Gracie was born on July 10, 2010. She was the only yellow in the litter along with 5 litter mates, 4 black females
and 1 male.
I sent Gracie to get her force fetched but she had a little separation anxiety, so I brought her back home and did
the force fetch myself. This was actually my first attempt and I hoped I would not mess up with her training. She
and I did a wonderful job together and in 4 weeks we were done. We moved from the wooden dowel, to the
plastic dummy and then the challenge of frozen ducks. She is a smart girl and I am thankful that we were able to
experience doing Force Fetch together.
Then on to land training and water. Having her go further each time we threw a duck or bumper. Got her used to
the sound of the gun and then started training with a popper gun. Water well that was pretty funny her first swim I
think she thought she was going to drown after she realized she did not have any land under her feet, splashing
and trying to hurry to the other side. But that too only took a couple of tries and we realized it was fun and not
only that it was nice to get wet when it was hot outside.
I entered Gracie in her first hunt test in the spring, unfortunately she did not pass but that is OK because we will
do better next year 2011. She received her working certificate (WC) through the Labrador Retriever Club of
Greater Denver in 2010. This fall I have been working on beginning handling with Gracie, she enjoys her force to
the pile and loves to retrieve those bumpers, we still work on Force Fetch all the time to make sure she
remembers all she is supposed to.
I am looking forward to the spring of 2011 when the weather and water warms up to continue our work on getting
Gracie ready for the 2011 hunt test competition - I will post my results as they come in!
Here are some pictures of Gracie training last summer, also check out the pictures on the photos page!
and 1 male.
I sent Gracie to get her force fetched but she had a little separation anxiety, so I brought her back home and did
the force fetch myself. This was actually my first attempt and I hoped I would not mess up with her training. She
and I did a wonderful job together and in 4 weeks we were done. We moved from the wooden dowel, to the
plastic dummy and then the challenge of frozen ducks. She is a smart girl and I am thankful that we were able to
experience doing Force Fetch together.
Then on to land training and water. Having her go further each time we threw a duck or bumper. Got her used to
the sound of the gun and then started training with a popper gun. Water well that was pretty funny her first swim I
think she thought she was going to drown after she realized she did not have any land under her feet, splashing
and trying to hurry to the other side. But that too only took a couple of tries and we realized it was fun and not
only that it was nice to get wet when it was hot outside.
I entered Gracie in her first hunt test in the spring, unfortunately she did not pass but that is OK because we will
do better next year 2011. She received her working certificate (WC) through the Labrador Retriever Club of
Greater Denver in 2010. This fall I have been working on beginning handling with Gracie, she enjoys her force to
the pile and loves to retrieve those bumpers, we still work on Force Fetch all the time to make sure she
remembers all she is supposed to.
I am looking forward to the spring of 2011 when the weather and water warms up to continue our work on getting
Gracie ready for the 2011 hunt test competition - I will post my results as they come in!
Here are some pictures of Gracie training last summer, also check out the pictures on the photos page!
Land Training Summer 2010