Please share your favorite drills if you have one

Simple Double T drill – if you’re having cast refusals out in the field you can go back to this drill and figure out exactly where your problem is.

One for ones – alternating mark / blind mark blind. Really challenges the dogs to go where you say, disrupts the normal pattern of multiple marks and a single blind.

Nine point drill – cold blinds set up in a field at all different distances, terrain challenges, markers etc. A great “tune-up” to do regularly.

Double / doubles – Do a double, then reverse the order. You get two sets of doubles in one setup and teach it to the dog both ways. Swing right or left, long short or short long, etc.

Quad-pond drill: I developed this drill for my dogs because they were hesitating and not going straight into water and I had introduced them to angles too soon advancing them too quickly. It would also be great for bank runners. With this drill you set up a mark or blind so that the bumper is in the middle of the pond. You send from each shore of the pond so that the dog goes straight in to get the retrieve. It teaches them to go straight in every time from where you send them. If they veer and try to run along the shore (very rare with this drill) I do light nicks and say nothing; once they go in and get the bumper and come back I throw it in straight for them so they can compare the difference – running in straight is more pleasant. Once they are 100% going straight in you can start adding angles again. Then start the process over at each different training pond.