Yesterday Freighter passed his first Senior Hunter test.
Freighter has had an issue staying steady and also his blind work was not reliable, but yesterday he did a nice job on both.
The land series was first and it was a walk-up double with a blind and an honor. The first mark fell on the side of a ditch and the second mark was the shot flyer which fell in heavy cover. The blind was run to the left of the marks with the flyer station adding some suction away from the blind.
A walk-up is just as it sounds: the dog walks at heel toward where the mark is going to be thrown and the handler stops the dog (hopefully the dog sits) once the bird is in the air. Since this is a double, the handler must immediately pivot and hope that the dog turns with him to watch the second mark.
Freighter was steady for these marks. Hooray! Hubby has been working on his steadiness since he was a puppy. Freighter picked up the flyer after a bit of a hunt. The grass was pretty high and his bird fell in a different spot than most of the ones before so he kind of got pulled a bit beyond the mark before he hunted back to it.
He also hunted the second bird in the ditch. He used his nose and eventually got it. He usually is more precise with his marks, but I think he was excited.
The handlers received the bird in the holding blind so that the land blind could be planted in the field and they would not see it.
Now to calm down and run the land blind. Freighter did a nice job on this blind. He did try to dig over to the flyer station, but hubby was able to redirect him to the blind and he got it. Last year this was tough for him.
Freighter did fine on the honor. He heeled off the line very nicely when he was done.
His land series complete, he was called back to the water series.
The water series was a bit different from many we have run. There was a diversion shot while the dog was in the holding blind, then the dog ran the water blind. The blind was challenging because the handlers had to send the dog across the water and through some thick cattails and then past the gunner station and up on land to get the blind. If the dog completed the blind, they ran the marks which fell in cover on the edge of the pond.
Thank goodness we have been working in some heavier cover with Freighter because he did a very nice job on this blind. His initial line was good. He needed a handle just before the cattails to get him through them, and then a couple more to get him to the bird.
The water blind complete, Freighter just needed to retrieve the water marks to earn a pass. He was steady while they went off and did a nice job on these retrieves and brought home an orange ribbon.
Way to go Freighter!
Awesome work, Freighter! Congratulations!
Congratulations Freighter!!! BRAVO that was fabulous and a pleasure to watch you!
That was a nice straight forward senior test. Congrats on the pass!
Yes it was but with a bit of meat. I really liked that they added difficulty without making it a breaking test. So few senior judges do that these days.
Freighter will continue to gain confidence, cooperate, and instinctively work to be a great senior test taker! Congrats to all for the patience and care he has been given to reach this ribbon mark! Orange suits him! Photo and
schematics put us there, real education.
Good boy, Freighter!
Great job, Freighter!!! Congratulations!!
Yippee!!!! Good work guys!!! Excellent job!!!
sumskersandearlskers13.blogspot.com
Way to go pal!!!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
Congrats to Freighter and to you for taking some amazing photos. They are beautiful! 🙂
Congratulations Freighter and to you for all the time and effort you put into training him!
Congratulations, Freighter!
Terrific job Freighter!! You were paying attention and following all the signals for both ground and water:)
Hi Y’all!
Oh what a nice job Freighter! Those cattails can be really nasty to push through! and those you met look old, dead and wicked! Congratulations!
Y’all come on by,
Hawk aka BrownDog
Great job, Freighter! They always keep you guessing with these tests, don’t they? Do you know ahead of time what to expect or do you find out when you get there? It must be difficult sometimes to practice for every combination they might throw at you. It impresses me when they do so great!
You know what elements will be tested. For a Senior there will be a shot flyer, a walk-up, a land double, a water double, a land blind, a water blind, a diversion shot and an honor. But how all of that is put together and configured you find out just before you run. You can never practice every set-up. A change in wind speed direction can change a test from the beginning to the end so we practice concepts.
I am simply fascinated by your blog and the entire recap that you gave. What a fun way to test Freighter’s skills, and to mark your progress with at-home training. Great job. Thanks for the detailed recap; I love learning new things.
Great job. And he gave up the bird well! Isn’t he the one who likes to keep the bird?
That was Thunder. He was a bit sticky on the wet birds so he will be getting a few lessons.
Good job Freighter, congratulations! Love Dolly
This is wonderful! I love reading about Freighter’s training adventures!