Right on point: Columbia Basin Pointing Labrador Club holds first training day

Training days are just as much for people as they are for dogs, said Doreen Oakes, president of the Columbia Basin Pointing Labrador Club.

“Most the time it’s the handler that screws up and not the dog,” she said. “The dog knows what to do usually.”

Seventeen club members met Saturday at Quicksilver Kennels, on Road 18 Northeast, Moses Lake, for their first training day, where they learned how to teach their dogs to point and retrieve, preparing them for both certification and the field.

“We’re just amateurs that want to get together and help each other train our hunting dogs,” Oakes said. “A lot of us just like to go pheasant hunting, and we need a dog to do it.”

There are three levels of certification, she said. The first is called CPR, or Certified Pointing Retriever. Then there is Advanced Pointing Retriever. The final one is Grand Master. Dogs can repeat this process up to four times and become the highest rank of four-time Grand Master.

After a round of introductions, Greg McCallin, a club board member, gave a safety spiel. From there, the group split in two. Half flung bumpers, or fake birds, and worked on retrieving, and the other half planted live quail and worked on pointing.

At a field next to the kennels, Labradors of all talents sniffed out quail and retrieved bumpers. Plenty of four-time Grand Masters waited their turn among puppies just beginning.

According to pointinglabs.com, the pointing tendency in Labradors started in Issaquah in 1980 with Vince Retacco and his yellow Lab, Bullet. When he noticed Bullet’s unusual pointing tendency, he started breeding for the trait.

In 1997, the breeders moved across the pass to Ellensburg, introducing eastern Washington to the new trait.

“Our club motto is, ‘Who says it’s not nice to point?’ right? Because Labs aren’t supposed to point,” said R.J. Marquart, owner of Quicksilver Kennels. “The retriever people, they think it’s a defect if a retriever points.”

German shorthairs, English setters, Brittanys, vizlas and others are traditional pointing dogs, Marquart said. Some believe Labradors are meant to retrieve only.

“I wear Levis. Somebody might wear Wranglers, right? They’ll frown on Levis,” Marquart said. “The cowboys don’t wear Levis. Well... I ride all the time.”

But the tendency is catching on, Oakes said. The Northwest Pointing Labrador Club stretches into Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. They’ve grown so “fast and furious” that eastern Washington decided to split off and have their own branch.

The Northwest club offers two certification events a year, Oakes said. With the new club, which formed in February 2020, they will have twice as many opportunities to certify dogs.

It also offers more training opportunities, formal and informal, she said. The club is really a place for like-minded people to gather and work with their dogs.

After this February kick-off, the club will host training days one Saturday every month, Oakes said. Hunt tests, for certification, will come every spring and fall in Chewelah.

In just one year since they started, holding very few events due to COVID-19, the club is already “50 strong,” McCallin said.

According to Marquart, they’re just getting started.

“(Someone) asked me, ‘Did you ever think it was gonna be this big?’” he said. “It ain’t even big yet. It will be.”

Sam Fletcher can be reached via email at sfletcher@columbiabasinherald.com.