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!