Yesterday I left off with Freighter forgetting every bit of obedience he has ever learned when it was his turn to run at the hunt test.

The ACK Rule Book lists Handler and Dog Faults.  The dog faults are broken down into “Serious”, “Moderate” and “Minor”.  If Freighter had not delivered his bird to hand it would have been a Serious fault and he would not have passed the test.  However, per the rules, Freighter’s behavior could be considered minor faults, (I highlighted where I feel he fell short).

3.  Poor line-manners– heeling poorly; not immediately

taking and staying in the position designated; dropping a bird

at delivery; jumping after a bird; not remaining quietly on line

after delivery.

Of course too many minor faults and the dog can fail as well.  It is just a good thing that Freighter turned in a great performance on the marking portion of the test.  Plus this is a Junior test and the dogs are just learning.  Things that are tolerated at a Junior test may not be tolerated at a Senior test and would not be tolerated at a Master level test.  With each level the bar is set higher.

Last summer Freighter ran a three tests and he was messing around a bit with the water marks on his return, (just like Grandpa Thunder I might add).  He was also very sticky with the birds.  He got two passes but we decided to pull him from the last test in order to let him mature and work on the messing around and stickiness.  On Saturday he wasn’t sticky and his marking was so good that his handler decided to run him on Sunday and brush up on line manners as best he could when he got home.

Normally we do not train in between tests because you aren’t likely to really fix anything.  However, obedience is different because even a short session can yield improvement.  Freighter’s handler worked on his heeling.  He also worked on Freighter fetching and holding a duck simply by tossing one in the basement and using the e-collar to reinforce those commands as necessary.

Did it work?

Sunday’s test required a long walk to the land series.  Freighter was pretty geeked up by the time he got to the line.  His heeling was better than the day before but far from perfect.  His delivery to hand was nice on both birds so it was onto water.

The water test was pretty straight forward. A dead bird to the left which was visible and one to the right which landed behind a row of cover.  I don’t know the official name for the plants that made up the cover, but they looked just like grass and many dogs thought it was land and tried to get up on it only to find that it was not solid and they were still in the water.  Once they got into that stuff, they got a bit disoriented and had to find their way out and to the bird.

I will answer questions on Friday, but I wanted to clarify something.  becomingcliche asked:  If a dog goes around a small body of water to get to the bird, do they fail?

Generally not at the Junior level.  Unless the dog shows a real reluctance to enter the water, the judges understand that some may run the bank.  As a general rule the dogs are only judged on the line they take going out to the bird, although we also work to present a nice return.   Judges try to set Junior marks so that the dogs are not tempted to run the bank.  However, when you have an oval-shaped pond sometimes you cannot avoid it because you also need the marks to be far enough apart so that the dogs are not drawn back to the area they picked up their first bird.

The fact that Freighter got up on land, picked up the bird and got back into the water to return on Saturday’s second water mark was a big deal for a Junior dog, (thank you Darrin).  Where that bird fell could have been very tempting just to run around.  I think that is why the judge’s cut him so much slack when he was messing around at the very end.

By the time it was Freighter’s turn on water, he was ready to go.  His handler worked on getting him to the line on all four paws.

I think Freighter dropped the bird once, but his handler told him to fetch it and he delivered it to hand.  Freighter just needs a nice retrieve on the last bird for his title.

Freighter dropped the second bird a couple of times, but did not play with it and listened to his handler much better.  He delivered the bird and the judges told his handler that he has a really nice dog.  We rarely hear that because we run Chessies .  His handler felt really good finishing this test.

From here Freighter will be working on retrieving double marks and training blinds.  We will be taking private lessons with Darrin to help his handler teach Freighter the things he needs to know for Seniors.  Freighter will also be working on his line manners.  We are not sure he will be ready to run Seniors this season.  We would really like his line manners solid before he tests again and part of that may be waiting for his brain to mature.  In many ways, he is still a young dog.

Related articles

• Freighter’s Junior Test Part 1 (2browndawgs.com)
• Monday Mischief – Hunt Test Mischief (2browndawgs.com)