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The job of the retriever

PostPosted: Wed 04 Nov 2020 9:00 am
by Bob Pickworth
I am reigniting my love affair with Labs, hunting and NSRT after many years of recovering from near fatal adventures, child rearing and family stuff -(Many and ongoing thanks to Peter Betteridge for your mentorship - you’re a legend mate and Russel Best for letting me have a very motivated pup, who just wants to please).
Having reactivated my account and reading through many of the past articles, responses and replies, especially relating to judging and training and as a (future) competitor / trialler, I ask myself “will I be running my dog in a test of its intended purpose, or am I going to train to run under a judge whose runs may be testing other than the dogs original and intended purpose”.

Karl’s article is most thought provoking with relevant and purposive comments. It got me thinking,”should my dog be tested in a trial as a true reflection of how it works in the field / marshes”. My pup is only 14 weeks and the fundamentals being laid down now and developed later, will very much determine future outcomes.

I guess this is an age old question, but one worth my reflection at this stage in my pups training.


“As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another” Pr 27:17

Re: The job of the retriever

PostPosted: Thu 05 Nov 2020 12:12 pm
by Rick Johnston
G’day Bob
Be people way better qualified than me to help so I’ll just say.
Teach your pup to have fun fetching stuff
And you have fun teaching it to fetch stuff.
That’s what I do nowadays
All the rest is to complicated for me to get my head around.
Rick