Bird dogs and bird hunting have always been a passion for me.  Although I grew up as a young boy tagging along on big-game hunts with my father, my first hunt was for pheasants behind two pointers.  Even then, as a twelve year old boy, I was fascinated by the dogs and their work.  So much so, that I soon found myself the owner of a pointer too.  Although my pointer was a great hunting dog, it lacked certain attributes that I desired.  It was simply too energetic to be the kind of family and house dog that I wanted.  Also, as time went on, my hunting interests developed primarily in the waterfowling arena.  I still dabbled in upland sports, but I needed a serious duck hunting canine companion.  Ideally, I wanted a dog that would fit all of these conditions – be a dynamite duck hunter, a great upland hunter, and yet be capable of shutting off the steam and chilling out at home.  

I wasn’t introduced to the perfect fit until five years ago during a duck hunt near Stuttgart, Arkansas.  I was hunting in a pit blind with a wise, elderly farmer who guided duck and goose hunts on his rice and soy-bean farm each hunting season.  We were talking about retrievers, and he stated that if he could choose one dog for his guide business, it would be a British field-bred Labrador.  He explained that his business benefited most from a retriever that was calm, quiet, attentive, and easily trained – a dog that he knew would not ruin a client’s hunt, but would reflect well on his business and complement the hunting experience.  His comments peaked my curiosity, and after thorough research, I was on a waiting list for my first British Lab. 

If you’ve done any research about British field Labradors, then you already know that they are generally described as athletic smaller-framed Labrador Retrievers – bred to be calm, quiet, very tractable, easily steadied, and solid markers with excellent noses.  This is all true – they are wonderful animals.  Unfortunately, these positive attributes are often overshadowed by negative marketing schemes of some British Lab breeders that feel compelled to market their dogs not just on the dogs’ great qualities, but also by disparaging American Labs.  As an owner of British field Labs and an American field trial Lab, and as an amateur trainer who has personally trained both types of Labs and with many other American Labs, let me just say that I love both – both heritages have exceptional qualities.  Indeed, they share the same qualities to varying degrees; and as with any generalization, there are those among both sides that fall into extremes.  Generally speaking, however, the two lines have certain general differences.  The differences are primarily a product of breeding for specific qualities that are rewarded with titles and awards on both sides of the pond.  One heritage is not necessarily better than the other - it all comes down to personal choice and one's particular needs and interests.

The British methods generally teach that one should train a dog until they are approximately 2 years old before the dog is ever exposed to hunting.  This was one principle that I wasn’t willing to obey – the temptation to take Sophie along on my bird hunts was too great – I wasn’t willing to forego two hunting seasons with my young dog.  And thus, I departed from the traditional program and took Sophie hunting when she was nine months old. 

It was September 2002, and we traveled to Stuttgart, AR, for a few days of morning teal hunts and afternoon dove hunts.  The teal hunts went very well.  Although Sophie was very steady in training, I staked her out next to me and released her for retrieves.  She caught on very quickly and soon, we were watching her to tell if ducks were coming. 

The dove hunts were a blast – lots of shooting and retrieves.  We were positioned on the edge of a soybean field next to a stream and were able to keep Sophie cool despite the hot action and warm weather.  About half-way through our first afternoon, after shooting a number of doves and thus scenting up the field with feathers all over, I shot a dove around 40-50 yards straight out in the field.  I released Sophie, and she blew right over the bird and kept on running.  She stopped around 100 yards out and started to hunt.  I blew a “here” whistle.  She stopped, looked at me for a second, and resumed her hunt.  I whistled again and called to her.  She again stopped, looked at me, and resumed her hunt.  This was a new phenomenon for us!  In training, since early “here” games and on, she had never refused to come.  She needed to be corrected for the disobedience, and I did about the only thing an amish/British method trainer can do – I commanded her to sit (which she did surprisingly) and quickly marched/jogged the 100 yards out to where she was.  When I was finally at her side, I told her “no” and picked her up off the ground a few inches and shook her (a standard British correction).  I put her down, commanded her to sit, walked back to the line, and called her in. 

Prior to marching out there, I had already decided what I would do.  What’s interesting and what disturbed me the most about this correction for sometime thereafter, was the conflicting information I noticed while I was following this process.  First, as I approached Sophie, I noticed that she started wagging her tail, and she greeted me happily when I arrived.  Second, when I told her “no” and picked her up, she looked at me with a bewildered and confused expression.  At that time, it dawned on me that she had no clue why she was being punished.  The timing of the correction was too remote.  Even though this was a textbook correction pursuant to the method I followed, it was far from effective and entirely failed to communicate the right message. This experience raised many concerns in my mind about the training method I followed.

After my hunting trip, I again reimmersed myself into the study of retriever training, seeking an answer to my concerns.  I read a considerable amount about other training methods.  Most of the other methods involved the use of an e-collar.  I had serious concerns about using an e-collar though – I had been told outright by a couple of British Lab trainers that an e-collar would ruin a British Lab. 

After several weeks of study, I finally came upon an article by Martin Deeley, titled “The Modern E-Collar Remote Trainer.”  Mr. Deeley, who lives in Florida now, is a reknown British retriever trainer, who was at that top of the retriever sport in England for many years.   His article addressed his changed opinion about the use of e-collars in retriever training.  He advocated that the variable sensitivity levels of modern e-collars and the timeliness of e-collar corrections for disobedience to known commands, made e-collars the best tool available to retriever trainers.  I felt like his article was written to me.  It answered all of the concerns that I had about e-collars and confirmed that there was a better method of communicating with my dogs.  Within days of reading his article, I purchased a Tri-Tronics e-collar system, Mike Lardy’s collar-conditioning tape, and a couple of books addressing the proper use of e-collars. 

My training took a leap into the 21st century with the addition of an e-collar system.  With such a departure from the British training methods, I also redirected my studies to American retriever training methods.  I found a lot of things that I liked, but struggled to find one program that made complete sense to me.  The books and articles I read either mostly addressed training philosophy mingled with sparse details about how to perform the training, or they focused on a particular concept or part of training in detail without an overall picture of how, when, and where the concept fit into a training progression. 

It wasn’t until early 2003 that I discovered the program that pulled it all together for me - Evan Graham’s "Smartwork for Retrievers" series.  With it’s sequence of training steps combined with easy to follow detailed instructions, Evan’s program made sense!  I immersed myself in studying Evan’s program.  In addition to Evan’s program, I also dived into Mike Lardy’s training materials and videos.  I found these to be of exceptional value too.  Being that Evan and Mike’s programs are both largely based on Rex Carr’s teachings, the programs are similar and actually complement each other very well.  In my opinion, these two programs are the best retriever training programs in the world – regardless of whether you’re interested in just having a proficient hunting dog, hunt test dog, or a field trial dog.   For more information about these training programs, please see Evan Graham’s website and Mike Lardy’s website. 

After I switched to these top American training programs, I witnessed dramatic progress in my dogs’ skills.  Along with their abilities, their confidence, attitude, and style flourished.  Soon I found that retrieves that previously seemed well beyond our level, we’re well within our grasp.  I also found that American field trial training only made my dogs more proficient at hunting and hunt tests.  Naturally, training pursuant to field trial methods sparked my interest in this major league retriever sport; and in 2005, we ran in two AKC Field Trial Qualifying Stakes, with Sophie taking 4th Place in her second event!  

It has been a great journey.  One that is more rewarding than I can explain.  As my passion has evolved from bird hunting - to hunt tests – and now to field trials, I have only grown closer and closer to my Labs – and their faith and trust in me has grown from a mere seed to a stout tree.  The retriever sports are truly a team sport that allows one the chance to experience a unique side of that unexplainable bond between man and dog.