Jazztime Labradors

2009-12-18T16:24:00.000-08:00

Here we are back in Niland, California for our winter trip. So I am going to try to do a blog again. We had a pretty uneventful trip from Montana except for the snow the first day! We had been watching the weather and thought Dec. 1 would be a good day to leave. Well, it was all right until we got 25 miles from home--then we ran into snow and had snow most of the day. But after that everything was fine. We just missed that big storm that went across the country.

The weather has been great since we got here. It rained one day--the hardest rain I think I have ever seen here. So we spent a couple of days training in the desert; everything else was way too muddy. But we like the sandy desert and the dogs also seem to like it. We are training 4 dogs now: Chance for the All-Age, Skatch will be starting in the Qualifying, and we have 2 puppies, Soupy and Ruger. They are 8 and 7 months old now. We are really having fun with them. They have really progressed in the short time we have been here. Shows what regular training will do! We have been training with Valerie Martin and on occasion, Jack Vollstedt. We trained a couple of days with Patti Kiernan. That has been very good for our dogs--they all think they are at a field trial. Hard to get that atmosphere with just one or two people. Anyway we are having fun and training hard.

Tues March 10

2009-03-10T14:54:00.000-07:00

We trained today at Jack Vollstedt's property, Diann and Dennis Miller, Valerie Martin, Larry and I. We had a total of seven dogs--4 of them ours. Larry and I started the day by doing a memory blind with all the dogs. Then we met the others and set up a land triple with a flyer. For the big dogs we did a retired check-down bird and a longer retired bird. For the Derby dogs, we did a stand up triple--the first for Sprig. Both he and Skatch did well. Larry has not been feeling well, so I took him back to the trailer after that so he could rest. I went back to the others an we set up three water marks--pretty long swims on two of them and a very slight entry on the shortest bird. The long bird in the middle was quite a challenge for the dogs, even when it was not retired. Once they got down in the water, they could no longer see the gunner.
It was good training, but I am sure the dogs are all pretty tired by now.

We have a trial starting on Friday--the last one in this area. It is a small trial so it should be fun. This is Sprig's last Derby and he is not quite ready for Qualifying.

Daily progress

2009-03-09T19:20:00.000-07:00

I am just beginning our blog--wanted keep everyone up to date on our daily progress in our training, trailing, etc.....We are now training 4 dogs for field trials, and one that we are training for a gun dog. Our field trial dogs are Chance, Roper, Skatch, and Sprig. We have been here in the desert of southern California since the day before Thanksgiving. Mostly training, but have run 3 trials. We are going to leave 9 days from today to work our way home. Will keep you posted of our progress.