Chad is an excellent friend and always has been gracious enough to work with new people in the sport to bring training of these fine retrievers to its highest level.
Yes, I have been very blessed to meet both of you gentlemen. I am continually learning new things from you guys.
On another note, handling Grady was like driving a Mack truck with racing suspension. Sooooo powerful, yet surprisingly forgiving of my inexperience.
Trav leaves the line like he is shot out of a cannon! He was not as patient with me. He tested me by trying to auto-cast once, but one correction and he decided to work with me a little better. You have to think ahead with that guy, he is quick! So much fun!
Coal worked really well. The poor guy got more whistles than he needed in the crux of the blind, but he took really nice casts. He is turning into a really nice dog.
All the issues that we ran into on the blind were attributable to my lack of experience. Upon reflection, my initial lining of the dogs was poor. We were out of sync at times and I'm sure the dogs felt I was a little less confident than there daddy.
With all my faults on the blind, all the dogs did surprisingly well on the flyer after we picked up the blind. I was proud of my boy, Sam, who did quite well on this very cheaty flyer. Took a great line and carried his momentum all the way through to the AOF, had a tiny hunt in the cattails and didn't even cheat on the way back. He is starting to make good decisions on his own (knock on wood)
