Tag Archives: UKC Hunt Tests

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.

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Have a nice weekend!

Long Day

Posted in dog training, Hunt Test by

It worked out that the HRC Finished Test we ran last Saturday was on the way to Iowa where we needed to pick up our trailer on Monday.  We packed Thunder up and headed out Friday afternoon.  Storm was off with her breeder to be bred so Thunder was the only dog on this outing.

Thunder ran a test on these grounds in May that sort of blew his mind.  He did fine on the water portion, but the land test was too much for him.  He picked up a hot blind instead of the mark and failed.

I suppose there are other pieces of land to hold a test on these grounds, but for Saturday’s test, the judges selected the exact same field and the starting line was in the exact same spot.  The only difference was that the hot blind was to one side along a tree line and almost in line with a mark.  (Hot blind=a bird placed in the field before the marks are thrown.  Usually blinds are to be picked up after the marks.)

I managed to get a picture from almost the starting line.  This field is pretty narrow and quite hilly.  It is tough to fit a triple and a hot blind in the space.

Marks Are Black X’s and The Blind Is Orange (Click On Picture To See It Larger)

There was a lot going on in this test.  It was a triple with the marks going down as numbered 1-2-3.  A diversion was thrown as the dog was coming back with the last mark.  The blind was 81 yards down to the right and under the arc of mark #1, but almost in line with it.  Finally, there was an honor.  Whew.  The wind was really swirling and if the dogs got up over mark #1 they headed straight for that hot blind because it was so close and there was a lot of drag back scent in the field.

Waiting For The Marks (Honor Dog Is To The Right)

Thunder picked up the marks 3-1-2.  He nailed the first mark (#3), but mark #1 he needed to be handled because he ran over it and his handler did not want him to pick up that hot blind.  On mark #2, he put on a kind of big hunt.  He was playing the wind and went as far as the corn, but since he has had enough hunt test experience, he knew it wasn’t going to be in the corn so he circled back and got the mark.  The diversion almost landed on him, but he held his bird and then picked up the diversion when directed.  He did fine on the blind.  He needed a few handles, but eventually got it. He did fine on the honor so it was onto water.  This was a very challenging land series with only maybe 3 or 4 dogs out of 30 going through clean.  All and all, we were happy with Thunder’s work, but he would have to be clean on the water marks since he already used his handle.

Off To Mark #3

He Is On It

Good Boy!

Sending For Mark #2

Coming To Heel

Thunder Is The Honor Dog

To Get To The Starting Line The Dogs Had To Walk Through The Test – Thunder Is Finished And Just Waiting To Exit

Exiting The Land Series

The water test was a triple with a water blind.  Pretty straight forward.

Water Series

The marks went down 1-2-3.  The hot blind was under the arc of mark #2 and required the dogs to pass quite close to that old fall.  The wind was still swirling so mark #2 was floating around.  The blue arrows show how it was moving.  The darkest blue arrow is the direction Thunder’s bird floated.  Many dogs had trouble with these marks.  Dogs had trouble hunting up mark #2.  Mark #1 landed on the bank of the pond.  Many dogs got up on the bank and headed toward the hot blind and had to be handled back to mark #1.

Thunder’s handler and I discussed the order to send him to pick up these marks.  We figured he would pick up mark #3 first no problem.  It landed in the open.  But that #2 and #1 mark posed a problem.  Would it be better to send him to mark #1 since he is comfortable picking up marks outsides first and then middle?  Or would he do what the other dogs did and get on the bank, not see that bird and swing around to the hot blind figuring mark#2 would be an easier mark?  Thunder’s handler decided to send him to mark #2 before Mark #1 to take that mark out of the picture.  No problem, Thunder picked up both mark #2 and mark #1 without a problem.  In fact he was one of the cleanest of the afternoon on those marks.

Heading To The Water Series

Directing Thunder To Stop Messing Around And To Come To Heel

Coming To Heel

Mark #2

He Has Mark #2

The last thing he had to do was pick up that blind.  It was a long day and it was a challenging blind, but doable.  Thunder was already being a bit of a pain and playing with the birds a bit before bring them back.  His handler lined him up…sent him to the blind…and he peeled off to the left.  OK stop and give him a right over.  No.  Stop again.  Over.  No.  After a few of those he was called in, but he wouldn’t come back and continued to hunt in the lilies to the left.

We are not really sure what his issue was.  His head has been a bit in the clouds due to Storm being in season.  But we sent her off a couple days before so she wasn’t even there.  Those lilies were Thunder’s downfall in a previous test we ran on these grounds.  He did the same thing on the water blind, he followed his nose and not his handler’s direction.  It was well after 5pm by the time he ran the water series and the test started at 8am.  It was a long day to have him blow it on the last element!  He did a lot of good things during the test, but it can get aggravating when they blow something that has been solid in training.

Tomorrow some follow-up to questions left in comments.  I am still trying to catch up and haven’t had a chance to go back and respond to each comment, but at least I can try to answer questions.  :)

Thunder’s First Finished Pass

Posted in dog training, Hunt Test by

Thunder ran another HRC Finished test this past Sunday.  It was a one day test and only about an hour away.  Unfortunately there are no pictures of him running because I did not attend.  It was going to be a hot day and we did not want to bring Storm and Freighter out just to sit in the heat.  There was a professional photographer there so hopefully he got a couple nice pictures of Thunder in the field and they are not too expensive.

Even though I didn’t attend, I do have test details, (which I hope I have right).  The first series was a water triple with a tricky 70 yard water blind.  Thunder did very well on the water triple.  He had a bit of problem on that long water blind, but he was still in for the afternoon land series.  The afternoon series was a land triple, (down a hill again!), a diversion, a 90 yard land blind, and an honor.  He did fine on the triple and diversion.  He needed help with the middle mark of the triple, but since he ran the morning clean, that was OK.  He had a bit of trouble with that long land blind but was still OK.  Just the honor left.  In HRC they usually do the honor with the handler of the honor dog sitting on a bucket quacking and shooting along with the handler of the dog that is running the marks (the working dog).  After last week’s mess up on the honor, Thunder worked this week on honoring his brother, Gunner.  It must have helped because he was steady.  A pass.  His first Finished pass.  He brought home a pretty red ribbon.  Great job Thunder and congrats to his handler.

Thunder’s First Finished Ribbon

Storm came home from the trainer on Saturday, so as promised here is a picture of her with her ribbon.

Storm’s First Master Pass

Good job Storm and Darrin!

Later this week I will have some pictures of Storm training since we didn’t waste any time entering her in a Seasoned test next Saturday.  She only needs one pass for that title and we hope to get that completed.