Thunder and Storm both passed their tests on Saturday; however, Thunder did not make out so well on Sunday.  It was a difficult test, and we think he was undone by the water blind.  (All the other handlers were told when their dogs failed, but Thunder’s handler was not told so we think he did not earn a qualifying score based on his water blind work.)

This was the land test.  There was a lot going on.  There were many challenging parts to this test.  There was a long walk-up, a double with the shot flier as the “go” bird, a diversion shot on the return from the “memory” bird, and a land blind.

There were several things in the field that made this land difficult.  There were lots of hills and the dogs were sent from the top of a hill down for the marks.  This can mess up their depth perception.  The “memory” bird fell at the base of a large hill and the hill drew many dogs over the bird and on to the hill.  The diversion shot was fired over the dog on their return, (a big “no-no” in HRC, but OK in AKC I guess).    Also, the judges told handlers to sit their dogs on a duck call from the diversion station.  That duck call was a signal to the dead bird station to sound a second duck call and then fire a popper and launch a bird.  There was quite a delay from that first duck call to when a bird was launched.  The AKC rules state that on a walk-up situation the “sit” or steadying command should only be given when the bird is in the air.  So this was unusual too and resulted in quite a delay between the “sit” whistle or command and the bird.  Just before Thunder was set to run, they changed the direction of the diversion shot to go the opposite direction and shot away from the dog.

The land bind required the dog to be handled very near the area where the shot flier landed.  It also required the dog to go over a road and into some deep cover to dig out the bird.  There was a fence row on one side, a bale of hay with decoys on the other side and of course the area of the old fall.  All things to draw the dog over to them and make handling difficult.  There was also a hill and cover between the handler and where the dog had to pick up the land blind so it made it very difficult to see the dog to handle it and to see if the dog was at the bird or not.  The judges suggested handlers start handling their dogs from one spot and then move about 30 feet over to a road to finish handling, (this is pretty unusual).  Several dogs got knocked out on the land blind.

Thunder did fine on the land marks.  He hunted the “memory” bird a little bit and stopped and looked when they fired the diversion shot, but all in all he did fine.  On the blind he needed a few more handles than normal but took the casts and worked his way over to the blind.  His handler recalled him and oops, he didn’t have the bird even though he was right over it.  The problem was that the bird was in a little dip and the dogs were all going over it when they were jumping the cover.  From where the handler was standing, they could not see if the dog had the bird or not until the dog cleared the cover.  Thunder’s handler elected not to move his position over to the road to handle Thunder because it wasn’t as if it was easier to see the dog from the other position.  Thunder’s handler did not want to confuse him or undo any of our training by moving all over when handling.  Eventually Thunder found the bird.

Some pictures of his land work:

Thunder was called back to water.  If the morning was a challenge, the water was a bigger challenge.  It was a water double, a long water blind and an honor.

This is how it actually looked (click the picture to see it bigger).

There were several challenging parts to this test.  First the “memory” bird was thrown up on the bank in some very high grass.  There were a lot of logs in the pond and many dogs were confused and thought they were at the duck only to find it was a log.  Many dogs got up on the bank on the wrong side of the wind, could not scent the bird and ended up in the field behind the pond.  The “go” bird was launched very close to the dogs causing some dogs to break and also making it hard on the honor dogs.  Finally that water blind was very difficult.  It was long and required an angle entry into the water from a point almost across from where the dog had picked up the memory bird.  It also required the dog to get out in the water and then be handled with a series of backs and overs or angle backs to the bird.  Many dogs were attracted to the old fall and others (like Thunder) were confused and ran a bit parallel to the water before getting into it.

Thunder did fine on the “go” bird, but had to be handled to the “memory” bird (most of the dogs had to be handled to this mark).  His handling was nice and he got that bird.  On the water blind, he seemed a bit confused, (or maybe he was just being a Chessie), but he insisted on going along the bank.  After three “overs” he did get into the water and handled nicely to the bird.  The judges talked but did not have him honor on lead as they had the other dogs that had been knocked out do.  However, I guess when they totaled his score they did not feel he earned a qualifying score.  His honor was nice this week, he jumped, but did not move.

In the end I think out of 20 dogs that ran the test, they gave out seven ribbons and more than half were to dogs that were run by pros.  Experience definitely paid off for this test.  It was a bit frustrating for us that Thunder blew the test by not going directly into the water, but there was also a lot of good.  He finally followed direction and hopefully that will reinforce for him that the quickest way to a bird is just to let his handler show him.  He also completed the entire test and didn’t knock himself out altogether at any point even though it was really difficult.  Plus it is hard to get too down on the doggie because he passed the last five tests with style.  Saturday was tough on him because they ran the water portion of that test first which left the land portion to be run during the heat of the day.  Thunder was the second from last to run it and that may have resulted in him being a little less focused on Sunday.  We will work on those angle entries into the water this week and see if we can make them more solid, (unfortunately we don’t have access to any ponds that are long and skinny).  Thunder has two more chances this weekend to earn the two passes he needs for title.  Hopefully we can refocus him.