Thunder was not running in the Hunt Test last weekend, but he got to hang out for the day.  He also got to help as a set-up dog very briefly in the morning.  When the judges are setting up a test, they will usually throw a mark or two just to make sure it will land in the area they want.  If it is thrown on land, no problem, just walk out and pick it up.  But if it is thrown in the water, then they will send the “set-up” dog to swim out and pick it up.  It was a short mark, but Thunder was happy to oblige.  🙂

Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of any dogs running the morning series because there was not a good view to watch the test, let alone get a picture.  The weeds were pretty high in some areas and the test was set up in a little ravine.  There was nowhere to sit down by the test and the weeds blocked the view from where the cars were all parked.

I couldn’t see what was going on, but Thunder could from his crate in the back of the truck.  He couldn’t actually see the test, but he could see every single bird thrown.  He was not too pleased to be stuck in a crate.

The temperatures rose as the day wore on.  Whenever we go to a hunt test we always take a lot of stuff with us…an easy-up, crate fans, sun shades, water, chairs, ice chest, first aid kit. etc., etc.  It is quite the load!

For the serious hunt testers, they have nice rigs like this one.  They are great on a hot day because they are insulated and have ventilation systems.  This particular person came all the way to Michigan from Texas!

Our set-up is not so fancy.

Since Jim was working the test and we did not have a dog entered, we were the last car in the line.  The afternoon series was set up in the field to the left of our truck.  At one point in the afternoon I went over to watch the test and take some pictures.  When I turned around, there were many people and dogs hanging out in the shade offered by our easy-up since it was a good spot to watch the test and wait for their turn at the test.  Thunder never barked or even acknowledged the people or the dogs.  (So much for the Chessie reputation of being protective. 😆 )  Storm would not have been that keen on all the people and dogs hanging about, but Thunder was very nonchalant about it. Thank goodness because there were people coming and going all afternoon.

Thunder was fine with people hanging out under our easy-up, but he was really put out that he did not get to run the test.  The Marshall station was set up just in front of our truck.  One of the Marshall’s jobs is to call dogs to the line and to make sure there are dogs in line waiting so that the test moves along.  They had three holding blinds set up with easy-ups shading the blinds and water for the dogs so they were calling dogs in groups of threes.  To call the dogs, the Marshall would shout out for example, “Number 4, Number 5, Number 6”, etc. until all numbers are called and all dogs have run.  Every time Thunder heard numbers called he would get up and bang his big dog paw on his crate as if to say, “It MUST be my number by now”.  Yep he has been to a few hunt test and knows what those numbers mean.  I finally had to tell him, “Sorry pal, your number isn’t going to be called today.”  I don’t think he was at all convinced.

Thunder has now been released to train normally and we have entered both Thunder and Storm in an HRC test coming up.  I’ll explain a little more about that in another post.