The Christmas Visitor

Last week Luther came home for Christmas. Talk about a model citizen, he's been so calm and reserved. His manners are impeccable. The only area needing improvement--front door manners--have been tempered. Luther thinks anyone at the front door has come to see HIM! But now he will sit and wait for the door to be opened and the person to come to him. Yesterday we went to the ballpark and Luther excelled at several long retrieves and 2 very long blinds almost perfectly. Jimmy had to handle him once after he gave Luther the wrong line to the last blind and then Luther took the line and topo perfectly. What a joy it's been for Luther to be home. As you can see by the photo, Luther's been catching up on his affection! He's so-o-o-o deprived!

Merry Christmas!

When Luther was home for Thanksgiving, I took this photo of him as I came up the stairs to the porch. We had just finished doing a Wagon Wheel drill in the back yard and he was happy-go-lucky! I couldn't resist the temptation to jazz it up a little with some digital elements for the annual Christmas Card.

My grandchildren, Reagan and Barton, and I picked up Luther at Lake Country Retrievers on Tuesday for his Christmas visit here at home. Last night we went to Carey's house for our annual Christmas Dinner and gift exchange. What fun and Luther was the model guest. He laid at our feet the whole evening. Luther got a present--a new portable water bowl! Lewis came to see Luther this morning and remarked how calm he is. Right now, Luther's visiting Billy Wells with Jimmy. Luther has just a little time here to go visit all his friends. It's amazing what a different laid back dog he is here but when he's on the line to retrieve, he's a laser beam rocket! That's my boy. Merry Christmas everyone!

Advanced Retriever Workshop

Last week Jimmy and I were fortunate to have attended a 4 day workshop featuring 4 of the top national retriever trainers - Andy Attar, Pat Burns, Ray Voigt and a special presentation about the latest in Puppy Training by Pat Nolan. Luther's trainer, Jim Elam, attended along with Chuck Mezura in our Tidewater Retriever's Club. I was a proverbial sponge. There was so much GOOD information! Thank goodness I took copious notes because that will help me retain at least the part I recorded!!! The above cartoon once again hit my funny bone. If only Luther could read my notes.

Bonnie's Helper

It's been great having Luther home this week. Jimmy's been away building a house 5 hours away and Luther has been a great companion. Thanks to Lauren for teaching Luther not to invade the Kitchen. He says on the outside of the island and observes. That allowed me to bake 5 pies yesterday morning for our Thanksgiving dinner at Scott and Lou's in Charlottesville. Even putting the pies on the porch to cool was no problem with Luther. He didn't DARE get near them. What a good boy!

My Favorite Kind of Day

Wednesday we went and watched Jim Elam train Luther. It was a perfect Autumn day. The leaves are in full color this late in the year and the temperature was around 70 with little breeze. I could sit and watch the dogs run everyday and never tire of it. Luther was in great form and Jim set up one tricky retrieve on a diagonal having to enter the water 3 times to get to the other side where the bird was. I'm not crazy about the above layout--it just doesn't click but it will do for the moment. I'll redo it as maybe a double or completely change the layout later.

The Fine Art of Dog Training

To be a good dog trainer, you need to be able to communicate clearly with a dog. If the dog does good, you reward it with praise or treats. If the dog makes an error, you withhold his anticipated reward. This cartoon appeared last week in the paper and I thought it was funny. If my brother was this dog (he missed the spelling gene--he even misspells my name! But to his credit, he did get ALL the math genes in the family), he'd never get to go for a walk either!

An Email from my friend David!

This has to be one of the best singles ads ever printed. It is reported to have been listed in the Atlanta Journal.


SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I'll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me... Call (404) 875-6420 and ask for Annie, I'll be waiting.....





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Over 150 men found themselves talking to the Atlanta Humane Society.

My Boy

This week Jim Elam has taken the dogs near Emporia, VA to train at Steve Ferguson's farm. Many events are held here including the AKC Field Trial last weekend. It's a beautiful place and he has at least 4 ponds that are designed for dog training. It was Luther's first exposure to this lake with the long narrow swim to a point. His first attempt was awkward but he caught on and improved more every time. Jim Elam has the patience of God and guides the dogs until they get the picture. It was a gorgeous fall day to spend in the country.

Swamp Dog

The layout reads: Hunting Season....

Today is the first day of early season
and Luther is at the trainer's.
No dog to hunt and Jimmy's hunting
buddies finked out on him.
Meanwhile, last night I ran across these
photos taken in the duck blind last year.
Luther loved to get up early and GO!
Can't you tell? There's always next year...

7 Success Stories

This weekend our Tidewater Retriever Club sponsored their Fall AKC Hunt Test. Due to a previous teaching commitment I couldn't be there on Saturday, but I was there bright and early with Jimmy on Sunday. (Jimmy was a "bird boy" both days.) I watched the Master Hunt Test all day. Jim Elam was there with 7 dogs running the Master Test. And to his credit, all 7 dogs passed the test! Job well done.

My Movie Star...

Several years ago I bought Jimmy a camcorder for Christmas for his Florida fishing trips. His partner had it and we recently got it back. There is a learning curve of "learn by doing" and this is the better part of my first attempt. Luther had a fantastic Swim-By lesson (a small video attached) and a terrific series of long blind retrieves in the field that I forgot to push the Record button. :-( You can see what a fine athlete he is becoming!

Tess Earns Her Title

HOORAY for Tess and Lauren!!! Tess (Luther's mother) took a break from her Hunt Test career to have puppies and I am one to applaud that decision! This weekend Tess successfully finished up her AKC Master Hunter Title requirements in Mesa, Washington. Congratulations Tess and Lauren!

Weather or Not!

In less than 2 weeks, we've had an earthquake shake the whole house, the winds and rain from Hurricane Irene beat on us and rob our power for almost a week, and now the deluge of rain from Tropical Storm Lee. It makes you wonder!!! It looks like our weekly visit to see Luther is not going to happen this week. The only good thing is that we'll get to see new and exciting skills he's learned when we see him next. If I'm lucky, he'll make a fuss over seeing me. :-)

I've included a photo I took of Luther last week. Handsome devil!

Swim-By

The training program at Lake Country Retrievers continues to amaze me. We visited twice this week since our power was out at home (Hurricane Irene) and you can see Luther's daily progress. Right now Luther is learning the Swim-By. Thursday Luther entered the water, stopped on the whistle, turned and faced Charles and took his directional cast. This time Charles gave him a left over and Luther swam down the middle of the channel. Afterwards, Charles worked him on a Wagon Wheel drill. Then Luther loaded into Jim Elam's truck and went to the field with the other dogs and ran blind marks and retrieved long field marks. Luther thinks he is in Disneyland...and he is!

Running Blinds

Our visit to Lake Country Retrievers on Wednesday was inspiring. Charles continues to progress with Luther on his Mike Lardy fundamentals. Luther is now doing patterned blinds. Patrick hides a pile of dummies on both the left and right sides of the field. Charles “aims” Luther towards one of the piles and sends him. If Luther deviates from the line, Charles blows a quick hard whistle and Luther wheels around and stops. Then, depending on the directional cast from Charles, Luther takes off in the given direction to find the blind retrieve. Plus Patrick is stationed in the middle of the field and throws ducks to both sides for retrievals. Luther was quick and accurate to get the blind or duck as directed. Jimmy and I were in awe of Luther’s accuracy. Sometimes the progress is less visible but this week it was huge.

After the foundation lesson, Luther got on Jim’s trailer and headed out with the other dogs for the wide open fields. Jim had Patrick set up a pile of dummies out of sight at the top of the hill. Luther had never been sent on a blind retrieve in the field before but managed it perfectly. In fact, Luther did this blind drill several times with total success. Between the blinds and running long duck retrieves through cover, it’s like Luther has been promoted to a higher grade at school.

It’s amazing to watch the progress in Luther’s training over the last 2-1/2 months. This week a number of lessons came together to create a big visual result. Jim, Charles, Prentice and Patrick have all worked together to give all the dogs first-class training. Luther is one lucky dog! 24 August 2011

Funny Face

One of the fun things about Luther is his animation. I have some photos of him smiling that just looking at them, make me laugh! Here are a short series of photos captured that tells a story. Love this dog!!!

An Eye for an Eye Tooth

Tonight While filling the iced tea glasses, I dropped an ice cube and it went scooting across the floor. I thought it went under a small chest of drawers. I looked around and found a ruler of Jimmy's and put it under trying to flip the ice cube out where I could pick it up. After kicking out a couple of pink Sweet'n Low packets, the ruler hit something solid--an old chew bone of Luther's. There was something else, too. It was a canine puppy tooth. I dashed up to Jimmy's office to show it to him and his comment was, "I'm sure you'll find something to do with that!" Well, of course I will. I'll scrapbook it! Think I'll photograph it and put it on his blog! And here it is!!! ;-)

Focus

When I look at the intensity of Luther's eyes, I know that he is at the perfect place. Here is a layout I did with a photo I took about 3 weeks ago. Luther LOVES to retrieve.

Foundation Work

As previously said, Luther has a rock solid foundation on which Charles is building. I love to watch Charles work Luther. Charles is totally absorbed and his movements combined with Luther's is like watching a beautiful dance. Here are a series of photos in sequence with the casting. See what I mean?

Yard Work

Today was a great day...We got to visit Luther! We arrived in NC before 8 A.M. in time to watch Charles work Luther with his daily "yard work". This is about a 20 minute session of obedience, drills and casting. Charles has a special way with the dogs and pays close attention to every detail of the dog's focus and performance. It's been fantastic that Lauren Hall Koch and Charles and Jim Elam use the same Mike Lardy Total Retriever method of training. Everything Luther had been taught prior to coming to Lake Country Retrievers has given him a solid foundation for his work now.

This Dog Will Hunt

This past Wednesday, we drove to Warrenton, NC, to visit and train with Jim Elam. Jim had come highly recommended from a number of Tidewater Retriever Club members. In fact, we never heard a negative word about him. When we arrived at 8:20, Jim was loading up to do some field work. Prentice and Patrick (brothers) assist him in all aspects of training and were most kind and helpful to us. It was good to see Jim work all of the dogs. It became immediately apparent that the line manners of ALL the dogs were impeccable! We ran Luther and he marked and retrieve all four birds. Although Luther can do doubles, he cannot handle to a blind. That's where Luther is in training and Jimmy and I needed help. Afterwards, we drove to a huge farm field. Jim ran Luther and liked the way he handled the hill. I was impressed by Jim's encouraging attitude with all the dogs, the cleanliness and organization of the dog facilities and how everyone works together as a team. We left Luther at Lake Country Retrievers for training and look forward to seeing Luther flourish. Hopefully, this fall Luther can handle for Jimmy in the duck blind. I'd like to see him get his Senior and Master Hunter titles in the future and Jim Elam is just the person who can help Luther achieve these goals.

Guard Dog

Last night I fell asleep on the sofa while watching TV. I woke up about 1 AM and went to bed. As I lay there, I heard something...Something on the floor behind my head. I know there's a mouse in the basement and I was too tired to do anything about it. I woke up this morning to Luther's barking! Luther was focused on something on the bedroom floor. The mouse! NO. It was a frog! This has been a banner year for frogs in the pond and tree frogs all around. I called Jimmy and he quickly came, snatched up the tree frog and put him out the bathroom window (where the critter probably made his entrance). It's been a quiet day now that froggy left. :-)

Refrigerator Humor

Here's a dog cartoon that I cut out years ago and it's had a special spot on the side of my refrigerator. It goes along with my strange sense of humor. I read in a book recently that a dogs sense of smell is 700x that of man!

How's the family?

We heard from Lauren in Montana today. Luther's full sister, Grace, just passed her first Junior Hunt test. Congrats, Grace! Three more to go for your Junior Hunter title. Lauren and Grace will be not only attending but they were selected to be one of the handler/dog teams for Mike Lardy's Seminar in Montana the end of June. That's fantastic. Wish we could be there. In case you don't know, Mike Lardy is THE big name in retriever training. This is quite a privilege.

The photo above was taken a couple weeks ago. Luther is entering the water for a water retrieve. This is the way to cool off on a hot day.

UPDATE June 20th - Lauren emailed and said Grace breezed through all the Junior Hunt Tests and has her title. Why doesn't that surprise me!!! Way to go, Grace.

Those Eyes

Yesterday I snapped this photo of Luther's Eyes. They've always reminded me of a rich melting Kraft Caramel.

Time Flies!

It's been a while since we posted. We've busy this past couple months getting Luther's Junior Hunter title and helping our club with Field Trials. I want to do some layouts showing his Junior Title adventure and therein lies the problem. I just haven't gotten to them. I snapped this photo yesterday of Luther. He loves to lie on the rug and look out the sliding glass door. He is getting to be one handsome fellow--his looks are maturing. I know his personality is, too. Today I cleaned both cars and worked on cleaning out the garage. He never left the area. I never had to call him. In fact, he got into his kennel and relaxed for a while and then got into the backseat area of my Sienna and just watched. His breath smells real good. He did manage to find a partial pack of spearmint gum. No doggie breath for Luther!

My Boys

It's hard to get a pic with both Jimmy and Luther posed perfectly. This is right out of the camera and close but needs a little touch up work. Last weekend we worked the Tidewater Retriever Club's Spring Event. We hadn't signed Luther up. One more successful entry and he'll have his Junior Hunter title. Yesterday we worked Luther with a pro--Jeff Stoneman. What an impressive man. He told us to work on the basics and have them nailed down tight. Jeff was extremely helpful. We'll train again with him soon. I was really impressed how he worked with one dog to fix a problem. He tries to get in the dog's head and understand each dog's strengths and weaknesses. They are all so different.

Hunt Test - Linden, NC

Another weekend, and two more Junior Hunt Tests. This time Jimmy was here to handle Luther. Luther loved every minute of it. He marked super and even though the weather turned cold (upper 30s to mid 40s), and the drizzle was on and off, he loved the water retrieves (picture above). He nailed the ducks buried in the winter wheat field. Good job, Luther.

Luther's First Rosette

The weekend of March 19 & 20th, Luther and I drove to Kinston, NC, for Luther's first Junior Hunt Test. This involved 2 retrieves of a duck on land and 2 retrieves in water. Luther arrived at the Hunt Test with extra energy! His usual calm centered self was now pumped up with boldness and vigor. I guess it was like taking a kid to the circus! He loved it. Luther marks (sees where the duck drops) with pinpoint accuracy. He's used to running much longer distances, too. He earned his first leg of four of his Junior Hunter title. Congrats, Luther! And Thanks to the Down East Hunting Retriever Club for such a fun time and well run event.

A Glance Back

When I took some Birthday photos of Luther, I couldn't help but compare a puppy photo I took on May 31st, when Luther was 2-1/2 months old, to a photo I took on March 16th. The same place and same pose. My buddy!

Computer Perks

For the past several years, I have taught several classes using Adobe Photoshop Elements. One class is a Digital Scrapbooking class. As a follow-up for those wanting to learn more, we have a Digi Crop Club that meets once a month and I teach a new technique. This month our topic was "Creating your own Custom Wallpaper". Here's the layout I made using the photos of Luther. Now Jimmy can enjoy seeing Luther everyday when he looks at his computer screen!

Tidewater Retriever Club

What a gorgeous day! Today was Luther's day. This was our first visit to the Tidewater Retriever Club and their first practice hunt trial of the year. Luther retrieved bumpers in the puppy session and ran duck retrievals in the big dog class. All the training with Lauren Hall Koch in Montana and with Jimmy and I here in the field on those cold winter days is paying off. Luther did fantastic! I'm so proud of him. We've decided to sign up to work for his Junior Hunter title. Thanks to all in the Tidewater Retriever Club for such a warm welcome to Luther, Jimmy and me.

Such Focus

Luther never believes in missing a meal...or a treat. I buy the smallest Milkbone biscuits and break them in half and balance half on his nose. Luther snaps it up quickly. He likes the challenge and yesterday got 4 out of 4. Such talent!

Go Hoos!

Luther watches TV. This afternoon Luther laid on the floor in front of the sofa watching UVA Basketball on TV (when he wasn't taking a nap). He likes to watch sports--tennis, football and basketball. It's funny watching him follow the movement of the ball. Luther also likes programs and commercials with dogs. Who says dogs can't watch TV!

Who's That!

01-28 Luther had outgrown his water bowl. I got a small feed bucket at Southern States and filled it up cool clean water. He was very suspicious of it since he saw another dog just like him looking back. It took several minutes before he gave in and drank some water.

Is It Polite To Point?

About 3 days ago when Luther was in the backyard, he was walking slowly along the wooded area and flushed out a bird. He was pointing! Luther comes from a line of pointing labs and it looks like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My camera wasn't handy. :-(

Big Boy Goes Bald

Well, yes, Jimmy is without a lot on the top. But for the past couple weeks, Luther's ususal gorgeous coat has looked dull and he's shedding gobs of hair. I've had to vacuum overtime (not my favorite passtime). It's a good thing I bought the "Animal" version of the Dyson vacuum cleaner a couple years ago (funny how those things happen). Last night I saw Dr. Nay and asked him about it. He said Luther was shedding his puppy coat. I've been trying to brush him but he doesn't like that at all. I'm grooming him with one of those Furminator rakes and a good bristle brush. Luther doesn't like either. He'd rather have his toenails trimmed than get brushed. He might as well get used to it because it's now been added to his regular routine.

Not Enough Love!

Here's a photo taken the other night. Luther gets the squeeze by Jimmy. That and a bunch of little kisses. This poor dog has to put up with both of our affections! I guess this is why he will hardly let either one of us out of his sight. Poor baby.

Kennel

Luther sits attentively while Jimmy gets ready to give Luther the "Kennel" command. Luther will then take a flying leap into the travel crate. He loves to go and travel in the car. Today Jimmy took Luther to the SS Assoc. of Realtors to a meeting. Luther stayed at his feet. He told the group that Luther enjoyed the meeting but was disappointed that they didn't let him vote! Maybe next time.

Watching Football

Yes, this is Jimmy and Luther watching the Orange Bowl game. We had the same scene here tonight, too. Can't say I blame them for wanting to relax.

Buddies

Here's a photo I took with my new Nikon remote. The photo is untouched and just the way the camera saw us. Luther's not fond of the camera but this way I don't put it in front of my face. Fooled him!