US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

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US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Gareth Tawton » Thu 07 Mar 2013 5:34 pm

HI All,

I am in the process of arranging US based Pro Trainer Bill Hillmann and leading breeder Mary Tatum from Watermarks kennels to come to Australia for a training seminar. They plan to attend this years National and hold a seminar the following weekend in the Bendigo area.

I expect the cost to be $250 for the weekend depending on the number of participants. There will be a cap on numbers to ensure attendees get real benefit from the seminar.

In simple terms this weekend will be aimed at triallers with some experience (preferably but NOT strictly limited to having trained a dog to restricted standard) not first timers as we will not be discussing the very basics of retrieving. Having said that the plan is to particularly deal with developing younger pups and dogs to get them ready for All Age competition. Below is a planned outline and resume of Bill and Mary.

All Things Retriever
A Comprehensive Seminar for Retriever Owners

Bill Hillmann is a Professional Dog Trainer, Field Trialer, coach and mentor. Bill is an author and makes videos that teach his philosophy and methods for training a balanced retriever.

Dr. Mary Tatum is veterinarian practicing small animal medicine with a special interest in reproduction, breeding and health of our performance animals. Mary is a breeder of Golden Retrievers and Labradors, and a competitor and judge in canine performance events.

Bill and Mary have teamed up to present seminars covering any topic of interest to the retriever enthusiast. Their combined expertise gives your Retriever Club the opportunity to customize a Seminar Agenda focusing on the specific needs and interests of the club membership and their guests.



Dr. Tatum:
• Choosing a Breeder and Choosing a Puppy
• The Keys to a High Quality Breeding Program and Maintaining Breeding Animals
• Veterinary Care
• Orthopedic Testing (Hips, Elbows, etc.)
• Genetic Testing
• Q and A

Bill Hillmann:
• Fundamentals – Land and Water
• Unique and Balanced Approach to the Conditioned Retrieve – The “Soft” Approach.
• Setting Tests to Teach Specific Concepts
• Creating the Relationship You Want to Have With Your Puppy – Based on Kindness, Respect, Trust and Fairness
• Developing Courage and Power
• Creating a Balanced and Manageable Retriever
• The Theory of Practice and Its Application to Retriever Training
• Drills to Increase Marking Ability and Focus
• Developing Blinds and Mark-Blind Combinations
• Teaching and Developing Marking Concepts


Mary Tatum DVM
Brittmoore Animal Hospital, Houston Texas
Watermark Retrievers


Mary Tatum graduated from Texas A&M University with a BS (Summa Cum Laude) in May 1979, and a DVM (Cum Laude) in August 1980. Dr. Tatum is a member of the AVMA, TVMA and HCMA and has practiced small animal medicine since 1980. Dr. Tatum practices all aspects of small animal medicine with a special interest in reproduction, breeding and health of our performance animals.

Brittmoore Animal Hospital is one of the largest practices that provides freezing, storage and implantation of canine semen. Dr. Tatum is PennHIP certified and performs Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA) exams with a focus on promoting physical soundness of our working animals through responsible breeding practices.

Dr. Tatum has been involved with raising Golden Retrievers since 1975, and Labradors since 1990. She is a charter member of The Greater Houston Labrador Retriever Club and the Golden Retriever Club of America (GRCA). Dr. Tatum serves as President of the Lone Star Retriever Club and is active in several other retriever clubs.

Her Golden Retrievers participate in all venues … conformation, agility, service, gun dogs, hunt tests and field trials. Her Labradors are all performance and service animals. Dr. Tatum has produced numerous Breed Champions, MACH Agility dogs, Master Hunters, search and rescue, as well as Field Champions. She is the breeder of a National Field Champion. Dr. Tatum Maintains stud dogs, breeding bitches, and manages all types of breeding with her own bloodlines as well as for her clients at Brittmoore.

Dr. Tatum is also personally involved with training, conditioning and competing with her own dogs. She has been extraordinarily successful in achieving titles and qualifying at the national level.

Dr. Tatum is a licensed field trial judge and a conformation judge.

The demand for consultation with Dr. Tatum extends well beyond her home state of Texas. It is rare to find a veterinarian with such an active and extensive involvement in canine performance events. Her perspective as a veterinary practitioner, breeding specialist, performance competitor and judge is highly valued in the retriever community.


Bill Hillmann
Hawkeye Labradors
Hawkeye Media

Bill Hillmann was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he attended Milwaukee University School. Bill studied landscape architecture at Louisiana State University and the University of Wisconsin. He served in the Air Force at Clark AFB in the Philippine Islands.
Bill’s zest for a life of adventure and excitement, and his fascination with the achievement of excellence has inspired Bill to pursue a diverse range of professions. Bill perfected his skill as a photographer, which led to founding Sierra Graphics, an organization that specialized in commercial photography. Bill was the official photographer for the California Dressage Society and became most well known for photographing sailboat races on San Francisco Bay. It was during this time that Bill began to realize his passion for dog training.
His early dog training career in San Francisco centered around training problem dogs of all breeds - dogs that were either overly aggressive, destructive or noncompliant. This evolved into working with pointers and retrievers. In 1980 Bill and Mary founded Hawkeye Labradors, which was named after Bill's original San Francisco chase boat "Hawkeye" (the name derived from the Brownie Hawkeye camera). Since then Bill has been very successful training numerous Field Champions and Amateur Field Champions, and two Double Header Winners.
Bill has trained more High Point Derby Dogs than anyone in the history of American Field Trials:
• 1979 High Point Derby Dog -- FC/AFC Sunday Hawkeye
• 2002 High Point Derby Dog -- AFC Hawkeye’s Viking
Highest point yellow Lab retriever derby dog in the history of American trials
• 2003 High Point Derby Dog -- FC/NAFC Hawkeye’s Coast Guard
"Cutter" who is the 2008 National Amateur Winner, 2008 High Point Amateur Dog, and also received the Purina Award for the 2008 high point amateur dog
• 2005 High Point Amateur Dog -- FC Hawkeye’s Red, White & Blue
“Banner” went on to become 2006 High Point Open Dog as a 3-year old
• 2007 High Point Derby Dog -- FC Hawkeye’s Sea Wolf

And last, but far from least …

• FC/AFC Hawkeye’s Dandy with an accumulated 237 All Age Points was inducted to the Field Trial Hall of Fame

This is all in addition to making 40-plus Field Champions.

Bill wrote a retriever training manual, Training Retrievers for Field Trials, Hunt Tests, and Hunting, which is now in its third printing.

Bill and his wife, Mary, have produced 5 videos in an ongoing presentation of Bill’s philosophy and methods of building a balanced retriever. See his website for further details of his range of DVD’s. http://www.billhillmann.net


With each new video release, Bill’s reputation has grown outside of the American Field Trial Community. He has traveled throughout the United States giving seminars to clubs representing all retriever breeds and at all levels of performance.

In his other passion, Bill rides a motorcycle to remote locations to work on his current project, which is the "Mens Cookbook" - a journal of adventure, food, unique places and unusual people.

Bill and Mary live in Caldwell, Texas.


I am now looking for expressions of interest so that registration information can be sent and we can finalise the development of the seminar to reflect the aims and wished of the majority of attendees.

Please forward your expression of interest to me preferably via email to gareth@steamaticbendigo.net.au or via mobile 0418 482 342

Regards,

Gareth
Gareth Tawton
 
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Diane McCann » Fri 08 Mar 2013 7:12 pm

Wow Gareth, I reckon Siv must have typed that post! :shock:

Thank you for organising what sounds like a great learning experience
Diane
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Gareth Tawton » Sun 24 Mar 2013 8:28 pm

Hi All,

This seminar will definately go ahead on on the weekend of september 28-29 2013. I have interested parties from all over the country and I'm sure we will have more than enough numbers to go ahead. Mary and Bill intend to arrive in time to see the 2013 National. This way they will have seen an actual trial and be able to to fine tune the seminar around Australian trials.
If you have not already emailed your interest, please do so, as all correspondence will be via direct email.

Regards,

Gareth
Last edited by Gareth Tawton on Sun 07 Apr 2013 1:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Gareth Tawton
 
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Paula Davidson » Tue 26 Mar 2013 1:32 pm

i tried to respond via the email you listed, Gareth, but got the "Daemon" dead end reply. Maybe your InBox is full? Can you include me on the list for the Bill Hill lecture week end, please?
kind regards,
Paula Davidson
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Gareth Tawton » Tue 26 Mar 2013 8:20 pm

Hi Paula,

Yep I will pencil you in. Please retry so I have your email to forward finer details over the next few weeks. My email is working fine you might need to check your typing??? I have 30 odd replies already.

Regards,

Gareth
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Paula Davidson » Mon 01 Apr 2013 6:52 pm

I used the email you gave in your blurb as a direct link, and have done again, as I have no other email address for you,so here's hoping it works.
kind regards,
Paula
Cheers
Paula
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Gareth Tawton » Tue 11 Jun 2013 1:23 pm

Hi all,

Bill and Mary have booked their tickets down under. They will arrive in time to see the entire national then present their seminar the following weekend Sat 28 and Sunday 29 September.

We have 40 people booked in so places are running out. If you are planning to attend and have not emailed a confirmation to me please do so ASAP to ensure your spot.

For those already registered, that I have an email address for, I will be sending thru some finer details today. If you don't receive an email please contact me directly. 0418 482 342.

Regards,

Gareth Tawton
Gareth Tawton
 
Posts: 673
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Gareth Tawton » Tue 06 Aug 2013 12:25 pm

Hi all,

Planning is well underway for this seminar. We have attendees coming from all over Australia. For those that have registered and not yet confirmed your attendance via payment of your rego fee please attend to this soon as I need to confirm final numbers. If you have changed your mind and not yet let me know please do so as I would like to be able to fill those positions with someone else.

Regards,

Gareth
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Tony Rowland » Sun 29 Sep 2013 9:33 pm

hi all

Was it a good seminar ? Was there any thing new or different in the way of drills etc ?

tony
working with the grey ghost, can be like catching fly with chop stick''
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Trevor Stow » Mon 30 Sep 2013 5:52 pm

Tony

I thought that the senimar was excellent. It featured many drills new to most of us. Many of these drills and the handling of the dogs was directed at getting the maximum performance from the dogs. It taught us how to rev a dog up (using a bumper) before training, how to have the dog run straight lines over both land and water and how to significantly improve a dogs marking ability using large orange bumpers. Some of us knew some of the drills but nobody knew all of them and I am sure that we all benefited enormously from the seminar. I am looking forward to studying his video in detail and putting his training methods into practice. I heard nothing but praise during the weekend.

I congradulate Gareth on taking the substantial financial risk to put on this show and also for being a great host for the weekend. I think that he gave up a weeks work to run it. I hope that we get another trainer of this quality visit Australia sometime in the future.

Cheers

Trevor
Trevor Stow
 

Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Diane McCann » Mon 30 Sep 2013 8:17 pm

I agree with Trevor, it was great to have the opportunity to learn from someone as experienced as Bill without having to leave the country. I will certainly be putting many of the concepts that I learned into practice with my dogs. Thank you Gareth
Diane
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Gareth Tawton » Tue 01 Oct 2013 5:25 pm

HI Tony,

from a personal point of view the weekend was a huge success with handlers attending from all over the country. We even had a couple of FGA members drop in as they had already purchased copies of some of Bills training DVDs. It was also great to see Rick Johnson who has not trialled in a few years. Maybe we can get him back to trialling.

Bill was able to talk to his contacts at Avery and as a result John Lawton at specialised dog accessories was able to "sponsor" part of the event by supply dummies which where given away to some of the participants at the end of the weekend. Thanks for your support John.

Bill started the weekend by defining positive reinforcement training from a scientific point of view (this included a description from a doctorate in operate condition) and then proceeded to demonstrate why his program and methods are totally based on positive reinforcement. I think this was eye opening to many.

We learnt the value of the Y Drill for building and improving marking, the importance of maintaining a high drive and excitement level while training plus a bunch of handling drills including the 7 bumper lining drill, star drill and a 3 bumper drill used to teach the dog to turn its head and not its body. Great stuff. I'm sure we will never forget the use of walk out blinds to build momentum, and sending a dog back to "home plate" as a way of training more effectively on your own.

Having Mary Tatum, a leading vet specialising in breeding and canine athletes, attend was a real bonus. We were able to get her thoughts on a range of topics including picking both a puppy and breeder as well as some general advice on building a blood line.

I did a quick count and think at least 16 different dogs covering 3 breeds both sexes and a range of ages from 7 months to 9 or so years where used to demonstrate or try some of the various drills. These dogs came from SA, Vic, ACT, Qld, NSW and WA

The property owner of a paddock we used came down for the afternoon to watch. She was amazed by our dogs and thought it was a wonderful afternoon out watching such happy retrievers doing what they love to do best.

Siobhan and I really appreciate how many people have personally contacted us to say thanks. It made the whole weekend worthwhile and we look forward to doing something similar in the future.

Regards,

Gareth
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Tony Rowland » Tue 01 Oct 2013 9:13 pm

Gareth

It good to see that bills seminar went well , it must feel good to get feed back from people after the hugely negative response
from others. I heard about bill first dvd online when it was released and found it to be very different to other dvd's that I had purchased.
People coming into the game could do them self a favour and look a this dvd. Hope your success with this seminar will encourage you to
do it again next time I may even be back training a dog.

tony
working with the grey ghost, can be like catching fly with chop stick''
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Wendy Michalk » Mon 07 Oct 2013 7:47 pm

Gareth,
finally home in Bundaberg, thank you for introducing me to the Bill Hillman method of training . The seminar was great, in travelling 14 hours on my own I found myself going over much of what I picked up over the weekend. What did I learn apart from the multitude of new drills? in a phrase let my dog have more fun when training & trialling, praise her more, teach wiser & more precisely . Bills training methods in my opinion are to retrieving what clicker training is to obedience gentle forgiving & extremely positive. I trialled this weekend & I'm sure both Billie & I had more fun thanks Gareth thanks Bill Hillman.
cheers Wendy
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Re: US Pro Trainer - Seminar in Australia

Postby Tony Rowland » Thu 17 Oct 2013 4:22 pm

Gareth

Could you explain what a star drill is:?

tony
working with the grey ghost, can be like catching fly with chop stick''
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