7 Grain Bread and Hunt Tests

Well, the test went well overall. The club should have come out with some good profit, I think we had the biggest turnout ever for one of our tests with two flights of Finished being relatively full and both Started and Seasoned had good turnouts. For Elsi and I however... things were quite different on Saturday.

Randy stayed over at my place for the weekend again, so Saturday we decided to ride together since we knew we were in the same flight - that was my first mistake. We took his Expedition since he was all loaded up with food for lunch, etc. We ended up in flight 'A', and so we ran the land test first on Saturday. Elsi was dog #5, and it was a tough test, particularly the long memory mark. I think all but about 4 dogs in our flight handled on it.

We ran the marks, picking up that mark last, as it was the best way to go about it. Elsi was close to picking it up clean, but ended up just far enough offline that she didn't catch any scent, being so early in the day. When it was clear she wasn't going to pick it up, I handled her to it, pretty clean. The diversion goes, no problem. We set up for the blind, she locks in and I send her. Now at this point things are going as well for me as anyone that has run so far, she takes a great line, and I think she might even line the blind but 10 yards short of it she drifted left just enough that I had to stop her. I give her the right angle back that would take her directly to the bird, she kinda stumbles and goes straight to the left! What the &^@!? I couldn't get a very good over from her in training lately and had intended to work on that before the test, but that's the wrong way! I stop her quickly and give her a walking right over, she goes left again! The next time I tried a come in whistle, left again. Now at this point my memory isn't clear on exactly how many times this happened, but someone watching said it was 4 cast refusals in a row. I finally got her to come straight in which I had to do anyway since she was getting lost in the woods. I then give her a right over, she takes it - all the way back so she is perfectly online! Then I finally get her there, I think it still took 3 casts, but man that was ugly.

After honoring on lead, I come off the line to find out that my dog had eaten a whole loaf of 7 Grain bread 5 min before going to the line! She was loose in the Expedition and just tore into it, not a big suprise to me, but I didn't realize Randy had food in there that wasn't contained in a cooler or something. Whether she would have smacked the test had she not eaten a wholesome fiber snack I don't know, but I'm quite sure it was a significant factor on that blind!

I decided not to even run her in the afternoon, couldn't see any good that would come of it. Our Sporting Clays combo team was in the final shootoffs too and I didn't want to have to shoot all three rounds on Monday, when they were due by, so I got a ride from my dad and we went busted some clays for a bit, before going back to watch the end of the tests and the banquet. But at least someone had a good day, my dad got his second pass in Seasoned and Randy got his 1500 points on Remington! He was actually running for a title on his young dog (Nellie) too, but she had some problems with the water test.

All in all, it was definitely an exciting day! Sunday proved to be just about as exciting. I was the Hunt Marshall, first time I'd ever had that job, and it can be pretty wild. My dog however was solid. We ran water first, and it was another tough setup. Most dogs handled on one of the two longer memory marks, several had to handle on both of them, and the short go bird got some to break. Ironically, the week before, we had run a setup from almost the same line and the two long memory marks were almost in the exact same spot. I don't think it made much difference though because I had to handle on the left mark since it landed about 10 feet further than where we had thrown it in training, so Elsi hunted a little short for that one. The handle was quick and clean, and otherwise she 3 whistled the water blind and nailed the land test, with only 2 whistles on the land blind. It felt good to have my dog back, and the ribbon didn't hurt either!

Ready for the Test

Well, so much for keeping up with this... it's been several days since I last posted. In that time I started a new job that is keeping me pretty busy though. I did however get out training last weekend with Randy on Sunday, and then again on Monday. It was plenty warm both days, but we got some good work in.

Anyway, tonight I trained with Pat and my dad, final training before the test this weekend unless I sneak in a little drill work tomorrow, but that's not very likely. Pat set up a triple on land with a double blind (at Stawski's). We ran that, with dad changing it around a bit since he's getting ready for seasoned. That went well for all of us. Then we went over to the Stick Pond and did a little water work. Just some simple marks, and dad and Pat ran some blinds too. By the time we got done with all that it was getting pretty dark, so we called it.

Tomorrow is set up day for the test, and then the tests are Sat and Sun. Hopefully we'll come out of there with a couple ribbons!

Training Alone

Well today was one of those days that I had planned on training but no one else was able to make it. A few of the regulars are out of town this weekend, and no one else showed up. I decided to make it quick so I could get home and get some other things done. I set up a land double with the bumper boys, and after running that I ran a blind past one of the marks. I then moved over a ways and repeated the concept, but ran two blinds. The blinds weren't terribly hard, but Elsi actually lined both of them! After some uncertainty yesterday on some of her blinds, that was definitely a nice confidence boost for both of us.

Getting Hot Again

I got out last night with Nick and my dad to Kelly Farms. We did a set of singles and blinds, sometimes we ran the single then picked up the blind, other times we left the single as a poison bird and picked it up after the blind. We started on water, in a pond we call 'The Crucible', because it seems to be a lot harder for the dogs than we would expect by looking at it. Then we moved to land and did a similar setup in a nearby field, 3 marks and 3 blinds on water, 2 and 3 on land. Nick's dog hunter has come a long way on his water work this year, so that's good to see. And my dad is just through swimby with his dod, so he's just starting to run blinds with her (Cajun) more regularly.

A busted day for training

I was actually going to try to train before work today, but that didn't happen. So I tried to fit something in after work. Got a call from Marc, a friend that I met through our local Hunting Retriever Club. We train together on fairly regular basis. Anyway, we ended up at a spot I've used in the past but hadn't been to in a while. I figured the cover would be long - it was, but I didn't figure the water would be so low. Several of the ponds had completely dried up and most of the water was basically unusable. We found a small pond that that enough water left and Marc ran his young dog on some short/easier water blinds before it was too dark to see. After letting the dogs run for a few minutes we just called it a night. Oh well, maybe I'll be able to get up early tomorrow morning.

First Blog!

Well,
I finally did it. Been meaning to get a blog up for some time. This blog will be about Dogs and birds, with a heavy emphasis on ducks...

As we are nearing fall, daylight is limited, but I got out today after work with Elsi and did some training. Nothing extremely exciting, we just ran some blinds. Did a couple short 'out to sea', and then did a few land blinds.