Junior Hunt tests are basic tests which test marking and some obedience.  Master tests are advanced tests which test many skills including marking and memory of multiple birds falling, obedience and advanced handling.  (A mark is where the dog watches a bird thrown for them to retrieve.  A blind is where the dog does not know where the bird is so the dog’s handler directs the dog with whistles and arm signals.)

Senior tests are in between Junior and Masters.  To earn a passing score dogs must be able to mark and retrieve double marks on land and water and retrieve a land and a water blind.  There is also a diversion shot and the dog must honor another working dog.  Simple right?

Not always.  Training is one thing, but testing definitely builds a dog’s excitement level and the dog can mess up even simple marks.  It happens.

Freighter is pretty solid on the actual work.  Hubby’s struggle with him has been with his obedience (or “line manners”).  He gets so excited at tests, he seems to loose his brain.

On Saturday his obedience was pretty good, but on Sunday it was not as solid as the day before.  The excitement of testing definitely got to him.

Both walk-ups gave him issues.  A walk-up is where the dog goes to the line at heel and at some point the bird is launched.  It can be difficult to stop the dog since they are already in motion.  Freighter did fair with this on Saturday, but for Sunday’s test he had a controlled break (meaning he left to retrieve before being sent).  Hubby recalled him so he got a verbal correction which is not always bad, but we will be working on walk-ups for sure.  There are no controlled breaks in Masters so he will need to be solid on this.

He was steady for the marks and the honor both days even though on Sunday he had to wait a long time for the honor because they had to send more birds out to the field and then they took a bit of a break.  It was a bit verve wracking but good training.

Saturday and Sunday’s land series had the same elements.  They had a walk-up double; a diversion shot; a land blind and an honor.  Sometimes the diversion shot, walk-up and honor will be during the water series but this weekend they were all during the land portion so they were out of the way early.

This is Saturday’s land series.  I was not able to get pictures on Sunday because of the weather and the way the test was set.

The marks fell as numbered.  Generally the dogs pick them up in reverse order.  Mark 1 was the walk-up.  A walk-up must be close (within 35 yards).  Up close marks for a dog prone to break can be tough and there was a dog sitting at honor which also makes it hard for the running dog to wait.

Freighter pinned both marks and did not have to hunt.  The dogs were to deliver the second bird in the holding blind so that the bird for the blind retrieve could be planted.  While the dog was in the holding blind, the diversion shot was fired to set-up the blind.

The bird for the blind was behind a row of trees which meant the handlers had to drive them through the row.  The direct route was in between two pine trees, but many dogs veered from that line.  The trees pulled them off line and the diversion shot also pulled some dogs off line because they thought there was another bird back where they picked up the others.

Hubby stopped Freighter any time he started to stray off the direct line.  I noticed some handlers were not so quick to stop their dogs and that proved to be an issue because once they got off line, they had a hard time getting them back and some never did.

Freighter did a nice job on this blind and took every cast his handler gave him.  The final element of the land series was the honor.  Freighter did fine and held his sit.  For the honor, the dogs must be in a position to see the marks fall.  Usually one judge is watching the working dog and one is watching the honor dog.  Once the running dog has left to retrieve, the judge will dismiss the honor dog and the handler then heels them off line where they can put the lead back on.  If the dog has done well enough then they are called back to run the water series.

We knew Freighter would be called back to water since he did a nice job on the land series.

I will have the water series tomorrow.  There was a bit of mischief on the water so make sure you come back to see.