Clicker Training Your Retriever

By: Bob Bohland

            I have to admit the first time I walked into a retrieving class through Retrievers Etc. with my new dog, I was not impressed. We were walking around with the dogs in a circle, playing with noise makers and handing them treats. I let my girlfriend, Brittany, do most of the work with the dog as I sat back, watching and wondering how this was supposed to make my dog retrieve birds. The next night we moved up to wooden blocks, and try as I might, I couldn’t seem to grasp what exactly this was supposed to do. It wasn’t until later in the class, when the trainer, Cathy Mahr, brought her dog out and showed how it was taught to retrieve anything by going through these steps. As bored as I was, I will, however, say that I was thoroughly impressed as her dog brought back a large plastic chair without a command. The dog, and myself, have come a long way since those first few classes. Not only have I started to believe in the system, but my dog, River, has shown remarkable improvements and I have been able to correct my older dog, Aspen’s flaw of dropping items at my feet; Who says you cant teach an old dog/stubborn owner new tricks?

            We have continued on with the classes, which currently take place in Monticello, Mn for the past several months. It really is fascinating to see how quickly these dogs learn all the different tasks associated with clicker-training. My favorite part of each class though, is those first couple nights. That’s when I get to look around the room and see that same expression on the faces of some of the new guys as I had: blank, bored, slightly annoyed that they are paying to play with noisemakers.

            The main idea behind clicker training is positive reinforcement. As many professional and amateur trainers know, building a good retrieve used to depend on force-fetching/ear-pinching a dog. However, when not done correctly, or with a soft dog, this method can result in bad training, being bitten, or even ruining a dog to retrieving altogether. With clicker-training, the old ideas that said you should not begin training a dog until it is six months old go out the window. As Cathy states, “with positive reinforcement, it is never too early to start training/shaping a dog.”

            The beginning to a perfect retrieve, according to Mahr is, “to work backwards; I teach the retrieve by shaping. Once your dog learns the shaping game you can teach almost anything!” Cathy uses a marker as a bridge between the behavior wanted and the reward, “I prefer a clicker because it is more precise than a verbal marker. It also carries no emotion. The handler’s emotions/feelings can be a problem. If you become worried or stressed about your dog’s performance it comes through in your voice and influences the dog. None of this happens with a clicker. Also, by working the retrieve backward we never have to tell the dog to ‘come’ as they are always trying to put the retrieved item in your hand.”

            There are several steps to begin the shaping of your dog. The first of which is to get your dog’s attention and make sure that it is “in-game”. This is done by clicking and rewarding when the dog looks at you. Rewards can be a variety of things dependent on the dog itself, “For some dogs a piece of their food is reinforcing, for some petting. Hot dogs and chicken can be great. For our more advanced dogs, the chance to retrieve again can be the reward. One puppy I know would hold a dumbbell for a kiss on the nose.” The next steps involve several different things, from getting the dog to touch your hand with its nose, to grabbing a dumbbell out of your hand. Once your dog has learned to associate these steps with reinforcement, it can be taught to bring anything back to you with a couple of steps. This is normally the part of the class where Cathy will demonstrate with a plastic chair, a shoe, even a dropped clipboard; and her dog will bring it back to her without any command given.

            “Now for the bad news,” says Cathy, “There can be a million variations in how I get these steps done. One thing to acknowledge after you find what is reinforcing is to eliminate anything the dog finds aversive to the process. For instance if you are standing, some dogs may find this intimidating, so sit down; if the dog finds a loud room intimidating, start in a quiet enclosed room at first. All of these things can be reintroduced once the dog’s will to retrieve is strong. But at first, remove as many aversive influences as you can.”

            By the end of your class, you will have a ‘tool bag’ of tricks to continue shaping your dog as it develops. These tools also allow you to correct any mistakes or bad habits your dog is bound to develop. “Essentially, everything goes back to those original hand-touches that you taught your dog, this is the basis for the entire method of training and is the gateway to all further training” states Cathy.

            Classes fill up fast, as they like to keep the group sizes small and they take place across from the Monticello pet hospital in their new training facility, which also has an outdoor section for dogs to receive in-the-field work outside of the classroom. Other classes taught include Basic Obedience, Agility, Kids and K9s, and Rally Obedience. With 44 years of training experience, Cathy’s classes will not disappoint, so don’t hesitate. If you would like to learn more about Cathy Mahr’s classes or Retriever’s Etc. you can visit the website at: www.retrieversetc.com, find them on Facebook with a search of ‘Retrievers Etc’ or contact the Big Lake, Monticello, St. Michaels, or Elk River, Mn’s community education departments.

History Lessons

History Lessons

By: Bob Bohland

            We have all had a great fishing spot ruined. Whether it is from a mouthy friend who likes to brag, someone else finding your spot, or just dumb luck by a few locals. There isn’t much you can do other than fish with the rest of the crowd (which can amount to torture to me) or find a new honey hole. This can take a lot of work and, at least in my experience, a lot of failure before you hit pay dirt again. Many keep a log of lakes they have fished and what they have caught, sometimes even with pictures or GPS coordinates to remind them. Why keep old lakes that have gotten out in the back of your mind? Simple, because panfish, especially crappies can recover in lakes that have seen the limelight of internet forums, magazine articles, and TV shows, and can return to their once lost glory.

            The Alexandria, Mn area is home to a lot of very productive lakes, but these lakes also see a lot of pressure. Anglers in the area travel from hot lake to hot lake seemingly like locusts, but for area guide Joe Scegura, it is all just part of the game. Like a dealer at a 3-card Monte table, Joe always seems to pull another great fishing spot from out of nowhere. His secret? “I always keep detailed logs of where I have found good fishing, and in time go back to those notes to refind lost gems.”

            Logs are a detailed part of any consistently successful angler’s tools. These can range from the more advanced, such as spreadsheets or Word documents, to something much more simple, “Heck, I keep notes on my calendars,” says Scegura, “Every time I get back from a trip, I write down conditions, what lakes I hit, and presentations that worked for me that day.” Another thing that many anglers do is to add GPS coordinates to their notes; this can help you track fish movement from season to season, and even from day to day. Since the weather in our area of the country isn’t exactly known to be consistent, water temperature data in your logs can really help pin down fish movement from year to year. Depending on the forage base available for fish, this recovery can happen in as little as 2-3 years, but in some lakes it can take up to 8-10 years. Detailed notes with dates that a lake is producing can help narrow down where you should fish. If you haven’t done so already, start keeping a fishing log, whether it be on your computer or handwritten, and be honest with yourself. If you exaggerate and write that you were catching 13” crappies, when in reality they were at best 11” you are only hurting yourself, this is where an accurate measuring tool such as a Fish Trough can help you keep accurate records. When you put a fish on the board, there is no ‘fudge factor’.

            Another great source for filling the backlogs of your notes if you are just getting started is internet forums. There are a lot of great reports available, and they are updated every day, if not from hour to hour from a variety of sources. Doing a search a few years back on some of these forums can lead you to some very successful spots to try. The surprising thing with most anglers, especially the ones that follow the hot bite around, is that they have a very short memory. So by keeping a record of what the ‘flavor of the month’ is, you can have a great lake almost to yourself after the masses have forgotten about it.

            “The funny thing is,” explains Scegura, “is that many times when fisherman think a lake is fished out, often the fish are just retreating to another spot on the body of water due to commotion. Lakes that produce year after year have places for these fish to retreat once the army of anglers arrives. They don’t have to be especially large lakes, but if they have a place to get away from the commotion and the pressure the fish will often survive the onslaught and can be caught in subsequent years” So you shouldn’t always assume that just because the fishing has slowed that the fish have all gone home to fill freezers. Often, they have simply moved due to the amount of pressure, and noise, which is created by a large amount of anglers congregated in an area for an extended period of time.

            Joe conducts what he calls ‘spot-checks’ on lakes in his logs, “often I can gauge how hard a lake has been hit or how quickly it is recovering pretty quickly. It doesn’t take too long to dump the boat in a lake and hit a couple spots to see what the size structure is like before I head off to a new place.” By periodically checking his lakes, he is able to find out how hard the fish population was decimated and set a timeline for when the lake will start producing quality fish again for him to put his clients on. “Generally you are looking at a five to seven year turnaround for a lake that has been hit pretty hard; however lakes with those escape areas can recover a lot faster,” states Joe “but it really depends on the quality of the forage available to the fish. If the lake isn’t known for fast-growing panfish, it can take longer for them to recover. Conversely, a lake that is well known for producing bruiser panfish may recover much quicker due to a better forage base. I have also seen spots that anglers think the fish are gone, when in reality it is because there is just so much food available that they won’t bother with most presentations because they are full. This can happen from an insect hatch or even a boom in a minnow population.”

            There are also lakes that are known for only providing good bites during certain times of the year, “Lake Osakis is one that really sticks out in my mind,” Joe explains, “No matter how hard it is hit, the lake only seems to produce numbers of quality fish at certain times of the year.” Other lakes can follow this pattern as well. One of my favorite lakes, (although, I am a bit biased since I have been fishing it since I was 5) only produces trophy caliber fish during early ice and spring. Though neither Joe nor I really understand why this happens, it is something you truly cannot avoid, “your best bet is still to look at your past logs and find out when the fish were biting, what they were biting on, and where.”

            The next key for conducting spot-checks of your own lakes is your past water temperature logs. “Obviously lakes with darker water heat up faster after ice out, so temperature readings become vital for really tracking the fish,” adds Scegura, “even shallower bays with dark bottoms can really heat the water up more than the rest of a lake. So it pays to keep your temperature recordings according to location.” In darker waters it can be more difficult to conduct your spot-checks. This is when Joe uses a flashy presentation, “I like to throw something big and bright to really get their attention. I am trying to move through areas quickly to gauge the population and size structure, so a bait like the Lindy Watsit Spin or a Dancin’ Crappie Spin Jig really help get their attention and get them to commit. The sizes of these baits also lets me select for larger fish in the school and lets me know what the larger-sized fish population is like, which is what I am really after.”

            Don’t give up on your old hotspots, these gems held great fish for you in the past and they are capable of doing the same in the future. Just don’t forget the lessons Joe Scegura has learned over many years of guiding in a populated area: 1.) A good memory or good logs are your best friend. Wait till the hype dies down about the bite and hit it again. Keep going out there and keep tabs on how the fish population is recovering. 2.) Know how good the forage is in the lakes you are fishing. The better the forage available, the quicker the fish will recover from heavy pressure. 3.) Keep it to yourself! A great panfish bite is harder and harder to come by these days. Going out and bragging to everyone in earshot about the great fishing you had on Lake X will only end with the demise of your bite.

            Joe Scegura's Guide Service offers guided fishing trips across Central Minnesota, primarily on Alexandria area lakes, Mille Lacs Lake, and the northern part of the Mississippi River. Joe can be reached through his website at www.jsguideservice.com

Hockey and Fishing

My little bro had an outstate hockey tourney this weekend and Britt and I decided to head out and watch him play a couple games, got some great photos of him playing. After watching them absolutely trounce Grand Forks early afternoon (with no help from the refs) we decided to head out to a local lake near the rink and fish for a while since they didnt play again until after dark. I am glad we headed out!

With no maps or info aboot the lake prior to setting foot on it, we decided to edge a group of guys who were out fishing. Started marking fish right away but most were smaller perch, with a few small gills mixed in. We drilled a little more and found some larger perch and crappies, but it seemed that all of our larger fish came from spots in this little area that had white ice from snow melt as opposed to the clear black ice that was almost all over the lake.

Britt had the hot hand on the perch today, almost everyone she caught would have made a nice fillet had we been keeping any fish. After getting whooped up on by her for the first hour we were out there, I finally was able to get her to tell me the color combo she was using. She had on a green/glow pink bug with a red plastic. When i tied that combo on, I was quickly able to catch up. I also had on a great fish right before we left that broke me off, several expletives were yelled when that line snapped. I guess next time I will remember to check my drag before I head out fishing...

New Years Weekend

Was up in the Crosby, Mn area for a long new years weekend. Got onto some great fish on Saturday, but when that cold front came pushing through it shut almost everything except for the bass and some small bluegills off. Got some awesome fish Saturday hopping around on a basin area, they were really on the move so we had to stay on top of them. We were rewarded with some nice gills and crappies though. Kept a few small fish for a fry and put the big girls back to be caught another day.

Sunday was an entirely different story. Cold and wind came roaring in and no one was too eager to get out on the ice right away. We made the decision to just watch tip-ups from the cabin and we had a lot of action right away, but missed quite a few fish, but we were able to land a few bass. Probably would have had a lot more action but we werent checking on the tip-ups too often. One of the tip-ups a northern had left his mark on a sucker and when it was reset, the bait was down in the weeds. On another, we had a jigging spoon with a small sucker and when we went out to pull it out near dark it was discovered that the bait had been stolen and the treble hooks were tangled on the line. And on the final tip-up, the flag had froze down with blowing snow and a bass had it for quite a while. He was very deeply hooked, so we kept him for a meal.

Monday was another blustery day, but we made the decision to head out and camp in the portables. Had to turn the heat down or off several times as that thermal fabric kept it really warm. Found some light biting bluegills and Britt broke off a nice bass. Made a short move to slightly deeper water over some mud and found a christmas tree of crappies on the flasher. I even managed to catch a shiner that we promptly put down as bait. Unfortunately, the most of these crappies that were schooled up were rather small. All in all a good weekend with great company, even if we weren't able to stay up till midnight on new years eve.