You could say today sure was an interesting day. It started off with an early wake up to get all the dog chores done before we had to roll out for the trial we were attending today, tomorrow, and Sunday. Well, I got my chores done and left my dog Kirby out in the airing yard because I knew it would be a long day of being in his dog box on the truck and I was just letting him stretch out for a while. Well, after about ten minutes of him being out I hear a huge eruption of two dogs fighting. Kirby, and another male, got in to where there were four females in heat. With tensions at a high Kirby and the male got into a fight and Kirby, in simple terms, got his butt whooped. He came out with a puncture wound in his right lip, a small puncture wound on his muzzle, and a few small cuts around his left eye. His eye was OK, just around the eye was skinned up.

Well, after that was out of the way we finally arrived at the trial in Thomasville Georgia. The first series was a triple with a retired gun on the left and the right bird was a live flyer. With Kirby's adrenaline still pumping from his scuffle earlier in the day he proceeded to "creep" out on me approximately 6 feet or so. During this time birds were being thrown and Kirby was focused on one bird and one bird only. When it was time to send him he picked up the first bird clean. Time to send for the flyer station. This is where it all went to hell. Kirby had no idea where this bird landed and he backsided the gun station and hunted for what seemed like ten minutes! Finally he dug the bird out and we were on to bird number 3. Surprisingly Kirby did very well on this bird, picking it up after only a small hunt.

So after the first series in today's Qualifying stake I was feeling pretty low. Thinking I lost Kirby due to a dumb mistake I was ready to throw in the towel. Luckily, I was called back to run the second series land blind. With a near flawless, 3 whistle, blind we were on to the third series! The third series was a long water blind that crossed one point in the water, and the dog had to swim past another point. Kirby, again, ran a great blind. Working as a great teammate taking the casts I presented to him perfectly.

Now tomorrow is the real test. The fourth and final series! Kirby has to knock it out of the park to make up for his stumble in today's first series and we also need some help from some other dogs botching this last set up. Kirby was the youngest of 36 dogs to start the qualifying today. Now he is one of 13 left in the trial. I am ecstatic to be in the 4th series of our first ever qualifying. The only thing that will make it better is a red or blue ribbon!

This is a pretty busy week for us here in SW Georgia. We have a field trial competition coming up this weekend. It is a double derby/qualifying. The derby is a stake for dogs under 24 months old. In the derby stake you see the best young dogs in the country competing. The derby is typically made up of four series. The first series is a land double. The second series is also a land double. The third series we move to water and run a water double. Finally the fourth and final series, if you are good enough to make it there, you will run a land/water double, or a water double. The derby is designed to test pin point marking and natural ability of young dogs. The straightest line usually wins.

The qualifying stake is the next level up from derbys. In the qualifying stake the trial consists of four series. The first series is typically a land triple. The second series is a land blind. The third series is the water blind. And the fourth series is your water marks. Usually a triple again. Qualifying stakes are for more advanced dogs that have received more training. If you win or get second place in a qualifying stake you achieve being able to call your dog Qualified All Age or QAA. It takes a special dog to get to this level.

We head to Thomasville Georgia on Friday January 30th for the start of the trial. Since it is a double there will be two qualify stakes, and two derby stakes.

In conjunction with our marks this week we ran multiple blinds. A blind is when there is a planted bird, or bumper, at a location unknown to the dog. As the handler it is your responsibility to get the dog to the destination. Blinds are a true test of obedience and extensive training. To do this you give the dog cue words such as, "dead", "good, right there" and to send the dog you give the command "BACK". To accomplish running a good blind it is your job to keep the dog as close to the line to the blind as possible. This is done with giving a whistle blast and a cast. A cast is a directional change you indicate to the dog with your hands. Some people also call casts or blinds hand signals. There are 6 main casts you can give a dog. A left or right back is straight up above your head. This is to get the dog to correct his line very minimally. The next casts are angled backs. Represented with a 45 degree angle between a straight back and an over. This gets the dog to make and even larger change in his direction. Finally, there is the over cast. This is a cast that is straight out to your side and the dog should make a 90 degree change in his course to the blind. Here are a few examples of blinds we ran this week.

This first blind was pretty straight forward. It was approximately 100 yards through a couple of cover changes. My dog Kirby lined this blind and didn't have to take and directional casts to change his initial line.

This next set of blinds were a little more difficult. There was a side hill on the right hand blind working as a factor against the dogs and they had to fight against it so they didn't cave one direction or the other. The left side blind was down through a valley, and back up the hill then drive past the top, over a road, and through a field to get to the end. Kirby took 2 casts on the right hand bird, and one cast on the left hand blind. Very good work out of him this day.

This set of three blinds was tough on some of the dogs. The right and middle blind had what we call a "key hole" slot to run through. The right blind had two bushes on each side of the line the dogs had to go through. This blind was about 75 yards. Kirby took one cast. The middle blind was through a key hole in 4 small trees. It was about 125 yards. Kirby lined this blind. The last blind was an angle across a road and tight to a round hay bale on the right. This was a 250 yard blind. Kirby also lined this blind.

This weeks training we ran big set ups with the marks being pretty tight. What I personally worked on with Kirby was an issue we call head swinging. When there is a double being thrown, one bird, then another bird from a different location, Kirby has the issue of looking away from the first bird before it lands and he gets a good mark on it. He "head swings" over to the other gun station to try to see that bird right away. To correct this I really reinforced my obedience standards and used a "sit" momentary stimulation with the electronic collar "sit" and made him stare at the first bird for a long time before I moved him to look at the second bird. Here are some of our set ups.


In this set up the left hand gun was situated so the left hand bird was about 125 yards away, the middle bird was 115 yards, and the right hand gun threw the right bird at a distance of approx 200 yards. The order was, middle bird as a single. The right hand bird thrown as a memory bird in a double with the left hand bird being the "go" bird. The key here was to get the dog to run through an old fall area and keep on going to the long gun station to pick up the long bird.

This next set up was a water set up we ran. The far left bird was about 225 yard. The middle bird 150 yards, and the right hand bird 100 yards. The middle and right birds were thrown as a double. The right hand bird being the go bird. The goal of the right hand bird was to get the dog to swim parallel to a peninsula in the water and drive up the hill to pick up the bird. The middle bird, the memory bird, the goal was for the dog to swim past a small point and take an angle entry and exit of the water and not to cheat the water by running the bank. The long left bird was pretty simple and the dog and to run down a hill through a valley and back up to get the bird. Most young dogs fade with the terrain and get lost and don't pick the bird up without help.

Introduction Post

This blog will consist of retriever field trialing, and hunt testing setups, and techniques. I will be posting our training setups we run in the field, and the yard work we do around the kennel. There will be instructional pictures that show what each setup is and what the goal of the setup to be achieved was. The majority of the posts will be pertaining to my two personal dogs, Kirby, and River. Kirby is at the finished level so he will be my example of the big dog work, and River is 4.5 months old so you will get a good picture on how to raise a dog from puppy stages to the end goal of being, what we refer to in the game of being a "big dog". I also will try to post a tip from the trainer at least 3 times a week pertaining to companion/pet animal training.

Due to timing of our training schedules the majority of my posts will come late at night, or early in the mornings. If there are questions for me to field please be patient and allow some time before I post a response. I will try to get back to any inquiries as soon as I can.

Christopher Nemitz