Reading the Red Flags: What Your Dog Was Trying to Tell You

There’s a moment I’ll never forget. 

We were running a setup with a strong crosswind and a tough blind that sliced behind one of the previous marks. The line was tight. My dog gave me that look, the kind that says, “I’ve got this.” I marked it with a quiet, “Right there.” His ears cocked and he launched. Clean. Confident. Eighty percent to the blind without a single whistle.

And then it started. 

He drifted slightly. 

One whistle… no sit. 

Another whistle. This time I get the stop, but my dog doesn’t wait for my cast and takes off in the wrong direction. 

Quick whistle. No response. 

The whole thing fell apart right in front of me.

As we walked back to the truck, I kept replaying it. What did I miss?

Reminds me of that old story, the guy falling from the Empire State Building, saying “so far, so good” as he passes each floor. I’ve had blinds like that.

That moment is familiar to more handlers than you’d think. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a seasoned competitor or a weekend warrior. We’ve all had a run where everything felt right… until it wasn’t. And often, it ends with that gut-punch question: Where did it go wrong?

But here’s the truth most people never get told: 

Your dog didn’t go off the rails “all of a sudden.” 

The unraveling started long before the first whistle. 

We just don’t always know how to see it.

Sometimes it’s a subtle head turn as your dog is halfway there. Or a barely noticeable lean in the direction of a past mark. Maybe it’s the tail that goes up. These moments seem insignificant… until they’re not.

What looks like a random meltdown is often the final domino in a long chain of missed communication. Your dog was telling you something the whole time, subtle cues, a slight bob of the head, a crack of the tail, or a change in their gait. Behaviors you’ve seen a hundred times but never paused to interpret. These aren’t quirks. They’re information.

What separates an average run from a great one isn’t always better casting or a great initial line. More often, it’s awareness, the ability to catch that first flicker of distraction before it turns into a full derailment.

This is the difference between reacting and reading. Between needing to fix a problem, and preventing it in the first place. And it’s not about talent or intuition, it’s about learning to see.

These are the kinds of conversations we have all the time inside the Retriever Revolution membership, honest reflections, practical insight, and shared lessons from the field. The more we talk about it, the better we get.

If this kind of conversation resonates with you, you can learn more about The Retriever Revolution here.

In the next week, I’ll share three behaviors I watch for before I ever reach for the whistle, so you can stay ahead of the breakdown, not chase after it.

The signs were there, I just hadn’t been taught to read them yet.

See you in the field,

Pat