This ‘N That Thursday is for those times when you want to post about unrelated topics or each topic isn’t quite long enough to make up a whole post. It can be anything you want, so feel free to grab the button and join us!
My week has been consumed with something going on with the American Chesapeake Club which is the parent club for our breed. I may share my thoughts on it at some point, but not right now.
Right now we are waiting on a big snow storm to hit us on its way to slamming those of you on the east coast. They are talking about as many as 6 inches here, but a possible 10 inches up at our cabin!
Freighter is all anticipation.
Maybe I Will Be Able To Get More Snow On My Nose
Thunder is not impressed.
Blah, Blah, Blah
Have a great Thursday and keep an eye to the sky if you are in the path of the storm.
I only took a few pictures at the WD/X/Q because where I was sitting, I just couldn’t get a clear shot. I could see the whole test, but I was a bit far away to get good pictures of the land and at the wrong angle for good pictures on the water. I usually try to blend into the gallery so as not to be a distraction to the dogs running the test and only stand up or move for my own dog. On water we were very close, so I stayed put.
Woody, Thunder’s Grandson (Freighter’s Brother), Bringing His First Land Bird Back In His Very First Hunt Test
Grace On The Flyer–She Has Been Training Where Freighter Is Training And Passed Her First Ever Hunt Test With Flying Colors
Radar (Thunder’s Son) With The Flyer
This Was Also Radar’s First Hunt Test–He Did An Awesome Job
Thunder Waiting For His Turn On Land
Thunder With The Flyer
Woody In The Holding Blind, Waiting For Water
Woody Water Mark-He Did An Excellent Job For Such A Young Pup In His First Test
Three Generations Of SRR Dogs Had A Great Day–From Left To Right–Woody (Thunder’s Grandson) Earned His WD, Thunder Earned His WDQ, Radar (Thunder’s Son) Earned His WD
The 2 WDQ Dogs–Maggie And Thunder
Congratulations to all who ran and all who passed.
A few weeks ago Finn Howard asked how long we have been hunt testing and how we got involved. I promised to answer, but then got very busy. Maybe it is good that I put it off until now because Sunday was a sort of “full circle” moment. Have to warn you though, it is a bit of a long story.
When we got Thunder in 2006 we were looking for a hunting dog to hunt waterfowl and upland. We wanted to start our puppy out right so we enrolled him in a “Personal Gun Dog” training program. I think he was around six months old. The class was for both retriever and pointing breeds and focused on upland hunting. The first couple of weeks were basic obedience lessons with the group. The trainer took a real liking to Thunder and after a couple of weeks the group lessons became private lessons which consisted of simulated hunting in the field. The trainer introduced Thunder to gunfire and birds and Thunder did the rest.
Working The Field
Retrieving A Bird
Delivering The Bird
Last Training Session
Graduation
Hunting season kicked in and Thunder did both waterfowl and pheasant hunting. I don’t have a ton of pictures from these hunts since I wasn’t there, but it wasn’t long before Thunder figured out that hunting stuff meant BIRDS!
Ready To Go Grouse Hunting In The Upper Peninsula Michigan
Thunder On A Pheasant Hunt At 9 Months Old
Thunder is first and foremost a hunting dog, but in June of the next year (2007), the Michigan Chesapeake Bay Retriever Club held a Working Dog test. This is a test for a certification from The American Chesapeake Club. The entry-level test is back-to-back singles on land and water with a shot flyer. We entered Thunder to try it out. Thunder had no formal retriever training at this point aside from the gun dog training the previous year. The little training we did was to make sure he would come back when called and hopefully with the bird. It wasn’t necessary for the dog to deliver the bird to hand, just bring it close. I don’t have any pictures because the day of the test it was a driving rain storm. Thunder passed. Of course we were thrilled.
Thunder WD
There were dogs running the higher stakes that day. A couple were running WDX and one was running the highest stake, the WDQ. We watched them through the pouring rain. They were amazing. Here we were with our young dog just hoping that he would go out, pick up a bird, and bring it back. He was unruly walking to the line. When the birds went off you better have a very good grip on his collar or he would be off before the duck hit the ground/water.
Those higher level dogs were coming to the line at heel and off lead. They were steady and marking two and three birds. And there was this thing called handling where the guy with the dog used whistles and hand signals to direct the dog to the bird. I never knew a dog could be trained to do that kind of thing. The handler made it look easy. On that day, I could never imagine our dog could do THAT. Hubby was bitten by the hunt test bug and so was I. Our journey began.
We sent Thunder off for six weeks to a trainer for force fetch and when he came home we started to run tests. Boy did we have a lot to learn about training and testing. Thunder passed his first JH in 2007. Hubby did some training with an AKC judge who lived close to us. She helped him learn about hunt tests and hunt test training. He also joined an HRC club looking for training partners, but at that time, few people who owned labs were interested in helping a newbie with a chessie. We kept training. We threw a lot of single marks. Thunder finished his JH title the next summer.
First Junior Hunter Pass
In 2010 we wanted to get Thunder, and now Storm, to the next level of training and testing, but we had no idea how to do it. Sometimes you have to push the dog when they are learning handling, but we did not want to push too hard. We sought out a professional trainer to help us. We have spent many hours training with him and with a group and just the two of us. We have trained in rain, blistering heat, and snow.
Yesterday watching Thunder run the WDQ test was a full circle moment for me. Thunder did a fabulous job on the test. He nailed the marks. The land double and land blind were straight forward. The combination land/water triple were not long marks, but there were factors that could have thrown him off and they didn’t. The water blind was close to one of the marks, but his handling was very nice. All these years later, our dog was doing THAT!
Thunder Land Mark
Thunder Delivering The Bird To His Handler In The Holding Blind So The Water Blind Could Be Planted
Congratulation to Thunder’s trainer/handler and to Thunder–
Ch HR SRR’s North Point Thunder Bay SH WDQ CGC
New Working Dog Qualified (WDQ)
Thanks so much to everyone who worked hard to put the test on Sunday. It was a beautiful day. Thanks to Cindy and Gary for breeding such a wonderful boy. And a special thanks to Darrin Morman of Farpoint Retrievers for helping to get Thunder to this level. We would never have gotten this far without his help.
Since the 2 brown dawgs have been training for Senior and Seasoned Hunt Tests, I thought I would write an overview of just what is required as part of these tests. I am not an expert or a judge, so part of this is based on what I have learned working at tests, part is what I have been told by those with more experience, and part is straight out of the rule book. The AKC Hunt Test Rule Book is 68 pages long, so obviously I have summarized…a lot. In this post I have included Basic information and the required Elements of the AKC Senior Hunt Test. The next post will cover Scoring, UKC Seasoned Hunt Tests (how they are similar to, and different from, their AKC counterpart), and Costs to Enter these tests.
The Basics
In order to earn a Senior Hunter title, a dog must earn a qualifying (or passing) score on each of 5 tests (each test is called a “leg”). However, if the dog has earned a Junior Hunter title, then only four legs are needed. The 2 brown dawgs have each earned their Junior Hunter titles so they only need to pass 4 legs to earn their Senior titles.
Each test consists of a land and a water portion (also called “series”). Dogs must perform equally well on both land and water. Two judges set up the test and grade the dog’s performance. In a Senior test, the Judges grade the dogs after the land series and only those dogs who have performed adequately are “called back” for the water series.
Dogs must come to the “line” off lead, with no collar and at heel. The “line” is the area designated by the judges where the dog will commence a retrieve and return after the retrieve. Dogs must be “steady” and remain ”steady” while their handler indicates that he is ready, the Judge signals for the marks, all of the marks are thrown, the Judge releases the dog, and he is sent by his handler.
Storm Going To The Line Off Lead At Heel
In Senior Hunt Tests, one controlled “break” is allowed. A “break” is when the dog leaves the line before being sent. Once a dog “breaks” the handler must recall and re-heel the dog before re-sending it. If the dog gets too far out, or does not immediately return when recalled, that break would not be considered “controlled” and the dog would not pass.
I have a couple of old videos to help show parts of tests. This is a video from 2009 showing Thunder being steady as he earned his Working Dog Excellent (WDX) Certification which was offered by the American Chesapeake Club. Many of the requirements of the WDX are similar to the AKC Senior Hunt Test requirements (however, the distances are much shorter for WDX). In the WDX, dogs are brought to the line on lead (Senior Test would be off lead). This is a water double. The first (“memory”) mark was clear across the pond out of view of the camera, but the second “go” mark can be seen falling on the left side of the pond after the Judge signals by raising a white card. You can also see the dog that ran before Thunder returning from the “line” and the dog running after him coming to what is called a “holding blind” to wait for his turn. I took this video with my small pocket camera and the “Gallery” was quite a distance away so make it full screen to see it better.
We have been working all winter to improve the 2 brown dawgs’ heeling and steadiness. The difficult part of this is that at a test you have the excitement of duck calls, gun fire and the Holy Grail to a dog….ducks! Sometimes the temptation is just too much, and both can tend forget their obedience when heading toward the line. Hopefully the training kicks in and they remember heel and sit.
Thunder Returning With His Bird
Good Boy Thunder
Once the dog has made a retrieve, it must return to the handler’s side and deliver the bird to the hand of its handler. The dog must hold the bird gently and release it on command. If the dog refuses to release the bird or renders it unfit for human consumption, then the dog will not be given a passing score.
The Elements
One set of land double marks
One set of water double marks
A blind retrieve on land
A blind retrieve on water
The blinds may be run as a double blind on land and water (but blinds should not be run between marks )
A diversion shot (can include throwing a diversion bird)
A walk up (the mark is thrown while the dog is just coming to the line)
An honor
Thunder Honoring
A “mark” is a visible fall. A “blind” is where the dog has not seen the bird fall. For a “blind”, one of the test workers places the bird in the field, out of sight of the dog, just before the dog is sent to retrieve it. The handler knows where it is, but the dog does not. The handler directs the dog to the bird using whistles and hand signals. The distances on land and on water should not normally exceed 100 yards. There should be at least one shot flyer. Decoys are usually set out and the use of natural hazards is encouraged, (for example requiring the dog to run through tall grass, or mud or enter an icy pond).
This is a video of the WDX land double from 2009. The “memory” mark is thrown first and is sort of behind a building from where I was allowed to stand. The second mark is the “go” mark and is a shot flyer. This test was held at a gun club so you can hear multiple shots (from people shooting skeet across the road) and from the pond behind us where they were running the water portion of the test. You can also hear that the wind was howling. In addition, there were multiple whistles from behind us at the pond where someone was handling a dog. Handling and blind retrieves are not a part of this test, but they needed a dog to get the mark off the water due to a dog who did not pick it up. They didn’t use decoys in this test, but you can see a clump of grass (a natural hazard) that the dogs had to drive through for that memory mark. Due to so much “stuff” going on, Thunder did not always have his eye on where he was supposed to go, (you can hear the comment from the peanut gallery about whether or not to send him ). Of course he knew just where to go, but needed a second whistle to locate his handler after picking up the bird. He was so excited he did a huge Chessie parade before coming to heel. Besides coming right to heel, we have also been training to line him to marks more cleanly. Again, tiny camera, make it full screen to see it better.
). Of course he knew just where to go, but needed a second whistle to locate his handler after picking up the bird. He was so excited he did a huge Chessie parade before coming to heel. Besides coming right to heel, we have also been training to line him to marks more cleanly. Again, tiny camera, make it full screen to see it better.
