That about sums up the weekend.  We worked both days of the hunt test this weekend and are exhausted.  We have had cool, cloudy weather all Spring, but not this weekend.  This weekend we had bright sunny and very warm temperatures.  When you are working a hunt test, that makes for a long couple of days.  We worked at one of the Masters stakes and saw a lot of very nice dogs run that test….but oh that blazing sun!  This was the pond where we were throwing our marks.  (I sneaked the picture with my phone.)

As for Storm, well Saturday Storm brought us a nice shiny ribbon for her first Senior Hunt Test pass!  Her trainer/handler said she did a great job and was very happy with her performance.  She sat tight and never looked like she wanted to break, marked well and handled nicely to the blinds.

While the weather was bright and sunny all day, the late afternoon and evening brought clouds and rain.  I only had time to snap a couple crummy pictures in the pouring rain with my phone.  Storm doesn’t look happy, but that is because she had to sit on that tail gate instead of visiting.  When I see her next week, I will try to get a better picture of her with her ribbon.

As for Sunday, Storm had a very nice morning session.  We finished working at the Master’s test and went over to the Senior stake to try to catch her running.  The afternoon session was a water double, a water blind and an honor.  We tried to stay out of Storm’s view so that she would keep her mind on the test.  I couldn’t take any pictures of her from where I was sitting.

Storm did fine on the water double.  The last tough thing she needed to do was to get the water blind which was off to the left side of the pond.  One of the water marks was off to the right and the other was almost directly across the pond.  Storm’s trainer said she would probably try to go back to where she just picked up a duck, and that would require him to handle her left to the blind.  Try as he might, that little stinker Storm would not take that left over.  It wasn’t that she was confused, it was that she knew better where that duck was. (There are times that Storm still wants to do her own program while being handled and it is one thing that they continue to work on during training.)

This is what I imagine Storm was thinking during this point of the test….

Why is he lining me up over that way?  I just know that duck is straight across.

Oh well the sun must have muddled his brain.  I’ll let him point me the other direction, but I’ll go where I know that duck is.

Why is he stopping me and pointing me left?  Look, its hot.  I’m hot.  Why would I swim all the way over there when I just found a duck straight across the pond and its a closer swim?

Humans haven’t a clue, the duck is not left!  It is across, I tell you!  I’ll just swim across and show him.

Stopping me again and telling me over.  Geeze this guy hasn’t a clue.  I think I will just stay where I am until he figures it out.

Sending me over again?  Well maybe I will bag this whole thing and return to the shore because clearly this guy has no idea where he is sending me.

Stopping me and sending me back in the water?  OK I’ll go, but I’ll swim in a circle because I’m not going left.  Just not.

Sending me left again?  Seriously, Chessies know these things and I know that duck is not left, its straight.

Stopping me and sending me over left again?  He wouldn’t make me spend all night in this pond, would he?

Left again?  OK I’ll go over there just to get this thing over with, but he’s going to look very silly when I get there and there’s nothing…

Oh look!  I found a duck…

And with that she brought it back.  Needless to say that was not a passing performance.  Little stinker made it through the entire day and then blew it in spectacular fashion.  I think we can all guess what her training will be working on this week.  🙂  But the good thing was that when her trainer/handler was able to finally get that left cast out of her, she swam straight to the duck.  Maybe next time she will actually trust that there will be a duck where he sends her.

Even though she blew getting her second ribbon, we are still excited that she passed her first test.  She hasn’t run a full blown test since she ran juniors a couple of years ago and sometimes it takes a bit to get back in the swing of testing.  We kind of miss our girl so will bring her back for a bit next week, (how long, we are not sure) and figure out her future training/testing schedule.

A huge thank you to Darrin Morman of Farpoint Retrievers for doing such a great job of training and handling our girl!

Now hopefully I can catch up on my blog reading.  🙂