No not quite a lab entry, but I don't think you could ask for more. And anyway, it's not about the entry...The very first hunt test we ever did, she wasn't even one year old. She is/was a natural. She flew through the land series and even had a retrieve on an unseen that the judges "just wanted to see if she would do it." I was on cloud nine-the judges asking to see stuff that wasn't even on the test just because they were so impressed with her. I would go down in the record books as some kind of training savant!
But then she hit a snag in the water and it was my fault.
She really hadn't had enough experience retrieving in water, but because she always had a love for water I figured-let's see what happens (which is just short of a "hey ya'll, watch this" moment)
Long story short-she was SO energetic and entered the water SO hard, that she cavitated. When she cavitated she panicked which made her paddle even harder, and so she cavitated even more. She came back to shore and that was that for the hunt test. The judge was genuinely disappointed, and I was just shy of devastated. It was a wake-up call for me, and led us to the point we are now. There is no substitute for training, not even genetics.
So to me-the most moving pictures aren't the ones with the big splash. She's done that all her life. To me, they're the ones where she's perfectly planing. She's learned her pace, is comfortable in the water, and has retrieved items further out than I was comfortable her going; but she did it. We did it.
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