Years ago, the Spencer kids led puppies across a shallow pond, first en masse, and then one at a time.

The Long And Short Of It
Back in the 1970s, when I was breeding goldens, I always invited local puppy buyers to train with me regularly. That’s how Dennis O’Keefe joined my training group. His puppy turned out to be a real gem, so he started competing quite successfully in the puppy stakes of the area’s summer-long “fun trial” circuit.

When his pup was about 10 months old, he won a 30-dog puppy stake in a Kansas City Retriever Club fun trial. This was quite an accomplishment, since the retrieves were long and challenging.

The next week Dennis entered the puppy stake at our local retriever club’s fun trial, in which only six pups were entered. With such a small entry, and especially after his success the previous week, Dennis was supremely confident.

Two of the puppies entered were only about four months old, so the judges decided to set up an initial test that even those two could pass. It was a short landmark of no more than 12 yards in very light cover. Both little tykes did quite well on it.

Then Dennis went to the line, quite nonchalant, even though his dog hadn’t seen a mark that short for many months. The guns fired the shot, tossed the bird, and the judges called his number. Dennis sent his dog, and away he went! He sailed past the bird with his hunting switch turned off and ran another 70 yards before even thinking about finding a bird. Needless to say, he failed the test.

Dennis was crestfallen, but the fault was really mine, for I had been setting up all the tests in our training sessions. The lesson here is: Don’t let advanced work make you disdain the simple.

Born, Not Made
Finally, here’s a story about a seven-month-old Chesapeake on his first goose hunt. I wasn’t there. I heard this story so many years ago I can’t remember the source. However, it was told as a true story.

A man (let’s call him Joe) took his seven-month-old Chessie pup (let’s call him Deadgrass) goose hunting on a solidly frozen lake. Although the ice was plenty thick, the man couldn’t venture out on it because he was a bit crippled up. Shortly after setting up, he shot a big Canada goose that fell about 100 yards out on the ice. But Deadgrass didn’t see it fall, and at seven months hadn’t yet been trained in blind retrieves. Joe threw a rock as far as he could, but it didn’t come anywhere near the goose. Even so, young Deadgrass retrieved the rock quite eagerly.

Joe was about to give up when along came another man (let’s call him Bill) heeling a big black Lab (we’ll call him Blackie). This man stopped, asked how things were going, and on hearing of the Joe’s goose problem, offered to help.

“Blackie, here,” he said, “has been winning field trials pretty regularly. Almost has his title. Hey, he does quadruple marks, triple blind retrieves, the works. Tell you what: If you like, I’ll send Blackie after your goose as a blind retrieve. He does tougher blinds than this all the time, so this will be no problem for him. In fact, let me first tell you about some of the blind retrieves he’s done in trials.”