Upland Training

Today Mid Atlantic Hunting Retriever Club of Virginia had a Training Day for our upcoming HRC Quad Upland Hunt Test next weekend. I want to give a big THANK YOU to all the friends who helped me. They explained how the poppers worked and gave me some insight into Upland objectives. Luther must have been listening pretty good because he really did great. Will White was one of the gunners accompanying me and after it was all over and we were walking back, Will said we would have passed. Luther will be 5 in March and he's pretty steady--one of the qualities they judge. They say, "Never say never" and I agree, but as bold and strong as he is (all 82.2 pounds of bone and muscle) he rarely breaks. That plus he just keeps getting better with age. One big difference from the usual duck bounty Luther is used to, the quail are mighty small. I think that was the hardest thing for Luther. He had to dial up his "smell-a-vision" to find the little quail in the thickets and heavy cover. Who knows what will happen next week at the Upland test but we had a ball today.

Guess Who

No, it's not Luther and not Java...It's Gunner! Last Wednesday, Luther and I went to Jim Elam's to train. It was a cold and damp day. I'll be glad when spring is here. I was looking forward to seeing Java run her new thing--doubles. But in true training fashion, they switched things up and her lesson was to do a mark followed by a blind, followed by a mark--transitioning between 2 concepts. Three new dogs were on Jim's Big Dog Truck. One was Gunner! Gunner is owned by Kenny who lives on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Gunner is one of Luther and Maizie's pups--a full brother to Java--and just turned one year old. Kenny sent Gunner to Jim last fall for training and he has completed the Foundation Program and is now learning Field Concepts. I was impressed. His retrieves were right on and he showed plenty of energy and desire. Going to training at Lake Country Retrievers just kicked up a notch for me.