TODAY'S SNIPPETS FROM THE HISTORY OF THE LABRADOR

No-one really knows who the forebears of today's Labradors were and how they got from Europe to Labrador and Newfoundland. Mary Dalgarno's research suggests that those forebears might have been French farm dogs.

TODAY'S OBEDIENCE TRAINING HINT

In our experience it never pays to beat a dog with a stick, whip or even a noisy but harmless rolled up newspaper.

TODAY'S RETRIEVER TRAINING HINT

hen the dog has successfully delivered the training dummy to hand, make him sit quietly for a moment before EXPLOSIVELY releasing him from work into play mode. Do something like this .... Shout out GOOD BOOOOOOOOOY and throw your hat in the air for the dog to catch. You can never, repeat never, praise a dog too much for doing the right thing.

Teaching a dog to swim at an angle across a river is always difficult, so work up to this by teaching your dog to come across a river at an angle without a dummy. Sit your dog on the opposite bank, walk along your bank until the dog has to swim at a 45 degree angle to you. Then call the dog to you. When the dog knows the exercise well get him to come to you carrying a dummy. Finally, now that the dog knows the particular run across the river, let him see you place a dummy across the river at the point he has been coming from, and send him for it.

THE LIFE OF BEN

Ben has a new rug for Xmas. Up till now when he's waiting for Doug to come home he sits on an old blue ex-Navy blanket behind the security grille on the back door. Now Merede and Kimmy have given Ben a beautiful $35 rug from Belgium. It's grey and white with flowers of unidentifiable type and Ben's vigils will now be more comfortable, not to mention up-market. But, best of all, there is room on the rug for Kimmy when he's in Dougcare.

PROFILES OF GREAT LABRADORS

In the 1960s, two Labradors were imported from England who subsequently had a major impact on the breed in Australia---Ch Wendover Jonah and Ch Sandylands Tan. A number of breeders found that by blending the blood of the two, stock of very high quality could be obtained. In retrospect, it would seem that Jonah was able to hand on to his progeny: excellent front angulation, with well laid back shoulders and good reach of neck, good toplines and short coupling, together with exceptional working ability, intelligence and character. His descendants are usually neither lazy nor placid, but tend to be active dogs as required by the standard. He was dominant black (BB) so all his progeny were black. He also contributed size/height.

Sandylands Tan, on the other hand, was able to hand on to his offspring and descendants, excellent hind angulation together with very good rear movement, density of coat, good thick otter tails and, most importantly, balance.

Both dogs had thick, strong bone, broad skulls, well-chiselled heads and a nice dark eye colour. Breeders who combined the blood of these two with success included Mr and Mrs Carlin ("Balloch"), Mr and Mrs Behm ("Kampieon"), Mr R. Jensen ("Glamwyr"and, later, "Glaronda"), Mr R. Clarke in South Australia ("Roycourt") and Maj A. Everingham ("Ellenarta").

PROFILES OF WINNING DOGS

Jake Christensen's Sam - National Retrieving Trial Champion Cobargo Captain CDX won over 500 Championship Points in his life. He came second in the National before he was two years old and won it in 1984 and 1988. While Sam was a truly great retriever, he could be beaten on his off days. Sometimes, and you could see the other competitors praying for this, he would perform a manouvre known in retrieving circles as "going out the back door". This meant that he would drive hard and fast to retrieve the game but, if he didn't hit it spot on, he would just keep going...and going...and going.