First a little housekeeping:  We love comments!  Yes, we LOVE comments!  Are some of you having problems with the new WordPress comment box?  More and more comments from people who aren’t using WordPress are showing up as “anonymous”.  I can usually guess who you are, but other readers would not know and we might want to visit your blog.  So when submitting a comment as a “Guest”, please remember to fill out your name or your blog’s name, and include your blog address (if you have one) before submitting your comment.  Again this only seems to be an issue for people who are not using WordPress and/or are submitting comments as a Guest.  Thanks!

Second:  A couple of follow ups to some of the comments we have received:

lexy3587 wrote:

…Your blog helped me entirely confuse a guy walking his (hunting breed) dog in the park a few days ago – he had a bumper like you guys use, and I asked him if he was training for a hunt test. Nope… just uses it for fetch in the water – a good idea I might consider, actually. Too bad, though, because it would be cool to go and see something like your events nearby, but I might live in too urban an area for any tests to be near.

Hey we are always more than happy to oblige and confuse people.  🙂  As far as going to watch a hunt test, some around here are only about an hour away and others are a longer drive.  In the US, most AKC hunt test and field trials are listed on Entry Express.   (In order to see the events, I think that you must have an account which just requires a you to set up a user name, password and submit an email address.)  In Canada you can search for hunt tests and field trials (actually any CKC performance event) here.  And for HRC in the US or Canada, the you can search by month here.  If you go to one of these tests just follow the signs to the stake, (or find where the Head Quarters is located and go there and ask someone).  Take sunscreen and bug repellant, dress in dark clothing, bring a chair and water, respect the dogs who are running by being quiet in the gallery, and have fun.  If you are ever anywhere near the AKC Master National Test or the UKC/HRC Grand Hunt Test….Go!  These dogs are the best of the best and a pure pleasure to watch run.  We went to watch the Grand a few years ago and had a great time.

In a follow-up to lexy3587, Hawk aka BrownDog  commented that he sees many dogs using tennis balls rather than bumpers for retrieves.  He wondered if they were cheaper or easier to buy than bumpers.  You mean to tell us that everyone doesn’t have a pile of bumpers like these?  🙂

Finally:  Thunder is entered in a Seasoned test tomorrow.  We are hoping he stays focused and gives up his birds easily, (have worked on this all week).  Either way it should be fun.  Storm is still with the trainer and doing well we are told.

Have a nice weekend!