On Sunday the 23th of April the working flatcoated retriever club held her annual speciality working test Scandinavian style for flatcoated retrievers only. More than 100 flatcoated retrievers gathered in Utrecht at Pavilion de Forelvijver for a sporty gundog day.

Luckily the weather forecast did keep its promise and most of the day we enjoyed sun and good wind. It was really nice to see some of our “Aura” littermates and younger half sister Ragne and Rumi’s brother Déroy too.

Rumi (Flow of Spirits Silver Skipper) did an amazing job and won the open class🎊

Flatastic Red Strength “Lotte” was lucky to join her mother for a day out and she was in the novice class. She was one of the younger contestants and managed to end on an eleventh place in the ranking – very proud of that being under the age of 3 years.

Results of the day

Snuffelklasse (baby):

Beguarded in a conch shell Flat our pride (halfsister Ragne) 56 points

Starters class:

Flatastic Blue Intelligence “Spyke” 71 points

Flatastic Green Compassion “Fien” 56 points

Novice class:

Flatastic Red Strength “Lotte” 65 points

Flatastic Platinum Alignment “Gurbe” 61 points

Open class:

Flow of Spirits Silver Skipper “Rumi” 80 points 1st place

Flow of Spirits Red Admiral “Déroy” 74 points 2nd place

Very happy with the results of my girls and offspring of Rumi – but most of all – it was great to see you again.

Yesterday was probably the wettest Saturday of the year raining from early morning till nighttime. Strong winds caught us too and I had planned to participate in a working test in Lochem organized by the Golden Retriever Club Nederland. I was the first time Flatastic Red Strength “Lotte” was out in a competition on her own. Up until now I had entered both siblings in exams but for workingtests one can only bring one dog of ownership.

In the Netherlands the working tests are seperated in two styles (all on dummies):

1) the official Orweja Working test called OWT. These tests qualify for the IWT in the end. Here dogs must be completely quiet and very obedient and they must work very direct – not searching to wide or show too much own initiative. This style of working suits dogs with a lot of Will to please and handlers who like to train the details. The tests are judged by judges appointed by the Orweja organization specific for these tests. Levels are starters novice and open.

2) retriever working tests arranged by the breed clubs according to their conducts. These test are supposed to reflect a more practical oriented hunting situations- however the trend is that the challenges are becoming more a reflection of the imagination of those who design the tests than actual hunting situations. Nevertheless the competitions are often variated with lots of different accents including walk ups driven hunts marking searching and waterwork. The judges are appointed by the retriever breed clubs. The levels are C, B1, B2 and A (C being the lowest and A the highest). Here faults as sound and poor obedience will not result in failure necessarily but severe distraction in points. To obtain a certificate one must have at least 60 points according to most retriever breed clubs. This means one may “miss” one retrieve and still pass if the point are high enough.

Lotte and I had a nice day together – luckily the weather did not bother her a bit. Her coat kept her warm and dry and she did not hesitate to swim when given the chance. She was however a little bit distracted by the fact that she is in the middle of her phantom pregnancy. At times she looked at me as if she had no idea what was going on and I had to repeat cues which is very unusual for Lotte.

Unfortunately we missed our first retrieve – a sprayed dummy dragged in an open field with a cast from the forest with a gunshot fired alongside the forest in opposite direction of the placement of the dummy. That was simply to difficult for her to comprehend. She searched really well but not in the “right” place. I can certainly not blaim her – this situation reached far beyond our present training. I am right in the middle of teaching her to follow the shooters direction precisely and not the opposite. No sweats – the second retrieve from a free search was back within seconds.

The rest of the day was full of challenging retrieves – a partner walk up with shooters and driven hunts with semi blinds. Casting blind over water with distractions from a dummy trown earlier in the water alongside. Oh boy this test was really on the high end of what may be asked in a B1 level test.

I am very proud of Lotte that she managed to keep up with the high level – and I have a lot of new inspiration to bring to my training.

Thank you Josine and Mathijs for the layover and taking care of Kaspar and Rumi during the day. They had a marvelous time and it was lovely to be with you and Ragne again.

A week ago I drove to the east of the Netherlands to participate in a working test A with Rumi. The working test was designed by Henk Slijkhuis and the difficulty level was high and contained a lot of obedience and steadyness with walk-ups and distractions. It was hard work for us as Rumi is strong minded and not the calmest dog to handle. I was very pleased with her performance though and a bit irritated about my own mistakes. Plenty of space left to learn though.

A week later the two of us entered a whole different arena: a very noisy hall at the Rijnland international Cacit dog show. Rumi die very well and achieved a 2nd place excellent in open class with a strong line up of very nice show bitches. She is a dream to show – she loves it and shows off as a pro. Belgian judge Jos Cuyper laid his hands on her and was very surprised by her tightness and muscular body. I explained that she is a highly trained working gun dog with a very wide and proud smile. I am of course very thankful for her breeder breeding this dog but I am also proud that I have managed to keep her so well even with her permanent injury. It is a lot of TLC and I am so happy that it shows in her well-being. Here are some photos kindly taken by my husband:

The “twins” also had to spend the day in a warm hall – Kaspar and Lotte were both brought out in the working class. Kaspar was less appreciated by the judge with a 1st place Very Good. I found him rather tense in the ring this time – he seemed a bit impressed by the surroundings.

His remarks were this time the opposite of the last time. Not quite sure what that means… Nevertheless Kaspar is in size perfect within the breed standard, even though he looks smaller. I am confident that it is an asset to have males of different sizes in a breeding program as the flatcoated retriever as a breed is producing rather big dogs with slightly too much coat. When hunting too big and long dogs with a lot of coat – it will become a difficulty to enjoy their work for a full day. They run out of energy too fast. So I am still happy with my fast running somewhat smaller Italian.

Lotte has developed a lot lately and as she has just been in heat she looks very nice and full at the moment. She did very well in the ring with a 2nd place excellent in working class bitches.

For the fun of it I had entered Lotte and Kaspar in the couples class. I simply enjoy taking the long run in the hounory ring on the felt carpet and showing my breed. It is hard to beat the elegance of two long running flatcoated retrievers. It is just lovely to watch – regardless who’s dogs they are.

Last year we were appreciated by the same judge with a 3rd place and this year we ended at a 2nd place. Wauw!! Lotte did not enjoy it as much as Kaspar because he was running behind a spaniel in full heat. I am so appreciative that he handles himself so well. The handler of the spaniels passed at a close distance and the male spaniel did not appreciate any competition. Kaspar kept his cool and did not bother a moment. What a nice temperament my Italian has! So proud.

I would also like to thank the many flatcoated handlers who congratulated us or just to had a friendly chat on the go. It is nice to feel welcome – even though I am a “newbee” in the showing world. Many of you have taken time to explain and share your knowledge. Thank you for that – it is highly appreciated.

Also a big thank to Yvonne from Tricksywood’s and Josine and Mathijs for a lovely weekend in good company.

Up until now Kaspar had not had a chance to be alone when hunting. It is a bit of a disadvantage having to stand in the shadow of another dog but at the same time they can learn by watching. It is called observational learning and especially puppies and young dogs learn by watching. But also grown ups do learn doing so. I therefore always turn my dogs away when we are seeing another dog performing in an unwanted manner.

Many handlers tend to watch things go wrong with their dogs are at heal next to them expecting their dog to see everything while not “learning” from it. It is fairly easy to redirect your dog’s attention by calling his name and rewarding the attention with a small treat without having to move your dog and possibly disturbing others. This is a simple example how you can redirect attention. I use a lot of redirecting attention when working my flatcoated retrievers. The breed is known to be a working dog who will hear see and smell every bit of the surroundings, therefore they can easily be distracted or “loose their heads” to what the exact task is. Starting a practice of “leave it for later” is really a big necessity if one wants a reliable gundog.

Kaspar was lucky to have a few retrieves of goose shortly after arrival at the field. I was walking him in heal behind the hunters when the first two geese fell. One still was a bit lively so he needed some encouragement, but brought it well to my hand. I am always a bit nervous when a goose is not dead right away. They are big birds and I do not want suffering to continue. I feel that the craftsmanship of hunting for your dinner table contains the ability to witness the suffering and ending it swiftly is very important. The fact that it touches my heart forces me to have respect and appreciation for nature and living beings. Knowing I having taken a life to have food.. it urges me to live my life to the most. I even feel we should all be able to kill our own food if we wish to eat meat. Otherwise we become nonchalant and easily throwing meat products away without any sense of value.

While walking on Lieuwe who was one of the hunters told me more about nature. There is a bird that is very territorial. It will simply drown all other birds in the water without any hesitation:

I really enjoy being out in Nature and learning from the field. It has an impact on my being and I can intensely enjoy the quietness and vastness presenting itself to me.

After a long sit and wait – a goose was shot and it fell across the water. My hunter said the wings were still healthy so we had to walk 800 m around to find it. While doing so Kaspar was surprised by a hare who took off and he started to chase. I have done a lot – really a lot to train recall with distractions but on a hunting day with high adrenaline a running hare passing at 3 meters distance while on a free search.. I did not expect him to pass the chance. But in the back of my head I forced myself to give it a go. Thinking – “do not avoid your own chance of failure – just go for it”. I grabbed my whistle and he ran 2-3 meters then turned away towards me. Wauw! That was the greatest moment of the day with my Italian. He came back with a big grin and a tongue out. I was of course very proud of him that he let the hare go. The goose turned out to give us a bit of exercise and after 30 minutes we were able to get it. Kaspar had retrieved it after a second shot only seeing the gun’s direction and coming back he hesitated jumping in a steep river. I signed him to stay at the field in the other side – a big goose that has been in dirty water is less hygienic to cut out in parts and very heavy to carry home. So for this moment I made use of the hesitation. If it was a gundog competition it would cost a lot of points. These situations are also why some people do not hunt with their dogs when they want to use them in competitions.. you can easily “spoil” certain pieces of your training.

A big thank you to Lieuwe for inviting me and Kaspar and thank you for letting me take the geese home for my dinner table.

On Saturday the 4th of March 2023 the flatcoated retriever club held a working test that I had entered with Lotte. Unfortunately she is full in heat so I decided to go to the international Martini dogshow in Groningen instead. Klaas the owner of Flatastic Silver Will “Bruce” had asked me to bring out his lovely strong boy. Bruce has not had ringtraining or ever been to a show so it was quite an experience for him. I am very proud of this wonderful boy – he has a strong body and an enormous perseverance when working. He retrievers everything with feathers and hair, it is rather impressive what he is already capable of at this young age. He will track a deer for his hunter, retrieve a fox – but he also has obtained his two Orweja SJP diplomas and he is now approved for breeding. He has finished all his health tests including an ultrasound of the kidneys and he has tested clear of hereditary diseases. He is of medium size – his type is traditional (English). His head is very maskulin – maybe it could have a bit less defined stop but this fits his type I think. He has excellent movements with a lot of thrust and a very bright and engaged temperament. In many ways he reminds me of Rumi, which touches me. I am very much looking forward to following him and his owner in the future in their ventures.

Rumi loves to be at a show – it fits her character so well to have attention and lots of treats. She loves to run as well so I had brought her too. The judge gave her a very nice description and a 4th place in her class.

Bruce was given a Very Good and a third place by judge Sandra Hoyer.

While I was out in my fancy clothes – Lieuwe Bosma & Flatastic Platinum Alignment “Gurbe” were in Lattrop and they came home with their first WT B1 diploma. The day after they came in at a third place in the unofficial SJP held by their trainer. Congratulations Lieuwe & Klaas with this weekend’s accomplishments. A good start of the season.

Today I received these pretty certificates from the Dutch kennel club Raad van Beheer. For the first time they have made a breed ranking and I am surprised that we ended this high in the ranking. However our main focus is working with our dogs I still try to maintain the dual purpose by having the dogs judged by different breed specialists. In this way I hope to learn more about anatomy and the different types within the breed. For now we enjoy the certificates..

Last autumn Philip asked me if I wanted to join him forming a team for the WFRG/GRV team competition in Oostvoorne. Later I joked with him that he might have bought a “cat in sack” as Rumi can be a bit unpredictable in competitions when in her hormonal stage. But nevertheless we had a team as Frans agreed to join with Jason and therefore we had a A B and C representation.

Our first post was a terrible start. Philip arrived late as he had to stop by the vet’s – Shadow had a sore paw due to a removed nail that was irritated. The vet concluded that moving would be a better medicin to get the irritation solved by the body itself. Jason got the first mark on shot in the forest and missed the mark on the field – we had positioned ourselves poorly and Jason got confused by our moving around. Rumi was send for a cast in the forest after Shadows retrieve and came back empty mouthed with an eye filled with blood. I did a quick check and send her on a blind that was returned. She was not in her best cooperative mood – I guess the irritation in her eye did not help.

Luckily Marinus Rooseboom (Orweja judge and veterinarian) was also in the ground and after rinsing Rumi’s eye we found the damage to be in the skin only and not in her eye. My stress levels were already climbing through the roof at that time.

2nd post the dogs were left to watch the previous team. Rumi’s speciality is to “count and remember birds” so this was really not in our advance – 6 retrieves – helpers all over the field – cold game in front of us on the grass. When I had to begin the blind cast passing two helpers – through some trees ending in a doorway of two dots of forest.. it cost a lot of handling.. but she ended up where I wanted her and she did not find the dummy. What a disappointment. Then I had to recall her passing one dummy and 2 doves in the field. Managed well – who would have thought. The second retrieve – a blind in the forest she missed too. She did not want to go searching in the forest – can you blame her with the eye experience?

I must say a team competition adds elements that one cannot predict on beforehand. Handling strategy as a team – coaching strategy – what is working for the individuals- reaction of the dogs on each other – time slot – lots of distractions – which plan B is chosen if a dog misses a retrieve etc etc. Even though we have trained together for a couple of times this was quite a thing to do in my experience.

When a competition goes worse than expected there are a couple of options to take. One can get really frustrated or you can choose to let go and fall back on doing your best. It is a mental game that takes practice and no one succeeds at once. I used this competition to practice resilience and patience and at the same time fighting as a lioness to keep Rumi in control.

Flatcoated retrievers have a reputation of being clever and filling in the blanks before a handler can even think of which blanks are present, some individuals have a strong mind of their own making it difficult to gain compliance. It was actually really interesting to see from a breeding perspective how the nuances are. Shadow for example is a very obidiant dog who thinks on beforehand and is relatively easy to convince of a plan B. He is not the fastest but he will not waist energy on a task he does not believe in. Rumi is a bit the opposite – she will run towards whatever she thinks is an option – feeling no harm in doing so. These characteristics are evenly valuable- they just ask different handling skills. This makes the breed so special in my eyes – so many different qualities mixed in one breed.

Many flatcoated retrievers are used as game dogs above competitions as the breed traits can be challenging in today’s requirements of control and obedience.

Rumi is being used for both – this does not favor the last and the amount of condemning words I have received is enormous. But I still would rather mentally “fight as a lioness” when she has these days than turning to violence in order to demand better control. It is a choice and on weak days I daydream.. what if I had done good obedience basics in gundog training with her from the beginning? What difference would it have made? Some say all the difference.. some say it is the character of the dog etc etc. Opinions are different-I will never really know I think.

So a lot of words on the less attractive parts of our team work.. Rumi did actually show a lot of quality in my eyes when looking in depth.

✅steadyness went a lot better than before. ✅ drag she did very accurate and ignored the water mark. ✅she kept working under my pressure and handling – did not go completely self sustaining

The rest of the day our team grew and luckily Rumi was able to do a bit better than how we started off – some of the blinds were actually a lot further way and more difficult than we are training at so that fueled my optimism.

Philip was absolutely our ground with Shadow who calmly and steadily got all his retrieve back.

Jason and Frans had a rough start too but boy did they grow together. The retrieves were far beyond c level and Jason’s adventures nature went from being loose headed to focusing more and more and the dummies kept coming back to the hand. Our hilarious moment on the last post when Fran’s’ mobile phones kept ringing and he was distracted-Jason remained steady while the other team was working. Bravo – so proud of them two!

Thank you Philip & Frans for our team experience

Thanks to Silvia Reinders for all the great action shots – thanks to WFRG & GRV – helpers and volunteers for a great start of the 2023 season.

Within the gundog world Flatcoated Retrievers are known as very good hunting dogs solving tasks quickly, independently and with major bird finding abilities. They tend to be less popular as gundog competition dogs compared to other retrievers. One of the reasons for that may be that handlers find them easily distracted (mentally) and a bit strong minded. When reading the breed description of the Dutch hunting association KJV – I must admit a bit to my surprise – the emphasis was put on how challenging they are to train. This is not uncommon to hear.

When people ask me if a flatcoated is difficult to train, I always hesitate to answer, because I do not find them difficult to train as such but maybe I would say they are challenging to understand fully. During the past year this question has been weaving in and out of my mind and the answer became clear when looking back my friends’ dog Prada.

Prada was a Labrador (traditional) x Rhodisian Ridgeback mix. Prada showed me that her behavior around mud and water varied. Some days (within same season/temperatures) she would behave like one would expect from a Labrador: jumping through mud holes and having fun. Then another day she would go into a full freeze of the body just by seeing water and mud (ridgeback crocodile avoidance) – then avoiding every drop of moist intensively.

Back to my personal view of the flatcoated retriever..

The flatcoated is a breed that was created in England out of several other breeds involving setters, retrievers and newfoundlanders. When keeping this in mind I have started to look at individuals and trying to estimate to which of these three categories the specific flatcoated take after the most. To be honest I think my breed is a hybrid so to speak. They are categorized as retrievers but they are in fact not pure retrievers neither pure HPR (hunt-point-retrieve) dogs. Therefore I call them hybrid or when I get a bit cocky out in the field “best of both worlds” dogs.

I have had Rumi for almost 7 years now. In her life she has been out hunting, driving, retrieving – she has had a litter – participated in many many gundog competitions, tests and workshops as well trotting around in the show arena. She has proven to be a dual purpose all-rounder with a rather intense hunt/prey drive. She is born to work and she loves almost every activity except endless heelwork sessions. She is a bit low on the will to please side and her nose is preferably up in the air scent area and she loves to run. Ideally a flatcoated would be able and willing to switch easily between ground and air scenting. Rumi has a rather strong preference to air scenting and running.

So where does all this thinking bring me?

The past two days I have been training on Texel a Wadden Island north of NL. Thanks to Jachthondenschool de Kust we& Jachthondensport Texel we were given the chance to train at open level in a very challenging terrein and strong winds and rain.

If it was not clear yet – it has become now. My Rumi is by dominance HPR style in her behavior when put in a terrein that triggers it. Compared to the German wire haired and or the Münsterlander she might be a bit more attentive to instructions but at times I hardly saw a difference and if any I asked myself why Rumi was less manageable than some of the HPR’s. Maybe my next answer will be – when asked if a flatcoated is difficult to train – “no – not at all – as long as you know the dominant gene of the day and how to approach it, you are good.”

In other words – it takes a flexible handler who can recognize “the gene of the day.”

This training was again a tea party with humbling cake – I definitely need to upscale my own HPR handling skills if I want to work Rumi in high winds and rough terrein such as that of the raw Texel nature. Why I love this so much? Because the dogs bring me back to my true nature..

As mentioned in our previous message, the Flatastic Challenge was up for judging this week and the winners were:

1st price – best execution of the challenge: Lieuwe Bosma & Flatastic Platinum Alignment “Gurbe”

Most creative challenge Evelien Hendriksen & Flatastic Orange Pleasure “Kai”

Best Talent Josine Woudsma & Beguarded in a conshell Flat our Pride “Ragne” (1 year old halfsister to Aura pups).

This year we had great fun – not only when training the dogs but mostly from watching the great videos made by the owners. I now know for sure that owning a flatcoated retriever will either make you a flexible and humorous person or even better – you are spontaneous to start with. 

This year gundog trainer Yvonne van Houten – Scheltens from jachthondenschool Kaya (www.jachthondenschoolkayaa.nl) judged our young talents and their owners work. She provided everyone with positive feedback add to their toolbox. Thank you Yvonne for your time and effort.

Thank you for all the fun you brought us by participating and getting training serious with the Flatastics.

Check out Flatastic Flatcoated Retrievers on Facebook to see the videos of the 3 winners.

Unfortunately I missed out on one of the big hunting days in December due to a terrible flu. Kindly I was offered a rain check and off me and the girls went on a mild January morning. Lotte has shown a really nice presence when hunting this season and I decided to introduce her to goose hunting. Having Rumi and Lotte at the same time in the field takes some focus as the two ladies are keen and very attentive. Goose hunting is special in the way that one has to be still and out of sight. It requires of the dogs that they can sit and wait for a longer period of time.

Working on the steadyness and calm behavior is an ongoing proces – especially with highly driven dogs and having two to deal with while paying attention to overflying geese can be a bit challenging but the three of us managed fairly well and we even got to practice heelwork too. The geese were flying a bit high due to the wind but one goose was picked up.

After drinking a cup of coffee we continued hunting on ducks and both ladies were put at work in demanding terrein.

Thank you Lieuwe for the great day in your field!

At Christmas time most gundog trainers are enjoying the holidays and I thought it would be a good idea to present a challenge for the youngsters of our Aura litter. On the above photo you can see what the challenge is. A flatcoated retriever is a clever working dog who uses his sight a lot. He will by nature scan the environment and run the easiest and quickest way in and out – avoiding obstacles. Therefore one needs to train this specifically in order to fulfill field trial requirements of going back and forth in a straight line. Today is the final date to send in the videos of the execution – tomorrow we will announce the winner. This year Yvonne Scheltens from Jachthondenschool Kaya will judge the videos. The videos will be shared on our fb page for you to enjoy.