Retriever Challenge Comments

"I went last week and spent several days there in advance of the Marking Challenge. The practice/training and the Challenge event were fantastic. Sean's set-ups are arranged so that you can work on most any concept that you may choose e.g. wide-open marks, converging, in-lines or over-unders; all on land or water. In addition, the marking series are complemented with challenging blinds to balance the setup. You can engage your dog in any level of work from singles, doubles, triples, doubles/singles or delayed triples or quads; take your pick.

A couple of the best parts are the variety of locations available to work and Sean & Sherree's willingness to help the dog/handler team. You can train on Sean & Sherree's new technical pond or get a tough workout at the stone quarry just down the road. Both Sean & Sherree are prepared to assist you through some of the tough parts of the setups if you ask for the help.

Both my dogs needed tune-ups, channel work and additional practice casting correctly over points. It was amazing to watch the dogs pick up their skill level during the sessions. I believe one of the advantages that help the dogs learn is that many of the marks and blinds can be repeated immediately in a slightly different location on site (something like a three-peat) with out repeating the very same mark or blind.

Traveling to Dockside Kennels has become the high point of my summer. This was the fourth summer for me, and I'm sure to put it on my calendar for next year as well. I highly encourage all trainers to take advantage of this opportunity to train your dogs at Dockside Kennels located on the fringe of the Huron Forest, meet new retriever people and to enjoy the hospitality and friendship of Sean & Sherree Barbey."

Todd Cooper

“I spent a heavenly weekend doing a blind challenge with Sean and Sherree Barbey near Harrisville, Michigan.
We started out on Saturday with a marking set up at nearby property, which we could run however we wanted according to our dog's abilities. I ran Gryffin on the long left mark as a double with the very short, up-close mark. The other two marks we ran as a converging double, something we have been gradually working up to. He did a fine job on all 4 marks, which boded well for the weekend.
Next were a series of 4 blinds, 3 on land, and one (125 yds or so) down a hill, across a farm road, through a slot in a hedgerow, into running water, across a dike of land, into swimming water to the other end of the pond. Phew! I moved up on both the first land one we ran and on the land/water one (moved down to the slot so I could see him), but overall, I was quite happy with the results.

We then moved to another pond area. The grounds where most of the challenge is held are stunning. I've heard stories about the grounds for years from local field trainers, but wow! The first water blind was run from a hill with surrounding woods into the left corner of the pond, with line across a very long and narrow island that ran at a diagonal to the line to the blind, into more water beyond the island across another 30-40 yds of water to the blind. The wind was blowing scent from the left blind across the island, and it sucked a lot of dogs multiple times in that direction. Before I ran Gryffin, Sean said "I think he's going to line this blind," to which I replied "I'll bet you $5 he's not, since I control the whistle!" Sean dashed off and shortly appeared at the blind, hollering and madly waving a bumper. I didn't have Gryff at the line, but close enough that he heard him and probably saw movement (we were trying to hide behind a bush ;-)). Gryff hit the water like it was a mark, and while he by no means lined it, I think he spent the shortest amount of time on the island of any of the dogs. He also got sucked to the left on the island, but took a great over off the island that he carried directly to the blind. The next blind was a diagonal across the left area of the pond, and I was very happy with how Gryff was handling. One of the battles we've fought many, many times is keeping him off a shore that's close, and he was taking some great over casts away from the shore.

We finished the day with a couple more blinds through running water. We struggled the most with the final blind, but Sean told me that my dog is really easy to read. I asked him to point out the subtleties that he was picking up on that were too subtle for my inexperienced eyes to notice. Since I know I can pick out those minute details in obedience, I think I can learn them in field as well!

On Sunday, I think because Sean saw the problems most of us had getting our dogs to cast off land into water behind them, we spent the morning working on their pond. We worked on "get in the water- get out- get back in-get out", etc. I was very pleasantly surprised when Gryffin took the first two points and kept going to the third longer & wider strip of land without any help. He did need a handle off the wider strip, but did a really fine job, including being honest on his return path. 

During the 2nd set of blinds, many people were starting with a pretty tough blind in which the dog had to pass between several points both close to the line and far away, plus cross over a strip of land with a tempting area to run on to the right of the correct path to the blind. The blind ended with the dog needing to get out and drive up a hill to the bumpers. Oh, and there were geese swimming back and forth seemingly guarding the area near where the dog needed to exit :-). Since Gryff has had little exposure to channel blinds, I started with two channel blinds that ended at the same bumper pile. This was a great confidence booster for Gryffin. Then we tackled the tough one, and with quite a bit of help at the end from Judy Smith saying "Handle!" before I would think to do so, we got through it pretty darned well. Unfortunately for me, my vision when my black dog is much beyond 100 yds isn't all that great, so I will blame some of my slowness to handle when he's far away to not being able to pick up on the nuances as quickly :-). 

Then we went over to Westmiller, the site of the infamous "teacuppers blind". I admit to ignorance for why the Teacuppers named themselves that (the Teacuppers are a group of women who've been doing this blind challenge for several years, with the teacupper's blind being a really difficult one run on Sunday afternoon). While all of the other blinds were new to the group, the teacupper's blind was a repeat from the previous year. The blind is about 100 yds long, with two islands about 20 yds from the end, two more about 40 yds from the end, and one more to the left about 30 yds from the line. The line to the blind goes through the middle of the two sets of islands. The islands are covered in trees and bushes, so if the dog veers behind it, you cannot see them. I'm very happy to say Gryffin didn't disappear (well, if I'm remembering right), and, while he did ping-pong a bit, he was generally making progress to the blind. We ran two more doozies from about the same place - both ending with the bumper pile on the top of what looked like an almost vertical hill. 

One of the final blinds had a slot between two pine trees that were closer to the line than the end, so the line after the trees was so narrow that I had to be VERY quick to handle so he wouldn't disappear from sight. Oh, and there were lots of trees and bushes near the line, so you couldn't side step much to try to find your dog.

Overall, it was an absolutely heavenly weekend with a bunch of great people, getting a hugely challenging set of blinds on amazing grounds that I never would have imagined my dog being able to do when we started. It was a great opportunity to build both Gryff's and my confidence in each other as teammates. Interestingly, I found myself needing to correct him less and less as the weekend wore on. I think on Sunday I didn't use my transmitter once, and only used a few verbal corrections."

Adele & Good Boy Gryffin

Adele Yunck
Ann Arbor, MI

“I could not imagine a better atmosphere to train in, or better grounds to train on all in one place. Sean and Sherree try to make you feel like family while you are there and it is one of the reasons I have made the trip three consecutive years. Bear saw more concepts this weekend than I could show him in six months with the grounds I have available at home. Just working on their technical pond is a great learning tool for both the handler and the dog.”

Don Horstman
Superintendent Kalida Schools

“The Retriever’s Challenge has helped me to become a better handler, understand how to read my dog and sharpen my skills as a handler.  No other tool has helped me as much as this weekend.  In fact, it’s the single most useful training that I do!  Learning how to break blinds down, looking for influencing factors that will affect your dog are some of the things that you learn. 

Running 22 blinds (or more) in one weekend on the terrain that is there is something that I simply don’t have access to here in NW Ohio.  You see angle entries, slot blinds, channel blinds and many points and peaks that your dogs needs to navigate.  No two blinds are the same and the dogs really progress from day one to day two.  Also, the progression of the blinds are set up so that your dog is seeing similar scenarios but in different areas of the grounds that they have access to.

Sean does a great job of helping folks if you’d like, or sitting back and letting you go on your own.  He helps handlers with their timing of whistles and reading what your dog is telling you as a handler.  You owe it to yourself and your dog to attend one of these challenges!”

Chet Welch
President Ohio Hunting Retriever Club

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