Last weekend Freighter earned his first Master Hunter Pass.

Master tests consist of three series which are run over a two day period.  Saturday it was very hot.  Luckily the venue had plenty of shade and there was a breeze.  Also, the judges made sure to have the dogs get into the water each series which helped keep them cool.

If you are a regular reader, you may remember that Freighter broke (or left to retrieve before being released) on the walk-up.  A walk-up is one of the required elements of a Master test.  The dog walks at heel next to his handler and must stop when the first bird (or mark) is thrown.  This tests the dog’s obedience.  In this particular series, three birds were thrown for the dogs, two in the water and one on land.  There was also a water bind.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Freighter Waiting For His Turn In The Holding Blind

Freighter did a very nice job on the walk-up and despite his excitement tried very hard to stay at heel.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Freighter Walking At Heel To The Marks With The Judge Watching

Freighter had a little hunt on one of the water marks but overall he did a nice job.  He also did a good job on the water blind which was across the pond, and all the way up on land behind a tree.  Remember for a blind retrieve, the dog has no idea where the bird is in the field and must be directed to it by their handler.  Some dogs were reluctant to follow their handler’s direction to the tree, but Freighter was good about taking direction.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Freighter Returning With The Water Blind

The second series, also on Saturday, was a triple with one bird in the water and two on land.  This series was pretty straight forward and Freighter did a nice job on it; however, a little issue cropped up during this series.  Freighter was required to sit and watch the marks being thrown.  He was nice and steady, but because he was not allowed to move, he proceeded to bark at the marks.  You do not want barking.  A hunting dog should be quiet.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever Heel
Freighter Walking At Heel To The Starting Line

The barking is something that just popped up in the middle of the test.  We had no real time to try to train it away so we just continued on with the test.  Lucky for Freighter the judges did not drop him, because they could have.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Freighter Retrieving A Land Mark
Chesapeake Bay Retriever Master Hunter Pass
Freighter With Another Land Mark And A Wing Over His Eyes

The third series was more complicated.  It was a land triple, two of the marks were in-line with one another and the other was off to the right.  In addition there was a land blind which was run under the arc of the mark to the right and a water blind which required the dogs to swim parallel to the shore and get up on a point.  There was also a diversion shot as the dogs were returning with the long mark.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Freighter Hears The Diversion Shot

Freighter has trouble with in-line marks so he had to be handled to the farther of these two marks, but otherwise he did a very nice job on this challenging series.

Chesapeake Bay Retriever
Freighter Returning With The Water Blind

Freighter did well enough to receive his first Master Hunter Pass.

First Master Hunter Pass
Freighter And Hubby First Master Hunter Pass

To earn a Master Hunter title, Freighter needs 4 more passes.  We know we have things to work on: the barking at marks and in line marks, so we will be busy training those things.

Note: I have had some issues with my blog and had to change some functions.  If you are an email subscriber, you will need to subscribe again to receive posts via email.  In addition, I will continue to share to Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin’ and other RSS readers.

7 thoughts on “Freighter Earns His First Master Hunter Pass

  1. Freighter you are fabulous! Congratulations and many thanks to your mom for such great photos!!!! Pawty tonight? I still have some beer in my fridge :o)

  2. I had just realized I wasn’t getting my email notifications, thanks for explaining that, I will re-subscribe. Sorry you’ve had issues – what a pain!

    Congrats on getting that first pass! It sounds like he did very well with the tough parts, so I’m sure you’ll work through the other things as well.

    1. Thanks for subscribing Jan. I hope to catch up with blogs myself. Why do things break when you have zero time to deal with it?

  3. Congratulations! Good luck with training through the barking–one of our classmates struggles with that in agility class; she doesn’t like it when her mom ignores her to listen to our trainer’s feedback and we’re in a big echo-y building, so once the barking starts, nobody can hear anything else 🙂 They’ve been making progress, so I hope that you do, too!

  4. Good job, Freighter! With your mom and dad helping you train, we know you’ll get those other four passes. 🙂

  5. I’m sorry, but I laughed when I read he barked. That is something Delilah would do. If things aren’t happening quick enough for her, she lets you know she is impatient.

    I’m glad the judges didn’t drop him though and he went on to get his first pass. Congrats to all.

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