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The Wingham Advance-Times, 1975-10-02, Page 23w 6 tY i bonus thew yW A q, 4wel Banner; ;� �J �Inghaa#!11*eeR Time. and **tint Eft Coate, 4er1te is res l by 33,200 p people in the "hearWnud trf Midwestern Ontsr10". , (Rased on 3.5 readers 1* each of ORM homes.) �6' Published every Week on The Listowel Scanner, The Winghom 4►dwanceeTimes and The MOOtat Forest Confebderate by Wenger Bros. Limited. --Cr ssroa cto 2, 1975— • A bit of TLC, a scratch behind the ear and you have a lifetime of devotion A hobby is something that you choose to do in your spare time because it's relaxing or exciting or it satisfies whatever it is that you want satisfied. Hobbies are activities that you do to get away frojn it all. A bobby allows you to explore any area of interest which catches your fancy from time to time. The most important aspect of a hobby is that you do it for pre- cisely one reason ... you like it. Whether it's photography, card - playing, scuba diving or an- tiques, the successful hobbyist often finds that he is spending more and more time on his hobby and less and less on everything else. The ultimate reward of a hobby can be that it becomes a full-time activity or profession. What more could you ask? You can do what you like doing most and make a living at the same time. Don Dodds is one of those lucky people who has been able to suc- cessfully make the change from hobby to profession. Mr. Dodds began as a child training his own pet dog and over the years acquired the skills that enabled him to be a professional trainer. He works out of his own kennel and game farm near Teeswater, called Dawnflight. Seventeen years ago, Mr. Dodds began training dogs for friends and acquaintances. As he became better known for his talents as a trainer, more and more , people wanted to bring. their dogs to him. He .now has clients from across the province. Mr. Dodds' prime interest is the breeding, training and show- ing of bird dogs. They come in the varieties: retrievers, point- er and flushers. For those of you who aren't hunters and prefer to get your Christmas goose frozen - style at the supermarket, re- trievers go out and pick up the downed birds after they have been shot; pointers move about in front of the hunter, called quar- tering, and point to any birds that they locate; and a flushing dog quarters in front of the hunter and puts birds` into the air. Point- ers and flushers also retrieve birds after they've been shot. Goldens, Labs and Irish Water Spaniels are the most popular re- trievers. Some of the pointers are Brittanys, Irish Setters, German Short Hairs and English Point- ers. The French have one called the Poodle Pointe but he doesn't bear much resemblance to the clipped city model. Most of the flushing dogs are a breed of Spaniel. Go Straight! Field trials are events that offi- cially recognize a good hunting dog. It doesn't mean that you can't have a good hunting dog without going to field trials. It's somewhat like the difference be- tween being smart and having a BA after your name. You can have the best dog in the world but if you want to proclaim it publicly for breeding or selling purpos you must go through the official field trial process. However, the fact remains, that a very excellent hunting dog may never see a field trial simply be cause his owner is satisfied with the self-knowledge of his dog's worth. put if a dog has never par- ticipat+d in field trials it canonlY be describedofficially ds a gun dog. Field trials to a professional trainer are like gunpowder to a bullet : they need them to get any- where. "It's not enough to say that I've trained 20 exceptional gun dogs," said Mr. Dodds. "4I must receive official standing from field trials." Field trials have another purpose besides standardizing a hunting dog's achievements. Hunting season lasts only a couple of months so field trials fill in the gap for the rest of the year. Trials keep the dogs and the owners in shape as well as making it a year-round sport. Es- pecially during September and October, field trials occur in abundance. Every weekend, somewhere in Ontario, there will be people with their dogs com- peting in a trial. They're held whether it rains, shines or freezes. The one I attended at Luther Marsh qualified because it rained and froze. Some of the other 150 people at the marsh thought that they had to be a. bit daffy to get addicted to the sport, ' 'but none were abottt'to go home in spite of the weather. Warm clothing, umbrellas and ther- moses of coffee were the order of the day. CONCENTRATION—The two fingers direct Big John to where the bird is located. In spite of his obvious anticipation, he will not move until given the signal by Don Dodds. The idea of a field trial is to simulate actual hunting condi- tions. An empty field, often with water, shotguns loaded with blanks; and dead pheasants sets the stage: Judges watch the per- formance of the dogs and assign them points. Each dog' and its handler is called to the line, which is at the edge of the.field. At distances of up to 250 -yards out in the field stand three men with shotguns. They're given a signal and in turn they fire their guns and throw a dead bird in the air. Visibly quiv- ering, the dog sits and obediently 'waits for the command from his owner to retrieve it. When retrieving birds in the actual hunting situation, it is most desirable to disturb as few other birds as possible. For this reason it is essential that the dog travel in a straight line whether it means going over a fence or swimming a river. This can be a pretty tough decision for old bow - ser, when going straight can mean breaking ice and swim- ming 20 yards, and going around can mean a five second run on . dry land. There are three birds in the field and to locate them, the dog must remember where they are or be directed to them by its handler. Memory and obedience are, therefore, two tnuch sought- after qualities of a good hunting dog. The last bird thrown out is the first one the dog will bring back. It's the easiest and most dogs get it with little direction from their owners. The good ones pick up the second bird with just a bit of help. The third bird can be tricky. It's often a blind which means that the dog hasn't seen it fall, so • he must rely on directions from the handler to locate it. With whistles, yells and the odd curse all three birds are brought in. Sometimes one of the younger dogs will get tired of the whole bird, thing, smell something that's more interesting than day-old dead pheasant and take off across the field, in spite of threats and pleading from his owner. However, this is the embarrassing exception. The rule is that one good blow on the whistle from the owner produces a well-trained dog, sitting in the field 200 yards away, to look back for further instructions. Love and Leather Obedience is the first part of training for any dog. "When. a dog comes to me for obedience training," said Mr. Dodds, "he has already learned his name and has been house trained. But most people have neglected to train the dog to heel. When the owner goes out with him, the dog takes him for a walk instead of vice versa." Mr. Dodds mentioned that another command often left out . of a dog's training is a word to tell him to get into things like the car, the boat, the box or the house. He uses the one word "kennel": Instead of the many variations of "Come on Rover", `Over there. Rover", "Get in Rover", which don't always work, Mr. Dodds gives the one commabd of "kennel". This simplifies things for Rover, by giving him just one word to remember for a number of different situations. It takes five to six weeks to train a dog in obedience and this would cost about $170 at Dawn - flight Kennels. "At seven weeks old," said Mr. Dodds, "any dog has full learning ability. You can teach him any- thing within his physical capabi- lities." He said that he'd much rather get a dog when he's very young but that there is no truth to the statement that you can't teach an - old dog new tricks. "Any dog can be trained," he said. "I've trained dogs which were twelve years old." • If a dog is going to be trained for field trials as well as obe- dience, he learns both simul- taneously. Obedience training goes on for seven weeks but field training is never really com- pleted. Once he begins to learn to be a hunting dog he must stay in training for the rest of his life. "The key to successfully training a dog is to - be con- sistent," said Mr. Dodds. "You must use the same word every time. If you give a dog a com- mand to pick up a bird 200 yards away, you must be prepared to run that 200 yards yourself to miaite sure he 000- l nev give -a command unless I mean it." "The most Affective rewards," he said, `` `are praise and affec- tion. If he does something well, I let him know it. I scratch his ears and give him pats. If I tell him to sit and he's not down pretty fast . well the leather's flying." - Love more than leather seems to be the formula that makes Don Dodds a good trainer. The dogs know the sound of his tractor, even his footstep and before he can get within a couple of hun- dred feet of the kennels, there is a symphony of welcoming barks. Rex Mr. Dodds has trained all breeds to be hunting dogs as well as gun dogs. On any gtven day his kennels will usually have a mix- ture of Spaniels, Setters, Goldens and Labs. Golden Retrievers and Brit- tanys are two of hispersonal favorites. Ile breeds Brittanys to be gun dogs and has recently imported a little Golden pup of champion stock from the U.S. Mr. Dodds has owned Goldens previously but this one may prove. to be very special indeed. A Golden Retriever hasn't won the national champion$hip in Canada in the last 20 or more years. Mr. Dodds has taken this as his own personal challenge to produce one. The Golden is somewhat pooh- poohed in the field trial world as being not quite up to scratch .... • absent-minded and a doddler. They say that this is why a Golden hasn't won the cham- pionship for such a long time. The in thing is to have a black Lab.' They've been proven in the past to be talented, tough and capable of winning at -field trials. Mr. Dodds intends to set the record straigh‘by, training a Golden to become national champion. Personally this tri- umph would be extremely satis- fying. As a professional trainer it would be most significant be- cause it would show him to pos- sess exceptional training skills to have overcome the problems in- volved with a Golden. Training a Golden for the na- tional championship is where Rex comes into the picture. He is now 14 weeks of age. One of his first , experiences' when just several weeks old was to be put in a shipping container and flown up to Canada from the U.S. Mr. Dodds bought him over the phone and he gave the breeder two in- ptructions on hover :to pick the pup for him out of the litter: "I wanta male, and I want thebiggest hell- raiser of the bunch." He likes to see a pup that's bold acid he said that any .potential hunting 400, should be fast, aggressive, alert, well-proportioned and good- ' natured. Mr. Dodds has great expecta- tions for Rex, and, he has good. reason. Rex's family ticee reads like a who's who of the doggie set. His father was a Field Campion, American Field Champion and Canadian Field Champion. His maternal grandmother was a. Field Champion, American Field Champion, Canadian. Field Champion, andhighest scoring living Golden Retriever Bitch. Rex's maternal grandfather was Field Champion, American Field Champion, and highest scoring Golden Retriever in the U.S.A. Rex . has _ been in training' for most of his carefree life He's a curious mixture of rosy -poly, big -eyed puppy and hard-work- ing, ard work- ing, serious apprentice hunting dog. One minute be's falling over himself to keep up with Big John, a black Lab, and the next minute he's obediently responding to a. command of "heel". Who knows, with a bit of luck and lots of hard work" Rex just might go all the way for the big one .and end up: in the record . books. Whatever his fate as one of man's best friends, he'llsurely see a lot of field trials, hear a lot of shotguns go off, have more -pheasant in his mouth -than most humans and he'll no doubt add a few ribbons and trophies tb Don Dodds' already large collection. RAINING AND COLLI—Jerry Moseanko of Mississauga and Boss wait behind the parti- tion for their call to the line. Thes °d that this was good ogs must not see the iperafing tg eefore it's their mperatureurn. They for Boss. were both wet and cold but Jerry BIG JOHN hits the water flying. He is one of the black Labs that Don Dodds has trained. As well as being a professional trainer and owner of Dawnflight Kennel and Game Farm, Mr. Dodds acts as a Iudge at field trials. "WE'RE A BIT CRAZY", said Dr. Richard Thoma of Tonawanda, N.Y., "but Beast likes the cool weather. As for me, on cold and wet days like this, I lust keep telling myself that I'm having fun."