Ponderosa Springers

Greetings from the field trial grounds here in SW Missouri. I handled Keeper here on Friday and, like in Tennessee at the Hall of Fame trials, I was not feeling well enough to handle him effectively.

I feel the need to go back to Idaho for another round of HBOT therapy, and to be seen by my Boise medical teams as well as my Kalispell, Montana electrophysiologist. Just a week ago I spent both Sunday and Monday in two different Missouri ER’s.

So, my young North Dakota dog trainer friend, Hannah Hayes, had graciously agreed to work with Keeper and handle him in some field trials for me this spring. We are both very excited about the arrangement and see it as a win-win-win for Hannah, Keeper, and me.

I wish Hannah and Keeper good luck and may they have lots of fun together. As the photo below shows…they have already hit it off pretty well!

A great match… FC AFC JoJo’s Easy Keeper and his trainer, Gary Riddle…

Training for Alberta 5 days post neck surgery #2 in just 3 weeks…

One of our goals this month has been to work on line running (blind retrieves) and handling drills. This morning we went to a place where we’ve never trained before and this was Keeper’s first blind at about 60-70 yards. I think our efforts are starting to pay off!

Handling Drills This is "Handling Drills" by Ponderosa Springers on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Of all of the videos I have of Keeper working birds, this remains my favorite. I call it “Trust Your Dog”. The scenting was terrible but Gary Riddle was patient and let Keeper continue that day but on the third trip to the top of that hill Keeper’s persistence and Gary’s trust paid off! Keeper went on to win this Open stake with excellent bird work all day long.

This evening I walked up to where he flushed that pheasant and took this shot down into the draw where he made the retrieve. This was a day I’ll not soon forget…

Click this link to watch the video… https://vimeo.com/693602339