On the 20th September 2009 Lloyd entered his first Novice Dog Novice Handler working test competition, which was held by the Southern Branch of the United Retriever Club. There were a total of 30 dogs in the competition ranging from 15 months to six years of age, Lloyd being one of the youngest.
The day started with a marked retrieve in a field down a slight slope, the second test was a marked retrieve followed by a blind in the same area, the third test was a shot fired with a blind retrieve and the fourth test was four shots fired over a ditch with all blind retrieves. We then broke for lunch and the final test of the day was a driven test where ten dummies were thrown with a shot for each dummy and one by one we were asked to leave our dog on the sit and pick up one of the dummies.
Lloyd achieved on all of these tests and scored 95 out of 100. He received a COM and came fifth overall.
Our friends and training partners, Susi Hastings won the competition and Alistaire House came fourth. Thanks to Dan Higgs from Higgscroft for all his help and advice on training our dogs.
