The days are growing shorter and it won’t be long before we will only be able to train on the weekends.  Hunt tests start to move farther south to better weather, (except for Texas where they have been canceling tests due to the extreme drought there).  We will have to resume testing in the Spring.

I have tried to share both the good and the bad of the tests and our dogs’ performance on the tests.  Some of the tests were tough, but tough tests make for better performing dog even if they don’t “pass”.  Tough tests point out holes in their training which you have an opportunity to work on and improve.  Also, tough tests are good experience for them and their handler for in preparation of the next level of tests.

So a few final observations and comments about the tests we ran this summer…the good and the bad…

We had not run tests for two years, (since Storm got her JH/SHR), and it was nice to get back into it.  You can meet a lot of nice people running tests.  Hunt tests are appealing to us because there are no placements.  It is a pass/fail test so it is the dog/handler against the test instead of the dog/handler against other dogs/handlers.  This dynamic makes for a lot of camaraderie between everyone waiting to run dogs.  Usually you see the same dogs/handlers for several tests while they are working on their titles.  It is fun to watch and cheer everyone on and to commiserate when your dog doesn’t perform as hoped.

Sometimes people take great pictures of your dog and sent them to you.  One of the members of our training group took these pictures of Thunder and his first Senior ribbon.  She did a great job, (maybe I need to ask her to take ribbon pictures of my dogs because clearly Thunder gave her better expression than he ever gave me :)).  Many thanks to Judy for the pictures in this post.  They are truly wonderful!  (Judy and her yellow lab Rudy are running some tests this weekend….go get ’em!)

There are times, however, when you run into people who are just not considerate of their fellow competitors.  Many times the pros are running dogs at multiple stakes and so it often happens that you will be done running land or water and have to wait for them, (they can’t be three places at one).  Most pros are really good about budgeting their time and working with the marshal so that they don’t make others wait longer than necessary.  However, we did run into one pro who needed to run the land portion of the test, but since it was almost 1 pm, stopped and got lunch first.  I guess she didn’t care that we had been waiting for her since almost 11 am and she had multiple dogs to run at our stake.  I don’t think she made a great impression on anyone there who might have been thinking of sending their dog to her for training.  Luckily, she was exception rather than the rule for the tests we ran.

But it is not just pros who can be inconsiderate at times.  At one test, we waited for an hour and 15 minutes for someone to show up to run the water portion of the test.  This person’s dog had failed in the morning, but in HRC the handler can elect to run the entire test, (in AKC that is not an option because if a dog fails one portion, they are not called back to the next).  There was a thunder-storm which caused an hour delay in the test so we were already running behind.  The marshal looked all over for the handler who was finally located at another stake only to find out he did not want to run his dog after all!  So we all had to wait for nothing since they cannot give out ribbons until the test is over.

Last weekend there was a dog which broke on the marks.  The handler elected not to let the dog pick up the birds.  Fine, the workers just need to walk out and pick them up.  However, this handler elected to then run the water portion too.  In fact this handler made sure that she got in line in front of other handlers and dogs who were still in contention for a ribbon.  This was the Saturday water set up where the dog had to sit on the mound (the picture in my header).  Of course the dog broke.  Generally if a dog isn’t steady when you are sitting on a bucket right next to them, they are not going to be steady when they are on something like a dog stand or that mound.  The marks went off and the dog was not steady.  Once again the handler did not let her dogs pick up the birds.  OK, except now since the birds are in water, they have to find a dog who has already run the test or who is not entered to fetch the ducks.  Just makes for a delay for everyone.  Hey, if your dog has already failed, why not wait and run toward the end, rather than the beginning of the order?

And a word on judges.  As I have said before, we really appreciate the judges who give up their weekends to judge the dogs.  Without them, we could not run tests.  For the most part we had some fantastic judges who we would not hesitate to enter our dogs under again, (and this includes even those who set tests our dogs did not pass).  However, we think we would try to avoid the judges from last weekend.  It is not that the tests themselves were bad, challenging yes, but fair for the dog, (yes even that stick pond).  However, the way the tests were set, we are just not sure that they considered the safety of the dog as they should have.  In all the other tests that we ran there was only one other time when we felt that the safety of the dog could have been at issue and that was changed before Thunder ran the test.  Last weekend each portion of the tests had serious safety issues.

The Saturday morning test had that odd walk-up with a diversion that was just too close/quick to handle the gun safely.  These are supposed to be hunting scenarios and we doubt most would feel shooting a close bird was more important than the safety of their dog.  On the Saturday water, there was the line to the blind over the pointy sticks when another safer line could have been set.  Also, where the blind was set, there was heavy cover behind it and farther back, a road.  If the dog got behind the blind and in that cover, there was no way of knowing if they were heading back to their handler or toward the road.  You never know what the dog may see and if you can’t see them, you can’t handle them and the judge can’t judge them.

Then on Sunday there was the log that Storm tripped over.  That was a hazard that was not visible unless you walked the field, (which the handlers are not allowed to do, it is up to the judges).  That hazard was not pointed out to handlers and if known should have been.  There was another hazard that was a ravine and they put a log with more pointy branches sticking up.  Either was an accident waiting to happen.  So why set the test there when you have the entire field?  Lucky Storm was not hurt worse.

The water for Sunday was set to be in the same stick pond as Saturday’s water test, but on the opposite side.  However, parking was a problem on that side of the pond.  There was discussion of parking on the road, but that road is basically a highway with cars doing 60-65 mph.  Why risk injury to the dogs or people?  Many of us stated that we would pull our dogs rather than park on the road, so they were able to move a log and mow some grass so that parking could be off road.  Again why set the test there?  Many times judges are assigned a patch of field or a pond and have to make it work, but these grounds have lots of available water, so it is difficult to understand why a safer choice, (with ample parking), could not have been made.  Accidents can happen and with hunting dogs it is not uncommon, but we would like the hunt test set-ups to at least consider the safety of the dog.  The last thing we need is our dog injured in a test just before hunting season.  It pains us to say that we would probably avoid these judges for future tests, (not saying we absolutely wouldn’t run under them, but if there is a different choice, that is the choice we will make).

And so ends the hunt test season for the 2 brown dawgs.

Thanks again Judy for the beautiful pictures!