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!