Handling a dog during a test in the same way that you do on a training day is one of the most difficult things to do.  Most people have at least a little anxious energy, or nerves, or both.  The dogs pick up on this which can affect their performance.  If a handler can keep these it check, it can go a long way to help the dog to do its best.

Even if the dog has trouble with some part of the test, a handler who remains calm may be able to at least gain some training value from a non-qualifying performance.  For example a dog may totally miss a mark which is a fail, but if the handler can handle the dog to the mark, at least the dog learns where it should have been hunting.

At the test last Sunday I was really proud of hubby because he stayed calm and took advantage of areas during the test to demand that Freighter adhere to training standards.  This can be really difficult to do when a ribbon is on the line and it gets more difficult the closer you get to finishing the test.  Sometimes the handler just wants to finish the test, so they let little things slip like requiring a sit, or settling for a poor initial line on a blind.  The problem with this is that those little allowances usually become bigger issues at some point in the dog’s testing career.

In Freighter’s case, he has a breaking issue which means that he likes to head off to retrieve before he has been released.  This is not acceptable.  A dog must be steady at the Senior and Master levels.

Freighter is better at being steady when bumpers or dead ducks are used; however, most tests also include a shot flyer.  It is really difficult for him to remain still and wait for that.

Freighter was steady for the flyer last Saturday, but hubby still made him wait a several counts before releasing him.  This was to reinforce his “sit”.  Once the judges say that you can send your dog, the handler is free to send their dog, talk to their dog, or even reheel it before sending it to retrieve.

Since hubby made Freighter wait, the anticipation was getting to him and he was stretching to try to get closer to the bird.  Hubby kept calm, made him wait, and told him “sit” when his fanny started to come off the ground.  Freighter sat and waited.  Hopefully he learned.  He is in an awkward position because this was a walk-up and he had to pivot from the first mark to see the second mark.

On the water marks he did not stretch as much so maybe making him wait in on the land marks helped.  Our training going forward will be working on that stretching.  Nope we don’t want that either, but one step at a time.

Freighter had to wait to do his honor.  An honor is where the dog watches the marks thrown for another dog but is never sent to retrieve them and is heeled off-lead from the line.  This is also hard for Freighter but he did a good job on this and even heeled nicely off the line.

In this picture, Freighter has his back to the test but that is because there was a bit of a break so hubby did what he does in training and had Freighter sit with his back to the test to keep him calm.  When the test restarted, he turned him back toward it.

Of course there is always something that doesn’t go anything like training.

As soon as Freighter heard gunshots he wanted to look over the holding blind.  This is not allowed and is something he has not been doing in training, (although he did it at tests last summer).  He also wanted to run around the blind to get to the test as soon as possible, (this was also an issue last summer).

Neither of these things would not be acceptable at the Master level so we need to get a handle on them.

Hubby managed to maintain his calm and called Freighter back to heel and unlike last year, he actually came.

Freighter composed himself and did a nice job staying at heel for the walk-up.

For the water series hubby tried sitting Freighter so that he was facing him in the holding blind and then calling him to heel which seemed to help him sit calmly, although he still needs work on his line manners.

In the end, not only did Freighter get his ribbon, but he also got a bit of training value from the test and hubby found holes in his training that he will work on going forward.  It was a good day.

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