At 4.30 am my alarm sounds – out of bed, into my hunting gear and with a hot cup of chai I drive to Friesland again. Me and Rumi. I love to be away with my great girl – hunting with her is such a pleasure. This time she has the responsibility of showing her son “Gurbe” how to retrieve goose.

Because of the low temperature and harsch winds – I took a minute to put both dogs in their warming vests as Lieuwe walked up to his hiding spot. As I came out of the car the first goose fell in the plowed soil. I was not sure if it was a perfect shot but Rumi had not had the time to mark it well. I had to direct her to the right spot and so we got the goose back quickly. It was perfect for Gurbe to see his mother work and he started to become very eager. The second goose was a good job for me to handle as it was still alive and while I was receiving the goose from Rumi Gurbe was looking and learning. Dogs learn much faster from watching other dogs than when we have to teach them alone. This phenomenon is called social learning.

I have written before about how I enjoy bringing meat to our table, about how the craftsmanship of hunting is a part of flora and fauna preservation. The less attractive part of this proces is that we take a life in order to do so and at the same time have love for the beauty of the animal and enjoy them alive. This is very dual and sometimes difficult to hold that I can be both in the same person. I always look into the eye of the animal before I release its life. I want to maintain the feeling of it – the difficulty of it. When I prepare the meat – every little piece carries that value and respect. I proces the animal as much as I can. The wings are being dried and given to bee keepers or used as training for puppies, the feet used to distract glucosamine and the bones for broth.

Another part of flora and fauna problem has unfortunately become human trashing. Apart from the plastic soup also general littering of food leftovers keeps the numbers of Jackdaws high. These birds predate on song birds’ nests and due to their numbers they interrupt balance of species.

This above bird was a bit of a humerus thing. Lieuwe and I had just done a drive in a field. He and Rumi held post and walked up to a duck pool. Ducks flew up including a couple of males, they flew around and Lieuwe called the ducks. He had a perfect shot and I saw Rumi jump into the water and she came running back to me with a nice big male duck.

During mating season many female ducks drown because they are more or less raped by several male ducks – so keeping the numbers down is the wise thing to do in order to preserve a balance.

Lieuwe and I were talking about the great retrieve of Rumi and we re-entered a bicycling path and just around the corner was a woman walking straight at us. She was very spontaneous and asked kindly if we had been lucky to harvest anything for the dinner table. I had the duck in my hand so I showed her the bird and enjoyed the talk. Meeting people with understanding of hunting is becoming a rare phenomenon and I hope that future generations will take this trend to a turn. While continuing our walk back to the car I talked to Lieuwe about the importance of maintaining the practice of retrieving less attractive birds such as crows for our young dogs. Then the black and white Jackdaw flew in circles above us. Lieuwe looked at me, got the bird and Rumi retrieved it. We both had to laugh a little about this coincidence.

Before driving back home I got to enjoy a cup of coffee and a traditional beandish at Lieuwe’s place. Giving me plenty of time to hug Gurbe, Rumi’s son. I am very pleased with how he has developed- a very charming young male with a lovely character, a good portion of flatcoated tweekyness and great hunting drive. Oh I almost forgot to mention – after watching his mother in the morning, he retrieved 2 big geese himself. I think he will become the goose specialist of the dozen. Thank you again Lieuwe for the lovely day in the field and your hospitality.

A warm and affectionate greeting into the New Year 2022. However we are all still struggling with lockdown affects – we hope that the new year will bring health and well-being to all of our friends – 2 and 4 legged – in all possible ways one can have the above. As dog training is difficult due to the current government restrictions (max 2 people together outside) we felt it was time to come up with a new challenge for the Aura litter to keep the youngster busy and engaged. The new year challenge is:

– train your youngster to run to his leash laying on the ground with 1 cue

– let him take place, laying on the leash in down position until you give a release cue.

– add distance to the cast and duration of the waiting laying down.

– the winning team has the best execution in terms of duration, distance of cast, most relaxed emotion/body language of dog and amount of pleasure being displayed.

Are you curious to hear who wins the challenge? Monday 10th of January we will reveal the winning video on the Flatastic Facebook site. Good luck everybody!

With warm greetings from us to you – both our two and four legged friends. We wish you a merry Christmas with you loved ones. 🎄

Hunting can be a sensitive subject in our modern society. In the Netherlands many hunters are confronted with demonstrators and disturbance of wildlife by people who have strong feeling against the old craftsmanship of hunting. I deliberately use the word craftsmanship as it is not a sport. First of all one must have a great deal of knowledge (through study and field time) of Nature and her inhabitants. Furthermore one must be able to handle the technical parts of owning a gun and ammunition – as well as the permits and police checks that a huntsman complies with. On top of that – a hunter must invest in a gun dog with the right inheritance and train his dog(s) weekly to assure that he can use the dog to retrieve any game on land and water. No taken life must be wasted. Then he must know his area well, he is connected to this area all year round – supporting the farmers too. The hunting is just a small part of flora and fauna conservation that takes place in nature by men and women who have their hearts in the outdoors.

Another aspect that I find fascinating is how we as humans can eat other living beings, meaning that all animal products that we consume – have to be taken by somebody’s hands. Wether it is killing a cow for beef or a chicken for a Gordon bleu. Or taking the cow’s milk from the kalf for our daily cheese. Somewhere between the range of living on these products and acknowledging that it is on their “cost” that we consume – is how we humans feel about doing this. We have created a society where we do not have to feel this ourselves. We just go to the supermarket and pay for what we want. So there is no emotional regulation in our consuming other than our hunger/greed and financial limitations. He who has taken the life of an animal himself in order to live and provide for himself and his family develops a whole different sense of the value that the specific animal has. It works a bit the same with having your own vegetable garden – you realize how much effort and hard work it takes to grow food.

So back to dog stuff – I was invited to join a group of hunters in the North of Holland: Friesland. A driven hunt. Normally these groups consist of hunters and helpers to drive with our without dogs. Today we were short of helpers due to the covid situation and the foreman hunter decided to continue with a smaller group, meaning a narrower chance of bringing home meat for the Holidays.

So I drove to the beautiful North and had brought Rumi with the idea to do a bit of retrieving in case we were lucky to “harvest” some game like hare, pheasants and or ducks.

However due to the short amount of helpers and the large area to cover – I figured today would be a good day to see if Rumi could find her “HPR blood” and do some hunting like spaniels and pointing dogs. This is a bit tricky because Rumi is rather “hot” when working and I was reluctant at first. I was afraid of losing contact with her and unsure wether I could convince her to hunt sideways and not run forward towards the hunters. We have never trained this but I have always tried to get her to follow the direction of my body when walking her. So I did the exact same and called her back when the distance became to far. Guess what – flatcoated retrievers can work on a driven hunt. I was so amazed how easily she adapted to the situation and she just ran as if she has done so all of her life: on frozen soil, on grass land, on chopped off corn, in the forest, jumping small rivers and checking the covers for scent. It was pure pleasure to watch. Flatcoated retrievers have HPR (hunt-point-retrieve) blood in their vains from when the breed was build. But this has never been their purpose and they are today expected to only retrieve. On field trials one will be disqualified if she does a point. Well, Rumi pointed several woodcocks – she found several pheasants (no pointing here) and she retrieved 3 blind duck retrieves, one very difficult one in the water, or rather on ice under a tree just a meter offshore of an island on the wrong side of the wind. So there I had it all coming together: ability to work on her own – still following my directions – despite her sensitive shoulder ligament ploughing through ice. What an amazing girl she is. I felt so humbled of what she showed me and I felt utterly proud of what we were able to show of the breed.

After a cold day in tough terrain – I checked my iPhone: 19.639 steps – 13,6 km of walking in an average speed of 4,3 km/hour. I do not even dare to think how many k’s Rumi has run but today she is rather lazy.

Yesterday was not only a flatcoated party – I had the pleasure of enjoying two German long haired HPR’s one younger dog who had a great hare retrieve in a river – just sent Rumi in case he needed encouragement but he was sure of his case and Rumi respected his turn. Beautiful ending of the day. I was so filled with joy and thankfulness for this experience. In the evening I contemplated on all the efforts of the farmers (saw again grassland eaten to mud by geese), the hunters, the dogs and all the training, preparation and precautions.

I concluded – no man or woman would out of pure greed for game be able to sustain this amount of effort unless there is a held love for Nature. Thank you for this insight and appreciation. Thank you Lieuwe for inviting me to be a part of your little group of hunting friends for a day. And a special gratitude towards the Frisian land for her beauty.

Rumi and I have had the privilege of being invited for larger commercial hunts in Belgium during the last couple of years. This has been such a learning opportunity for me as a handler and it has brought out the best hunting skills in her. Having a high drive dog and combining hunting with competitions in the same season is not the easiest path to choose, but I enjoy this combination more than my ambition.

Our competition season ended a bit disappointing.. first we had to stop during a our first working test A. Rumi had hurt her paw while jumping a fence. Then I became ill and missed the FRC AT. Finally recovered and ready on time for the WFRG Trophy, then it got cancelled due to Covid-19. So not quite the end of a season we had in mind.

End of competition season means more time available to go hunting – therefore I gladly accepted an invitation to join a so called farmer’s hunt in the Northeast of Netherlands. A farmer’s hunt is a small hunt, in this region mostly focusing on regulating the enormous amount of farm land damage by geese. In the Netherlands we have geese in amounts that one can surely call it a plague for farmers and grass areas. They destroy large amounts of crop and fill the fields with excrements – causing high nitrogen release into the environment.

Hunting geese is not an easy task – they are extremely clever and communicate with each other. They spot you very easily in the field and wearing camouflage clothing and hiding well is necessary. Having a dog who is sitting quietly and holding position is essential. For Rumi who is used to retrieving a large amount of ducks on each drive, this is a bit challenging but luckily she is a quick learner. I enjoyed the cold morning – out in the field from sunrise, trying to differentiate the birds while passing. I have great respect for the hunters and their field knowledge and love for nature and care in their decision making. Today was also very special as one of the hunters was lucky to harvest (Dutch language use this term) her first goose. Rumi had the honor of retrieving the goose in a stream.

After the goose hunt, we walked a great deal of farmland with watersides in chance of ducks. Especially male wild ducks are in high numbers and make a good protein source in our diets. As these hunts are only successful if the hunter approaches very carefully I stayed on a distance. Therefore Rumi had 3 retrieves – all blind and by directing on water – I am so proud how well she followed directions and in cold and windy waters. The last retrieve was a duck with an unfortunate wingshot hiding in thick cover of water plants. “Go search” and then it is pure joy to see a flatcoated retriever doing what they master to perfection: working the scent of the wind in the waterside cover. Some turning tail action and I know that she has picked up the scent. Into the deep water, pulling the duck out through the cover and then tangled in water plants pushing herself out of the steep waterside with the duck. I am so proud of her for this beautiful retrieve. Tomorrow I will prepare the duck and enjoy it with my family. Thank you Lieuwe for this wonderful day in the field.

Last Friday Rumi and I finished the official SJP season by giving it a go at the SJP A. It was a long shot to expect that we could succeed in getting two SJP A diplomas in one season with the circumstances that we have had. We are very happy with the one A in the pocket so why share this post on not having completed our “goal”? Because there has been an important lesson in the whole proces for me, which I think might be worthwhile sharing. When you have a sport dog and you have high ambitions it is very easy to get drawn into all aspects to enhance the winning chances. Training with a high-end trainer, knowing the right people to have access to terrains etc., having chances to bring your dog to shoots, improving your own skills, training your dog as much as possible.

It can be a very addictive state of mind to be in and it can also take the joy out of being with you best friend in the field.

Due to Rumi’s permanent shoulder injury it is no longer possible to have a full training schedule for her. Therefore I loose mental training time and if I would have to compensate for that – getting control back would mean pushing harder and maybe in a way that is not close to my heart. So “the sand slips between my fingers” while I am looking at it. Looking from that perspective the glass is half empty.

The other side of things is that my beautiful girl has taught me to value every day without pain or worry. She has taught me another very valuable lesson: to be real and allow imperfections. Accept the place we are at. Accept her nature and work with it the best we can within the limitations. This also means taking a piece of the humble pie once and a while. Looking at it from this perspective the glass is half full.

The wonderful thing about accepting being right where we are at – is that it allows “flow”to appear. So I am very thankful for having Flow with my Flow-girl.

Maybe this personal note may serve as a little reminder for some of us in the dog-handling business. To step down once and a while from chasing goals and just checking if we can still drink from the joy of being in flow with our dog and the partnership. Thank you Rumi for this wise lesson!

While we are still continuing training – also with Rumi as much as possible – patience seems to be the key word with the two youngsters (or should I say monsters?). We are dreaming of flow in the future – for now it is mostly that they are having flatastic fun and I am trying to keep up and being at least half a step ahead. Again a major life lesson in staying in the moment and not getting caught up in result thinking.

But enough philosophical contemplation – another thing that took some patience was adding our youngsters to the Flatastic website with their own page. If you are curious – follow the link: https://flatastic.nl/dogs/ or look at the page dogs here and check out what we made of it. Would love to hear what you think.

3rd of October 2021 was the day of the Dutch flatcoated retriever club to have their yearly club show. The flatastic gang was present and we even won the offspring class – an unofficial class but it was great fun to participate. Frans de Vries had designed a flatastic logo to wear on our similar t-shirts:

It was a long day with rain pouring repeatedly – not the best way to get familiar with dog shows, but I must say I am really proud that we pulled through. In good company and with sufficient catering we managed to get through te long waiting hours. Thank you to all the owners for participating and Barbara and Caroline for helping out showing my two youngsters in the offspring class.

In one week beauty & brains…
Rumi achieved her first SJP A diploma last Saturday in Oostvoorne – 87 points out of 100. She may have a strong will of her own but when it is aligned with me she is magical to work with.
We were placed 2nd and received a cup. 🥳

After our Danish debut it was finally time to go Dutch with the Flatastic gang. After a persistent pledge of Barbara Ras to enter mommy Rumi too in show competition I decided to do so. Guess what – she won the open class!

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Also the youngster were in good show mood – Kaspar got placed 3rd excellent in breeder’s class and Lotte an excellent in same category.

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Not only our own dogs did very well at the show – all other Flatastic Aura litter mates present received Excellent. Congratulations to all owners with their results & thank you for participating in the show.

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Past weekend we were participating in the Danish flatcoated retriever club event in Nordsjælland not far from Copenhagen. Saturday was Markprøve B and our dynamic duo were signed up for Brugsprøve. The Brugsprøve is an accesgiving obedience and retrieving test one needs to obtain in order to enter working tests and field trials. It was held in a forest and the strong wild life smells there was a bit challenging for our “twins”. The judge made it clear that we need to practice obedience in these surroundings. I was thinking how to explain how difficult it is in the Netherlands to have access to these kind of grounds. But the feedback was right on spot. We did pass though. Happy me.

Next day it was showtime. To me it was a bit special as it was held in my hometown where I was born and raised. Judge was Susanne Tillge and all of our dogs obtained excellent qualifications. Kaspar used all of his charm and won 1st price in Junior male class. He even obtained a junior certificate as the judge saw potential for him to become junior champion. The greatest thing though was that he loved all of it and won a yellow dummy. a pretty beer glass and chocolates.

Judge Susanne Tillge DK:

Kaspar: 15 months junior male, good size, good male appearance, long well shaped head, correct bite, big nostrils, tight lips, dark eyes, tight eyes, well placed ears,beautiful top line, strong hind body, well placed shoulder, well placed tail, correct angulated front and back, good bone, strong paws, good coat, fluent and healthy movements, wonderful temperament.

Lotte: 15 months junior bitch good size, good feminine appearance, long well shaped head, correct bite, beautiful top line, a little low placed tail, strong hind body, well angulated front and back, strong bone, tight paws, good coat, healthy movements and wonderful temperament.

Rumi: 5 years open bitch, good size, good feminine appearance, long well shaped head, correct bite, tight lips, big nostrils, dark eyes, tight eyes, well placed ears, beautiful top line, well hind placed shoulder, strong hind body, well placed tail, well angulated front and back, good bone, tight paws, good coat, healthy fluent movements, good temperament.