Hi, everyone. Exciting news! Today, Daddy ran Laddie in his first field trial since I’ve been in the world, and I got to go along. Not only that, but I even got to run a mark.

Here’s how the day went. First, we got up early for a three hour drive. Daddy stopped halfway to air Laddie and me and give us water, and when we got to the trial, he aired us again, gave us some scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon he’d picked up somewhere, and left us in our crates with the tailgate open and with bowls of water if we got thirsty.

It was a nice day for retrievers, temps in the high 50s and light rain. Daddy left us alone for about an hour, and then he came back to the van and went through his usual ritual of putting on his white jacket, whistle, and black gloves. He let Laddie out of his crate, put on his slip lead, and off they went.

I saw Daddy walking with Laddie out in the field for a while, airing him yet one more time. Daddy always wants to come to the line with an empty dog. I started to bark and whine a little when Daddy walked near the van with Laddie, but Daddy told me, quietly but firmly, to be quiet. He’s been teaching me that in the house and at training days for months, so I knew what he wanted, and was quiet in my crate the rest of the day. Sometimes I was lying down, sometimes I was sitting up or standing up and looking all around, but I just decided not to make any more noise.

Daddy and Laddie disappeared and I couldn’t see them anymore for a while even though I heard gunshots and some come-in whistles that sounded like Daddy’s. A few minutes later, Laddie was jumping back into his crate and Daddy was saying, ”You did a great job, Little Boy!” Laddie told me he had run a land triple, whatever that is. He said he had a go-bird flyer and honored the next dog, too. I didn’t really understand him but I was happy for him. 

Then he told me about his work. He said he took a good line just a few yards outside the flyer and then curled right into it. After that he nailed the two memory birds. That sounded thrilling. That’s how I want to run marks.

Daddy took off his equipment and went away again for a while. Then he came back and put it back on, but this time he opened my crate, snapped on my harness and leash plus my collar and tab, and called me out of the van. He took me out in the field to air, too, just as he had with Laddie. Then we started walking toward a popup tent and a line of holding blinds. I saw people in white coats with dogs, and I saw a couple of people carrying clipboards. It was so exciting!

Daddy kept me in one of the holding blinds while some gunshots went off, and then he told me to sit and brought me out of the holding blind and to the start line just like when we’re at training day. The only difference was that he had me on my leash so in case I decided to run around, I wouldn’t bother the dog that was there to honor me. But I walked with Daddy to the line and sat down, and he said cheerfully to the nice judges, ”This is the bye puppy.” He reached down and unclipped my leash from my harness. Following Daddy’s movement out of the corner of my eye, I looked and saw the guys in white jackets out in the field. They had guns and birds, and one of the gun stations had live birds.

Now Daddy showed me by his movement which way to look and one gunner after another fired a shotgun and threw a bird. For the last mark, a couple of guys shot the flyer out of the air. I think Daddy was holding my tab, but I tried not to launch until Daddy called my name so I’m not sure. Then I was off like a shot, leaping over a ditch and racing out to the flyer, living up to my name — Lightning!

I picked up the bird and spun around, but things sort of fell apart after that. None of the gunners were retired, all of those white jackets were confusing, and I couldn’t figure out which one was Daddy, even though I could hear his whistle and hear him calling me. I ran all the way over to the guy in the white jacket at the other side of the field, but when I saw that wasn’t Daddy, I spun around again, jumped back over the ditch, and brought the bird to Daddy. I came to heel, sat down, and waited till Daddy said Drop, just as we practice at training days.

Daddy got me looking at the gunner I had just come back from and called my name again, and I did blast off in that direction. But the ditch and all the excitement and confusion overwhelmed me, and I soon veered off in another direction. After a few seconds, Daddy called me back, snapped on my leash, and we walked happily back to the van. I jumped into my crate, drank some water, and started telling Laddie about my adventure.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful from my point of view. On the land blind, Laddie went out of control in the red zone and got too far wide, so he wasn’t called back to the third series. As Daddy drove us home, he got us some burger and cheese patties to tide us over until we got home for our regular raw food.

I think it would have been a good day anyway, driving around and playing outside with Daddy and Laddie. But getting to be the bye dog in a field trial was icing on the cake.