The Spotted Devil Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 (edited) Hello there ! I'm newish to DOL, and to Australia (long story). I just moved to Melbourne with my Lab, and would like to find out about any field training days (or even trials) in Victoria. My Labbie is currently in quarantine, and is the US-style field type. We mostly did obedience work in the US, but did a tiny bit of fieldwork. He completely adored it, and it was great for me to watch. I thought it would be fun to do a bit more here. Can you point me towards resources for Victoria ? Thanks ! Fantastic! Welcome Where are you based? You have just missed the training days unfortunately but there is a 3 day trial at Easter - you would be most welcome :) Our retrieving forum is here: http://www.australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au/bb/viewforum.php?f=6 2013 trials: http://www.australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au/bb/viewforum.php?f=25 ETA: Our trialling system is different to the US. All Gundogs are eligible to compete in retrieving trials (hence my little ESS!) - Novice, Restricted and All Age are the 3 levels. No hunt tests. Retrieving ability tests on dummies at Novice and Open levels. Field trials suitable for you are Spaniel and Retriever trials. Hope that helps :) Edited March 11, 2013 by The Spotted Devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptolomy Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 (edited) I attended the WA Retrieving Club's first training day yesterday. I took Millie along this time, to see what she remembered as there is a RATG coming up. It was HOT. Thankfully we didn't have the sun beating down on us as it was overcast, but it was painfully muggy. I went along too, decided at the last minute to take Naughty Nina and being a newbie we were put in the "I don't know anything class" At the end of the session she was retrieving bumpers 40m away sitting in front and delivering to hand . Livertreats is also doing a fantastic job with Strauss, who also had his first go outside of our normal training venue. Need to do some more water work with him, but its so nice watching your dog happily work for somebody else and not bother about where you are or what you are doing. Thanks Livertreats Edited March 11, 2013 by Ptolomy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 I attended the WA Retrieving Club's first training day yesterday. I took Millie along this time, to see what she remembered as there is a RATG coming up. It was HOT. Thankfully we didn't have the sun beating down on us as it was overcast, but it was painfully muggy. I went along too, decided at the last minute to take Naughty Nina and being a newbie we were put in the "I don't know anything class" At the end of the session she was retrieving bumpers 40m away sitting in front and delivering to hand . Ha! We'll have you hooked yet :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RallyValley Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 I have been working on some things at home, sadly can't make the training days as I am working but I'm very glad to read how well the red kids have done! I'm fairly sure knowing my luck though Zora will come into season as soon as it cools down and then by the time her litter is grown the season will be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 Yes, it's hard to fit everything in....not to mention life, work, study....... :laugh: Hot again today so took the dogs to the water in the morning. It turns out Em CAN do memory marks I suspect that it was poor handling on my part that confused her earlier in the week. She seems to have a strong understanding of the verbals I use e.g. watch, leave, blind, yes, back, ok etc. When I stuff them up she has no idea what I'm on about Ran a few backs/lefts/rights through reeds into water - the tough bit was dealing with her impatience :laugh: Starting to stretch the distance between Em/me and Em/water entry. Finished off with a half T drill in the water: send for long dummy, send for long dummy/stop/cast right to thrown dummy, send for long dummy. I think she's developing an understanding of a few things based on her response.....when I stopped her and threw the dummy to the right she had a good look at it then purposely turned around and kept swimming for the long dummy - I suspect that is due to all the two bird work we've been doing so rather pleased actually. Stopped her again and cast her right. She took the cast, picked up the dummy that had floated right out of my view behind the reeds and then chose to swim all the way back and push through some moderate reed cover instead of taking the easy exit onto land that was right in front of her. Really pleased with that effort!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livertreats Posted March 12, 2013 Share Posted March 12, 2013 I attended the WA Retrieving Club's first training day yesterday. I took Millie along this time, to see what she remembered as there is a RATG coming up. It was HOT. Thankfully we didn't have the sun beating down on us as it was overcast, but it was painfully muggy. I went along too, decided at the last minute to take Naughty Nina and being a newbie we were put in the "I don't know anything class" At the end of the session she was retrieving bumpers 40m away sitting in front and delivering to hand . Livertreats is also doing a fantastic job with Strauss, who also had his first go outside of our normal training venue. Need to do some more water work with him, but its so nice watching your dog happily work for somebody else and not bother about where you are or what you are doing. Thanks Livertreats We both enjoyed our morning and he is such a nice easy boy, put in some nice work to say we were somewhere completely different and his Mum no where in sight. Also different sort of terrain with bushes to go around and like all the other it was like hitting a brick wall, but helped him get his dummy but did a fabulous job on the second run. Just a case of getting into different areas so hopefully now the weather is cooling off it stays cool. We even practiced our (your Ptolomy) heelwork and a recall which were fabulous. When I got home it was like being run over by two Dyson vac's. I think my back has recovered form all the bending down that I am not use to. Thank you Ptolomy for letting me play with your special red boy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fbaudry Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Hello guys! sorry for highjacking this thread..... I am trying to find out more about field training and retrieving (I own a cocker spaniel) and have no idea which clubs in the Sydney area run that sort of training. We train in obedience at the Eastern suburbs club, but they were not able to point us anywhere but to DogsNSW, whose website isn't very useful... Thanks in advance Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubyroo Posted March 13, 2013 Share Posted March 13, 2013 Hello guys! sorry for highjacking this thread..... I am trying to find out more about field training and retrieving (I own a cocker spaniel) and have no idea which clubs in the Sydney area run that sort of training. We train in obedience at the Eastern suburbs club, but they were not able to point us anywhere but to DogsNSW, whose website isn't very useful... Thanks in advance Hi fbaudry, keep checking here for trials and training sessions. http://www.australianworkingretrievercentral.org.au/bb/ Come along and hopefully you can meet someone near where u live(?) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted March 15, 2013 Share Posted March 15, 2013 Welcome fbaudry Hope you have the chance to hook up with someone! On Wednesday I did some agility training and, on, Thursday, some brief weaving in the morning and some drills in the evening for Em before taking a class.....clearly we've been neglecting drills a bit lately as it took a bit to get her head around them. Started with single T but she was fixated on the left and right pile so walked her up a bit closer to send. Extended her out again and mixed up sends, stops and casting back, left and right. Much better by the end of it. Then did walking baseball with 3 dummies which always gets her thinking! Much harder to guess which one you're going to be sent for next :D Today I was busy, busy, busy so just took her down the local lake to do some anti-cheating work with game. Very populated area (dogs, cyclists, walkers etc) and not a lot of useful training ground but, if you're creative, you can find little pockets to test concepts. Em was so much better - she could easily see where I was walking around (a metre from her) but chose to take straight lines on the call throughs on the creek. In the pond I set up a very cheaty line across water and called her through both ways before sending as a blind. She was really good - one reminder going out and coming back was all it took and she took those reminders with good grace :D Then a couple of hand thrown marks into the pond - she smashed through the cover and attacked the entry really well. I extended the line for delivery and she sprinted back no problem. Not a heavy session but it was good to see she remembered what we had practiced during the week. Until tomorrow anyway :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 (edited) Well! What a LOVELY day out Em and I, along with half a dozen women handlers and a variety of dogs (GSP, Lab, Golden, Flat Coat, LH Wei), took part in a retrieving demonstration as part of The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Fowles winery hosted "Are you Game? for a Real Food, Real Wine Lunch…?" - whilst the guests downed canapés and champagne we showed them how "Ladies Shoot Their Lunch", which is one of their wine labels. Had a nice drive out to the property with another handler and we had the opportunity to run our dogs on the retrieves. Em did a lovely across water retrieve (very cheaty!) but everyone agreed her land mark would be more spectacular for the onlookers with those flapping ears :laugh: I ran her on a hot blind just for training purposes and she was good - straight out and straight back so more confidence building. As 12pm approached the clouds were looking ominous but we had quite a crowd watching and our MC did a super job of explaining what was happening. We kept it quite simple as 30 minutes was all we had but the dogs all did us proud. As predicted, Em's ears were popular as was her 3 foot high flip into heel position after delivering to hand. Slightly excited apparently As we walked back to her stake I had her heeling both sides, doing spins, sits, drops and nose touches. The easy stuff looks so much much more impressive :laugh: She had lots of pats through the fence...,just as well the barrier was there or else there would have been muddy paw prints on tweed The winery provided us with a lovely lunch and a couple of bottles of wine. Delicious! Em on Instagram: Edited March 16, 2013 by The Spotted Devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyBlue Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Well! What a LOVELY day out Em and I, along with half a dozen women handlers and a variety of dogs (GSP, Lab, Golden, Flat Coat, LH Wei), took part in a retrieving demonstration as part of The Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Fowels winery hosted "Are you Game? for a Real Food, Real Wine Lunch…?" - whilst the guests downed canapés and champagne we showed them how "Ladies Shoot Their Lunch", which is one of their wine labels. Had a nice drive out to the property with another handler and we had the opportunity to run our dogs on the retrieves. Em did a lovely across water retrieve (very cheaty!) but everyone agreed her land mark would be more spectacular for the onlookers with those flapping ears :laugh: I ran her on a hot blind just for training purposes and she was good - straight out and straight back so more confidence building. As 12pm approached the clouds were looking ominous but we had quite a crowd watching and our MC did a super job of explaining what was happening. We kept it quite simple as 30 minutes was all we had but the dogs all did us proud. As predicted, Em's ears were popular as was her 3 foot high flip into heel position after delivering to hand. Slightly excited apparently As we walked back to her stake I had her heeling both sides, doing spins, sits, drops and nose touches. The easy stuff looks so much much more impressive :laugh: She had lots of pats through the fence...,just as well the barrier was there or else there would have been muddy paw prints on tweed The winery provided us with a lovely lunch and a couple of bottles of wine. Delicious! Em on Instagram: Ah - that explains the title on the pictures on fb. *goes back to check for action shots of Em*... no joy...bummer I was looking forward to some flying ears Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) Ask and ye shall receive RB :D Thanks to Chris Van Eeklen (again!) for his fabulous photography skills.....even if he did enjoy making me think that Em broke More photos on Facebook:Ladies Who Shoot Their Lunch Edited March 17, 2013 by The Spotted Devil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ptolomy Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Great photos TSD I would never take you on you look like you know what you are doing with that gun! Our second training day and Naughty Nina was moved from the "I don't know anything class" to the "I know just a little bit class". Our first retrieve was much longer than she has ever done before and she took a straight line, found it, brought it back, sat in front and delivered to hand. But then we fell in a hole and I discovered she will only bring back my dummy and nobody elses and also water is ok as long as it only goes up to her belly and she can keep all 4 feet on the ground. The dancing and leaping that goes on as she wills the dummy to come closer is a crack up - so hoping to get that on video for next week. I am sure Liver Treats will report on her little red borrowed dog - who I would steal if he wasn't already mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyStar Posted March 17, 2013 Author Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) Millie's second training day too and wow, much improved from last week! Last week there was many a good smell about, so she got very distracted. Today her marking was great, she was straight out to pick it up and straight back to deliver to hand. AND she didn't break, happy dance! (she's a bit keen this one and likes to break). She enjoyed her water runs and was starting to reach me before shaking, so we're progressing, slowly! She was keen all morning and could have kept going with her, except I had Ruby waiting in the car for a turn. Only did a few water throws with Ruby to work on her water deliveries. All I can report there, is, "getting there" Took Ruby out yesterday for her first real piece of training in many, many months. The area was great and had some lovely water. She got off to a shaky start with deciding on her second retrieve to literally spit the dummy, then wade up and down the shallow water playing instead. Big moment. We did a few more in the water and she kept her focus this time. Moved to some land marks in a grassy paddock. I ran it as 2 single marks first. The second she overran by quite a bit, but worked her way back and picked it up. Gave her a rest then came back and tackled the same one as a double mark (but pick up in reverse order to the singles). Sent the first one up as a frozen bird in a sock, leave it, watched the next to our right, a plain dummy, send. This is the one she overran the first time, but she nailed it this time. Sent her for the second which was the birdie, nailed it too! Called it a day as we ended on a good note :D Can't do too much with her because she starts to lose focus and switches off, which is the highlight of frustration in our training. That and the bird issue :p Edited March 17, 2013 by RubyStar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyBlue Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) Awesome - Em's very photogenic :) Lunch looked tasty too... Edited March 17, 2013 by RubyBlue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Livertreats Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 (edited) WOW for Strauss he did extremely well today. All different terrain today, little gully to get over, bit longer cover but not put off by any of it. First run I thought he might have been put off line by the gully, but no nice straight line, little to the right, maybe a metre past but was quick to bring himself back and hunted (a first) as it had landed in some taller grass but used his nose and found his dummy. 2nd run he just nailed it, leaped over the little gully going and came down into it on the way back. Entry to the water was not easy, especially as he has never had to go in reeds to get to the water before (or anything else for that matter), nice swim there and back. 2nd water run he choose to go in the water a different way with very thick reeds, a longer retriever with a nice powerful swim there and back and through the thick stuff to get back to me. Just more work on the delivery from water, but going extremely well. Getting much more confident with the swimming as well. Good boy Strauss, I sure am enjoying playing with my little borrowed red dog. He is coming along very well for the limited amount of training he has had. Rebel said it was ok when I got home, as he could smell his presant I had for him in the bag, and yep had bit of training with his bird.:laugh: Edited March 17, 2013 by Livertreats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayreovi Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Awesome work everyone! Makes me want to get more involved in the sport, just need to find the time and fit it in.....somehow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Spotted Devil Posted March 17, 2013 Share Posted March 17, 2013 Great photos TSD I would never take you on you look like you know what you are doing with that gun! Our second training day and Naughty Nina was moved from the "I don't know anything class" to the "I know just a little bit class". Our first retrieve was much longer than she has ever done before and she took a straight line, found it, brought it back, sat in front and delivered to hand. But then we fell in a hole and I discovered she will only bring back my dummy and nobody elses and also water is ok as long as it only goes up to her belly and she can keep all 4 feet on the ground. The dancing and leaping that goes on as she wills the dummy to come closer is a crack up - so hoping to get that on video for next week. I am sure Liver Treats will report on her little red borrowed dog - who I would steal if he wasn't already mine Ptolomy, I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn so that's probably a wise idea :laugh: Glad to hear you went back for more fun! Nina sounds like a real cutey pie....I'm sure she'll get the hang of the swimming stuff but video before she does so would be priceless :D Livertreats sounds like she is having a LOT of fun with her red dog......as is Strauss by the sounds of it! Millie's second training day too and wow, much improved from last week! Last week there was many a good smell about, so she got very distracted. Today her marking was great, she was straight out to pick it up and straight back to deliver to hand. AND she didn't break, happy dance! (she's a bit keen this one and likes to break). She enjoyed her water runs and was starting to reach me before shaking, so we're progressing, slowly! She was keen all morning and could have kept going with her, except I had Ruby waiting in the car for a turn. Only did a few water throws with Ruby to work on her water deliveries. All I can report there, is, "getting there" Took Ruby out yesterday for her first real piece of training in many, many months. The area was great and had some lovely water. She got off to a shaky start with deciding on her second retrieve to literally spit the dummy, then wade up and down the shallow water playing instead. Big moment. We did a few more in the water and she kept her focus this time. Moved to some land marks in a grassy paddock. I ran it as 2 single marks first. The second she overran by quite a bit, but worked her way back and picked it up. Gave her a rest then came back and tackled the same one as a double mark (but pick up in reverse order to the singles). Sent the first one up as a frozen bird in a sock, leave it, watched the next to our right, a plain dummy, send. This is the one she overran the first time, but she nailed it this time. Sent her for the second which was the birdie, nailed it too! Called it a day as we ended on a good note :D Can't do too much with her because she starts to lose focus and switches off, which is the highlight of frustration in our training. That and the bird issue :p Great work with both of them RS Sounds like practice and exposure is just the ticket :) Awesome - Em's very photogenic :) Lunch looked tasty too... Lunch was GOOD! We didn't have the full hot meal but a really lovely English style picnic with egg and bacon pie, balsamic tomatoes, goats fetta, cold cuts, bread and several other delicious things. Not to mention the glass or 2 of riesling :D I like the photo on Facebook of Em with her tongue sticking out just a tiny bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubyroo Posted March 18, 2013 Share Posted March 18, 2013 What a wonderful experience TSD, wine and dog stuff! Sounds like my perfect day! It's really nice to see a few of you really starting to get into training, sounds like millies witch is turned on rs. it was only 4 degrees this morning, I'm so excited we can start to get into the long grass and do some long/distance work. (Although there is still a lot more yard work to b done) I set the bumper boy up and did a few long marks, he was awesome. Then I put a bird out and he spat it at my feet? What's with that, never spat anything at me before. Oh we'll lots of sessions with that this week as we have our irate trial for the season this weekend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubyStar Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 sounds like millies witch is turned on rs. I know that is likely an autocorrect mishap, but I think that is truer than what you meant to type Good luck with your trial this weekend!! Be sure to check in and let us know how you went :D I forgot to say, great photos TSD! I clicked on the facebook link but only saw maybe 1 of Em in there? Maybe I was seeing the wrong thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now