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.

Last summer we found this beautiful children’s playhouse on a Danish campsite on Læsø. It reminded me of an Austrian log house that is found in the snow and so we decided to use it for our holiday greetings card this year. Is it not cute?

We wish all of our friends joyful and Flatastic holidays, may it be good for you and your four legged friends too. ❤️

We are spending Christmas with our three wonderful black beauties on the couch revoking from a nasty flu, contemplating on next year’s plans and enjoying looking back at the year that has passed.

I am thankful first of all for all the great learning while training my dogs at Jachthondenschool de Kust, by Jantine Veldhuizen. I feel privileged to have a safe place where I can practice the art of failing and succeeding without any personal shaming or pressure.

I am also thankful for all the loving care my dogs were able to receive from Physiotherapist Fysiotherapie voor dieren Marijke Hegemans, Holistic Vet Den Hoek and Diergeneeskundig centrum Alphen Ad Rijn.

Apart from all the love, companionship and joy we enjoyed with our dogs at home in the past year we also look back at many accomplishments from our dogs and their littermates. Here is a short overview of the fruits of our efforts in 2022:

Flow of Spirits Silver Skipper

FRC club show 1st place open class bitches

WFRG Talentenjacht working test open class 4th place

Working Test A certificate

Danish Flatcoated Retriever Club show 2nd place excellent bitches open class

WFRG Club show 4th place excellent open class bitches

FRC apporteer trofee 8th place

WFRG trofee 9th place

Raad van Beheer WOW (yearlist show results) 45th place out of 243 entries.

Flatastic Black Peace

C-diploma CDD

1st place Danish Debutant prøve

1st place CDD B

SJP C

SJP B

3rd place SJP B

Working test B1 certificate

Danish Flatcoated Club show Roskilde 1st place intermediate class & BIM intermediate class.

Gundog show Doorwerth BOB working (1st place Excellent) & 3rd place all breeds working. 1st place with sister Lotte in couple’s class.

Raad van Beheer WOW competition 60th place out of 243 entries

Flatastic Red Strength

CDD-B

Danish Deputant prøve 3rd place

SJP B diploma

SJP B diploma

Danish Flatcoated Retriever club 1st place VG Intermediate class

Gundog Show Doorwerth 3rd place excellent open class bitches & 1st place couples class all breeds with brother Kaspar.

Raad van beheer WOW competition 109th place out of 243

The two Trophy’s of the flatcoated retriever clubs are now completed. It was our debut in these flatcoated retriever finals with 4X triple retrieves and not an easy task to participate in whilst Rumi being in heat and just out of heat. It cost us a couple of brain farts and she was a bit more distracted than normally but nevertheless she showed that she is well into this level’s requirements. So I feel proud of Rumi and all the hurdles we have overwon together. The FRC – Flatcoated Retriever Club published some very beautiful photos taken by Ad Ordelman and Robin Polman. Enjoy

It is autumn and it is the busiest season for us. While all finals of the gundog competitions are in full motion – hunting season is also at her peak.

I am driving back and forth from hunts and competitions and the three musketeers are luckily in top condition.

Rumi (Flow of Spirits Silver Skipper) and I came in 8th place at the Flatcoated Retriever Club’s Trophy. The competition is a copy of the Dutch Championships (triple retrieves) though on shorter distances and more retrieves – 12 in total.

Rumi was unfortunately in heat and I had already accepted that we once again had to stay at home. It turned out though that the organizing party was motivated to invite us despite her heat and after consent of the two participating male dogs we found a way to participate without causing distractions.

This meant that Rumi spend the day locked up in the car and only taken out for the 4 takes. It is not the best way to be in a competition but considering this fact and her hormonal state I think we did allright only missing out two retrieves. The most difficult drags – she did very well so that was very pleasing to me.

I would like to thank FRC for a special day of gundogging. I felt very appreciated and valued by the club – thank you for all the trouble you went through to spoil us. Thank you for the flexibility and effort and thank you for the great goodybag. I really enjoyed the rest of the dogs too. Rather special to have the top of the Dutch working flatcoated at one place at once. Congrats to Marc & Janne who won the Trophy 🥳. Also a big thanks to helpers and judges.

On my way home I got a call if I could step in to retrieve on a hunt early next morning.. so me, Rumi and Lotte had a short rest that night.

Rumi got a wonderful chance to work on her speciality: finding hurt ducks alongside water. She taught Lotte the tricks of catching diving ducks and Lotte also showed the same drive to continue searching as her passionate mother. After the drive she managed to find 5 hurt ducks that had been hiding successfully from other dogs..

Their will to hunt and continue sometimes takes the best of my patience but in these situations I feel so utterly proud and amazed by these black beauties.

Some photos from the past season:

Thank you to my husband for allowing me to spend so much time and effort with our flatcoats this time a year.

Last weekend (29th & 30th Oct. 2022) the WFRG held a working test in Lochem, East Holland close to the German border.

On Saturday Hans Mansveld & Spyke passed the test with a certificate in the C class. Me and Kaspar managed to pass the B1 test with a certificate.

On Sunday it was Rumi’s time. She achieved a working test A certificate. Our first one 🥳

Apart from enjoying working with our dogs the weekend gave the opportunity to catch up with other Flatastics. I also had the pleasure of spending two nights at Josine & Mathijs’ place with half sister Ragne. Thank you for having me and the 3 musketeers visiting.

In the middle of the hunting season I decided to have a different shoot. My friend & photographer Anita from Arista Photography took us out on a very sunny day to catch some shine on the black coats. Here is a collection of the photos:

The day before yesterday we received the sad news that Rumi’s mother Flynn (Khila-Flynn Umbra Fida) has passed away at the age of 11 years old after 7 weeks of illness caused by a tumor in her nose.

Flynn was a special lady – like Rumi a dog who chose herself who she liked and she had a mind of her own. I loved her for her sweet and vulnerable presence, she was not only a fantastic working gun dog but she was very beautiful too. I am very thankful for all the great trades she has passed on to her daughter grandchildren for us to enjoy.

Sadly I have not been a part of her last years – but before that I was privileged to be somewhat close in her life and therefore have many wonderful memories of her to cherish.

Flynn – enjoy hunting rabbits with Mille and your other friends in the forever hunting fields. We also wish all who love Flynn the best in grieving this loss.