Today I am joining Jodi Stone for Follow-Up Friday.  According to Jodi…

You know sometimes you post about something and you need an update but it doesn’t warrant a whole blog.  Or sometimes someone made a comment that really resonated with you.  Yup, Follow-Up Friday baby!

I thought I would use this Follow-Up Friday to answer some questions.

My Brown Newfies and Pamela Webster wanted to know what the brown dawgs thought of our new trailer.  They really haven’t had a chance to ride in it yet, although Thunder has been in it several times.  Freighter is still off with the trainer and Storm is off with her breeder so they have not even seen it yet.  We only took Thunder with us to Iowa.  Since it was such a long trip home, we let him ride in the truck with us.  No sense in putting him in there to have a potentially bad experience when we could not control it.

Pamela also asked if we did anything special to make them feel comfortable.  We don’t plan to do too much.  All of our dogs have been with a pro at one time or another and have been in a dog trailer.  It has been a while for Thunder though so he will start out with shorter trips, but I don’t anticipate an issue.  He is already happy to jump inside and once he figures out inside means training or hunt test, we will be golden.  🙂

Jodi Stone wanted to know how I got the water droplets to show up in this picture:

No idea.  🙂  I put my camera on the sport or action setting and hope to get–something.  Seriously, I have noticed that if I put my camera on a fast speed I can catch droplets.

Lots of hunt test related questions on yesterday’s post, Long Day.

Basset Momma wanted to know about the lilies and whether it is hard for the dogs to get through them.

The dogs can easily bust through these lilies.  A few dogs broke some of the leaves off so they were floating around.  The real problem was that the dogs were hitting the bottom of the pond.  In this picture you can see the trail Thunder churned up.

Basset Momma also wanted an explanation of the term “honor” dog.  The higher level tests require a trained retriever to “honor” the work of another retriever.  Translation: one dog must sit quietly and watch while the marks are thrown for another dog.  The dog watching does not get to pick up any birds.  The other dog picks up the birds.  The dog watching is often referred to as the “honor” dog and the dog that is picking up the birds is called the “working” dog.

Honoring can be a tough thing.  The dogs do not honor until after they have run the test and already picked up several birds.  It can be difficult for them to sit there and not pick up a bird.

Jodi Stone wanted to know whether the length of the day could have contributed to Thunder’s inability to take casts.  Maybe.  But it is something he has to learn to deal with.  If he were hunting, I doubt the length of the day would have mattered to him. 🙂

My Brown Newfies wanted to know if the lilies were throwing him off.  Yes, I think so.  They can hold a lot of bird scent and he has been “tricked” by them both times he has had to run a blind from that spot in that pond.  The reason a test may be set through things like those lilies, or in a stick pond, or a field with a lot of grass is to try to “trick” the dog.  It may make it more difficult for a dog to mark a fall.  Some dogs do not want to tackle a hazard, ie bust through the lilies or heavy grass.  And some dogs, Thunder, let their noses get the better of them when there is strong scent.

I hope I answered all of the questions.  Sorry if I missed any.  🙂  Thanks to Jodi Stone for coming up with Follow-Up Friday.

We have a busy weekend planned.  We are going to visit Freighter tomorrow.  On Sunday Thunder is entered in a Working Dog Qualified (WDQ) stake which is a program offered by the American Chesapeake Club.  It is certification, not a title, but the requirements are very similar to those of a retriever hunt test.  There are various levels from basic to a little more involved.  (I summarized the requirements for WDQ which are pretty specifically called out in the rules.  If you want to see all the requirements, please follow the link.)

Requirements for WDQ
1. Land Double.  Dead bird and shot flyer.
2. Land Blind. A dead bird should be placed in light to medium cover about 80 yards from the line.
3. Water blind. This test must contain at least some swimming water. A dead bird should be placed about 50 yards out so that it is not visible from the line.
4. Combination Triple. This test is to be a triple mark consisting of two birds in water and a third on land.

We look forward to seeing lots of Chessie friends there, including Misty Shores Chesapeakes.  To answer your question Misty, we don’t plan to bring the trailer because we are only bringing one dog Sunday.  🙂

Have a nice weekend and best of luck to all who are entered in the WD/X/Q!