“Once Zak and I had mastered the basics, I decided to have a go at gun dog training myself. Robin grew tomatoes in his garden. Using the ripest I could find that were nicely soft and squishy, I placed three on the ground behind the dog. Then, using hand gestures, I indicated to Zak which tomato I wanted him to fetch for me. Zak had to learn which way to turn, and then be gentle to avoid puncturing the tomatoes. Finally, after a lot of hard work, everything clicked. All of a sudden, I had a dog that retrieved, and we quickly moved on to picking up feathers so that he could get used to the tickly feeling between his jaws and not instinctively spit them out.”