Handling your gundog and casting them left, right and back
There’s something truly special about watching a gundog respond to directional casts with accuracy and confidence, and many consider being able to fluently handle a distance something that sets a truly well-trained gundog apart from the rest.
Not only do we need the dog to stop promptly on the whistle (even if they are mid-retrieve or engrossed in hunting) we also need them to respond to our cue to take a line left, right or back without hesitation, possibly interrupting and redirecting them several times again, all to end up in the exact spot they need to be. When it all comes together, it’s a clear sign of a well-established partnership with their handler.
It’s one of those skills that often makes people stop and take notice, and for good reason. Being able to guide your dog across distance, through cover or over challenging ground, and towards a dummy, or bird, they haven’t seen fall isn’t just impressive to watch, it’s also vital if you’re out in the shooting field and need to ensure all shot game ends up in the bag at the end of the day.
In this blog, we’ll explore why we need to teach directional cues, the other cues we use when retrieving, how to teach left and right and finally, some other considerations when training them to go back.
Why do we need to teach our gundog to go left, right and back?
Directional retrieves (casting your gundog left, right, and back) are mainly required when a dog is struggling to reach the correct area of the fall.
This is either because they have taken the wrong line, have overshot or fallen short of the area of fall, or have got disoriented. It is most likely going to be required on blind retrieves, but it can be needed on memories too if you’re sending your dog a long time after they marked the area.
You really shouldn’t need to use them on marks. A dog’s focus should remain locked on an area when doing a marked retrieve. They should run straight there, pick and return. Handling on marks can erode your dog’s natural ability as they become overly reliant on you always finding the dummy or birds for them.
On a blind retrieve, our dogs should follow our arm and run in a straight line to the area. But our dogs are not robots, so this does not happen 100% of the time. Handlers are not always accurate when it comes to lining out their dog and novices can also struggle to take external factors, such as the wind direction and natural undulations and terrain challenges, into account.
Now, we could wait for our dog to find the article eventually. Keen retrievers will gladly keep running and hunting until they have found the article, but others will lose interest and go off task.
In a shooting scenario, too, we don’t want dogs running over and taking in too much ground, as they will potentially disturb the game. Also, if we send them to a specific area because we have seen a runner, we don’t want them going off-piste, coming across a different bird, and losing the one that needs to be fetched quickly to ensure a humane dispatch.
As such, we need to be able to stop our gundogs mid-retrieve and handle them back to the correct area using left, right and back directional casts.
What cues are used to send a gundog on a retrieve?
Before we look at teaching our gundogs how to go left, right and back, it’s important to consider the cues we use for the different types of retrieves, including marks, memories, and blinds.
We can then explore how setting the dog up gives them additional information about what sort of retrieve they're about to tackle and, finally, where directional retrieves fit into this.
Marked retrieve - Verbal cue only
These bread and butter retrieves, when your dog has seen the dummy fall, typically require no assistance from the handler and are something you’ll practise and work on no matter what stage your dog is at.
The dog should be sent promptly, to ensure they don’t take their eyes off the area, so they should be able to find and pick quickly and efficiently. For these retrieves, the dog is sent on a verbal cue only and is left to complete the task themself.
If the dog struggles to find the dummy and leaves the area or gives up and goes off task, it may need to be stopped and handled. But this is not a good example of a marked retrieve and (depending on how sensitive your dog is) it is better for your training to recall them and start again.
Marked retrieve - Introducing the body language cue
When your dog is used to marked retrieves, before you move on to teach memories and blinds, it can be useful to add in your body language cue.
Often called lining up, the body language cue you will want to introduce is a motionless arm pointing towards the area of fall. This is usually temporary and is just to help bridge the gap and ensure your dog understands what you’re asking later down the line in training when you introduce memories and blinds and go from verbal-only retrieve cues to body language and verbal cues.
Your feet and entire body should face forward as you bend slightly. Your arm should point straight forward from your shoulder so that it is lining up parallel to the dog. It is a common error to try to line your arm up alongside the dog’s head, but we find that this pushes the dog off to the side, causing it to run out in an arc.
Even though we are working towards memories, at this stage the dog should be sent promptly like a normal marked retrieve. Ideally, they should not move until the verbal marked retrieve cue is given and there should be no forward movement from the handler when giving the dog this cue.
Again, in this scenario, you would also want them to run straight to the area of fall and pick the dummy and you shouldn’t be expecting to handle them.
Memory mark - Line up and verbal cue
Memories are a stepping stone to blind retrieves. The dog will have seen the dummy fall or be placed out, but there is usually a delay and/or change in location, so the dog must work with you as a team and pay attention to where you are sending them.
The handler will line the dog up to indicate the direction of the retrieve and send them on their verbal retrieve cue. Depending on the distance and the time-lapse, the dog may start by running out a little less fast than on a marked retrieve and then suddenly speed up as they approach the area of fall and “remember” the mark.
If the dog has really forgotten where the dummy was, and it is more like a blind, then they may start to go out of area, and at this point you might want to consider what you are training as to whether you will handle them. If you are trying to work on your directional casts, you will likely stop and redirect them. However, if you are trying to build their confidence and ability to run out in a straight line it may (depending on how sensitive your dog is) be better for your training to recall them and start again.
Blind retrieve - Line up and verbal ‘blind’ cue
This type of retrieve is a full-on team effort between you and your dog, as your dog will not have seen the area of fall, and you might only have a rough idea.
The key with blind retrieves is to take your time and try to make it as error-free as possible. A confident outrun following a good, strong straight line will save you lots of handling later.
While you will still use your arm to line the dog up, many handlers choose to use a different verbal cue for this retrieve to tell the dog to run out with purpose and keep going until they either find the article or are stopped and cued to hunt.
Like with the memory retrieves, if your dog doesn’t take your initial line, or goes out of area, you might want to practice handling them, or call them back in, depending on your training goals at the time.
Directional retrieve - Visual and verbal cue
We need to remember that directional retrieves are effectively an error-correction cue when we try to get our gundogs back on track when they’re struggling to find the area of fall.
Up to this point in your training, it is likely that your gundog has only been sent for a retrieve, be it a mark, memory or blind, from your side. In this scenario however, the dog will be facing you.
You also need to bear in mind that if we are sending them left, right or back, it is because our dog has failed to find the area of fall and doesn’t know where the article is.
So, taking these points into consideration you’ll begin to understand why it is vital that our left, right and back cues are taught in a way that gives our dogs confidence.
How to teach left and right directions
The left and right directional casts are known as modifier cues and are often best taught together so that your dog can begin to discriminate the opposite cues right from the beginning.
If you are still working on your hand delivery and steadiness, you will want to consider using your place board and sending your dog to a marker post so that you don’t contaminate your retrieve chain.
Step one:
Sit your dog on a placeboard facing you, with a marker post out to one side, about 2 metres away.
Step two:
Raise your arm to your shoulder and out to the side of the marker post, palm forward, and cue your target behaviour. As your dog touches the post, click and pay back on the board. Repeat three times.
Step three:
Switch sides by placing your target post on the other side of your dog so that your dog is sent with your other arm. Repeat three times.
Step four:
Repeat this stage until your dog is going out to the target with commitment. At this stage, you can add a food bowl at the base of the marker post and use a “get it” cue to send your dog left or right.
Step five:
Build distance on each side until you have reached the distance of 20m. Increase your distance from your dog until you are directing them from 3-5m away.
Step six:
You will now need a helper. Using the effect of ‘behaviour momentum’, do two repetitions sending your dog to a food bowl and then for the third put down a white or clearly visible dummy.
Step seven:
Fade out the placeboard and begin to add in your verbal direction cue such as ‘out’ (right), ‘away’ (left), ‘back’ (back). Remember the formula for introducing a new cue is “new cue, old cue”. So, your arm goes out, and you say your new cue followed by your old cue (“get it”). Then, once you have fluency, you can fade out your “get it” cue.
Step eight:
The final stage is to have both dummies (or food bowls if your delivery is not there yet) out at the same time.
Extra considerations when teaching your gundog to go back
Teaching the back behaviour is identical to the left and right directions. However, you will not just want to teach your gundog to go back - you will also want to teach them to turn on either their left or right shoulder, depending on the arm you are sending them on.
The reasons for this are that there may be a distraction drawing your dog away from the line, or the wind may be favourable to one side, and turning your dog in this direction would help them find success.
It could also be that the terrain is more difficult to one side, and so being able to turn them away from it would give them a better chance.
Only some people will choose to do this, and your gundog could still successfully learn to go backwards, so it is up to you.
To do this, you will want to set up your place board and then put out your marker post behind the board but slightly to the right of it at 2 m. You will then sit your dog on the board and stand about 2m in front of them, but in line with the back marker post, slightly to the right of the place board.
Raise your right arm above your head, lower to your shoulder and then drive up and forward, palm forward, and cue your target behaviour. As your dog touches the post, click, and pay back on the board. Remember to do the same on the other side and send with your left arm. Begin moving the marker post target so that it is closer toward 12 o’clock, directly behind the place board, while keeping yourself slightly out to whichever side you are sending your dog back. You can then begin to move your position to 6 o’clock so you are directly in front of your dog.
Once you reach this stage, like with the left and right directions, you can add your “get it” bowls, build distance and add in your dummy.
The final step is to put your direction cue on the behaviour. We typically use ‘back’ or ‘go back’ but this is up to you. The verbal cue can be the same for both turns away, as it’s the body language that distinguishes them.
Note: In one of our latest blog, we looked at the stop whistle. That is an integral part of handling your dog at a distance, as there is little point in being able to teach them directional casts if you cannot get them to stop and look at you. We recommend you work on these behaviours separately but at the same point in your training journey in preparation to bring it together as soon as possible. If you have not yet started training the stop whistle, click here to learn more.
If you’ve already introduced a basic stop whistle, have started working on directional casts with your gundog, and are ready to build more confidence and precision in these key retriever skills, we’d love to welcome you to our week-long Retriever Skills Training Camp.
Held at our dedicated training grounds in Worcestershire, this immersive and supportive camp is designed for all gundog breeds (yes, spaniels and HPRs are also welcome) looking to level up their retrieving skills. Over the course of five days, we’ll focus on refining your handling skills, improving your gundog’s confidence with left, right and back cues, and building reliable stop whistle responses in real-world settings.
Whether you’re enriching your pet gundog’s life, furthering your hobby, preparing for the shoot season, or working towards working tests, this camp offers a unique opportunity to progress with like-minded handlers in a positive, pressure-free environment.
For more information and booking, head to: https://clickergundog.co.uk/products/retriever-skills-camp
Missed the retriever camp for the year, why not join our retriever skills monthly group class instead. Click here for more information.