Sendaway and redirections.

There are many opinions on training this exercise and lots of ways to produce sound performance.
Markers or boundaries,food or toy ,voice or whistle.
Maybe all of them and what age would you start training the dog this exercise. We all have our own take on a method to gain results, whats yours?

Dave.

I start all my dogs with a food based target for their SA & I start quite young may be 4 months old. Before this I train the touch to my hand & expand this to a target trainer & at the same time teach a drop onto a mat in heelwork(all off lead)& then bring the three parts together as the dog has grasped each part.

For redirection I use a solid wall or fence to teach left & right with another mat & target trainer. As the dog gains confidence & drop the mat & the target trainer & again bring all the parts together when the dog has grasped the exercise.

I do teach really long SA & drop(in excess of what is required in WT)& end up with a dog that I can point in any direction & it will run straight until told otherwise.

I do use a clicker for the initial stages, introducing a verbal & whistle command so I can use whatever is suitable for the conditions.

Never had a dog that didn't have a good SA because the dog enjoys the rewards it gets for doing it

I just follow Rod Roberts methods really and you know what they are.

I start all my dogs at 7 weeks.

With their food bowl.

I increase incrementally until I can send a dog 400 yards or so.

As they mature they will tell me which provides the best performance food or a toy.

I use a combination of food bowl, then covered food container, visible ball on visible pole, invisible ball on visible pole, invisible ball on invisible pole, ladle on pole, remote controlled ball dropper and am currently experimentting with a pheasant chucker.

I then use cones and fade them gradually.

I do the redirect the same way.

I also have to train two different types of sendaway, one for Schutzhund and one for WT.

The principles are the same but the set up has to be specific in the former ie walking at heel and instant with speed.

In WT as you know speed is not an issue. In fact you could make a cup of tea and read a newspaper when waiting for my Weimaraner to get to the points, but she was very accurate, generally getting 9. 9.5 and the only dog with a 10 at one TD Champ trial at Oxfored I remember.

Where as my GSD was very flashy and fast, but not necessarily very accurate!

As for voice or whistle, the latter is not allowed in Schutzhund but I use it in WT as it travels further.

Didn't get into obedience until recently so won't be doing this exercise in the ring for a while BUT I already have a reliable send to mat, and have also taught Jin left and right (using two bowls and then sides of a cone/object. Haven't tried a wall yet....its still a work in progress! Will be absorbing all comments here for use myself Jins now over one and a half years so I hope I haven't started too late!!

No redirection in Obedience & I've just started with Meg & she's around a year old, so no it's too late

I do lots of sending to marks and then sending to other marks, coming and going but haven't taught a long sendaway for years. I used a toy on a pole when I did.

I have been wondering what to teach Etta now so I'll play around with that I think.

rune

It was more for agility that I taught left & right for Glad its not too late! Some obedience people think its far too late to get any decent results out of Jin as I should've started at 7 weeks.....I didn't even collect her at that age! *shrugs* I'm not desperate to be No 1 obedience person in the whole world ever....Jin & I enjoy working as a team, learning new things, facing challenges and working on getting better. Thats all we care about

Speeds over rated in wt, Id sooner have the points.
Good scores SB and as long as the dogs accurate job done.

I didn't train lady on send always until she was a year old and was always very good at that exercise; had her hiccups though but we got round them.

Started Max on it a while ago (about 4 months ago). Started off with food reward, but now he does it for a toy.

Some run out after their dog. I never did that until someone recommended it for lady and she lost her confidence, so I stopped. It's different for different dogs though.

I've been using Rod Roberts methods too.with great success (redirection too)
Ive been doing a lot of training with Jo Hill.and she favours teaching dogs to go round a pole clicking and rewarding as they just get round I;ve used this as well and now can get her to use twoo poles about 80yds apart with me in the middle getting her to return to me then sending her on to the next one