Getting started

Lightning’s Journal is a blog, and like any blog, it’s made up of a series of posts in the same order they were published. The journal also includes some fixed pages such as this one.

Lightning’s Journal is intended to serve two purposes. Obviously, it’s a memoir of the life Lightning and I are living together. But in addition, it’s also a complete training program that I’ve developed, called Positive Retriever Training (PRT), for training retrievers for field competition without the use of physical aversives.

My first two retrievers were Lumi and Laddie, both Goldens, and when I began training them for field work in 2007, no program existed for training field retrievers past beginner work that relied entirely on positive methods. In fact, virtually all trainers in the sport believed it could not be done. But Lumi and Laddie showed it could be done, and Lightning, my Lab, is continuing to show it can be done. Now a program does exist. You’ll find that program in this journal.

On this page, I’d like to tell you how to get started with the PRT program.

PRT, designed for training retrievers without the use of physical aversives, is modeled on Mike Lardy’s Total Retriever Training, 2nd Edition (TRT).  TRT is a set of five DVDs accompanied by a manual, and is available from YBS Media at:

Total Retriever Training, 2nd Edition by Mike Lardy

Mike Lardy is a highly innovative leader in the field of training retrievers. But broadly speaking, his Total Retriever Training (TRT) program shows how to train a retriever using traditional training methods.  By contrast, the Positive Retriever Training (PRT) program shows how to train a retriever without the use of physical aversives.  The training goals are the same, but the methods are sometimes different.  To explain those differences, the PRT program follows the TRT program every step of the way, but provides modifications showing you how to remove the use of physical aversives in the training while still achieving the same training objectives.
In order to use the Positive Retriever Training (PRT) program, please begin as follows:
  1. Download Mike’s Total Retriever Flow Chart and note the top section, Socialization and Introduction to Field. Stage 1 of the PRT program covers those 18 topics as well as a number of other topics. I would guess you’ll want to refer to Socialization and Introduction to Field many times during your dog’s first few months of training to help you gauge your progress together.
  2. Using the Table of contents of this journal, begin to work thru each post, basing your own training on the work I did with Lightning at the same point in the progression. Occasionally your dog might be ready for some of the work earlier than I started with Lightning (for example, Catching a ball, Trimming nails, and Installing an off switch), but I believe that most of the posts are in the same order you’ll want to use for your own dog. That’s because in most cases, the earlier training I describe gives the dog the foundation concepts that later training will build upon.
  3. As you continue your Stage 1 training, order your own copy of Mike’s Total Retriever Training, which we’ll begin to use when we get to Stage 2 of the PRT program. Please note that I don’t generally duplicate the information from Mike’s program in this journal, but rather depend on you to have your own copy of TRT to view as the foundation of the PRT program.

A Little about Mike Lardy and TRT

Mike Lardy is one of the greatest trainers of field retrievers of all time. TRT is his core retriever training program, a brilliant achievement and a major contribution to retriever literature.  In addition, Mike has also developed other video programs, an outstanding seminar program, and a large number of widely read and widely referenced articles.

It is impossible to overstate Mike’s influence on how American field trial retrievers are trained, and impossible to express how much I, as the author of PRT, respect Mike’s accomplishments and contributions to the sport.

A Little about Lindsay Ridgeway and PRT

Whereas Mike has won a record seven National Retriever Championships and trained more than 60 AKC Field Champions, I have only trained two retrievers to Junior and Senior Hunter titles and one to a Master Hunter in AKC Hunt Tests, two to GRCA WCX titles, and one to a several ribbons in AKC Field Trial Qualifying stakes.  Note that Qualifying stakes, where Laddie has competed, are the level of competition below the Field Trial All-Age stakes where Mike has been so successful with so many dogs.  As I develop the PRT program, Laddie has not yet finished an all-age stake, much less achieved the incredibly demanding accomplishments required for a field championship.
Despite all that, in my estimation, my dogs’ successes are not meaningless.  As far as I know, no other dog trained entirely without physical aversives has ever achieved an SH or WCX as both of my Goldens have, much less earned an MH, nor finished any stake in a Field Trial as Laddie has many times.  However, our success is still minuscule compared to Mike’s success.
Therefore, please know that it is only with the deepest respect for Mike, and the greatest humility in the face of his accomplishments, that I’m creating the PRT program.
In summary, TRT is an outstanding resource for training retrievers using the full set of tools available to the contemporary retriever trainer, including physical aversives such as electronic collar, heeling stick, ear pinches, and “force” or “pressure” in general. However, for those who wish to train field retrievers without the use of physical aversives, PRT provides a program to help you do so.