Lough Bawn Working Test.

Lough Bawn has long been held in the hearts of all who compete with retrievers in Ireland. Nobody can quite recall exactly when they started to be run there but almost everyone has had the experience of running their dog there. I'm not around long enough to remember the original hostess Mrs Tennyson, by all accounts, she was quite a character but the house still holds a certain charm that beckons you in and invites you to relax and enjoy its surroundings. It sits comfortably overlooking the lake with lawns spreading out like a giant picnic blanket before it. The current hosts have continued the family tradition of going to extraordinary lengths of making all who organise and attend the event feel most welcome. This is helped by the congenial atmosphere which the secretary, Mrs Jean Johnston, and her very capable committee provide.
Today I was again running two dogs. Mossy in preliminary and novice and then Bertie in the afternoon advanced test.The grounds provide a range of cover and landscape but are compact, which makes for good viewing from the gallery and ease of movement from one test to the next.
The first test in preliminary consisted of a two dog walk up with a single seen. Mossy did this test well scoring 30/30. Next a single mark into cover with shot fired. He scored 18/20. Finally onto the water again a single seen for which he scored 16/20. Total score 64/70 was not enough to put him in the ribbons. On to novice and his first retrieve here was a single mark into cover with shot, the distance of course longer than in preliminary. The next retrieve a four dog walk up and single seen. Now, one of Mossy's problems last year was unsteadiness in line. This was his first opportunity to sit in line with four dogs and he was last dog up. I am relieved to say he sat quietly and steadily throughout. He needed handling on both retrieves in novice which would again knock him out of the top placings.
Lunchtime gave me the chance to take Uisce to the lake. It was a beautiful warm afternoon and she entered the water of her own accord and swam around like a little otter. The working tests have been wonderful oppurtunities for her to mix and meet all sorts of people and dogs and I can see her growing in confidence each time I bring her out.
After all the practice I did with Bertie over the last two weeks with jumps and marking sods law neither featured in yesterday's working test!  This was a test which required precise and experienced handling.  Poor handling meant that dogs over-ran and needed to be handled at length to the required area. This in turn made the dogs' run look clumsy and unstylish.
The first test Bertie ran was a long single blind uphill into woodland. No shot but a bolting rabbit on return. There was no clear or straight track and although the handler could clearly see the patch underneath the tree where the dummy was laid it would be easy to lose the dog in the heavy cover en route to the area. Bertie succeeded in spite of my overzealous whistling. In hindsight I should have let him take his own line until parallel with the dummy then cast him either left or right. This was a mistake I repeated again at the water. Instead of trusting my dog to enter the water I fought against him and pushed him back along the bank where he lost confidence and momentum. The result of which meant walking down to the water and sending him from the bank. When I asked two of the judges afterwards what I should have done both agreed that his earlier water entry would have been their course of action. My dog listened to each command I gave, however, in their opinion, I was giving a combination of incorrect hand signals and commands.

In summary, Lough Bawn delivered on location, hospitality, and patient judges. I came away though feeling through my inadequate handling and my failure to trust my dog more, that I let him down and for the first time felt truly out of my depth when competing against more experienced handlers.

Challenges of keeping conditon perfect for show and working tests.

June.
We are now in the height of the Summer Working test/Show season. Each weekend brings either one or the other with some weekends bringing both.
Keeping condition on dogs at this point in the season is one of the most challenging things , I find, for a dog doing both disciplines. The early months of roadwork and sea swimming have laid down a solid base of condition and now its simply a matter of maintenence. The rigours of training, however, can take its toll on a dog and if not watched for carefully can leave them too 'light' for the show ring.
It is important that condition is not mistaken for simply adding weight, something which should never occur in an active working gundog.Personally, I find the most effective way of keeping and holding condition is to increase protein percentage in their food without increasing volume. I  also like to add plenty of oil in their food to keep skin and coat in peak condition. This system seems to work for me as, so far, none of my dogs have broken down through injury either through hunting season or the Summer circuit.
In addition to daily assessment of their physical condition there is ongoing work to progress their gundog training. Each working test is used as a marker with which to pin point areas that need to be worked on in training
My plans for the boys , Bertie and Mossy are progressing as outlined earlier in the year. I removed Mossy from the show ring in Ireland , for this season,to concentrate on his gundog training and am campaigning Bertie in the ring .At present Bertie has three green stars from three shows towards his show champion title. He will need another four to complete which I expect him to achieve before the start of shooting season..
Mossy has competed in two working tests and has been unlucky not to be in the ribbons. Competition is so tight at prelim and novice levels that it takes a near faultless performance to finish in the top four and at the moment he needs tidying up on his presentation.
The next two weeks will be extremely busy. Another working test to attend this coming weekend then final preparations for our next trip to the UK. This time to compete at East of England champ show on Saturday and the Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club Champ show on the Sunday. We will be travelling with four chessies and puppy. Chester is returning to the showring following a spell in semi retirement. He will be competing at East of England and the Club show with plans to return in August to attend Welsh kennel Club.
After an intensive morning training, last Sunday , on Lough Ennell I thought it would be nice to take a photo of some of the silverware and rossettes which they have gathered in the last year.

  

Midland Retriever working Test where patience is beginning to reap rewards..

A lazy June morning was unfolding as I headed West to the Midland Retriever Working Test. Cows chewing the cud in buttercup meadows, a cloudless blue sky and not a whisper of a breeze. All boded well for a perfect day.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the Summer circuit of working tests is that they are generally held in the most hidden places of Ireland. Off the beaten track and down country lanes to places only the locals know of. Today was one of those days. For most of my life I have passed through Mullingar on my way to the West. I never imagined such a jewel as Lough Ennell was practically on my doorstep, less than an hour from my home.
Today I had travelled with four chesapeakes. I was competing with Mossy in Novice and Bertie in Advanced and had also taken Uisce along for socialisation and Winnie as company. I arrived into the grounds early enough to take the girls and Bertie for a long walk before the competition began. It gave Uisce the opportunity to explore waterfalls for the first time, meet an array of dogs and people of all sorts and sizes as the venue Belvedere House is open to the public and the sunny day had brought forth families, runners and dogs in abundance. She loved it and was a tired, happy puppy when I put her back in the trailer to focus on Mossy.

I have long given up getting nervous before a working test. It's pointless. I have no control over the type of tests set up by the judges. I know exactly what stage and level my own dogs are at in their training and I use working tests as a method of challenging them and seeing what else needs to be worked on. If we are lucky enough to bring home a ribbon its a bonus, but my main focus is how my own dog handles the challenge of a difficult retrieve in relation to how I have trained him. The type of tests I enjoy most are the ones where some thought and imagination has gone into the set up. This stretches all dogs and, I feel, if my dogs get through them, win, lose or draw they have done a good job.
The first test in novice was a long single mark with a jump. A two dog line up. A nice way to settle young dogs in line. I had only bought a roll of the famous orange barrier tape last week and had put the dogs over it once. So I suspected Mossy may run the fence as it was easy for him to see a way round. He did, but I was happy he ran the distance to the mark, showing he has overcome a problem he had last year of marking short. Today was not the day to school him about jumps, that was for the next training session. On to the water test. Again a single long mark approximately one hundred meters in open water. The temptation here, for most dogs, was to run the bank for which they would lose marks. Mossy completed the long swim with ease. On then to the last retrieve, a mark from cover. Dogs were taken in pairs and the retrieve was up a hill into heavy bushes. He sat steady, and quietly went when asked, just needed handling onto it.
Advanced tests started in the afternoon. This was Bertie's first working test since I had taken him to the mock walk up in Enniskillen last March. I was delighted to find that in the walk up on the first retrieve he settled in the lineup and sat quietly until sent. First test completed with ease. The second retrieve was a tricky blind in deep cover. There was no track for the dogs to follow until the point where the blind was laid. If you didn't manage to stop your dog before the flag they pulled towards the path and disappeared in the woods. There was very little vision to play with for handling. Bertie pulled left, I had to whistle him back in view push him back and hunt up..got it!
The last retrieve was the water test and it was was proving to be the undoing of most dogs. It was a blind set on an island with a diversion thrown from the shore. If the dog ran the shore they would pick the diversion which was not to be touched. So you had to cast the dog straight into open water between a line of rushes then, once clear of the rushes, cast left towards the island which was two hundred meters away. It required a dog to handle well in water and up until this Summer it would have been the weakest point in my dogs' training. It was a pure joy to watch Bertie take on this challenge, ignoring the diversion and taking direction out in the water. He made it to the island and hunted. Unfortunately when he pulled left on the island he slipped into the water among the rushes and gaining no scent headed for the diversion. With no vision to direct him he came to shore. A good effort but, as the judge told me, handler error. I should have held him in a tighter pattern on the island something I will not forget in future.

I always think of the day as a success when I come away more motivated and hungry for further training with my dogs. The summer sessions training along the lake are begining to pay off and my more diligent approach to heelwork and steadiness is working. The bonus is that both dogs have retained their pace and style, something I was concerned would go once the pressure of advanced training commenced.

Remembering Breeze- grieving the loss of a young dog..

In my minds eye I can still see her. Trotting along the tramlines in front of me in the cornfield behind the house. I can feel her still warm fur when I buried my head in her coat that afternoon at the vets. Her gaze, the particular markings on her coat and her bark have all been engrained in my memory.
Breeze was born on January 16th 2011. I had planned this litter for a long time. Believing it to be Winnie's last litter I looked around for a very special dog. A dog that would bring the unique package of temperament, trainability and good looks.I found it in Gunner.
After a lot of correspondence and mountains of paperwork  between the repro centers in the US and here in Ireland and the dept of Agriculture and Customs the semen landed safely in Tipperary.
Winnie came in to season  a few months later and by five weeks post AI it was obvious she was pregnant. I was ecstatic,I could hardly believe it had worked. All the time, effort and stress worrying about paperwork, whether the straws would get damaged in transit etc..was worth it. Especially when I saw those four tiny puppies for the first time.

Just one bitch with her three brothers.One bitch was all I'd ever wanted from this litter. She was to be my little piece of Winnie and I don't know whether it was because I knew, right from the start, that she would be staying with me or just because she was what I was looking for either way I fell for her the moment I met her.
 Just like most girls who grow up with brothers Breeze was more than able to hold her own in the litter. Her brothers were a very relaxed trio and let her have her way, most of the time.She was the biggest in the litter at birth with the boys catching up once they were weaned.
The Summer arrived and Breeze was growing into a beautiful active young dog with an inquisitive mind. She was soft and gentle around Elly quite happily following her around the garden.She mixed easily with any dog that came to visit and stay..large or small.Like her mother she discovered her love of water and nothing pleased her more than wading through the waves at Julianstown beach.
In July we travelled to the annual CBRC club show . It was her first time to travel such long distances and she took it in her stride, relishing the long beach runs and country walks that are in abundant supply in the UK. On that occasion she was just short of six months , too young to compete at the show but she enjoyed the attention she got while sitting ringside.
In late August we took another trip across the water. This time to South Wales.It was a double weekend. We were to compete at a working event on the Saturday and attend the WKC championship show on the Sunday.It was a weekend that surpassed all my expectations. Breeze's mother, Winnie and her half brother , Bertie had a phenomenol day by passing all three levels of WD, WDX and WDQ in one day. The next day Breeze made her show debut and at her very first show she won Best puppy in breed, her mother won RCC and her half brother Mossy won his first CC and BOB! It was a weekend we will treasure for a long time and never forget.
Then things took a strange turn. At first I thought it was a once off.. Breeze got sick.
She came in from the garden one evening in early September. I thought there was an odd sound coming form her throat. She didn't seem unduly distressed, no panting or coughing. I felt along her trachea and sure enough there was a definite lump. My first thoughts were that she'd been chewing sticks, she was just at that age. I took her into the vets that evening and like me the vet could feel the lump but wasn't particularly concerned as Breeze wasn't showing any signs of distress. She kept her in to sedate her and have a closer look at the lump.
A couple of hours later I received a phone call from the vets with news I was not expecting. Breeze had been sedated but the swelling, whatever it was, had closed around her larynx and prevented them from getting an airway..thankfully on this occasion the vet had much ecperience in anaesthetics and was eventually able to pass a tube meant for a cat down past the swelling . She was given antihistamines, steroids and antibiotics and kept for observation overnight. The lump never showed up to be anything conclusive. We assumed it to be a wasp sting as she's been eating apples in the orchard and the wasps had been particularly aggressive last Summer. In the weeks that followed and right up until her death nothing conclusive ever showed up. Apart from a very slight rise in her white cell count and a low grade temperature until the final hours before her death she gave absolutely no indication as to how sick she really was.

I have grown up with dogs and loved and lost many through out my life. Just the previous February I had lost my beautiful hunting companion Ria at the age of ten years old and even though I grieved her loss I could look back on her life and know she'd had a full and happy one but Breeze's death affected me more than any other dog I'd ever lost.I went through the full rigours of grief. Questioning myself again and again as to whether I'd done enough. Could I , should I have spotted something earlier. I was angry at the junior vet for being so dismissive. I felt that I had let Breeze down by not doing the best by her but most of all I just missed her. The hardest thing in the weeks and months that followed was moving forward as everything in the near and distant future had my plans for Breeze worked into it.
I remember going to the first show I had entered just a couple of weeks after she died. Opening up the letter with her number and name on it was one of the most difficult things I'd had to do. I wore her number that day, under Mossy's. I remember bursting into tears when an aquaintance asked me how the puppies were doing. Poor girl didn't know what to do..I've apologised since.
It got easier  after that to hide my grief  reserving it for quiet times .
Time is a great healer and life has a funny way of dragging you along with it. Sometimes, rather reluctantly. Winnie came into season . Des and I then had to make one of the most difficult decisions we've ever had to make regarding the dogs. This bitch who had given us so much in her life could we ask her one more time to produce a litter of puppies? It wasn't that she wasn't fit and able it was more to do with the fact that after losing two dogs in one year we were terrified of losing Winnie also.We also knew this would be her last oppurtunity to have a litter of puppies and the thoughts of letting that pass and later regretting it made our decision for us.
And so the story has come full circle. The last of the C litter puppies goes to his new home tomorrow and we have been blessed with a beautiful little girl puppy whom we've called 'Uisce' meaning water.
My memories of Breeze are still fresh and sometimes she floats across my mind so unexpectadly it makes me catch my breath.I wonder what she'd be like now. How she'd have gotten through her first Winter as a working dog and how she'd have developed as a show dog. I still miss her but my memory of her is very specific to her and I am grateful that Uisce , so far, is very different .I'm looking forward now to sharing a whole new set of adventures with her.