[John Schmidt]

Hi,

Our local outdoors writer did a story about the Great Salt Lake Retriever Club field trial last week-end. We wanted to highlight some of the local competitors as well as publicize the upcoming National Amateur that will be held in Utah in June.

See:

http://www.sltrib.com/outdoors

for the article and some video.

John Schmidt

 

[Miriam Wade]

Thanks for posting this John! It's a very positive piece. Having lived in Utah for a while & run a HT at Lee Kay made it more interesting.

I found this interesting:

The second major event is a blind retrieve. The handler sees where a duck is placed and has to use verbal, hand and whistle signals to get the dog to the bird.
Taylor said the key to a successful event is the relationship between the handler and the dog.
"First and foremost the handler has to be the boss. Very often that is not the case and the dog is running the show," he said. "The dog has to respect you. On the other hand, the dog has to like you so you can't treat them too harsh. You have to trust each other."
Like other dog competitions, the owners of dogs in the retriever trials are not always the handlers. One handler, Karl Gunzer of Montana, ran 12 dogs in the Open All-Age event Friday.
But that's not always the case.
"I have nine dogs: the old guys who are retired, the up-and-coming dogs and some puppies," said Harger, who breeds, trains and handles her dogs, all Chesapeake Bay retrievers. "I hunt with them, they live in my house, they are my companions and they are field trial dogs. It is sort of my entire world. I keep saying I'll get another life, but I don't have room for one."

M

 

[tmfrt]

Just finished reading it. What a great article!

 

[txrancher]

I guess maybe that is where my love for retrievers began, way back about 1964 when I attended my first field trial event. It was held west of SLC out near where the dragstrip was. Oh so long ago but still a fond memory. Wishing your club the very best of weather and all else to make it a great event.