My 4 year old yellar dawg not only charges full speed on the way out to make a retrieve ... he comes back with the same degree of enthusiasm. I've never seen a dawg with so much sheer love for the sport and general exuberance in how he does it.
:)

http://www.huntchat.com/showthread.php?threadid=22929

wow that picture is awesome!

I agree...awesome pic! That would be my wallpaper on my puter if i were you ;) lol beautiful dog :)

Great shot. Gorgeous yellow lab.

Great picture! You can see in his face that he really does love what he is doing!

What, may I ask, is a memory mark? Showing my lack of knowledge here.......


Annie, Murphy and Riley

Annie ... That's a term used by those in the Hunting Retriever world to describe the 2nd or more of fallen birds that a dawg retrieves. That happens when a hunter (or group of hunters) shoot two or more birds from one flight and the dawg is sent to pick all of them up and return, one at a time, to heel.

A "Mark" is any item (bird, bumper, toy, etc) that the dawg has seen fall and has "marked" its location visually. When released for the retrieve, the dawg runs immediately to that visually marked fall, picks up the object and returns to sit at heel of the handler.

A "Memory Mark" is also a visually seen object fall but, it's a 2nd or additional retrieve object that MUST be committed to the dawg's memory since it is required to pick-up the 1st object 1st, return to heel with it, and then be released to go back out for the additional retrieve RELYING upon its "memory" of the fall area of the 2nd mark.

A "Blind Retrieve" is where (for whatever the reason) the dawg did NOT see the bird fall and does NOT know its whereabouts. Handling for this situation is a wonderful example of retriever basics, training and the trust between a dawg and handler to accomplish a "blind retrieve" efficiently.

The dawg is sat at heel and the handler gives it a "line" by aligning the dawg's body and focusing the dawgs gaze in the direction that the handler (who DOES know where the bird is) wants the dawg to run when released. When the handler is confident that the dawg has the line to the fall area correctly registered visually, the dawg is released with a verbal command, generally "back" which training has taught the dawg to mean run in the direction it is sent for an infinite distance until; 1) the dawg catches scent or it visually spots the bird, or 2) the handler "whistle sits" the dawg if it is leaving the line or otherwise missing the fall area, and then 3) the handler "re-casts" the dawg by a combination of whistle, verbal and/or hand signals redirecting the dawg to the correct fall area.

A well trained and proficient team of handler and dawg can communicate to each other at distances of many 100s of yards on a blind retrieve, much like well trained sheep dogs and their handlers can do. It is a thing of beauty to observe!

Here's a picture of Cappy returning to heel from a blind retrieve where he did NOT see the fall location from where he sat inside of our blind. I left the blind (where we hide from the ducks), had Cappy come to my left heel (I shoot right handed), aligned him and verbally released him towards the duck. It had fallen about 100 yards from where I had released Cappy. He ran slightly off-course and as he reached an area parallel to but 15 yards or so to the left of the fall, I whistle-sat him which caused him to stop, turn and face me, sit, and look for a revised instruction from me. I used a quite exagerated motion with my right hand, arm and body by leaning to that direction and verballing saying "OVER". Cap took that revised direction 5 yards or so, picked up the ducks scent and immediately located it. The pic is him on his way back. The bird had landed well behind where Cappy is where the pasture grass is quite a bit lighter.

http://www.huntchat.com/showthread.php?threadid=24115

And here he is at my left heel completing the delivery of the duck to hand while at sit position. Good boy, Cap! ;)

http://www.huntchat.com/attachment.php?s=&postid=164134

I can only repeat what everyone else has said-AWESOME!!!!!!

There is just nothing like a picture of a Lab working!!!! (unlike mine who would rather sit and have photo's taken in the bluebonnets, LOL)

Oh, and welcome to the bb Nevada Jim!

Thanks for the knowledge, Jim. :cone: You really explain things well and we learned a lot from your post. Copied the whole thing and stuck it in a document so we could save it. Great question, Annie! We have just started Calley at retriever training. We go every Saturday and it is a lot of fun. For the pics and story go to Calley's Story Page Two (http://www.johnandjeannieseetch.com/Calley/cal_pics/calleystory2.html).

Fantastic photos!!!!
If you want to train your dog for retriving do you need to have obedience school first or do they train that at the same place as well so that the dog has one method of training instead of various? Just wondering - I think Scott would like to do field tests (I think that's what it's called) with Zeus.
Georgia on the other hand will bark and chase helicopters!!! Hmmm - I don't think a retrieve would happen here LOL! (I wonder if she was used for hunting at some point as I heard it's not the norm for dogs to "look" up in the sky)

Originally posted by jackyscott
If you want to train your dog for retriving do you need to have obedience school first or do they train that at the same place as well so that the dog has one method of training instead of various?

Just my :2cents: , but I think a good obedience foundation is key to any type of training as the work with the dog's attention and communication are the building blocks to whatever else you want to do. Calley is in puppy class at PetsMart on Tuesday nights and at retriever class out in the country on Saturdays. Her obedience stuff has paid off big time while working out in the field. While the retriever place does obedience training, too, we did not know that before we went there. Their methods and commands are in line with what we are doing at PetsMart.

Jacky ... Calley's response is spot on. Whether it's agility, show, hunting retriever or any other form of organized competition, all training must be built upon a solid foundation of basic obedience. It's much like building a multi-story building, the 2nd and subsequent floors will surely collapse if the foundation is weak and defective. It's also why children must pass the 1st grade to go to 2nd, and pass the 2nd to go onto 3rd, etc.

The only thing worse (IMO) than a ill-mannered, disrespectful and disobedient child is a dawg with those same attributes. It's simply another form inexcuseable abuse by an owner in the dawg's case.

In the organized hunting retriever competitive games there are "hunt Tests" and "Field Trials." The sanctioning bodies for each are AKC, NAHRA and UKC. The links to all three of those organizations are below.

http://www.akc.org/dic/clubs/search/club_search.cfm?RequestTimeout=300 http://www.hrc-ukc.com/
http://www.nahra.org/

Can you teach basic field hunting retriever skills in a park or similar setting? Yes, but it would be limited to more simple tasks such as learning to be steady; marking thrown objects; retrieving to hand at heel-sit, taking simple whistle commands and hand signals and other more elementary retriever skills. Beyond that level the dawg really needs a more natural wild setting and most importantly, a combination of land and water where live birds can be used in training.

There are numerous quality books on the market to help a novice and experienced trainer alike. Same with the Hunting Retriever Clubs. They are all over the country and you'll likely have a club and/or an experienced member/trainer near you to help get started. I notice you are from WI. I lived in the Waukesha area in the 60s and early 70s. I hunted with my dawgs all over that State from Bong AFB in the SE to LaCrosse on the Miss to Nelson Lake near Hayward. You have a number of great Hunting Retriever Clubs in WI and a number of fine professional trainers living there too.

Jaw dropping, gorgeous photos! You can feel the power in those pics! Great job!!:D

Beautiful dog!:p:

Enthusiastic is an understatement. Great action pics:) !

Jim,

That photo is amazing of Cappy... I just love it when the dogs want nothing more that to retreive.. Here is what Midnite likes to do in the off season..

http://www.sharkland.net/images/Dog/mjump.jpg

LndShrk! That is incredible! Midnite is crashing against AT LEAST 12 to 18 foot seas in that gorgeous picture! :p:

My Cappy has never seen a white cap. Our 3.5 acre hunting pond gets some ripples when the wind blows 25 mph or more. So does our pool. I don't know what he'd do in the heavy seas and currents your dawgs hunt in.

By the way ... awfully glad you made it here. Now maybe you can help me learn how to post a pic without having to link to "HuntChat" website.

:)