Cougar was running Juniors and Lucy was running Seniors (For a brief description, scroll to bottom of post.). We put Fire in one test just to see how she would do (never having done this before) and our worst fear came true, TALL GRASS, she can't see through it and doesn't like going through it! She TRIED, so that wasn't so bad, but she couldn't find the bird and that was that. Cougar did great on the first series and moved to the second series, same with Lucy in her senior test. In series 2, Cougar got a SHORT mark, about 30 yds, and went right passed it, he did come back and hunt for it, but for some reason couldn't find it, sadly on the last bird he went out. Justin called me and said, "We just lost our Ace in the hole." That was a shock since he did so well last year! On to Lucy; the judges decided to make the walk up and water blind be separate from the 2 water marks, so series 2 was simply that, and she did well! On to round 3. Finally, my test got over and I joined the fun to see Lucy's last run, a simple 2 water marks, or NOT. The marks may have been simple, but they were only 25 yds apart causing her to be confused on which one to get 1st. She went in going for the long bird, but swam past the short one on the way and changed her mind. She began to get the memory bird, but it is illegal to 'switch' once the dog has picked a bird, so Justin handled her back over to the 2nd bird. She brought it back and then could not remember where the other bird was. Sadly, we found out that since she hadn't locked on to the long bird, (only gone partly in that direction) it would have been ok for her to get the other one first, then Justin could have handled her to the long mark, but alas, it was not meant to be a good day. Sadly, she too went out on the last bird!
The next day was interesting. We got to the the Junior test and it looked HARD! Lots of brush and corn stubble to retrieve in. Well, mister Dog #1 that day, Cougar, BREEZED right through it, so on to Lucy's Senior test. It was such tall nastiness that I would not have retrieved a bird from there! After a slightly shaky blind, she did well. Series 2 for the C-man was simple, got both birds, judge said nicely done and we knew we had at least 1 ribbon for the weekend! Yay for Cougar to make us feel okay about the whole weekend! Series 2 for Lucy was almost ridiculous! It was a few inches of water on top of MUD, inches of MUD!! Not to mention the channel (a long canal) memory bird and LONG channel blind. Half the dogs were getting out during all of this and I know I figured the chances of Lucy getting through were slim. She went after the 1st mark (the easiest part) and had to hunt for a little bit, we both thought she was done then, but she found it and remembered the memory bird and went for it, after stopping to see if Justin was going to tell her exactly where it was (this is not good, but would have been ok, since he still had a handle left) she got the wind and got it! Now, the super long channel blind that was getting every dog out was the very last thing. The judges wanted the dogs to stay IN the water (All dogs want to go out bcuz its faster to run on the bank and this particular canal was full of mud!), so Justin tried to keep Lucy in and DID!! She knew what he wanted and did it!! I had someone tell me it was the best blind he had seen all day and the judges turned around when he was done and told the crowd to clap for Justin! He was SO PROUD after 2 years of work, he finally got a SENIOR RIBBON! AND GREAT JOB LUCY!! She did better than MOST dogs (if not, all) that day!! I was proud of those two, doing so well on such a hard test!!
Land Series
--Cougar retrieving the 1st bird of the day-
--Lucy watching the bird fall, waiting to be released (the gun is pretend, it's to make it more real for the dog)-
--Lucy retrieving (like a princess)-This is the stuff I wouldn't be going in!-
--Lucy stopping on the whistle to take a command from Justin during the blind-I don't know how the dogs saw the handlers through this crap!-
Water Series--Cougar retrieving-
--Lucy in the difficult channel blind-
--See why the dogs did NOT want to go in this water?!-
Ribbons
--Lucy in the difficult channel blind-
--See why the dogs did NOT want to go in this water?!-
Ribbons--Cougar's 3rd Junior pass-
--Lucy's 1st Senior pass! Justin was SO proud!-
--Lucy's 1st Senior pass! Justin was SO proud!-
*Junior Hunt Test- The dog has to retrieve 2 birds on land, one at a time and then in a separate turn retrieve 2 birds from the water or across the water, one at a time. Both of these must be done in a timely manner. They can not go before the judge says and they must bring the bird back to the owners hand.
*Senior Hunt Test- The dog must walk to the line w/o being touched by the owner, watch 2 birds be thrown, then when released, retrieve one and then remember where the 2nd one went down and bring it back. Then they must retrieve a 'blind' retrieve, properly named bcuz this was placed when the dog was NOT looking. They must follow the directions that the handler gives in order to find this bird. (A few training ablilities are required for this.) All of this is done, just as in Juniors, once on land and once in water at separate times. Then once in either land or water series, there will also be a 'walkup'-gun goes off and duck is thrown before you sit your dog, to show control, the dog can't run out there! till you say, an 'honor'- they sit and watch the other dog begin it's turn, once the birds are thrown and the other dog is released then the 'honor' dog is done, this shows control, and also a 'diversion/distraction shot'- sometime during a dog's retrieve, a shot is fired to distract the dog from what it is doing.
I think that about covers it!
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