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Train-the-Trainer Seminars with Robert Milner
Duckhill Forum
Labrador Ladies Shooting Society

The Labrador Ladies Shooting Society will be meeting on September 26 and 27 at 2pm during the Train the Trainer Seminar at Duckhill Kennels. Please join us for the fun! Call the office at 901-846-6119 or email us at puppies@duckhillkennels.com to make your reservation. There is no charge for this meeting. We hope to see you there!



 

 
Train the Trainer Seminar
 
Duckhill Kennels will be hosting it's next Train the Trainer Seminar on September 26 and 27. Come spend two days with Mr. Robert Milner and learn from the expert! Click  HERE for a schedule of the two days.

The October seminar will be held on October 3 and 4. To register for a seminar visit our  online store, or email us at puppies@duckhillkennels.com.
 

Recall drills - A Training Tip

by Elizabeth McGlawn 

  

Take the dog for a walk, start short distance call backs with food rewards. Gradually increase distance for the call back, be aware of any possible distractions that could make it harder for the dog and try to do the call back before the dog becomes too distracted. Pay attention. 

If the dog has had platform training, use platforms for another recall drill where you place two platforms at about 20 ft. apart (the dog will need to know stay in order to do this drill). Stand beside opposite box dog is sitting on and call to you with food reward. This will also enforce the sit when coming to you and could help with jumping issues!

Before doing these training drills it would be best to do it before you feed your dog and will give you better results. 


 

 


The Best of The Best
is a fantastic book by Graham Cox and Dr. Gareth Davis. Graham is a longtime friend and true expert on retrievers. He has written the dog section for the Shooting Gazette, since the British magazine's inception in 1989. Graham is both a talented writer and a knowledgeable subject matter expert on British Gundogs and field trials. The Best of the Best is a history of the International Gundog League Retriever Championship since its birth in 1909.

This book is not only the history of the IGL Retriever Championship, it is the history of the Labrador Retriever. Since 1910 Labradors have virtually taken over retriever field trials. The IGL Retrieve Championship to a great degree defined the role of the retriever gundog and the important qualities of the great gundog. Not until the 1920s and 1930s did Labradors start coming to the USA. The first American retriever field trial was in 1931.

The Best of the Best will give you a good look and better understanding of your Labrador's heritage and history. The book is also profusely illustrated with period photographs of famous dogs and luminaries of the past. With this attractive book on your coffee table or book shelf, it will be self evident that you are a passionate student and lover of Labradors.

 

Robert Milner - Sep 2014  

 

 

 
Women in the International Gundog League Retriever Championship by Graham Cox

 

Ask any of us what is so special about field sports and we'd be sure to have our own special and particular answer: a great shot or spectacular retrieve, perhaps in amazing conditions. I have those sort of memories, but as a sometime social scientist I am conscious that field sports are remarkable for more general reasons, and field trials particularly so.

 

   Field Trials, in Britain at least, are not, and have never been 'ageist'. Country sports are almost unique in the sporting world for not only making it possible for people to go on, not only taking part but getting better at what they do, well after other sports would have obliged them to retire. They're 'pro-am' in that the rawest tyro may find him or herself in a trial alongside a seasoned professional who has made up several field trial champions. Neither are they 'sexist', in that men and women have competed against each other from the outset. In the hunting field, too, women have been prominent and they hold numbers of fishing records as well.

 

   As my history of the International Gundog League's Retriever Championship, The Best of the Best, shows women have played a crucial role from the earliest days and have shown themselves worthy of that title time and again. In the period covered by the book, 1909 - 2011, no fewer than 43 women handlers have qualified three or more times for the premier event. More than that, some 13 have qualified 10 or more times and, of those, five have won the Capt. A Glen Kidston Challenge Trophy: two of them numbers of times. Two handlers, Miss Ann Hill Wood and Jean Lumsden (Miss Jean Train as she was when she won in 1952) have won though they qualified fewer than 10 times: four and six times respectively. So, in total, seven women have carried off the trophy since it was first presented in 1910.

 

   Sitting atop an impressively broadly based pyramid of female involvement in field trials is June Atkinson. Her record is exceptional: doubly so because the 36 times she qualified between 1950 and 1995 was with Golden Retrievers. Labrador domination of the Championship has been almost total, but goldens have managed four wins (five if you count in the 1937 Champion FTCh Haulstone Larry who was only two generations from a cross bred litter) and, by any standards, the early 1950s were remarkable. In 1952 Miss Jean Train, as Jean Lumsden then was, won an almost scentless championship at Six Mile Bottom. Adjusting his pace to suit the conditions and hunting with great persistence, he was the only dog never to have a failure. It was two years later that one of the breed's great dogs in the hands of one of the greatest handlers repeated the feat.

 

     June Atkinson's FTCh Mazurka of Wynford followed his win in 1953 with a second place the following year at Sandringham and his two other runs yielded Diplomas of Merit. Four awards from four runs including a first and a second makes him one of the great dogs of any breed. At stud too, he was significant and, beginning with her foundation bitch FTCh Musickmaker of Yeo June Atkinson went on to make up 17 Holway FTChs including Holway Gaiety who won the Rank Routledge trophy for most points in field trials in both 1970 and 1971. Fearless in cover, she was a bitch that June bred back to again and again. Charismatic dogs like FTCh Holway Chanter and FTCh Holway Corbiere, meanwhile, became national favourites through performances in the England Team in the CLA Game Fair International. June, who died in 2011, was a Vice President of the Golden Retriever Club and she had the distinction of judging the Retriever Championship no fewer than 9 times. That is extraordinary. No-one has, or ever will, challenge that record which says so much about her reputation.


        If June Atkinson became a dominant figure in the immediate post-war period and beyond, the records in The Best of the Best she was joined by a Labrador handler who had already come to prominence in the pre-war period with back to back wins in 1933 and 1934 with FTCh Hiwood Chance. The Hon. Mrs J Hill-Wood won again in 1960 with her FTCh Hiwood Dipper and then, four years later, Lady Hill-Wood handled her daughter Ann Hill-Wood's FTCh Dacre Hiwood Frank to victory in the 1964 Championship. In a career which began in 1930 and spanned 35 years she qualified 19 times and gained 11 awards: four of them firsts. Her last Championship was in 1965 when she won a Diploma of Merit with the defending Champion Frank., though she did return to Judge for the sixth time at Woburn in 1970.

 

     A precedent for multiple wins had been set earlier by a woman who is unquestionably the pre-eminent figure in early Labrador history. The summary in The Best of the Best can barely do justice to the extent of her involvement and achievement. Mrs Quintin Dick, later Lorna Countess Howe, became the first woman to judge a field trial in 1920. She had already, by then, been one of the founder members of the Labrador Retriever Club, its Secretary in 1916 and later its Treasurer and Chairman.

 

   She bought FTCh Balmuto Jock from his breeder David Black after he had gained Certificates of Merit with him in the Gamekeepers National Association Stakes of 1923 and 1924. The dog which he considered the most intelligent he had trained went on in her hands to run in six successive championship, taking an award in each. Two equal thirds were followed in 1926 by his first win in Dumfriesshire. In 1927 he alone took third in a Championship won by FTCh Beningborough Tanco and then, in 1928 and 1929, he secured his second and third wins making his handler the first to win the Championship three times with the same dog. She would win for the fourth time in 1936 with FTCh Balmuto Hewildo.

 

   Lorna Countess Howe had first made an impact in the Championship with second and third places in 1921 and 1922 with Dual Champion Banchory Sunspeck. She exemplified an era when dual purpose ideals could be more than an aspiration. She won Best in Show at Crufts in both 1932 and 1933 with Ch Bramshaw Bob and again in 1937 with Ch Cheveralls Ben of Banchory. Nor was Sunspeck her only Dual Champion: all her dogs were required to show their worth in the field and in the period up to 1939 members of her Banchory kennel won 57 firsts, 45 seconds, 24 thirds, 13 reserves and 34 certificates of merit.                                                                                                                    

 

   Add to all this the fact that she also made up champions with English Pointers and English Springer Spaniels, winning the AV Spaniel Championship in both 1926 and 1927 with Banchory Bright, and you have a truly towering figure. Indeed, a fitting tribute to her outstanding contribution to the gundog world is the 'Lorna Countess Howe Memorial Trophy' presented annually at the Retriever Championship by the Scottish Field Trial societies for the highest dog in the awards entered by an owner resident in Scotland.

 

   Of course, focussing on such luminaries sadly no longer with us, is to risk downplaying the present contribution which is very significant. Tess Lawrence has qualified 21 times and won in 2007 with FTCh Willowyck Ruff. And she, along with Jayne Coley and Heather Bradley in particular have, in recent years, made up the majority of John Halstead's England retriever team. Jayne and Heather have qualified 12 and eight times respectively and all three have judged the Championship. Sandra Halstead, who won in 1979 with FTCh Westead Shot of Drakeshead, qualified 25 times between 1976 and 2011 and she has run and been placed since.

 

     Gabrielle Benson, a winner in 1971 with the influential FTCh Holdgate Willie, qualified 17 times between 1957 and 1988 as did Mary Rountree who, among many others, handled FTCh Holdgate Bebe in a Championship career that spanned the years from 1976 to 2002. Audrey Radclyffe, associated with the famous yellow Labrador Zelstone, was twice second in the Championship, in 1948 with FTCh Zelstone Darter and in 1957 with FTCh Zeltone Moss, and in total she qualified 11 times between 1947 and 1973. Diane Ryan qualified 15 times between 1970 and 2004, whilst both Joan Hayes (Staindrop) and Janet Webb (Birdbrook) qualified 12 times, as did Mrs A Heywood Lonsdale between 1949 and 1974.

 

   There is no need further to embellish this account to make the point that women trainers and handlers have, from the very earliest days and consistently since, made a very significant impact on the highest levels of competition. Many of today's brightest talents have not yet had the time to accumulate the sorts of records that have been acknowledged here. But there is every reason to be confident that some of them will. The Best of the Best tells an amazing story which is far from concluded.

   

    

The Best of the Best: A History of the IGL Retriever Championship

Graham Cox and Dr Gareth Davies

Pernice Press 2013

 

www.pernicepress.com


 

 
Duckhill Goes to England

Our Manager, Mauri Jourdan, and our Lead Trainer, Elizabeth McGlawn, will be heading to England! They will be visiting with Robin Watson of Tibea Gundogs, participating in various training sessions, and attending several field trials. They are looking forward to learning all they can about the British ways. During that time, October 26 through November 6, the kennels will be closed for appointments. If you have a puppy that will be ready to be picked up during that week, please contact the office at 901-846-6119 or puppies@dickhillkennels.com to schedule your pick up either before or after those dates.
 

 

~Haggis~ 

 

Haggis is back from Montana. He had a great time with his eight new Labrador buddies. He got introduced to water, elk, mule deer, cattle, one black bear, trout streams and a little retrieving. He is great on place boards. He learned it about 3 times faster than most Labradors. He is currently steady on place board for short tosses of a dummy. He is super at delivery to hand. He is a natural water dog.

 

Robert Milner - Sep 2014


 
 
The Duckhill Family is Growing!
 
Congratulations are in order for our Vet Tech, Diana. She and her husband welcomed a healthy, happy baby girl recently! We are so excited and overjoyed for her and her family. Welcome to the world baby girl!

 
 
 
Retired Breeder of the Month - Duckhill Molly 

   

Duckhill Molly is our retired breeder of the month! Born on 11/21/2006, this sweet, fun-loving girl has given us many BEAUTIFUL puppies and been a great mother. This affectionate girl just wants to be loved on and would be a great addition to any family looking for an older British Lab! If you are interested in adopting Molly, please contact us at 901-846-6119 or puppies@duckhillkennels.com to schedule a visit. 
 
Adoptable Dog of the Month
 
Callie is our adoptable dog for September. She is an adorable 40lb girl from Duckhill Otter and Duckhill Forever Amber, born on May 13, 2013.  She would be an excellent pet and companion for a family with a laid back life style. If you would like to give Callie a life of leisure with your family, please contact us at 901-846-6119 or puppies@duckhillkennels.com to schedule a visit.

 
 
Duckhill Family Photo Album

Ava "is a retrieving machine and is on point with everything. I can leave her in the front yard, tell her to stay, come back from inside the house and she hasn't moved. She is a legacy from the grouse/otter litter." Thanks to DJ for sharing these photos and comment with us!


"Bosun, from Duckhill Otter and Tibea Saltmarsh's 12 Aug 2013 litter. He is truly canoe sized at 48 pounds and both a swimming and retrieving fiend, when he isn't napping." Thanks to Mr. Welch for sharing this picture and comment with us!


"Woody out of Rita x Tex 8 months old and bringing doves back. Again I couldn't be happier with the pup thanks Duckhill!" Thank you, Mr. Cozad, for sharing!
Robert Milner / 350 Bailey Morrison Drive / Somerville, Tennessee 38068 / 901-428-6694