Training and competing with Labrador Retrievers in both Field Trials and Hunt tests since 1992.

HISTORY

Growing up in Minnesota, my father instilled in me a love of hunting game birds. Our family always had a Labrador Retriever in the home, although our dogs were largely untrained and hunted on natural ability. The family dog passed away unexpectedly, and while on a camping trip, we learned the campground owner had a litter of Lab puppies. We returned home with a bright-eyed puppy, and at 15 years of age, I endeavored to train the dog using James Lamb Free's classic book "Training Your Retriever". The dog became a wonderful hunting companion, and while not a Field Trial dog, she could handle and respond to whistle commands.

Some years later I took several colleagues to Nebraska to hunt Pheasants. One of the men in the group offered to bring his Labrador Retriever. The hunt was a fiasco, largely due to this dog. He was completely untrained, and had all natural ability bred out of him. Returning home, I suggested to my wife that our daughters would benefit from a puppy. Not just any puppy, but a Labrador Retriever puppy from Field Trial lines. We visited Diana Jagoda at Southland Kennel in Virginia, and committed upon a a litter that was line bred on Judy Aycock’s wonderful dog, Honcho.

Jack and Diana Jagoda suggested that I might want to join a “Hunt Test” club that was just forming. The idea was that I could train the dog hunting skills during the off-season. The hook was set, and I helped with the formation of the Old Dominion Retriever Club in 1992. That Labrador puppy we bought was quite precocious, and had a real desire to learn. She quickly advanced through the levels in the hunt test program, and was titled a Master Hunting Retriever. What a pleasure it was to hunt with a trained dog with my colleagues in Nebraska, the contrast between dogs was night and day. The hunt test program evaluated the dogs in competition against a standard, so it was hypothetically possible that all dogs could qualify. This made the program wildly popular, but left my competitive side wanting something more.

My family moved to Culpeper Virginia, and I was introduced to some field trial people that had retired/ migrated down from Long Island, NY.  Bill and Martha LaMar, and Jane Kelso were training dogs for field trials. Bill took me under his wing and mentored me in the “white coat” game. I learned that in Retriever Field Trials, the dogs are judged against each other, rather than against a standard as in hunt tests. At the end of the event, a winner is chosen.

Bill helped me train, and encouraged me to enter my dog in a Qualifying stake. We traveled to South Carolina to run our first field trial at Cooper-Black Recreation area. Lynne DuBose was judging, and the tests were very difficult. By great fortune my dog WON the Qualifying stake. From that moment on, I wanted to run Field Trials.

Since then, we’ve owned several Labrador Retrievers, all of them are family dogs. I have really enjoyed training our own dogs, and am proud to have titled dogs that I trained exclusively. Looking back however, nearly all of the dogs were held back at some level by my own training. The demands of work and family make it very difficult to commit the time necessary to train at the all-age level.

Today Linda and I train our dogs from puppy hood to about 6-8 months of age. After that, the dogs are trained by Professionals. We have learned a great deal from Mike Lardy, Dave Smith, Alan Pleasant, and Bruce Curtis. I look forward to training the dogs at the all-age level one day, but that will likely have to wait until after my retirement.

NOTEABLES