ROBERTSDALE — Watch Eddie Youngblood in the yard of his Robertsdale home as he plays with and trains his 3-year-old black Labrador, Tar, and you’ll see a man who is having the time of his life. It’s also clear from the way Tar inches forward while Youngblood is talking, and the way he presses his head against Youngblood’s leg while they are working, that the dog returns the man’s affection equally.

They are a good team. And, for the record, Tar is not for sale. Yes, Youngblood plans to breed Tar, but not right now.

Working together, Tar and Youngblood have earned Tar (more formally known as Texas Lone Star Tar) “Hunting Retriever Champion” status in the Hunting Retriever Club. The club, which has more than 8,500 members, was founded in 1984, and is affiliated with the United Kennel Club in Great Britain. According to the HRC’s Web site, the UKC is the second largest breed registry in this country and was founded in 1898.

Getting to this level, one few dogs manage to achieve, is not easy.

“You have to work yourself up,” said Youngblood. “There is the “Started Hunting Retriever status, then Hunting Retriever Champion, and then Grand, where you have a hunting test.”

The stakes were high when Youngblood, Louise, Youngblood’s wife, and Tar made their way to Georgia last fall. About 340 dogs were entered in a contest, a lot of competition for Tar, who is considered to be relatively young in the dog show game, He was especially young to be a first-time competitor at that level.

“Only 86 dogs passed,” said Youngblood.” This was the first time we hunted for a Grand. Only five dogs younger than Tar passed, which is good because some people pay pros to work their dogs.”

Youngblood prefers to train and work his own dogs. He gets some pointers from a Minnesota dog trainer who winters in Summerdale.

“He’s been training dogs since he was 13 years old,” said Youngblood.

“With one person and one dog, you can spend more time,” said Youngblood. “I do a lot of listening (to what the pros say and do) and you have to have a little luck on your side.”

One of the things Youngblood likes about the HRC is that “the tests are realistic.”

“It is like hunting,” said Youngblood, who says he has been hunting sine he was a youngster. “A gun (loaded with blanks) is fired and the birds come down (the birds have been humanely destroyed beforehand and are tossed into the field.) The dog has to pick up the birds in the designated order.”

A dog is expected to “honor” another dog by staying close, off a leash, to the starting line of a competition but not interfere while that dog works. Some of the retrieves might be on land, others in the water, Youngblood says.

Earning a new championship level takes close teamwork between dog and handler. The dog has to be obedient and trust his or her handler completely. The handler, Youngblood says, “has to be on top of everything. Both are working together.”

One of the tests for a hunting retriever champion is a “blind bird” test.

“The handler has to know where the bird is, but the dog does not, and then the handler directs the dog to the bird,” said Youngblood. Dogs sometimes have to work about 150 yards away from their handler.

Even the handler does not know what to expect.

“For the Grand,” explained Louise Youngblood, “There was a parking lot full of handlers, dogs, trucks and spectators in front of a Lowes. Someone showed up, and led us to the test area, which would be a different place every day. That happened every morning of the five-day test.”

On the second day of the Grand, the remaining competitors receive awards, simply for surviving to that point.

“They gave me this beautiful ribbon,” recalled Youngblood.

There’s one more HRC rank for Youngblood and Tar to earn — Grand Hunting Retriever Champion.

That will be a first for this area.

“I don’t know anybody in the south part of Alabama who has passed Grand with a dog,” said Youngblood.

The Youngbloods are going to give it a try.

“We’ll be going to Iowa in October for the Fall Grand,” said Youngblood.

Youngblood got the hunting bug as a boy, and still goes out with Tar and his other dogs in season to hunt dove and ducks. He began with the HRC in 1994.

“Growing up, I always had bird dogs,” said Youngblood. “But I was out and met a man, Mark Miller, who belonged to the Hunter Retriever Club. It was like fishing, I got hooked.”

Even people outside the sport can appreciate the time and teamwork.

“When they work it is poetry in action,” said Louise Youngblood who said she reads and only looks up when Eddie is working his dog at a competition. “It really is a partnership. The dog and the guy or gal make it happen.”

Youngblood had another Labrador, Tug, who he trained up to earn championship status. That effort ended in tragedy.

“I had Tug,” said Youngblood, eyes troubled as he recalled the story, “and I took him out (to a field in Silverhill) the Wednesday before leaving Friday for a competition, and he had something go in his heart or in his brain. He just dropped dead.”

Other members of the HRC offered Youngblood dogs.

“I had to tell people I needed to find my own dog,” said Youngblood.

Youngblood’s friends had pups from a mating between two grand hunting retriever champions from Louisiana, and he saw some possibilities.

“There were good bloodlines there,” said Youngblood. “I could tell a little bit from the pups my friends had.”

Youngblood brought home the coal-black puppy, purchased for about $500. There was one problem — the pup had no name.

“I had a hard time naming him,” admitted Youngblood. “My wife insisted I give him a name before we got home.”

Looking at the pup’s coal-black fur and general stick-to-it nature, it wasn’t long before “Tar” came to mind. The name stuck.

Youngblood and Tar started working together right away.

“You start at 4 months old, throwing them a bone,” said Youngblood. “After Tug, I knew I wanted a well-behaved, obedient dog.”

Fortunately, obedience is one of Tar’s strong suits. Youngblood boasts of sending Tar across a waterway, then driving off for a short distance, returning to find Tar in the same spot.

One of the keys to training, says Youngblood, is “ … repetition. Have a plan, and then stick with it.”

The Youngbloods have made friends as they have campaigned Tar.

“We travel and meet an awful lot of nice people,” said Youngblood. “The money isn’t great. You get enjoyment knowing that your dog can be great and you now have a good dog to hunt with.”