Flyer Day

This past weekend Levi and I went to the Norcal Golden Retriever Club's Flyer Field Training day.  Mom and Melissa were visiting me in Davis for the weekend so they came along to watch for a little bit too. Christine and Don were there with Thistle, Ronan, and Sport.  We also got to meet Levi's sister Avalon (pink girl) as well as her humans, Bill and Miche, and their other golden, Sammie.  We had a little puppy group with our four from the same litter and a black flat coated retriever pup, Sam, that was only 4 months old.  She was very cute and did so well!

(from L to R: Avalon, Ronan, Thistle, Sport, Levi)

We started out doing short retrieves on a gravel road with dead pigeons.  Levi hasn't had any exposure to birds since his bird test as a small puppy so I was very happy with how well he did.  He seemed pretty interested in the birds and actually retrieved a couple of the pigeons.  There was one pigeon in particular that he seemed to like, but the other two he wasn't as fond of for some reason and he didn't really want to pick them up.

Then we took the retrieving into light cover (grass/plants).  He seemed really interested in the birds and was very excited watching his siblings have their turn, often doing acrobatics trying to get free from the leash.  He retrieved one of the pigeons on the first try but the next two he picked up and then dropped so I had to keep encouraging him to pick it up.

Next we went to the water (or more like the mud).  He wasn't as interested in retrieving in the water, and I think that as the day went on he got more worn out and less focused.  Towards the end of the day we were able to practice in water that was deep enough to swim in and he retrieved the first bird but not the second.  You could tell he really wanted to get the second one because he kept swimming back to it but he wasn't so sure about picking it up.

His brothers and sisters did great, especially Ronan and Avalon, who really loved the birds.  We got to watch the adult dogs do the real thing, retrieving ducks that were either shot down or already dead ducks that were launched to retrieve.  We got to see his mom, Sport, go as well and she did fantastic.

It was such a fun day (although a little muddy, I'll be more prepared next time).  I can't wait to get Levi some more bird experience.  It probably won't be for awhile though because in about a week and a half we start our intro to agility class.

And a picture from our walk on the green belt this past weekend with mom and Melissa.