Sunday’s test was straight forward, but with a little twist.

It was a land double with a shot flier as the “Go” bird and a dead bird as the “Memory” bird.  After the marks, the dogs and handlers turned around, crossed a little farm road, and ran a water blind.  That was the twist because normally it would be a land blind; however, the space for this test was kind of cramped so the water blind was run with the land marks.  The dog could take any path through the water to the blind, but the most direct was through an opening in a small stand of dead trees.

Thunder was the first of our dogs to run.  He marked the flier…out and back, no hunting.  Somehow he always knows where those shot birds fall.  He curved a little when heading for the dead bird, but he caught the scent and got it right away.  His handling on the water blind was great.  Right through the trees.

Storm did well on this too.  A short hunt on the flier, but out and back to the memory bird.  When it came time for the blind, her handler said that she gave him a look like: “Why are you pointing me toward the water now?”  However, she handled nicely and got the blind.

I only have pictures of Thunder’s land work because I was not in a good position to take pictures of his water blind.  As for Storm, we were keeping out of sight so we watched from a distance, which meant no pictures.

This Club had some of the biggest ducks I have ever seen at a test.  Thunder’s flier was huge!

The afternoon session left the walk up to a water double, land blind and the honor, (there was no diversion shot).

Due to the wind from Hurricane Irene, they had to change-up this test a bit because the “memory” bird would have blown across the pond (which was not large) by the time the dog got to it.  They moved the line back and shortened the swims to the marks.  The tough part of this test was that the marks seemed close and any dog prone to breaking would be tempted as they were already on the move with the walk-up.  A couple I saw did break.  Also, it was tough on the honor dogs because it was close quarters.  The difficulty on the land blind was that it was run in between the farm road with corn along one side and the pond on the other.  The judges told the handlers that it was not acceptable for the dogs to run down the road, take a right over and get the blind.  They had to make an attempt for the dog to go through the cover to the blind.  The water being so near the blind was a bit of a distraction to the dogs because several tried to go into the water thinking that water marks and water blinds go together.  Plus depending on where they are in their training, handling around water usually means get into the water.  Also, some dogs were attracted to that corn.  Don’t know why, but corn seems to attract dogs to it.

Storm ran before Thunder since they were running the pro’s dogs first so they could head to other stakes.  Storm did well on the walk-up and the water marks.  She tried to head right for the water on the land blind, but her handler headed her away from it and she got the blind.  She did great on the honor.  Whew…another pass.  Thanks Darrin!

We watched her work from a hill so I wasn’t able to get pictures of her.  We did see her for a few minutes after she ran and she was really happy to see us.  It was cute!  Just pass one more test Storm so you can come home. 🙂

Thunder was the second to the last dog to run.  He did great on the marks.  Nice whistle sit on the walk-up.  His land blind was a bit messy and he zigzagged his way to it, (it seemed both the corn and the water were attractive to him).  But his work was acceptable.  His honor was not as solid as it has been, but he passed!  Hooray!

Thunder is giving up the birds much quicker.  Maybe it is because he has had so many the last few weeks?  He has been a bit sloppy dropping birds so we are working that this week.  We are also reinforcing his stays for his honors and working on his heeling (always heeling).  We are throwing a few marks and blinds in too, just to keep him proficient.  Thunder has an HRC test on Saturday and an AKC test on Sunday.  Storm has two AKC tests and hopefully she will pass one and get her title.