Tag Archives: AKC Hunt Tests

Thunder Takes On A Challenge

Posted in dog training, Hunt Test by

The first series Thunder ran at Saturday’s training was a triple.  He did a nice job and picked that up clean.

The next series was something that Thunder has never seen before…a quad or four marks.

The marks were thrown in the order numbered on the diagram.

Quad

Quad–Marks Thrown 1-2-3-4, Picked Up 4-2-3-1

As Thunder watched the marks fall, it was pretty clear that this combination blew his mind a bit.

Thunder Watching Mark #1

Thunder Watching Mark #1 Which Was Out In The Field To The Left And Towards The Back

Thunder Watching Mark #2 Which Was Thrown By His Handler Off To The Right

Thunder Watching Mark #2 Which Was Thrown By His Handler Off To The Right

Thunder Watching Mark #3 Which Was Out In The Field To The Right

Thunder Watching Mark #3 Which Was Out In The Field To The Right And Toward The Line A Bit

Thunder Watching Mark #4 Which Was Thrown By His Handler Off To The Left

Thunder Is Supposed To Be Watching Mark #4 Which Was Thrown By His Handler Off To The Left

As you can see in the picture, Thunder did not turn to watch Mark #4.  He is used to seeing 3 marks, but not 4.  He was fixed on one of the marks out in the field.

Even though he did not watch it, the first mark Thunder’s handler sent him to pick up was Mark #4.

Thunder Being Lined To Mark #4

Thunder Being Lined To Mark #4

Thunder has been trained that if his handler lines him toward something and sends him, then he should run until he finds it.  Where a dog doesn’t see a mark, this can help out a bit.  It took some hunting, but Thunder finally found the bumper.

Thunder With Mark #4

Thunder With Mark #4

Thunder’s handler wanted Thunder to pick up Mark #2 next.  His handler turned his body so that Thunder would come back to heel and be ready to head in the direction of that mark.

Lining Up For Mark #2

Lining Up For Mark #2

Thunder At Heel, Still Looking Out Into The Field, (Remember In His Mind There Is Only Three Marks)

Thunder At Heel Getting Ready To Pick Up Mark #2

Thunder is still thinking about those marks out in the field.  In his mind, there are only three marks.  He is used to retrieving three marks.  He is over thinking this a bit.  After a big hunt, he found Mark #2.

He Has Mark #2

Mark #2

Next he is going to pick up Mark #3 which is out in the field and to the right.

Lining Up For Mark #3

Lining Up For Mark #3

Thunder Catches A Glimpse Of Mark #3 Out Of The Corner Of His Eye

Thunder Catches A Glimpse Of Mark #3 Out Of The Corner Of His Eye

Thunder found mark #3, but he was not really confident about it.  Luckily he caught a glimpse of it as he was running by.  At a test and in cover, unless he catches a whiff of a duck, he might just breeze by that mark, but today he got it. Good job.

Mark #3

Mark #3

Now the hard one, Mark #1.  It is the first mark Thunder saw fall.  He thinks he got all three marks so he is kind of lost on this one.

Lining Up For Mark #1

Lining Up For Mark #1

He could not find this mark, so he was handled to it.  Eventually he got it.

Mark #1

Mark #1

We will definitely train these again, but all in all Thunder put in some nice effort.

Good Job Thunder!

Good Job Thunder!

Follow-up Friday 2-22-13

Posted in dog training, Follow-up Friday, Fun by

I am honored to again join Heart Like A Dog to co-host the Follow-up Friday blog hop.  Thanks to Heart Like A Dog  for asking me to co-host this fun blog hop again!

It’s the the blog hop that lets you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

Hosted By Heart Like A Dog

Hosted By Heart Like A Dog

We hop every Friday so grab the badge and join us!

Why We Train “Steady” And “Honor”

It was great to read how many of you that you train some form of steady and honor, even if it isn’t for field work.

Sand Spring Chesapeakes, (who does train for the field), commented:

I would say we train for honoring a lot but that also goes along with steadiness, if you are honoring you have to be steady.

Good point.  One definitely goes with the other.  I have noticed that our two older dogs are a bit different when it comes to being steady and honoring.

Storm has a difficult time with steady.  She has broken off the line more than once unfortunately.  At a test, the call of a duck in the field can just be too much for her, so we work on her steadiness all of the time.  But, if she doesn’t break and makes it far enough in the test to have to honor, then she usually doesn’t move.

Fanny To The Ground Storm

Fanny To The Ground Storm

Thunder on the other hand is usually very steady at the line, even if it is a walk-up.  A walk-up is where the handler and dog are walking up to the line when the marks are thrown.  The dog cannot be told to “sit” until the first bird is in the air.  Then the handler cannot speak to his dog again until all the marks are down.  As you can imagine, with a dog already in motion and multiple marks being thrown, it can be tough for the dog to just sit and wait.

Steady Even On A Walk Up

Steady Even On A Walk Up

If Thunder has issues, it is usually with the honor.  He understands that if he sits still at the line for marks he will get birds.  But for honor, no matter how nicely he sits there, another dog is getting the ducks.  Sometimes it is too much for him.

ILoveDogs wrote:

Steady and Honor are good commands to teach any dog. I am trying to get my Aussie mix Pierson to stay and honor my Labrador Maya when she fetches. Otherwise, he beats her to the toy and she doesn’t want to play anymore.

This is a great way to work on the concept.  :)

This ‘N That Thursday

Anyone who has ever had a puppy probably understands the fun of the adolescent dog.  With Chessies they get to a point when they try to claim their place in the pack.  All of mine went through it.  They know where they stand with the other dogs, but they also try to figure out their place with the humans.  They know they can’t pull one over on my husband, but they do try with me.  Oh the mischief that ensues.  I would say Thunder was the worst brat as a teenager, but when he turned 18 months old, he snapped out if it.  Here’s hoping Freighter follows suit.

Mischievous Puppy Thunder

Mischievous Puppy Thunder–Yes That Is My Jacket

We won’t know whether the breeding with Storm was a success for a few weeks when she has an ultrasound.  Despite best efforts, I guess the breeding did not go as well as hoped.  Sometimes it is just the way it goes…

Storm

Storm

We hope to get some training in when we drop Freighter off at the trainer’s tomorrow.  Of course it depends on the weather which has been most uncooperative this winter.

Thanks again to Heart Like A Dog for allowing me to co-host.

To see who else is hopping or to join the hop, click the link:

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Have a nice weekend!

Tricky Test

Posted in dog training, Hunt Test by

The Master test this past weekend was pretty tricky.  Saturday was hotter than blazes with temperatures in the 90′s, bright sun and high humidity.  There were 44 dogs running in our flight so the first series took a long time to run.  Thunder was far down in the running order and did not run the first series until the full heat of the day.

The first series was a walk up to a land triple–2 dead birds and a shot flyer.

First Series

The triple was a bit tricky because the walk up bird was 38 yards to the left.  New AKC rules have shortened the distance to that mark and there is no duck call.  The dog must walk at heel in the direction of where the bird will come out and then the handler either says “sit” or blows a whistle to sit the dog while the bird is in the air.  It can be difficult for a dog to stay steady for a bird launched this close to them while they are moving.  Once the first bird is down, the handler must turn his body and hopefully the dog, to see the middle bird which was a shot flyer.  This bird was quite a way out in the field, down a hill.  The dogs had to break through some heavy cover of sorghum and sunflowers to get to it.  A few dogs broke on this bird.  Once the middle bird was down, the handler had to turn all the way to his right so the dog would see the third bird which was on top of the hill.  The gunner station was below the hill and not really visible to the dog.  Dogs had a lot of trouble marking that third bird.  Some went out to that bird, but then switched to get that middle bird (mark #2) when they could not come up with mark #3.

Thunder got a bit of a bad break on this series because he got a “no bird” on the shot flyer when the gunners missed it.  He had to go back three dogs and do the walk up and watch the marks again.  No birds are really tough for Thunder and tend to get him over excited and scramble his brain.  I think he would have had a good shot at picking up this triple clean but with so much going on, he needed to be handled to that middle bird (#2).  He did an excellent job picking up the first bird he was sent to retrieve (mark #3).  He pinned it and did not need to hunt that one at all.  But he hunted a lot for that middle bird (#2 shot flyer) and eventually his handler put him on the bird.  When he brought the bird back, it was in poor condition.  The gunners had really shot it.  I guess they wanted to make sure it was dead, but Thunder is not used to retrieving something that resembles road kill.  Mark #1 was close so no problem for Thunder.

Some pictures of the first series:

Getting Ready For The Walk-Up

At Heel

Mark #1

Watching Mark #1

Mark #2 Shot Flyer

Going To Mark #3

He Has Mark #3

Bringing Back Mark #2

Thunder did a good job on a tricky test and was through to the 2nd series.  More on that tomorrow.