Storm passed her Master Hunter Test this past weekend!

Thanks to everyone who sent their good luck wishes.  I think she must have heard you!

Hubby was very happy with her.  She was steady and really worked well for him.

Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures.  This was our Club’s hunt test so I was working at the Senior stake and was not able to see Storm run the first or third series.  Senior stake finished up and I was able to get over to the Master stake to see Storm run the second series but I did not have my camera with me.  I was too far away to attempt a cell-phone picture.

If you are not familiar with the requirements for Master Hunter tests, they must have three series and are typically run over a two-day period.  Dogs much complete each series in order to be invited to run the next series.

Storm’s test broke down like this, (hopefully I have the details correct):

First Series: A walk-up triple on land with an out-of-order flyer and a land blind.

For a walk-up, the handler walks toward the field with the dog at heel and once the first mark is released, the handler can either say “sit” or blow a whistle to stop the dog.  A “triple” means that a dog watches three birds fall in the field, one at a time and then is sent to retrieve each of them one at a time.  Triples test the dog’s marking and memory.  Many times the flyer is the third mark thrown or the “Go” bird.  But sometimes it can be the first or second bird down.  When it is not the last bird, we say it is out-of-order.  In Storm’s test it was the second bird down.  A blind is where the dog does not see the bird fall so the dog’s handler must direct the dog to the bird using hand signals.  Blinds test how well the dog and handler work as a team.

Out of order flyers can be a problem for dogs because they might not want to take their eyes off it and will miss the next mark(s).  Also, they tend to make a dog break because it is in an unexpected order and flyers are very exciting for a dog.  A break is when a dog leaves to retrieve before it is released by the judges.  In a Master test the dog must be steady.

Storm was a good girl and was steady for all the marks.  Woo hoo!  In addition to the out-of-order flyer, the third bird was fairly close which can also tend to make a breaking dog go.  Hubby has been working very very hard on Storm’s steadiness.

Storm needed a handle on the flyer (second bird down which was the middle bird).  A handle means that she did not mark it and so her handler had to direct her to it using hand signals.  I did not see the test, but I heard the birds were falling in fairly heavy cover and they were not all falling in close proximity to one another because it was pretty windy so the area was well salted with scent.  I guess several dogs needed to be handled to that bird.  Generally handlers are allowed to handle the dogs to one mark over the course of the entire test.  Storm did a nice job on the blind.  She was invited to the second series.

Second series:  A water triple and an honor.

I saw this series.  It was set-up to trip up the dog that likes to break.  The marks were fairly close and the last bird was the middle bird which was thrown with a super high arc to fall very close to the running dog.  After the dog finished the triple, it then had to honor another dog.  For an honor, the dog moves to sit in a position where it can see all the marks fall for another dog.  The honor dog must sit (or stand) quietly while the marks fall and the other dog is sent to retrieve.  This tests steadiness.  It can be very hard for some dogs to just sit there when another dog is at the line.

Again Storm was steady.  She was also steady for the honor.  Whew!  The water triple was no problem for her.  The hard part of this series was the closeness of the marks and most of the dogs that went out on this series did so because they broke.

On to the third series which she ran yesterday.

Third series:  Combination land water triple, double blind which was run under the arc of the marks.  One of the blinds was a shore line blind.  One was a land blind.

A combination land water triple means that some marks are on land and some on water.  Under the arc blinds can be tough for dogs.  They have picked up marks in close proximity to the blind they are trying to run and that can pull them off line.  We train under the arc blinds a lot.  I have linked to one such training session.  Shore line blinds have posed a problem for our dogs and their handler whenever they have had to run them.  Luckily we trained one not too long ago at group training.  This was very helpful because many handlers made handling errors which can make the difference between being successful or failing the blind.  I have not had a chance to post on that training session, so I linked to another to give you an idea of what they look like.

Storm did a great job on the triple.  Then she did a really nice job on the shore line blind.  The handler’s were told that if the dog got up on land for this blind they were out.  But Storm did not.  Hubby was very happy with this blind and with her land blind.

It may have helped that the training we did last Sunday was in the same field and pond.  Sometimes you just get lucky.  🙂

To celebrate Storm’s success, she got a frosty treat (which is her favorite kind).  I only had one left from her birthday so he shared it with Thunder and Freighter who came to the test to cheer her on.

Big congrats to hubby and Storm and many thanks to our trainer Darrin of Farpoint Retrievers.  This pass has been a long time in the making.  🙂

We have Storm entered in another test next weekend.  Let’s hope she can hold it together and sit for the marks. 🙂