Hi Daryl
Welcome to trialing. I would suggest a few things to get started:
- Join a club: the Central Highlands Working Gundog Club in Vic is very active and has an excellent and informative newsletter which will give you details of trials and other events, like training days. Noel and Kate Eltringham will be able to give you info on joining. Their details are on the email directory on
http://www.australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au
- go along to trials and introduce yourself to people and watch how the whole thing works. There are a few trials left in Vic this year, and then there are championships (18-19 Oct in Vic). The CHWGC Easter trial is huge and has plenty of action from many of the best dogs in the country.
- check out the excellent training resources on the web, some of which have been listed in earlier posts to this forum.
- consider buying some videos and books. I found Tom Quinn's Working Retrievers to be a good book. Also the Water Dog video is excellent.
I look forward to meeting you at a trial sometime soon.
Cheers, Jason.