Evan Graham LLC/Smartwork for Retrievers

AKC: American Kennel Club

Air: To allow the dog to empty his bowels and bladder

Angling: To cross terrain or enter water on a diagonal line

Apex: 1 - highest point/point of prominence, 2 - in a tee drill, the point at which the line to the back pile intersects with the line between the right and left over piles, at which point most stopping, casting, de-popping, and de-flaring occurs in that drill
 
Area of Fall: The general area of a fallen bird that one expects a retriever to enter, establish a hunt within a reasonably tight proximity, and find the bird within it
 

Attrition: 1 - process of wearing down, as by friction (WEBSTER’S Encyclopedic DICTIONARY of the ENGLISH LANGUAGE), 2 – in retriever training; refinement through continued exposure to gradually elevated standards and repeated exposure, rather than by direct pressure

Avoidance: common term for a dogs’ reaction to pressure/stimulus, which causes the dog to “avoid” the perceived pressure, creating an altered and often undesired behavior
 
Axis: 1 center of rotation, 2 – a term that could be used interchangeably with apex in tee drills

Back: A directional signal given with a raised arm and hand directing the dog away from the handler; the verbal command given to the dog to have him leave the handler—generally used as the command for a blind retrieve although in some areas of the sport it is used to send the dog for marks also

Balk: see No-Go
 
Barrier Board: simple portable device used in basic de-flaring drills, set in route to an established pile, or on line to a blind retrieve
 
Baseball: An old school drill for teaching directional casts for the dog to take right and left "Overs" and straight "Back" casts. In recent decades this drill has been almost completely replaced by the more efficient drills known as 3-handed casting and Mini-T

Bird Boy: The person who throws birds or bumpers during a trial, test or training session
 
BB Blinds (Bird Boy Blinds): drill in which a “bird boy”, or assistant walks a course determined by the trainer as the session progresses, planting one blind (bumper) at a time as he is instructed. This is one of the first Transitional drills to develop the running of cold blinds, but can also be a highly effective maintenance drill.
 
Birdiness: 1. Quality in a dog describing a very high desire to retrieve birds 2. Prey drive
 
Blank Pistol: A pistol with a solid or plugged barrel, designed for firing blank rounds only. Also referred to as training pistol or starter pistol

Blind: 1 - term for a retrieve of a bird or bumper that the dog didn’t see fall, making his destination unknown to him, 2 – term for a devise, often referred to as a holding blind, which is meant to conceal a person/persons who either are blind planters or are bird throwers (as a retired gun), or for the purpose of concealing the test from a dog that is preparing to run it
 
Blind floater: sometimes referred to as a “rat trap” because they are so often constructed by placing a rat trap on a floating device, such as Styrofoam, with a line with a weight to keep them in place for blind retrieves in open water
 
Blind planter: person whose job it is to place a bird or bumper at a designated spot for a blind retrieve

Blink: refers to a dog that finds a bird on retrieve, and does not fetch it

Bolt: the act of running from real or perceived pressure that a dog esteems is too great to face under command - sometimes requires very little actual pressure
 
“Bottom”: term applied to a personality trait typified by an exceptionally high pain threshold – equated with toughness

Break/breaking: the extreme of unsteadiness and a direct violation of the command, “sit” – as demonstrated by the dog leaving his handler on retrieve before being sent

Bug/bugging: anxiety demonstrated by a dog in reaction to stress or pressure

Bulldog: A bird thrown or shot while the dog is returning from a previous retrieve. Used to see if the dog will drop the bird he is carrying and switch to the new bird. Also, is a diversion for subsequent retrieves. Used frequently in Master Hunting Tests. AKA “Bird-in-the-face” diversion
 
Bumper: retrieve object resembling a boat bumper, only smaller, and used in retrieving because of infinitely greater durability than birds, AKA training dummy
 
Burn: term used to describe “continuous” stimulation from a e-collar that exceeds the duration of a “momentary” stimulus, or nick – this term is actually a misnomer because no physical harm is incurred by the dog
 
Call-back: 1 – notification of which dogs are to be allowed to run a succeeding test at events, such as Field Trials or Hunt Tests
 
Cast: specific direction, given via hand signal, to correct the dogs route when he has deviated from his course during a retrieve
 
Cast Refusal: The dog refusing to respond to the direction or cast given by the handler. This is not a term that describes dog casting in the wrong direction, which is actually only a miscast. A Cast is a command to go, and is directional.
 
Channel: 1 – body of water that is long and narrow in configuration, 2 – act of swimming along a shoreline, or down a channel on retrieve
 
Cheating: act of the dog violating formalized standards for negotiating diversion factors such as cover, shoreline, diagonal concepts, etc.

Chinese drill: name for a type of drill involving multiple blind retrieves involving water with structure that presents focused repetition for dealing with specific types of factors – over the point, by the point repeated in successive blinds, for example

Clamming: widely used term for a dog responding to pressure by shutting down and becoming unresponsive to command or pressure in a physical sense – this is a trait that is unusually prominent in some dogs, to the extent that training them is often more difficult than most trainers are able or willing to endure

Cold Blind: A true blind retrieve in that the destination has not in any way been pre-identified. A dog running a cold blind is totally reliant upon direction from the handler.
 
Controlled Break: When the dog makes an attempt to break and is immediately brought under control by the handler without force
 
Cover: Grass, brush, or any other vegetation which may conceal the bird from the dog on land or in water
 
Creeping: form of unsteadiness, manifested by the dog moving forward as marks are falling, and before being sent

Cue: A verbal clue to the dog, such as “dead bird”, suggesting to a dog the nature of an impending function or retrieves. “Dead bird” would ‘cue’ a dog to prepare to run a blind retrieve, for example

De-bolt: this term refers to the formal training involved in advancing pressure conditioning for the “here” command, during which a dog is enticed to hide from pressure in tempting places provided for him during the exercise, and then being forced out of them – literally aiding dogs to conquer their fear of pressure
 
Delayed Bird: A bird shot after one or more birds of a multiple mark have been retrieved by a dog

De-pop: act of training against the occurrence, or likelihood of popping

Diversion: 1 – from divert; to turn from a course or purpose, 2: element in a test or training exercise that provides the effect of diverting the otherwise direct route of the trained retrieve
 
Double: A marking scenario in which two birds are thrown sequentially in two separate locations, one of which will be retrieved from memory

Drag scent: scent left by dragging birds through cover, either by dogs returning from retrieves, or as a tool to divert dogs intentionally

Drill: 1 – instruct by repetition, 2 – strict training and instruction, 3 – term for a type of training exercise containing multiple exposure to a focused theme of training

Dry pop: shot fired from a gun station where no bird is thrown to provide a diversion effect in association with other retrieves

Dummy: 1 – see Bumper, 2 – person who thinks dogs take straight lines naturally!

Entry: 1 – form issued for admission to a given testing event, 2 – term often used to describe the number of competitors in a given event, 3 – point of entry into water or structure in route to a retrieve
 
Flat Throw: Also known as a square throw—a bird or bumper thrown directly across from the thrower, not angled back or in—from the dog’s point of view, a 90° throw
 
Force: 1 – compel, 2 – influence that causes motion, 3 – gain against resistance (may compel or correct behavior in dogs)
 
Flyer: live shot bird used in marking set-ups
 
Fountain: Two marks are thrown in opposite directions, one right, one left, in a double marking scenario

Flyer station: gun station form which a live flyer is shot

Freezing: 1 – may be the act of a dog stopped to the whistle and then not casting as commanded, 2 – sometimes called “sticking”, the act of a dog refusing to release a bird on command
 
Go-as-sent: accurate description of the theme of advanced retriever training, through which a dog is taught to overcome diversion factors and persevere on the course he was sent on 
 
Gun shy: fear of sudden noises, esp. gunfire, to the extent of a dog being unable to hunt, or perform normal retrieving functions
 
Hand shy: fear of the handlers hand, usually seen as the handler lowers his/her hand into a position to confirm the dogs line to a fall – almost ALWAYS a manmade problem
 
Hard mouth: act of a dog exerting excessive pressure on a bumper or bird to the extent of damaging it

Honor: a dog that waits while another retrieves has honored that dog

Hot spot: physical location that a dog fears because it equates that location with an unpleasant stimulus received there, often the result of a correction
 
Hunt Test: Non-competitive event for working retrievers in which dogs are tested against a standard, rather than being tested against each other. In the United States, these are sponsored by multiple organizations: AKC, UKC/HRC, and NAHRA
 
Inlines; inline multiple marks: multiple marks with gun stations arranged on a slant, in line with each other in a row (or line). There may be two, three, four or more marks in such a set up.
 
Judge: individual appointed to establish tests for dogs, and to evaluate their performance in a formal event
 
Line: 1 – route to be taken under direction from the handler by a dog sent on retrieve, 2 – term used to describe the starting point for a retrieve, 3 – statement – not necessarily true – used to sell a product, service, or idea (lighten up; this isn’t an embalming class!)
 
Maintenance: 1 – keep in and existing state, 2 – regularly training on specific skills to keep a dog performing at or near optimal standards

Mark: 1 – most common type of retrieve, in which the dog sees the fall, and uses natural ability to retrieve it, 2 – descriptive term for how well a dog does this

“Maw & Paw”: aka “poor man’s double” or “Mom & Pop” – single gun station from which two marks are thrown in opposite directions, similar to a fountain double

Momentum: 1 – the force possessed by a moving body (Webster’s dictionary), 2 – in a retriever, a term that describes the mental force/compulsion that maintains compulsion from the dogs’ point of origin against perceived resistance. It should be noted that this quality has little relationship to speed
 
No-Go: often called a “balk”, this term describes a dog that is sent on retrieve and does not go
 
Pattern/pattern blind(s): retrieves that are pre-taught for confidence and for the teaching of other skills that can be added into the exercise
 
Pile: misnomer referring to a group of bumpers placed as part of a training exercise, and should be spaced far enough apart so that the dog doesn’t tend to fumble with various bumpers, but fetches the first one he comes to and returns promptly to his handler
 
Poison bird: a mark constituting a diversion component of a test called a “poison bird blind”, consisting of a blind retrieve that is made more difficult by the presence of the mark which the dog CANNOT retrieve before he retrieves the blind

Pop: 1 – synonym for a shot fired at a gun station, 2 – an un-commanded stop by a dog on retrieve

Pop-up: type of blind retrieve in which no bird has been planted in advance of running the dog – when the dog reaches a pre-determined point on retrieve, a hidden blind planter “pops up” and throws a bird or bumper to the designated spot

Quad: A marking test where four birds are thrown sequentially in four separate areas. Usually all four are down before the dog is sent, but a "delayed quad" consists of a triple being thrown, and then the forth bird is thrown when the dog is returning or has returned with its first retrieve

Recast: A second attempt to send the dog from the line for a mark or blind
 
Reinforce: 1 – strengthen or support, 2 – act of training, as in drills, wherein a concept, principle, or skill is strengthened or supported by exposure and reward
 
Remote cast blind: blind retrieve for which the dog sits in a pre-determined spot, remote from the handler, and begins the retrieve via a cast rather than being lined from the handlers side as usual

Selection: discipline for determining the order in which marks are to be retrieved in a multiple marking set-up that may not follow the order in which they were thrown

Series: term meaning “test” in a judged event for retrievers

Sight blind: Similar to a pattern blind in that the destination is known to the dog by way of either being visible, or having a visible marker at the spot of the fall. Not a true (or "cold" blind)
 
Spinning: form of popping, but during which the dog completes a full rotation in route to a fall and continues on retrieve – may be exacerbated by improper de-popping
 
Standard: 1 – model, rule, or guide, 2 – pattern of desired behavior in retrievers that has been formally established through the training process

Steady: A dog is steady if it does not attempt to leave on a retrieve before being instructed to do so
 
Stick: 1 – implement of force also called a heeling stick, or whip, 2 – act of applying stimulus with these instruments, 3 – see Freezing
 
Style: 1 – showiness, 2 – the speed, spirit, and/or enthusiasm a dog displays in route to a retrieve

Switching: When a dog has established a hunt in one fall area, leaving the area of that fall, without retrieving it, and going to hunt for another fall in another area