RETRIEVING AUSTRALIA FORUM

Ooooppppsssss....

I forgot to sign the above post....it's mine...

Unfortunately the "eco weenies" or 'chattering classes' as we sometimes call them have pretty much taken control. To me, A Brit, Australia is becoming one of the most paternalistic countries imaginable with the City majority telling everyone else what to do! Unlike England and America , Australia is nearly empty away from the coastal fringes and the coastal cities - as someone on another forum pointed out - Texas has more people than Australia! In England there is a long tradition of hunting and a large export industry built around it ( other people paying to hunt pheasant and deer, etc) and in America you have you Bill of Rights - we have nothing other than people who want to ban all hunting and guns. Once you get away from the coastal belt you will still find the traditional Aussie who will go hunting nearly anything you can eat regardless - so do come and visit!

IMHO, any training method or program is likely to have some merit. If our aim is to produce better working dogs, it is to our advantage to filter through all the available information, discard that which doesn't have anything useful to offer and hopefully make good use of that which does. To dismiss new ideas purely on heresay or through ignorance will only serve to lower the standard.

While our trials continue to be run as simulated duck hunts it is unlikely that our dogs will ever be expected to run 400 yard blinds, let alone with the degree of control required by US FT dogs. However, that certainly doesn't mean we shouldn't constantly seek improvement - tighter lines, crisper handling, better memories and more precise marking (though not necessarily in that order!)

Hi Cat Squirrel,
MMmmmmmmmmmmm Vegemite........it is an acquired taste. You don't know what you are missing, though.

Re Gun licenses in Australia. Yes, to handle a gun in trials, a person must have a license, except for Western Australia, where the controlling Canine Body, the CAWA, now has a corporate Gun License. This means that any person who is a financial member of the CAWA, and is also a member of a Retrieving Club, can use a shotgun during the trials, without having to obtain a personal license.

This has been a huge benefit to many triallers who really do not need or wish to obtain a gun license, when the only time they actually handle a gun is during trials. I believe there are other Australian state bodies looking at this idea for their own members. There are of course still people with private gun licenses because they actually do own a gun.

Regarding training sites, I can't vouch for everyone, but I believe Sydney people have a great deal of difficulty locating sites, and for running trials they travel extensively.
In Western Australia, we can usually find a good training area within 1 hour of home. This would pretty much cover every trialler in the Metropolitan area and outer areas. Most of our trial sites are also within 1 to 2 hours of Perth. Farmers on the whole, are pretty obliging, and as long as we respect the property, we are welcome to return year after year.

Personally, I do use pigeons in training sessions, as well as bumpers. We even used to take a fake shotgun out, but, had a visit from police one day who had received a report of people seen shooting their dogs !!!!!!

I tell you, can you imagine spending 4 years training your dog, to then shoot it in the field !. A quick explanation to the Cops of what we were doing fixed up the situation, with their suggestion that we use an umbrella instead. Consequently, have not used the fake since.

Kerry

An umbrella!!!!!!!!!!



CS

Kevin,

Yes, an umbrella. That's cops for you.

Just comparing what you say is a common length of run over there in hunt tests, of 150 yards. This converts to 137 metres. Is this the maximum length of a run ???

In our rule book it says, maximum distance for any retrieve will be 150 metres which converts to 164 yards, but there have been events where marks have been closer to 200 metres (218 yards). For Novice dogs, the maximum is recommended at 100 metres.

Consequently, I believe, our dogs are actually doing longer retrieves than that required in hunt tests. Cover here, is usually dense, and terrain can be extreme, sometimes requiring dogs to look up high to spot a mark over a hill, and often with just the peak of the thrown mark visible. I'm sure you would find our top trials interesting to watch, and as a comparison, challenging to dogs and handlers.

Kerry