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Sometimes You Just Have to Get Wet!
Anne B. Livingston • Nashville, Tennessee
“She’s going to have to get in,” I overheard my training partners, Paula Harris and Danny May, say as we watched Camden quit on a long water retrieve one April afternoon. I had seen this behavior from Camden before; in her first Boykin Spaniel Society Upland, she failed to complete her Novice and Intermediate water retrieves, and in three separate Started tests, she completed on land and failed on water. My reverie of past failures ended with a jolt when I realized the one who was ‘going to have to get in’ was me. I can’t swim. Those early childhood swimming lessons in a frigid pool included putting my face under water, and I never got over it. I’m also not fond of water too murky to see my feet, and that includes every lake, pond, stream or river in which I’ve trained my Boykin girls. | |
We thought we had this problem licked. After our failures in January and February, we prepared for the Boykin Spaniel Society Spring National by training in a new or different pond every week. Trying to find a common denominator for success, we set up long retrieves in small ponds and short ones in big ponds. Camden is the fourth dog in our household, and the youngest in our pack. We attributed her sometimes timid behavior in water to her submissive nature or an occasional blond moment. At least it wasn’t her mother Edie’s “talk to the paw” attitude. Surely by introducing her to a variety of new water training environments, we would build her confidence.
Our training approach appeared to have paid off as we watched her leap confidently into the water at the Boykin Society National Field Trial. Both water series in the Novice class were challenging, but Camden plowed through marsh grass, leapt over fallen trees, and climbed atop floating logs in the quest to bring back her ducks. Surely, we had this problem licked...
For the entire article, check out the January 2008 Hunting Retriever Magazine.
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10/06/2008: Candid Highlights from Saturday at the Fall Grand in Davenport, Iowa (and parts of Iliinois) The skies were blue and the weather great for the first day's running of the HRC Fall Grand held in locations near Davenport, Iowa, and Andalusia, Illlinois.... Read more here. 
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In This Issue of Hunting Retriever Magazine...
"Sometimes You Just Have to Get Wet!
Anne B. Livingston • Nashville, Tennessee
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“She’s going to have to get in,” I overheard my training partners, Paula Harris and Danny May, say as we watched Camden quit on a long water retrieve one April afternoon. I had seen this behavior from Camden before; in her first Boykin Spaniel Society Upland, she failed to complete her Novice and Intermediate water retrieves, and in three separate Started tests, she completed on land and failed on water.
Read more here
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