I have long believed this Black Labrador Bitch is the best game finder in my kennel, but she has always been slower in gaining gundog awards when compared to my other Black Lab Bitch FTW Russlayne Bracken of Northglen (Poppy).
Several training friends have questioned my wisdom, in pursuit of field trial awards with Tilly, she has always been a good hunting dog but the the handling skills of the dog and handler have fell short of the required standard.
Despite these results in the field trialling world, Tilly has never failed to deliver when out picking up, she has the ability to turn an good day into a fantastic day! there was one occasion when she picked 25 runners and over 50 dead birds in one day.
Many handlers would have probably given up on Tilly, but I was never convinced I had given her sufficient training time, in 2012 my other Lab (Poppy) was successful winning 3 field trials, and in 2013 my working cocker demanded more of my time which produced 7 field trial awards.
There are only so many hours in the day and my priority always needs to be on my clients dogs, whilst trying to compete at the same time. After making a decision to retire Poppy from field trailling this enable me to concentrate on my next best prospect, which was Tilly.
I was very close to winning back in August on her very first 2014 field trial, but we messed up on the final retrieve, we then went on to collect a couple of certificates of merit and again failed in other field trials on the last bird, a pattern which was beginning to frustrate me!
Like most hardened field triallers, we spend stupid sums of money and hours in pursuit of that elusive win, frustrated by poor performance, controversial decisions or just plain bad luck.
Occasionally we get an award, which serves as encouragement to work harder and pursue good fortune on the next occasion and if we are fortunate to win, it makes it all worth while.
I was extremely pleased to win with my best picking up dog! a term I am proud to use and is what a proper retriever is all about in my opinion.
Tilly is now 6 years old, which for some handlers is far too old to be winning a novice or all aged field trial stakes, but it shows a dog with experience can always deliver results.
Never give up on good dog!
