No, it was big and black, but much friendlier than a bear.

Jack

This guy was hanging around the hunt test headquarters last weekend.  He was super sweet, but Storm was not convinced.  She growled at him every time he came anywhere near the truck.  Poor Jack, he just wanted to hang out and get pets.  Plus it was his house, he should have been growling at that little brown dawg.  😉

Just Relaxing

And now some follow-up…

Thanks for all of the congratulations on Thunder’s title.  It sure has been a whirlwind summer.  Thunder came back after his surgery stronger than we ever thought he would.  Storm has been making such good progress with her training that her trainer wants to try her in a Master Test in October.  We don’t think that is going to work out though because we are fairly sure she is just about to come into season, (of course you never know about these things :lol:).

Our Wordless Wednesday Post showing a dog that earned his Senior Hunter title the same day as Thunder sparked quite a response. Jodi Stone, lauren @ life with desmond, raisingdaisy and Jen  all commented that they didn’t know Standard Poodles could hunt or do hunt tests. Misty Shores Chesapeakes  reminded us that poodles were originally water dogs/retrievers.  Our pal snoopy@snoopysdogblog  wanted to know “Who’s that cute little Poodle?!”

Jake

Well let us tell you…  His name is Jake.  Misty Shores Chesapeakes is right, although Standard Poodles were originally used as hunting dogs, very few are used that way today and very few run hunt tests, especially the higher level tests.  Jake is one of the few Standard Poodles to earn his Senior Hunter Title.  Should he earn his Master Hunter title, he will be in rare company indeed.  Jake is very good at the hunt test game.  He heels like a dream.  Is absolutely rock steady.  Is an excellent marker and is quite the team player when it comes to handling.  When he goes out to fetch a bird, his handler just has to stand and wait.  When Jake picks up the bird he turns around and brings it back to his handler, no whistle needed.  I think AdventureJess,  who said her Aunt had a Standard Poodle, summed it up quite well: “Cool dogs.”  Jake has quite the fan club with people coming just to see him run.

Thunder

On our post, Going For Title, Jodi Stone wondered if Thunder’s dropping the birds was because he was tired.  Maybe sort of.  (How’s that for an answer? :lol:).  He ran a lot of tests in a row, and a lot of tests since the beginning of August.  When we started the summer, we had planned to spread out his tests.  Some in July, some in August and some in September.  However, his surgery changed that and the night of the surgery we were not sure if he would ever run another test.  After he was released to train and test again, we decided to try him in an HRC test.  He was so strong and did so well that we just kept entering him and we would see how far he got by the end of the season.  We think that by that last test, he was either having and off day or just loosing focus.  He was definitely not as sharp as the first several tests.  Or he was just being Thunder.  Bird dropping has been a problem from time to time with him.  It is a way he can mess around during a test.  He was good for the first several tests, but then the problem seemed to come back in the last couple of tests, especially with the yucky birds he had to pick up on water.  So we will work with him and his “hold” on yucky birds.  Winter project!  (Along with his heeling, always heeling with Thunder.  :))

Storm Test Dog Backwater

Storm will be running a couple of HRC tests this weekend.  Hopefully will get some passes toward her Seasoned title.  Then it is off to our breed specialty show with her breeder.  The show is taking place near Gettysburg PA next week.  We were supposed to go to this, (and I was finally going to see Gettysburg), but sadly this is a casualty of having to pay for Thunder’s surgery.  It would have been fun to watch all the Chessies (it like a big Chessie party).  But we really wanted to run our dogs in the WDQ stake which takes place on Sunday.  It is a mini hunt test which requires:

a double on land, a land blind, a water blind and a combination triple with two birds in water and one on land. Dogs must be steady and deliver to hand

They are ready to run this.  It would have been fun.  Ah well…can’t complain too much, we have had a fun summer and collected a lot of bling!

Have a nice weekend!

 

16 thoughts on “Is That A Bear?

  1. I love Jack! He is soooo cute! and it is funny come to your site and seeing a Newfie! yay!!

    I totally forgot that Poodles, by nature, are suppose to be hunting dogs! It is nice to see one doing what he was bred to do! Excellent!

    Good luck to Storm at the specialty show, I know how expensive those can be and we are already trying to save for ours that is in May!

  2. Wow that dog really does look like a bear! I’ve only seen one once (don’t know what breed it is though), and I heard they’re very sweet.

    Very interesting about poodles. I had no idea – talk about domestication changing a breed!

    Too bad about the Gettysburg event, but I’m sure you’ll be able to do it another time. Good luck on this weekend’s tests!

  3. So, the mystery Poodle was Jake!! Hi Jake!

    And gotta tell you I love Jack, he’s pawsome, I’d love to play with him, I could play with him while you guys are doing all the clever stuff!! 🙂

    Hope you have a great weekend,

    Your pal Snoopy 🙂

  4. Jack is big enough to be a bear, but look at that sweet face…we agree that is no bear. We love Newfies but never had one. Those are all great pictures of the dogs bringing in the birds. Hugs and nose kisses

  5. Hi Y’all,

    Newfies are awesome dogs!

    As for Jake, when we lived in Maryland there were a group of hunters on the Eastern Shore who hunted, not Chessies, but Poodles.

    When I was in highschool the first retriever my dad got me was a Poodle. They are super steady and so easy to train…which is why dad got him for my first. You never had to worry about him not responding to a command. If you put him in a “stay” he’d never budge even if someone else tried to get him to break. The Standards, used for hunting, that I’ve been around are very calm and laid back. They were never yappy or hyper.

    The little ones and minis. that most people are used to, are a different breed really. They were bred for entirely different purposes, so have different personality traits. The only thing they seem to have in common with the Standard is their coat.

    Y’all come back now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

    1. Your poodle sounds a lot like Jake. He is so good on the obedience part of the tests in addition to his abilities in the field.

  6. Thanx for the shout out and I love the photos. Maybe Jake will start a new trend or well and old one coming back, it would be nice to see more poodles out there!

    Good Luck at Nationals Storm! Oh and by the way Storm didn’t anyone tell you Chessie’s originated from Newfie’s, be nice 😉

  7. I always wondered what kind of a retriever a Newfie would be. I’d also like to see a hunting poodle in action.

  8. Jack looks like the perfect cuddle buddy! Loving all that fur!

  9. Very cute Newf – does he do the hunt testing, too? A poodle doesn’t surprise me, and I suppose a Newf shouldn’t either, since they’re also water retrievers. Though, with our experience, Moses’ patience for fetch is pretty short-lived.

    All the best on the upcoming events!

  10. Gorgeous dogs – all of them! I’ve always known Standard Poodles were smart and I knew they were bred to work, but I’ve never seen one hunting until now. 🙂

    Hope you all had a great weekend!

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