Reposting this because there appears to be a glitch.

It’s Follow-up Friday.  The blog hop that:

Let’s you wrap up your week and leads you right into the weekend.

Thank you to Jodi from Heart Like A Dog and JoAnn from Sand Spring Chesapeakes for hosting the hop!

Thanks for all the great comments and questions this week.

Follow-up Friday 8-16-13

Hawk aka BrownDog wrote:  I don’t understand humans…my Human started laughing when she saw the picture with the water spouting out of Thunders tail. BOL, maybe it does look funny, sort of like super long white feathers!

Thunder is always wagging his tail which makes for water spouts.  🙂

Jodi asked:  I don’t know if you’ve ever covered this question here or not : Are the dogs timed on their retrieves or are they judged in another way? How hard is it for the dog wading through the water vs swimming?

The marking portion of both the Senior and Master test is to test marking and memory.  Junior, they are just testing marking.  They are not timed, although they should go directly to the fall and disturb as little ground as possible as they hunt.  They should not go to an old fall or leave the area of the fall once they have started to hunt.  If the handler feels it is necessary, they can handle the dog to a mark.  As a general rule, most judges will allow a handle on one mark per test, but that is not absolutely set in stone.  Sometimes things happen and the judges can be flexible.

Wading can be tough if the bottom of the pond is soft.  I think that contributed to Thunder’s wrist injury last summer.  So many of the ponds were too shallow for him to swim.

Holding Steady

Emmadog asked:  Can they just keep testing every week until they make it or are there certain time constraints on that?

They can test as much as you want them to test.  In fact, once they earn a title, you can still test them.  But in Michigan we only have three clubs which put on tests.  Our club runs two weekends of tests and the other clubs each have one weekend of tests.  Masters require three series (Junior and Senior only require two) and takes at least two days to run.  The number of tests that we can run before having to travel out of state are limited.  It is not that we won’t travel out of state, but I am not sure we will this year.  Between entry fees, hotels, gas, meals it can get expensive.  Storm is overdue to come back into season.  I wish there was a time limit on that.  🙂  It is hard to make travel plans only to have to cancel them since a bitch in season cannot be on the grounds of a hunt test.

Besides hunting season will be starting with grouse opening September 15th.  Hunt testing is usually forgotten once hunting season starts.

murphydogs asked:  When you send your dog out, is there a time limit for them to complete the retrieves?

I hope I answered your question above.  The thing to remember is that the judges are scoring each dog and a dog may do great on all marks and muss up one mark and put on a big hunt.  It is up to the judges whether they think it is a qualifying effort.

I think this is different from the Pointer hunt tests where there are time limits?

Wordless Wednesday–Sometimes It Pays To Be Tall

Yes Thunder was trying to peek, but as you see in the picture, there was only a small slice of shade for him and that holding blind was sagging in exactly the right spot.  🙂

This ‘N That Thursday

I should have also mentioned that we had a handler (not a club member) help out with this test.  Our club hired ROTC kids to work and there was a mix up and we did not get as many as we thought.  We needed workers to run the stake and all other club members were at other stakes, (Senior ended up being short-staffed as well due to the mix up).  A handler offered to work in the field and worked while 26 other dogs ran.  A huge thank you to him!

Clubs are always looking for helpers.  If you are ever at a test and feel inclined, offer up help to the marshal.  Even if it is just to move equipment at the end of the stake or run a bag of birds out to a gunner station, it is greatly appreciated.

Puppy Virgil is indeed a handsome boy.  His breeders and owners are pretty excited about how he is growing up.  I hope to share pictures of Storm puppies from time to time.  Thanks to the Irish’s for allowing me to share their pictures.

This weekend should be fun interesting.  As a comparison, this is a typical senior land set up.

The dog’s need to do a double (watch two birds fall before being sent to retrieve).  They must be steady and do a land blind.  Blinds are outside of the marks so you never have a blind that goes under the arc of a mark.  Water will require the same.  They also have to do a walk-up, an honor and at some point there is a diversion shot.  It is a lot for a little dog.  🙂

Good luck to all who are testing this weekend.  A special long distance good luck to our FUF co-host JoAnn from Sand Spring Chesapeakes.  Bring those title ribbons home!  We will be cheering for you!

Have a nice weekend!

Thanks again to Jodi from Heart Like A Dog and JoAnn from Sand Spring Chesapeakes for hosting the hop!

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