Rory the Last

 

“If you ain’t training your dog, your dog is training you.” ~  Anonymous.

 

 Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,

This Gaddabout continues talking about my hobby of training hunting dogs.  It introduces Rory our new Golden Retriever.  I'm going to range around the subject and to paraphrase Adlai Stephenson, "I'm here to write and you're here to read.  Hopefully, we both finish at the same time." 

The story of how I came to be a member of the Four Points Retriever Club is here.  Last Oct, ’22, the club got an email from Patsy Hove, the club President, saying that a Golden Retriever was available for adoption.  If interested please give her a call. 

Now, I had been giving some thought to whether Rowdy was going to be our last dog.  He was 6 and that’s a good time for a guy like me to get a puppy and begin the training process anew.  That interval gives you a mature trained dog and a young dog in the process of becoming.  Four years later, you have an elderly dog nearing life’s end, a mature trained dog and it's time start a new puppy. Experienced hunting retriever guys manage their kennel so that they have three dogs spaced roughly 4 years apart.  Sadly, this also means that every four years they are saying good bye to a beloved doggy partner. 

I had been mulling over departing from our lifetime habit of having Goldens and getting a pointing dog.  That line of thought was interrupted with news of an adoptable Golden and after discussion, Ann and I decided to throw our hat in the ring.

We were the first, Patsy texted me a phone number and I found myself on the line with, well let’s call him Dan.  I found out he had health reasons for giving Rory up and we decided I’d drive up to his place in Central Minnesota that weekend to check each other out.  Soon, I found myself on the long drive up north, wondering what I was getting into. 

Within five minutes of meeting Rory, I knew I was going to adopt him if I could.  He’s big, strong and all Golden Retriever - tons of prey drive - I fell in love with him instantly.  Dan gave me all of his doggy equipment and toys which I loaded up in the back of the car.  I learned he had a Google Photos site and I got added to that.  In the folder with all of his paperwork was his AKC registration and some paperwork from Red Star Kennels over north of Hudson, WI.  Red Star had collar conditioned Rory for Dan.  I learned the owner was an émigré from Ukraine, which ‘splains the kennel name. 

Rory's Google Photos:  Click This.

We set off for home. 

 

Rory riding home with me.

 I lack the meager skills to describe the bittersweet feelings of driving off with a great dog you know you are going to love while the guy who really hates giving him up but has no choice grows smaller in the rear-view mirror.  I cried a single, manly tear.  

I’m going to gloss over the next couple of months.  At first, Rory and Rowdy fought like...well dogs. Bitings occurred, both of dogs and people. We neutered both dogs which checked the canine discord somewhat.  Gradually, instances of doggy fraternity became more and more frequent. Sometime after Christmas, they finally got used to the whole arrangement and became buddies.  They spent the snowy months of January, February and March running around chasing each other out on the lake.   

I called the trainer at Red Star Kennels and got some good information about what Rory knew and how he’d been collar conditioning. 

During that winter, I had some health issues and Rory’s training progress took a big hit. I had wanted to get obedient fetch and retrieve to hand done and failed miserably. 

A bittersweet training ‘success story’ came about the time of the winter thaw.  Rory showed up from a walk around the back yard with his first bird retrieve.  He had found a pet parakeet that had gotten free and frozen.  He came running up to me and delivered this scene of pathos to hand. 

Rory's first retrieve to hand.

 

By the time of the club’s first Hunt Test in late May, I had made minimal progress.  Rory was fairly good at heel, sit and come, but wasn’t very obedient under distractions.  We flunked the first day of the test for basic obedience issues.  About the humiliating event where he got his leash all wrapped around my legs and I fell hard down the hill while frantically holding onto his leash so he wouldn’t disrupt the other dog getting tested…well the less said the better.

The next day, Sunday, I worked harder at controlling him and he had learned a little from the previous day. We managed to eke out a pass.  He did a great job on the retrieves that day, living up to his potential.   

 

 The best thing about Four Points Retriever Club are the training days.  Our East Side Group meets every Thursday in the Kelly Farms training grounds north of Stillwater, MN.  In late June, the club did a really great thing that serendipitously advanced my skill in training. 

Ray invited Tim Springer of Dynamic Retrievers to give a seminar.  Tim patiently watched our dogs run and then critiqued what we did - good and bad.  I listened carefully to his insightful and pointed suggestions, totally impressed to be in the presence of a dog training wizard.

What he told me was frank.  I could continue occasionally passing at the started level with the wild dog I had or I could get serious about training him correctly. 

I learned he has a program called “Do it yourself”.  DIY consists of online links to short videos of him training a dog in a specific task.  These videos go from basic leash obedience exercise, through collar conditioning onto the obedient fetch and on up the retriever spectrum of skills to casting your dog to a blind retrieve – the Acme of dog handling.   

You watch the video, read the instructions, then use your phone to make a short video reproducing the exercise with your dog.   You text it to him and Tim critiques it.  I was hooked and after some discussion with Ann, I signed up for the program.

With two weeks of intelligently applied effort, Rory was vastly improved at heel and sit.  I was a little awed.  I can’t tell you how much easier this business is when the dog has good manners.  We are now working our way through fetch and deliver to hand and it’s going slower because Rory can be stubborn but we make progress every day.  

This On the Wing Podcast interview of Tim is a wonderful discussion.

This leads me to last weekend.  Our club sponsored the NAHRA Central Regional All Stakes Hunt Test and FPRC Hunt Test on the Benton Retriever Grounds up NW of the twin cities.  I entered Rory in the test. 

Rory was vastly more manageable and we passed both days.  There were glitches, there always are, but I’m really proud of Rory and what he did.  He is really living up to his potential.  

A really great thing happened on Saturday.  Dan and his wife drove down to the test and watched Rory run the last two water marks.  I was really pleased that they got to link up with Rory again and see him work.  This is Dan helping Ann dry Rory off after the event. Rory welcomed Dan back the way only Golden's can. 

I will end this Gadabout with a light-hearted story.  In the process of adopting Rory, I learned about American Kennel Clubs (AKC) pedigree naming protocol.  On Rory’s AKC Registration Certificate, his name is “Rory XXXVI”.  I thought this was the name that the breeder had given him.  I was wrong. The dog owner names the dog on the certificate.  So, when Dan completed the AKC registration he just named him “Rory”.  AKC insists the pedigree name be unique to the dog.  So, they looked back to see how many single name “Rory’s” there had been and it turned out my Rory was the 36^th Rory. 

AKC reserves the right to add Roman Numerals to a dog’s name, so they renamed him Rory XXXVI.  I also learned that 36 is the magic number - AKC will not number a dog past 36.  So, Rory is the last Golden Retriever Rory in annals of AKC pedigree names.  He's “Rory the Last”.

The gist of this is that when I go up to accept Rory's award ribbons, he gets called off as Rory the 36th. 

Speaking of award ribbons...

Rory's Ribbons

On that happy note, I remain,

Dad / Geoff