Bill Eckett Seminar

[Garrick Bridges]

I have just returned from the Bill Eckett seminar held in Benalla, Victoria. Bill is a highly regarded professionnal retriever trainer from Missouri, USA. He was accompanied by his wife, Becky and two children, Jim and Kelly. Becky is also an accredited professionnal retriever trainer.

I will not go into details about the seminar as I am certain that someone more eloquent than me will provide feedback on this website.

For me, the seminar was inspiring and has given me lots of material that I hope will go towards making me a better handler.

I would like to thank Julie and Andrew Crammond for organising the seminar. Thanks also must go to Bill and Becky.

Garrick

[Leanne O'Sullivan]

Hi Garrick

I agree 100%. The seminar was fantastic and I've learned so much - just hope I can put it into practice. Bill & Becky couldn't have been more helpful and both were very approachable and willing to listen to any problems, no matter how small.

Huge thanks to Julie & Andrew - well done guys. I hope the break in Port Douglas is enjoyable (and warm).

PS: When's the next one???

Leanne

[Prue Winkfield]

Agree with both of you - the organisation was terrific as was the content. Of course you would expect that from a professional but perhaps Julie and Andrew should go into organising events as a profession!

[Gareth Tawton]

Well done Andrew, Julie, Bill and Becky,

What a great weekend wiht information for all levels of trialer. I am sure we will all improve from the exposure to such an excellent dog trainer. I don't think I have ever seen someone who is as much patiants with dogs and people as Bill.

Gareth

[Teresa Parkinson]

I couldn't agree more.

Three incredible days of positive training methods and a logical approach to getting the very best out of our retrieving dogs. Bill is brilliant at getting the message across not only to dogs, but their handler/trainers as well.

Julie and Andrew, pat yourselves on the back. The organisation of this event was A1 again. Full credit to you.

Thanks.

Teresap

[Julie Cramond]

Thanks everyone. The seminar went well.

We are currently in Port Douglas and having a great time. The weather is wonderful.

We have been doing plenty of tours including the croc boat tour and had breakfast with the birds this morning. Jim sure was suprised when a galah started to eat off his plate. Kellie was shocked when a bird got caught up in her hair.

I am suffering withdrawal symptoms since arriving in Queensland. I have not seen one dog!!!!

See you all soon. Thanks again.

[Jackie Duffy]

In general I found the seminar very interesting.

Re the Stick Retrieve. I would like to ask the following questions :

Would the people attending the seminar would be comfortable using the methods demonstrated at a schoolground demonstrating dog training. Would they be happy if the stick retrieve had been videoed & was sent to be shown on the TV news? If they can't answer yes , then why not ? Is it because they would embarrased or ashamed of what was demonstrated ??

It would be good to remember that Retrieving is a sport in which we are usually competing for a trophy worth about $10

[Wayne Parkinson]

Talk about a great experience.
Bill again gave us an insight into what a great dog trainer he is.
He continued to remind us that we have to be teachers first and whenever we aren't sure the dog knows the exercise, give it the benifit of the doubt.
He continued to enphasise that we can never go wrong by simplifying the exercise.

Thanks again
Wayne Parkinson

[Jason Ferris]

Just reading an interesting discussion on the US Retriever Training Forum bulletin board http://www.retrievertraining.net/forums

Someone has posted a link to an aerial photo of Bill and Becky's training grounds - http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/image.aspx?t=1&s=11&x=1067&y=10742&z=15&w=1. Very nice set up!

Cheers, Jason.

[Joe Law]

I also appreciated the Eckett seminar and would like to thank all those who organised and attended. However, Jackie, you seem to be able to ask some wackie questions! Since when have school yard happenings been the norm for deciding acceptable behaviour? It seems to me there can be times and places for different events. Would you do your washing and hang it out in the school yard? Would you make love in the middle of the school yard? And would you want these events shown on the TV news? Trying to steal some high moral ground can be a common but cheap tactic in many debates but rarely add any real substance to the argument. I was once again impressed with Bill Eckett's calm and rational approach to training dogs and his emphasis on simplifying when ever the dog was confused or unsure. I was also impressed with his patience in answering some wackie questions from some people who appeared to lack focus and seemed to be off on some agenda of their own and had failed to listen to what he had just explained.

[Julie Cramond]

I saw that particular thread yesterday too, Jason. I felt a little uncomfortable with its addition, an invasion of privacy, but I am probably being too sensitive.

Especially after I asked on an US board about Stamps er, um, problem.

I did notice though that the photo was 8 years old. It confused me a little as it looked so different from a birds eye view. A lot of changes including water have been added.

Bill and Becky visit this site. Anyone who attended the seminar please ask questions and Bill hopefully when he has time will reply.

My favourite word for the rest of my years, will be, BACKLASH, I love that word. LOL.

[Graeme Parkinson]

Julie and Andrew

Thanks for all your work.

Jackie, sounds like you wasted your money. I for one didn't. There were lots of good things, but one of the most interesting for me was the small bit on grey areas in relation to corrections, I would like to explore this further. My thanks to Bill and Becky.

Graeme Parkinson

[Jason Ferris]

I saw that particular thread yesterday too, Jason. I felt a little uncomfortable with its addition, an invasion of privacy, but I am probably being too sensitive.

Hi Julie,

It wasn't my intention to invade Bill and Becky's privacy at all - just to show how well set up their place is. Given that these photos are in the public domain, I would think responsibility regarding invasion of privacy would rest with the publisher (ie the US government).

Cheers, Jason.