Rorem Workshop

WOW!....Talk about 3 days of sittin' in the sun with a great teacher defining the Art of Handling................Excellent..........

Although I was only able to attend as a observer, the exchange of knowledge was superb...........but the desire to get to the line and handle a dawg was probably the hardest thing to overcome all weekend.

As the weekend progressed you could see each handler team growing stronger in their handler skills and developing confidence and Positive Momentum at the line...............

I too came away with many skills and thoughts, much more than three, that Dave stressed over and over again.............

Negative Momentum..........Train Hard, Compete Easy.........Make the holding blind to the mat, Mandatory Compliance..........Accomplishment & Attainment.........Handler influence is absolutely paramount in the dawgs success....................Don't play down a good performance...............Get On the point as late as you can, Get Off the point as soon as ya can.......Walk towards the Hazard, move with yer dawg.......Don't Spectate.........Watch the dawg on marks, except for the flyer.......The Handlers Triangle.........Finish what you Start...........Blow the whistle long and solid..............Have the next breath ready..............Voice inflection........... :arrow: and on and on

It was also great to be able to meet some of the RTF Family in person, Barb Younglove, Greg Seddon, Susan Bledsoe, Judy Chute, Larry Atkins, Bob Mazingo.........to name a few..............

I too liked the comparison Dave made to a weekend FT and the Nationals.....and the difference in handling at each...............

I look forward to attending another of Dave's Seminars......but with a dawg at my side this time........... :wink:

With Wendy and I moving to Texas next year, I know that opportunity will present itself, along with being able to train with Dave on a daily basis is something I'm looking forward to............

Heck Ted, maybe I 'll even get to run Mootsie or Buffy or Zowie in Fayettsville next year...........what a rush............

I agree with Susan though Ted, let's keep the Rorem Seminar's low key.......and not give the competition a edge................ :lol:

A Huge THANK YOU to Dave and his Sponsors, Tri-Tronics and Purina, for a great weekend................and a Special THANKS to Dave's Clients that allowed the handlers to run their dawgs at the Seminar................

See ya all on the Mat................. :wink:

Ted, when Dave spoke of Accomplishment & Attainment he spoke about how handlers view the FT venue based on the above two.....by Accomplishments he was referring to the Titles......the FC, AFC & NAFC....and how some handlers are driven by only these Titles...... and forget the personal satisfaction, Attainment, of continually doing a great job at the line whether it a weekend FT or a National and that satisfaction and Positive Momentum associated with that work at the line.............and how only looking for Titles washes out so many people in our sport........

The Don't Down Play a Good Performance also goes along with the Negative Momentum that handlers have at the line or when leaving the line...........and how they're always talking negatively about the their performance or their dawgs performance versus the things that were done well...........

Finish What You Start was in reference to handling on Marks, in other words, Don't Specate, if you start to handle on a Mark, don't become a spectator on the Mat, get your dawg to the bird as effectively and quickly as possible.................because the performance on that one Mark may be the deciding factor in 1st or 2nd in that FT.........

Dave's comparisons of weekend FT versus Nationals mainly referred to how a handler or himself might approach/run a certain Mark or Blind in each of the above situations, such as your approach with Mootsie on the one Mark at the National......and throughout the weekend he tried to express different situations where a handler may attack a blind differently or run a Mark differently based on the their analyzing the setup or the other dawgs performances on Key Birds........like a short retired hen pheasant, or casting off points and long retired water marks.......each of which just may be the one to get you to the next series or win the FT....

Ted, I can't say enough about Dave as a teacher.........even my wife Wendy remarked about how happy his clients dawgs were while they were involved doing the Seminar...........and how Dave's daughter Tye was also so happily involved with the dawgs and how she wouldn't hesitate one moment in placing a dawg with Dave and his family for training.........which I have already talked to Dave about...............and what a nice person Dave and his daughter are............. :wink:

Looking forward to the next Seminar already............hope to see you there..........

There were 2 handlers there with the Orange Mega. Seemed real high pitched and neither dawg seem to work well or responded effectly when that whistle was blown. Dave even commented about it's use and the dawgs bad responses. This also seemed to be true when those same handlers ran Dave's client dawgs, neither seemed to effectively stop when it was blown without additional follow-up blows of the whistle.......

Quite a few handlers had the Monster and pretty much got the same effect whether it was their dawg or one of Dave's dawgs. As a matter of fact when Larry was running his dawg on a water blind the dawg never responded even after about 6-7 blows until someone in the gallery blew a Mega to get the dawg stopped for Larry. Of-course none of Dave's dawgs are trained with the Monster when on his truck that I know of.... but I could be wrong there...I just know he doesn't care for it....

Dave mentioned that supposedly the Monster was intended for high wind and running water situations as an improvement in the Mega, but he found it not to be the case................so he sticks with his Black Mega with pea.............