How Did You Start Out In Retrieving?

[Kirsty Blair]

Hi All,

Following on from Teresa P's great idea regarding how we all got started out in retrieving; let's get the ball rolling! Surely all you All Age handlers weren't born wearing a white jacket with a whistle in your mouth

Kirsty

[Kate Eltringham]

Hi Kirsty,

I came to retrieving in a roundabout way and because of two people who were and are stalwarts of retrieving in South Australia. I became Secretary of the Gundog Club in SA and was asked if I'd like to go out to the clubs retrieving trial by Ross and Jean Bryant (both of who have trialed Flatcoats and GSP's). Pax (my dog) had her show title and was working in Obedience and after the one trial became obsessed with retrieving.

For the next twelve months the two of us attended all the trials in SA and stewarded mainly on throwers (for new trialers if you have the opportunity to go on throwers do it, you see so much more out in the field). The following year was to be our debut.

Our first trial, Mulgundawah, pouring rain, new gum boots, drizabone and wet weather pants, open terrain, lots of cover and water. Up we go to the pegs, fire, full break out Pax goes, wall of cubungi (excuse the spelling) wouldn't go through it for all the tea in china. Asked permission from the judge to withdraw my dog. Permission given, first trial bombed first run.

It all turned out okay because I ended up marrying the judge, got my NRD with three wins with Pax, completed Restricted runs with her and now have my blonde (Ski) who will be debuting this year. Hopefully more successfully than Pax.

Cheers

Kate

[Kirsty Blair]

Hi Kate,

Great story! And very lucky judge

My beginnings were in Tamworth, 1998, where I was working as a vet nurse and showing/trialling Shetland Sheepdogs. Frustrated by the fact that my boyfriend was doing nothing with his young Golden Retriever I had started trialling it in obedience. We had a regular client of the vet clinic, Michelle Taylor, who had mentioned on one occasion that her dogs did Retrieving Trials. I thought they sounded great and proceeded to pester her incessantly to take me out with her training.

Finally, Michelle conceded defeat and invited me to her property where we set up "Barney's" first retrieve. Looking back, it was a bit much to ask a dog unfamiliar to retrieving but, nevertheless, Barney completed his first ever retrieve - 60m with pigeon from a thrower- with great gusto.

A week later we made the decision to enter our first trial in 6 weeks time. Michelle and I drove the 7 hours to Hartley where Barney completed his first retrieve and went out on the second run. I was completely hooked (but didn't marry the judge ).

6 months later I bought my own goldy, Nelson, who has been the biggest learning curve of my life

That's me!

Kirsty

[Leanne O'Sullivan]

Hi Kirsty

I started out in obedience trials 27 years ago (that sounds terrible) with a cross-bred Labrador that I took through to his PD title (this was the Associate version of UD back in those days).

I then bought a pedigreed Labrador, Hannah, who I did a little showing with but she ended up being too small so I took her into obedience trials. She was bred purely for the show ring and I had a devil of a time trying to get her to do anything she didn't choose to do. But at the Obedience club I met Diane and Russell McCann and their Shorthairs.

Russell got involved in Retrieving Trials through the GSP club and I went along to watch a trial with Kim Burke (also a member of the obedience club). Needless to say, we were hooked. Hannah decided she liked retrieving so long as I didn't try to stop her or give her directions so she got her NRD pretty well but couldn't go any further.

I then bought another Lab from Teresa and Wayne Parkinson who bred their RT Ch Horissapit Lash and produced my beautiful boy, Zach (14-1/2 years now). I showed Zach, trialled him in Obedience (got his UD) and ran him in Retrieving Trials. He won 1 All Age and then I had to retire him because of health problems.

I'm now running a dog in All Age, bred by Noel Eltringham, who is probably the nicest, most amiable dog I could ever imagine owning. He's had some placings in All Age and I haven't given up hope yet of going further with him. I also have one of his pups who's 9 months old now who I will start running some time soon.

Well, that was a long story - sorry about that.

Leanne

[Lisa-Maree Price]

Hi all, I started out going to retrieving trials with my parents. As mum was the Secretary of the CCC of Queensland and UFTA at the time. And my dad was the President of UFTA and a Judge.

Started out throwing birds for anyone. This was great to see how the dogs worked and would say to myself as a kid how good it would be to do something that the dog was breed for and enjoyed.

I would follow my dad anywhere. I got my first Labrador about 6 years ago and it was such a learning experience. My first dog was called Jet and was a real handful, but had so much up and go, even up to the day he passed away at 4.

I like the competition, but by the same token it is not sheep stations. It is great to get out in the open air and spend some time with other and people and dogs with the same interest in you. You are always learning.

This is such a great sport. Hopefully I will see you all aroung alot more on the trialling scene.

Good luck everyone.

Lisa-maree

[Gareth Tawton]

Kirsty,

I beg to differ. I think I was born with a white jacket and whistle in my mouth I have been going to trials since I was born that makes 34 years for those counting!!!

My first trial I competed in was an ACT Championship in which I ran one of Dads GSPs. He was away on work committments and I was 12 at the time.

I was given my first dog in 1984 a gsp bitch by the late Westy Morris. Over the years I have competed in Retrieving , Utility field and obediance trials. I have had 2 shorthairs and just purhcased my 3rd Lab.

Gained my Ret judges licence in 1990. The crazy thing is I am probably keaner on trials now than I ever was.

Gareth

[Kirsty Blair]

Hi Gareth,

I was going to put "except for you, Gareth" in my original post but thought it might be a bit cheeky

Loved your story despite the fact you were born with a Roy Gonia in your mouth!

Kirsty

[Kerry Webster]

Hi All,
I well believe about the whistle in the mouth Gareth. Are there any others that were "born" into the game ?

My start into retrieving was only nine years ago. I was doing Obedience trialing with my Rottweiler and met up with the Henderson's who have Mhadaidh Goldens. They perked my interest and I went along to see a couple of retrieving trials. I was offered a pup from their next litter and chose my girl "Tosca". I did obedience with her for 12 months getting her CD title, then entered Novice Retrieving. She had her NRD that season then RRD the following season. Later she got her CDX and is now aiming at UD. She has had plenty of second places in All Age over the years, and happily, finally achieved R.T.Ch.

After losing a Golden Puppy in 2000, I bought a Lab. puppy from Victoria, named Swagman, recommended by Geoff Cole. This boy is in Restricted and progressing, albeit, slowly.

I was then given my lovely black Labrador, Swanny, a half brother to my other Lab. He is competing in All Age successfully, and did well over in Tassie last year.

I am totally hooked on the sport, and have strived to be my best at it. I love competing, although the nerves kick in sometimes. My husband loves the dogs, but doesn't have any interest in participating in the sport himself.
Being on the other side of Australia, it is too costly to compete against you E.Staters more than once a year, but wish I could make it more often.

Oh, Also, I still have a Rottweiler !

Kerry

[Maureen Cooper]

Had a laugh at these posts, nice to get light hearted about things!

I used to travel a round trip of 100 kms to work and back when I arrived in Oz and had come from a small English village so I desperately wanted to get back to the countryside on a weekend and as I had left my beloved Labrador behind, I could not look at one let alone live with one, so went looking for a GSP as I recalled a rather pretty bitch in the village. I found one and her breeders put me onto Non Slip RT's as they were called in 1984 so off I went to watch one.

Casey, my GSP, proved very interested in the venue and sport and as I was watching my first Novice, I thought what fun they all seemed to have... especially laughing at Ray Tidswell's dog who would (always it turned out) break to shot and bets were whether he would ever catch the bird before it hit the ground! Not a clue what I was doing, I began to train her and eventually got some help from another trialler and entered my first trial. She really wasn't ready!! She broke to shot, got the bird and ran off to eat it!!!!!! She never did the second run or entered another trial and was given away to the sales manager!! My friend then gave me my first working bred Lab and Jay ended up doing very well for me and being the foundation for my kennel.

Maureen

[Prue Winkfield]

I was introduced to the sport by Lea Cogley - we both had GSPs with their UD title in Obedience. I tried tracking but my dog just quartered the ground and Lea suggested giving Retrieving a go - a very male dominated activity in thos days. The GSP held retrieving and 'drinking' training days at Ivanhoe so along I went with husband in tow. There is no way you can teach a five year old to retrieve I was told - well that was it! Entered a Beginners and won that and never looked back.

[Leanne O'Sullivan]

Just had to mention my first trial with Hannah. She ran out very determined to get that bird, saw a man standing behind a tree (at the thrower), stood barking at him for a minute or so with her tail firmly between her legs and then ran straight back to me. No encouragement was going to get her back out there.

Quite humiliating but then, I'd been humiliated before and I've been humiliated since so, in the scheme of things, what does it really matter. The atmosphere was fun and we had a ball anyway.

I must have enjoyed it as I'm still doing it 16 years later.

Leanne

[Teresa Parkinson]

It appears that this thread will be dominated by the fairer sex...yet again! Jason, how are those stats holding up????

As a family, we always had dogs and I knew I wanted one of my own eventually. About 20 years ago (has it really been that long???) I bought my first purebred gundog, an English Springer Spaniel. After a brief sojourn in the show ring which met with little success, I decided to try a different breed - Flatcoated Retrievers - and it was shortly after that I somehow found out about Retrieving Trials. I then met Wayne, a die-hard Labrador owner, at a Traning Day...and that, as they say, was that! I was well and truly smitten, not just by the man but by the whole working gundog scene. I can't imagine a life where I'm not hunting over my dogs or running them in Retrieving Trials.

I really must ackowledge John Lawton's influence at this point too. In between that Training Day and finally getting Wayne to realise I even existed, John encouraged me to train my dog. He fostered my interest in the sport and had a very positive influence on me in those early days.

Wayne and I eventually married in 1989 and I've owned and trialled a couple of Flatcoats over the years. One of my early Flatcoats 'Woody' was my first trial dog and made NRD. He was then campaigned by Wayne in Field Trials where he made FTCh in one season. Our last Flatcoat 'Zephie' aged 12, only recently left us after a mercifully short bout of cancer. I must admit that although Flatcoats will always be special to me, I doubt I'll ever own anything other than a Lab again!

Wayne and I have bred a few litters over the years, generally when we needed a pup to go on with. I am currently running 'Jock', a 19mo home-bred black Lab, who is coming along well. He is great fun to train, trial and hunt over. I love the social scene at trials as much as anything and believe it's the people who make the sport what it is. Having said that, when seeing my dog do something really amazing no longer takes my breath away, I'll give it all up!

Teresap

[Brian McMillan]

I copied this from my 'belated intro' post. It seems to fit better here, plus it's a cheap way to get a post in to keep the gals from dominating the board! Sorry for the redundancy, but ain't it just like a man to be too lazy to write something fresh?

Nearly three years ago, I picked up a little chocolate lab puppy with the idea that he was going to be the familly pet. We wanted to train him to be a good citizen and with that in mind, a friend of my wife's gave her a book called Water Dog to aid in our training. There is a section in that book on basic obedience; but what caught my eye was how the man trained his dog to retireve. I had no idea that dogs could do such things and I wondered if I could train mine to do it too. So using that book as a quide, we started. I don't duck hunt and had no idea that such things as hunt tests and field trials existed or were available to me. I just wanted a good activity to keep my dog physically and mentaly active.

As one could imagine, armed with an outdated training manual, and a few bumpers, we struggled and made some mistakes. But we were having fun and learned despite ourselves. I feel like the best thing that happened to us is that I found an experienced amatuer trainer in my area who sort of took me under her wing and helped us. We meet together once a week to train. She introduced me to hunt tests and convinced me that my dog had it in him to do it. Two years ago this March we entered our first test got a pass the first day and eliminated ourselves the next day. (long story) We run several tests a year and now have two legs towards a Hunting Retriever Champion title. We need two more legs.


Brian

[Julian Bielewicz]

It does appear as if the fairer sex have the drop on us when it comes
to revealing their innermost thoughts and reflections. Could it be that the men are far toooooooooooo busy with the REAL work of training their dogs to AA and RTCH standards while the ladies sip tea and gossip What was it someone once quipped about those who can, DO, while those who can't talk about it?

And just to put myself in my own place (save the claws slashing out for the face) my venture into both Labradors and trialling was more a bumbling stumble than a premeditated intent. We (Fay and I) didn't have dogs in Australia but close friends owned an old and rather overweight yellow Labrador. Our then very young son got on with Mardi like the proverbial house on fire so we decided to buy him his own pup. Thus Bawa Vanessa (Sally) appeared from down the representative chimney one crisp evening - well okay it was pretty hot and sultry but what the heck! And there was of course no chimney (in the sub-tropics we found few houses with actual chimneys and this was pre virtual reality days).

I don't now recall exactly how I came across trialling but I suspect I read about it in some Northern Hemisphere book and made enquiries of the CCCQ. Whatever, I eventually found UFTA and went along to see what the sport had to offer. Within a very short space of time I was working as a bird steward (with fond memories of serving under the late Peter Halford - we came from adjoining English counties) and eventually as a Trial Manager and all the time talking, listening and trying to absorb the finer points of training. Not always easy as back then some of the 'experts' wouldn't give you a spot if they had measles.

Sally, pure show stock, was never going to amount to much in the trialling world but she was no doubt better than my inexperience allowed her to be. I entered Sally in an Encouragement but took the title too literally, continueing to call out praise long after she had picked up the bird and was returning.

George, a black Labrador, was a different kettle of genes. Imported from the UK he was retriever to the core. He was mostly Drakeshead both sides of his pedigree but with a few other interesting lines thrown in - Palgrave Edward, Holdgate Willie, Glencoin Digger of Saddleworth, Swinbrook Tan (all UK field champions).

Again, George was far better than my inexperience allowed him to be but even in the short time we trialled he took out his quota of Novice wins, a third and eventually a win in Restricted. But then he was 'knobbled' for the third time and on this occasion there was no chance that my own carelessness was responsible. Fay had put his dry food away, I had secured him to the rear towbar and even the renowned greed of Labradors couldn't have stretched his neck that far.

So I walked away from trialling; the welfare of my dog being more important than any baubles or kudos I could have acquired.

It's only taken a little over 15 years but I find myself on the threshhold of returning to the sport. I blame my wife of course. She was the one who decided to buy an English Pointer. Indeed, at one point (no pun intended) we were looking at perhaps breeding Pointers.

But again it was a series of coincidences rather than planning that dictated events. Fay acquired her Pointer but the second bitch experienced whelping difficulties and only two pups survived. Meanwhile I had contacted Amand Golle of FRA who happened to mention that Mike Luce had a litter of Labradors... and even though I was at that point unaware of the sad news from Laidley I decided it couldn't hurt to have a look.

The look lead to my mark being put on one of the young black males and I collect the little fellow on Saturday 28 February.

No doubt thereafter I too will have little time to indulge in idle gossip. Ouch! What was that I can see coming?

[Kirsty Blair]

It does appear as if the fairer sex have the drop on us when it comes
to revealing their innermost thoughts and reflections. Could it be that the men are far toooooooooooo busy with the REAL work of training their dogs to AA and RTCH standards while the ladies sip tea and gossip What was it someone once quipped about those who can, DO, while those who can't talk about it?

Hi Julian

If we're looking at quotes let's try this one :

You can tell the man who rings true from the man who rings false, not by his deeds alone, but also his desires. - Democritus

Kirsty