “Real” retriever from a “Stick Chaser”, hell you can teach a poodle to fetch a stick. Watching a well trained retriever make a blind retrieve is really a thing of beauty. The game of baseball is the beginning of training the blind retrieve.
Joe Dynarski