October 4th dawned wet and a little rainy, however the ISCS turned out with a lot of people and dogs.

  Professional trainer Trena Cardwell gave an informative and enjoyable talk covering the differences between Hunt Tests and Field Trials, then invited questions, all of which were promptly answered. Her Sunday co-judge, Larry Schwerdt, was also there to add some additional insights.

We then retired to the field where she worked with everyone with the pigeon poles. She started off with the puppies from the group, and continued on through the adults, giving all dogs their chance to see what the pigeon poles were about. Michael McGarry got to handle a number of dogs as their owners needed a hand. 

 When we finished up the first round, Trena had everyone retire to the clubhouse for another round of questions, plus Chris Greene's amazing, wonderful, spectacular "snack", wherein Ms. Greene showed off her culinary abilities - if you missed this then you missed a real treat!!

Once the mid-day deluge had finished, and folks had finished enjoying Chris' sumptious repast, Trena gave a demonstation of whoa-training using the control-collar. She both showed this using a broke dog and using a dog that had never had any training so as to show what the finished product looks like and also to show how to start on this method. Trena emphasized that this training works by allowing the dog to figure out what you want and to do the correct thing on their own before putting a word with this action - thus eliminating confusion in the dog's mind as to what the word actually means. 

We then returned to the field for another turn at the pigeon poles, to more commentary from both Trena and Larry, finishing up with another round of questions and answers from Trena. 

  We finished out the day with a fabulous potluck and doing the draw for the Field Trial for the next day. Amid wonderful commarader ie, lots of talk about wonderful dogs, and general good feelings, the day ended as well as it started.