Q turned 3 and earned a seasoned pass from Hunting Retriever Club last weekend! He did some goofy puppy things like showing off the bird to the judges and not sitting at the line but once I would get him sitting he was nice and steady and never broke once and did come back and deliver the birds to hand.. a hesitation going straight into water on his double had me on the edge but in the end he went in and nailed his water double and his water blind was really amazing and earned us lots of compliments! The water was super heavily vegetated and I think that’s what made it so difficult plus water entries is already a weakness. We will be working on that! I loved seeing what a good time he was having and how he persevered, and kept his cool.

I’ve heard lots of ideas on how to train this including force to water different types and making water more fun. In the end I settled on a combination of both, we will do more play in the water and then I will formalize it with the force to water training I did last year that seemed to work really well. Q does enjoy the water but maybe I’ve made it too much work not enough play and also it’s an obedience problem so that’s where I need to solidify what is expected. We tried a couple other tests he came so close to passing last month. One of them he did great on the water series but went out on the land blind another one he messed up his water double but got the birds it had to do with dithering at shore again. So I feel he’s coming very close and making progress each time, it’s experience and continuing to work out the problems. As a hunter I feel if a dog can earn a hunting seasoned title he will be a damn good dog to go hunting with. I am just super pleased with the boy.

I did enter Prinz as well he did pretty well at the first test and got all his water marks and blinds but he was really stressed didn’t seem that into it and and it deteriorated from there so I am going to do lots of play and fun to build drive and see if that gets him amped up again, he sure surprised me last year getting so feisty earning his AKC JH and started titles but that is a LOT simpler than seasoned/ senior so we’ll see, either way what an awesome dog!

Hope you are having fun with your dogs!

added a new YouTube video showing how nice Q retrieves out of water.