After we left Saturday’s test, we headed back to the hotel and the air conditioning.  We agreed that even though Thunder and Storm had failed their tests, we were OK with their work.  Especially Thunder.  We were really proud of him because less than 60 days ago he was at death’s door, and he had just completed a challenging test.  He didn’t receive a qualifying score, but he worked hard to finish the test and seemed to have fun doing it.

Even though Storm’s handler picked her up, (did not allow her to finish), he was still happy with her work.  There are all kinds of reasons to pick a dog up at a test.  In Storm’s case, she had blown off a bunch of whistles, never found the water blind, and broke on the first mark of the morning.  They were throwing the memory bird fairly close to the dog in the afternoon session and she would have been on a dog stand so her handler did not want to give her the opportunity to break again.  Also she was denied the fun of the marks.  Maybe she would focus on her work a little better on Sunday?

The next morning it was very humid, hot and hazy.  I think the humidity was 96%.  We were back in that same cut rye field from the day before.  This time we were towards the back.  There were trees on two sides of the field and corn on the other side which cut off the breeze.  The test was set up like this:

The handler had to sit on a bucket again, but he didn’t have to fit into a little alcove type thing.  It was a fairly straight forward test with a double, a diversion bird when the dog was coming back with the second mark, and a land blind.  For some reason it was really difficult to judge distances in that field.  It was hard to pick out the stake where the land blind was set.  It may have been because the air was so thick.  Right off the bat, the judges had to reposition the diversion bird because they had set it to the left of the line and it was landing almost on top of the dog.  They moved it to the other side.  Also, for some reason a bunch of dogs were running right over top of that memory bird (#2).  There was a break in the trees at the back corner of the field and dog after dog ran right through that break, then did a loop through the trees and came back to the area of the fall to hunt the duck.  After about the 6th dog ran through the trees, one of the judges took a duck out and rubbed it all around the area of the fall to scent it.  He also put some feathers out there.  This helps the dogs catch the scent of the duck as they go over it and should stop them from going to the back of the field.  A good judge will re-evaluate his/her test set-up when they see dog after dog make the same mistake.  I have seen it even in a Master test.  Sometimes the set-up seems like a good one, but factors you cannot control such as wind or lighting, may require the test to be altered.  The idea is not to trick a dog, but to evaluate their performance against the test’s requirements.

Once again Storm was the first of our dog’s up.  After reviewing the rules based on running the test the day before, we found that at a Seasoned test the rules allow a handler to speak to the dog at the line and tell it to “stay” while the marks are being thrown.  Doh!  On Sunday Storm’s handler told her to “stay”.  It worked, Storm did not move.  In fact she actually moved her head to follow the swing of the gun.  When she was sent she just nailed the marks.  No hunting at all.  Straight out and back and didn’t bother with the diversion bird.  The blind needed a couple more handles than the day before, but it was clean.  Good girl Storm!

Next was Thunder’s turn.  He was anxious, to say the least.  His healing to the line was not as nice as Storm’s.  He was under control, but needed a lot of reminding.  He was perfectly steady and had no trouble with the marks.  He did hunt a bit on the memory bird (#2).  I think that may have been because one of the dog’s that ran a few dog’s before him, dragged a duck all over the area.  (That dog was a bit out of control and also took a dump in that area of the fall.)  All that scent may have been pulling him this way and that, but eventually he got the bird.  When they threw the diversion as he was coming back with the second bird, Thunder turned on the speed and headed for it; however, his handler whistled him in and he left it alone.  His blind work was not as clean as the day before, but it was still very nice.

Both our dogs were passed to water again.  Once again the water did not start until 2:30 because there was a huge thunder-storm which delayed the test for over an hour.  Once it stopped raining, the sun came out and then it was steamy hot and the sun was blazing.  It was difficult to even watch the test because there was no shade.  I watched Thunder and Storm run the water, but not many other dogs.

The water was set up as follows:

This test started with a walk-up.  The handler had to take the lead off the dog in the holding blind and complete the walk-up.  Then the handler had to put the lead back on the dog and walk down a little hill to the water portion.  The blind was run first because again it was kind of close to the “Go” mark (#4).  It was not as close as the one the day before, but if the marks had been thrown first it could have been too confusing for these inexperienced dogs.  The blind was a bit shorter than the day before.  My diagram is a little out of scale because the swim to the blind was shorter than the swim to the “Go” mark (#4).

Once again Storm was our first dog up.  She was great on the walk-up.  Right at heel.  She also did really well on the blind.  Two handles, no cast refusals.  No sit refusals.  Perfect.  She just needed to pick up those two water marks and she is would earn her first Seasoned ribbon.  Her handler felt like he didn’t need to tell her stay at the line because after the verbal correction in the morning, she would be steady.  He fired at the first mark, turned to the second mark…and…the gun jammed!  No “bang”!  She was nice and steady, but once again Storm did not see the second mark fall.  The judges reminded the handler that the dog could pick up marks in any order and Storm was locked on that first mark, so she was sent to pick it up.  Now she had to be sent to the mark that she did not see.  Her handler lined her up and said, “Where is your mark?” just like Storm’s trainer would have done.  Storm was sent and swam a perfectly straight like to the bird.  (Thank you Darrin!  That was his training.  :)).  Woo hoo!  Storm ran a perfect test.  We have never run a test before where our dog ran as well.  Again that is thanks to all the training Darrin has done with her.  If we are being ultra picky, she was a bit slow to pick up the birds, but otherwise she was perfect.  Maybe picking her up the day before sent a message?  Good girl Storm!

Thunder was pretty darn good too.  His walk-up was great he sat right on the whistle.  However, his heeling on lead stinks (always has at hunt tests…something about all the birds and gunfire :)).  He is much better off lead, but in Seasoned the dog has to be judged on lead.  His on lead heeling got worse over the course of the weekend as he got more birds which made him more excited about getting more birds.  He also got really sticky the more birds he picked up and was warned again about that.  His water blind was great.  Four handles I think.  At one point he was close to the bird, but maybe 5 feet to the right.  His handler hit the sit whistle.  Right at that moment he spotted the bird, but he sat and waited for an “over” cast just like he is supposed to do.  Good boy Thunder!  His marks were clean.  He had earned his first Seasoned ribbon too.

At one point during that second test Thunder and Storm’s handler decided these tests were pretty darn fun.  I guess that means Thunder will be run in a one day test next weekend.  😉  Storm is going back to the trainer to get ready for another AKC test.  The trainer will work on her steadiness, her slow pick-up of the birds, and still more water blind work.  This week we will work on Thunder giving up his birds and his heeling, (always heeling with Thunder).

Sorry for the lack of pictures.  I really was not in a good position to get a lot of pictures at this test.  I could see the tests, (except the water blind on Saturday, most of that was hidden by trees), but I just could not get many pictures.  I hope to do better at future tests.  I also need to take pictures of the dogs with their ribbons.

Have a great weekend!

Related articles

• Hunt Test Weekend (2browndawgs.com)
• Saturday’s Seasoned Test (2browndawgs.com)