The Most Important Things...

When Luther was home last, it was what I like to call "A Perfect Day"! The sky was a clear blue, no wind and the sun felt warm and melted on your skin. I walked out into the back yard and Luther walked with me and he laid down beside me. We stayed there without moving for about half an hour. It was only when I downloaded my photos that I saw Jimmy had picked up my camera and captured that moment. It's a good thing.

Lucky me! The majority of any retail "Lab" products I find feature Black Labs or even occasionally the Yellow Lab. Imagine my surprise when I spied these wonderful sandals in the L.L. Bean catalog with Chocolate Labs. The are comfortable and sporty, too. I've half a notion to order a second pair for backup since they are so perfect. ;-)

Luther's a Brother--Again!

It was indeed a thrill to hear that Tess (Luther's mother) just had a healthy litter of puppies. Lauren is careful and diligent about her dog's breeding program and her choice of studs--FC AFC It's All Over Now Baby Blue is an example of her extensive research. He certainly is a magnificent dog! I'm so glad all are doing well. Congratulations! (Wish I could see these cute babies.) The text on the layout reads - "Luther’s Mother, What Can Brown Do For You MH (Tess) was bred to FC AFC It’s All Over Now Baby Blue and their puppies were born on April 16th, 2012. Eight pups--6 chocolates--4 females, 2 males and 2 blacks. Mother and Pups doing well.

Trials & Tribulations

Luther did us proud at his first Field Trial. It was a fair test with great judges. Of course, Jim Elam did his usual first-class job handling Luther! Here's what the text says on the layout...

Friday was an exciting day. Luther was dog #4 and ran close to that order. Luther was the youngest dog in the group. I was a little concerned at first because as spectators and dogs, we were looking straight into the bright morning sun. The later dogs would have the advantage but it turned out not to be a problem, thank goodness. The one thing I have learned in watching these events so far, is that there is an element of luck (good and bad) beyond your control that can affect the performance.

For the land marks, Jim Elam brought Luther to the line and he was perfect! He walked right up there like he owned the place! It was a triple--two birds and a flyer. Jim sat him on his left and said he got a good look at the left and center stations and when he turned his leg to right, his head followed along perfectly and he saw the right flyer station. He nailed all 3 marks, no hunts! He had great lines and did his usual quick grab of the bird on his pivot back! The 3 land marks were followed by a 205 yard land blind. When he was running back from his 3rd retrieve, Jim and the Judges walked over to a holding blind about 25 yards to the right and called Luther there to hand the 3rd bird over. Meanwhile, a fellow in the woods placed the blind at the back of the field near a small tree or bush. Luther took the line and Jim tooted the whistle a total of 3 times. He took each cast perfectly. The last toot he was almost on the blind. He did his land series very well and probably was in the top 3 or 4 dogs at that point. At the end of the land series and blind the field was reduced from 21 to 17 dogs.

The water turned out to be his downfall. The water blind was set up with lots of different surfaces. There were all sorts of grasses and rush in the water. The blind was over 200 yards through a marshy condition and the dogs needed to leave the line, go through some running water and a little swim, then onto a piece of land about
20 yards wide, then swim for a ways and past a very sharp, pronounced point of land with a small cypress tree on the tip and maneuver through a combination of swimming and running water with various grasses to the side shoreline. We knew immediately that Luther's training was not advanced enough for this series at this time. Well Luther made it to the first island and spotted that point with the Cypress and fell apart. He was resistant to go any further. Jim called him in. At the end of the water blind, the field was reduced to 8 dogs. (Luther wasn't the only dog with a problem!)

The last series of water marks were fairly straight forward. I think Luther would not have had any problem with those. So it's back to water work. Jim said he was going to return to basics with him and give him some simple water marks and restore his confidence. Then add to those and get him going again.

We brought Luther home with us after the event. Yesterday Luther had the day off. Today, we took him to three places and primarily worked blinds. He did great. Several were water blinds but much more simple than the one at the Q. We just got back from a long walk. (Walk a hound, lose a pound!)

It's a joy to have him home.
He's been my constant companion.
First and foremost, he's my buddy!

Trying Times

Today was a long day. I met Jim Elam and his team in Emporia at Steve's farm. Mike Griffith joined us. It was very windy, overcast and 50 degrees but felt a lot colder. The dogs did both water and land marks. Luther had a teaching moment that hopefully, will move him forward to being a better Field Trial dog. Here is the text on the top of the layout that explains what happened...

"Not every lesson learned is an easy one. Today was a hard day for Luther. His first land mark was in deep, deep cover. He went straight to the area and couldn’t find the bird. He hunted and hunted. Jim handled him to the area and he just could not come up with it. After more searching, he “popped”. He sat there waiting for direction. Popping is not good so handling him would send the message whenever he was lost, to sit and wait for someone to tell him what to do. Poor Luther sat there and started to whine. This grew louder and it turned into a sound like he was crying. I’ve never heard this sound from Luther! It tore me up. Finally Luther started to come in. Jim put him back in the truck. After lunch Jim ran him again. Luther reran that first mark almost perfectly. The second mark in the broomstraw was super and the 280 yard third mark was just about perfect with a great line. Luther restored his confidence. By the way--it took 2 men searching to find the fallen mark in the cover that he missed!"

Missing My Boy

I think this is my favorite layout of Luther so far. When he was home at Christmas, he was in his bed and turned around to watch me and I snapped his picture. It's a fairly straight forward layout but I did put a Cottage Arts PhotoBlend over the photo to give it a dreamy antique look and used the eraser tool to bring out the eyes. After all, the eyes are the most important element in a portrait. On Friday Luther runs in his FIRST Field Trial Qualifying event. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he does the right thing for Jim Elam and gets through at least the land marks and blind. Jimmy and I are driving down to Rocky Point, NC, to watch him. I'll give you an update next week!