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Retriever Trialing's
Evolution
by: Bill McClure
April 2001 American
Hunter
Anyone
who hunts waterfowl several times a week all season and has finished five
champions as an amateur field trial competitor is entitled to a few opinions.
Dr. Peter Martin of Kapuskasing, Ontario is no
exception. After more than 25 years breeding, training and trialing Labrador
and golden retrievers, he has some well-developed views on dogs and their
importance in a marsh.
Working with retrievers is one of Martin's great joys ,
but the core of his outdoor life is hunting. However, field -trialing provides
an opportunity to measure his skills as a trainer against those of his peers
and winning a big open stake is a never-to-be-forgotten thrill. But Martin is
at peace in the company of one of his dogs on the wild, lonely Kapuskasing river, when the northern birds are down.
Twenty minutes from his chiropractic office door are some of eastern North
America's finest shooting grounds.
Kapuskasing is in far northern Ontario, within
shouting distance of James and Hudson bays, a major waterfowl staging area.
Birds depart the Hudson Bay lowlands in early October, stopping off among the
wild rice beds lining hundreds of far northern lakes and rivers. A retriever
born and raised in this landscape sees a lot of game. So does its master.
Martin is a perfectionist searching for the very best dog, a prospective all
age winner and first class companion in a duck or goose blind, Hunting is his
life and always has been, while field-trialing he says , is an offshoot,
almost a second thought.
"Retrievers, trialing, and waterfowling,"says
Martin, "get in your blood, I am outdoors on a
daily basis virtually year round, and for me that's a need I have expressed
since I was a little guy. There is seldom a day when I don't go out either
fishing, hunting or training dogs. If you were to put me in a city and tell
me I could be outdoors only once a week I would fight it." I asked why
he chose to travel very long distances on weekends to compete in trails when
the outdoors he loves is literally in the doorstep. Martin replied:"It's the gambling in me, I guess, With 40
or 50 dogs in an open stake, winning is quite a feat, and over the last 25
years I have won quit a few times. But I've lost more than I've won. To win
you have to do a lot of work, keep up to date on new methods, and own a top
drawer dog. I like to keep abreast of new training methods, and changes have
been revolutionary in the last quarter century.
"Before, e-collar training was crude and, at times, even brutal. For a
dog to survive he had to be birdie, high strung, and tough. The calmer dogs
couldn't take it and just gave up or were discarded. You never saw them in
our trials. Today, the very best retrievers are the calm ones with their wits
about them who approach their work in a methodical fashion.
They are birdie but easy to teach, so most of today's trial winners are
balanced and not overly excitable. The electric collar changed our world. By
eliminating the need for excessive force and opening up the concepts of
conditioned learning, calm dogs prospered. Now we teach rather than coerce,
and a smart dog learns how to keep out of trouble by staying under control,
stopping on a whistle and ,taking a good cast, They
have fun.
"When the e-collar first come on the scene people used it as a
punishment, which was simply poor training, I was guilty of that, Now it's a
teaching tool and if carefully introduced and activated at its lowest
setting, it is very humane. You can save yourself a lot of grief by using a
collar. I introduce it to all my young dogs, so they become conditioned to
wearing it. Like all things, care and common sense are important.
"But remember, a hockey player like Wayne Gretzky wasn't trained, he was
born with inherent skills. The same with great dogs. The real good ones are
naturals, and their training is an adjunct to their innate talent. They may
learn how to handle, mark a bird and retrieve properly, but the real heart of
it is them. It's uncanny how good retrievers are
today. When I started in the game, a triple retrieve, where the dog saw three
birds fall in distinct areas, was considered a tough test of an open-level
dog's memory. Many competitive dogs were four or five years old before they
mastered triples. Now they can do four birds and in two cases the gunner is
retired, that is, he hides so no landmark is visible, and the dogs remember
all four . That just blows me away. I can't believe
it.
"In a recent trial I was handling one of my goldens, and he was faced with a very difficult
setup, a quad over water with two retired guns. I was sure he couldn't do
it...But look-he knew where every one of those birds were
to the inch. I could barely remember where they had fallen. And the amazing
thing is that four dogs in the stake just hammered those marked falls.
Amazing!"
Martin and I hunted black ducks and mallard ducks on the Kapuskasing
river and near by lakes for a few days prior to our interview. We were
accompanied by two of his trial dogs who performed impeccably. I asked why he
hunted over his best.
"Conservation is number one. A lost bird is rare and even if your dog is
not perfect he has a nose, which is a great asset. You don't train a nose,
and as long as you can bring him down wind of a bird he's going to find it.
With a trained dog I don't ever have to move out of the blind, and some of my
better trial dogs can do a blind retrieve 300 yards away. As long as I can
see the dog he will respond to the whistle and commands and go where I ask
him to go. You've seen the conditions where we were hunting - wild rice beds
and mud flats crisscrossed with drowned trees and stumps, flooded forest
edges and bogs - and you wouldn't want to walk in that stuff. Most days we
never lose a duck at all."
I asked Martin to comment on breed selection and early training for the
amateur, He replied:" The Labrador is the top, but goldens
from hunting and trial lines are very close. Buy only from reputable trial or
hunting lines and if you have some spare money and a little time choose an already started retriever, one who you can hunt
with and maintain his training with drills. The alternative is to raise a pup
until it's six or seven months and do all the basic
obedience yourself and then send him to a good pro to finish. Or like me you
can do it yourself using good books, videos, and help from an experienced
trainer. From then on all you have to do is take the dog hunting and maintain
basic discipline. He may not be letter -perfect but he will get the job done and , if you are really lucky, every minute you are
training will feel like you are out hunting.
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