I am probably a typical newcomer to field training – I have no land to train on, I work full time and cannot always take off work to join a training group, I have family members with no real desire to join me in this sport and learn how to throw a bumper or help a dog if needed. I’ve been accumulating equipment to make it easier to train on my own, but it’s slow going. I’ve also been buying the equipment that each person is expected to have when training with a group or during a club training day. I’ve joined four different Retriever clubs and volunteer my time in order to participate in training days. But mostly, I train on my own and accept advice from various people with more experience.

This variety of advice has sometimes caused me trouble in training. Not that the advice was wrong, just that by asking various people I got answers that reflected various styles and therefore had no consistency. I ended up wavering and confusing my dog and never feeling like I knew the right approach to train something or correct something. I decided to explore the various retriever training "systems" on the market and pick one and stick with it. Again, I asked for advice and got a wide range of answers. For a variety of reasons, I chose Evan Graham’s approach, bought the books and DVD’s and signed up for an Evan Graham seminar.

The seminar was a combination of classroom lecture (in a tent) and actual demonstration using dogs of different levels owned by the students. He made it all sound so easy – it made sense. And, while no training approach has all the answers or works for all dogs, this seminar reinforced for me that this was the approach I was going to stick to.

Evan had a wonderful, gentle way about him; with people and with dogs both. He spoke of creating a coach & athlete relationship with your dog rather than that of a master & slave. He focused on the importance of praise; how timing and emotion make praise effective, and how training is out of balance without praise. Did I mention Evan Graham owns Goldens?

And he had such simple, yet profound, advice in so many areas. Things that I had probably heard before, but never internalized, including:

• "Your dog will not be more precise than you are." This was a major "ah-ha" moment for me. Focused so much on the new concept, we forget the other trained skills and let them slide. Evan would ask "are you okay with that?" to point out that if so, your dog surely won’t give any more.
• "A leash covers disobedience. Unstable at my side means uncontrollable at a distance. Do not move to transition if your dog is unstable." This was another light bulb moment for me. I was not asking my dog to be stable for fear of confusing him with too much to do. Instead I was allowing him to become more and more unstable and scatter-brained. It was so simple to fix! I just had to decide to do it!
• Dogs are situational. A concept in your backyard is not automatically transferred to the field – it has to be trained there too.
• "Quiet is part of sit." In the same way that "Sit means sit" (and a command for stay is not needed), sit means sitting quietly.
• When you feel overwhelmed remember, at the core of it all, "there are only 3 things a retriever must do: go, pick-up, and come" How simple, right? Just break it down into pieces
• "Don’t repeat marks." Do a similar concept in a different place.
• "Never go to the line without a whistle in your mouth, a heeling stick in your hand and a bumper in your pocket."
• Learn to read a mark as your dog would. Categorize factors as flare, suction, and drift and use them appropriately in training.
• Keep a training journal. Note what work you attempted, where things didn’t go well and where they did.

Any training program is a combination of learned skills that build on previously learned skills. Evan refers to training stages he labels Basics (with Obedience), Transition, and Advanced. With consistent and almost daily training, Basics should take 6 months. Evan indicates, "Any less, suspect the training. Any more, suspect the quality of the dog". While a good guideline to keep you from moving too fast, keep in mind that many cannot train as many times per week as it would take to complete Basics in 6 months. I am finishing up the double T and have the swim by to do with my JH, WC dog who is just about to turn 2 years old.

The Evan Graham Basics include

• Sit, whistle Sit
• Here, Collar Conditioned Here
• Heel
• Leave It/Drop
• Kennel
• introduction to decoys and easy puppy marking

• Formalized Obedience with 2 sided Heel and remote Sit
• Casting Games
• Force Fetch including Hold, Fetch, Walking Fetch, No Fetch
• Mini-Pile and nine bumper pile
• Marks – high success
• Introduction to gunners, water retrieves
• Wide spread doubles
• Slip cord steadiness
• Stickman drills
• Hand deliveries
• Tee drills
• 3 handed casting
• Swim by

And now, when advice is offered from a more experienced trainer, I eagerly listen to that advice and I can confidently compare it to a single standard, the standard of the approach I’ve chosen to follow with my dog. With that foundation settled, I can then choose how to use the advice or not use the advice, without the previous confusion.

On to Transition!!!

Strider after first JH leg at 13 months