500 Points!

Well, we did it. We ran a lot of tests this spring, but we got 'er done! After the first couple weekends, the weather warmed up a bit, the snow melted, and the dogs ran a bit more freely. We ended up running Key City HRC, a new club that started up in IA next. They've got a great club going there and put on a great test even with the storms that rolled in on Sunday. Both tests went fine on Saturday. Sunday was one of those spring rainy days that you don't really plan to go outside all day. But we had tests to run. So, when we got a clearing, the judges got things rolling quickly. Elsi ran second and got a low flier right out of the gate. I guess after being pent up and not getting much to retrieve on Saturday, it was just too much and she thought she had better just catch it herself. When we got to the second test, the weather was threatening once again. We ran early, and got half way through the test when lightning was spotted. Back into the clubhouse for another weather delay. An hour later, we got back out for the second half of that test and got through it ok. So, 3 for 4 down in Key City, meant we still needed 15 more points, which meant 2 more (upland) passes. On to Big Wapsie.

The last upland test of the spring around this area is Big Wapsie's, typically the last weekend of March. They are an older club, and also run a good test, though they are struggling with membership lately. They have wonderful grounds and some great people there. And, the nice thing is, it's fairly close to home. A couple friends went down to run their dogs as well and hopefully rack up a few points themselves before the summer training got underway. Saturday turned out to be a nice day and the dogs were ready to roll. Some of them a little too much - Elsi included. Actually, she ran the test just fine aside from being deaf. The cover was pretty tall and fairly thick, which is a good thing for uplands of course. But not a good thing for a deaf dog trying to run hunt tests. After the second bird flushed and flew away, she was steady but figured we should keep hunting - I think she wanted a retrieve. By the time I could get her corralled back in it was too late. That kind of stuff just doesn't fly for HRC finished level control. On to test number two. This one went better, but I could still tell she was on the edge. It certainly helped that she got to pick up a bird on the first flush, however it would have been much better if it had been the second one! In any case, she passed. Just 5 points away! Guess we have to stay for Sunday.

So, Sunday comes. I was able to convince Pat to stay and run Sunday even though they had planned to go home after Saturday. Well, it was interesting, that's for sure. In the first test she looked eerily similar to the first test on Saturday. Not good - the saving grace was that the direction she decided to 'keep hunting' was the way we were going. So although it certainly wasn't ideal, it turned out ok. Honoring off lead - barring anything crazy we'd just done it. I'd entered both tests of course though, just in case. So we headed over there to run that one. Man she was getting loose. First bird, she didn't look good but got a rerun on a technicality. I was sweating bullets. Second bird gets up and flies away, OK no problem. Back to the first bird for the rerun, and it gets up and flies off too. Dog stayed, got her back and went to honor. Felt a lot better after that. Should have some insurance there. And that's the way it went down. After the rest of the dogs ran, we picked up our ribbons and thanked the club.

All things considered, we got it done. Things went downhill a bit at the end - She went 6 for 8 over the last two weekends. Not the same consistent 4 for 4 weekends I was used to, but for being deaf and getting a total of 2 training sessions during the whole spring season I guess I can't complain too much. Now the old girl can retire. She'll spend the rest of her days hunting, playing frisbee, and just relaxing. Speaking of which, we missed out on a lot of the spring snow goose season running all these tests. Time to get after that!

More uplands

It's been quite a while since I posted. Things have been busy, including some life changes - job and otherwise, but I'm still kickin - and hunting! I was able to get in a quite a few days afield last fall chasing ducks and I'm getting ready to get back after the snow geese in South Dakota as they make their way back north.

But first, I've got some work to do with my pup. I'm not a field-trialer or anything since I just got my dog to hunt. I've gained a ton of knowledge and experience with the retriever clubs that I've been a part of over the years. Mostly though, I stick to the HRC venue. The picture at left is from a regular test at Bong Recreation area a few years back. I never really planned on "chasing points". But as I've casually kept running my dog in tests, I realized that I had a legitimate shot at earning 500 points with her at our local Hunting Retriever Club, LLHRC. So last winter I decided to go for it. I ran a few more upland quads and she did pretty well, so I got busy in the spring and ran a few regular tests. They didn't go as well, due mostly to her hearing loss. So, I'm back to uplands. We've run a few already this winter and we're on the home stretch. We ran our home club, Horicon Marsh, and Dakota HRC. So far she's 8/9 in those tests. The only failure was really a handler error. Hopefully in a few weeks I can let the old girl hang it up - and it's all just fun hunting after that!

Long Drives, Uplands, and Duckboats

I had a boat of mine up for sale for about a year. When I finally found a buyer, he was in New York. Seeing as I had bought the boat from a guy from Jersey, I agreed to meet him part way as long as we could combine it with a weekend that I could run some uplands. We ended up picking this past weekend - Horicon Marsh had their upland tests and that was pretty much on the way. I had gotten the boat out of storage 2 weeks before and had slowly been getting it ready to go, so no problems there, except I couldn't find the title. So I had to go to the DMV and get a duplicate (which didn't arrive in time of course). The 4WD was out in my truck as well, and I'd been too busy to look at it myself so I ended up bringing it in. They found the problem and had a decent price on getting it fixed, but also found that the rear U-joints were shot. So I had them fix the 4WD and then spent most of the day Friday replacing U-joints before I headed out. By the time I left it was 7pm and I knew it was going to be a long weekend.

After a few hours sleep, we showed up at the test. Elsi's normally very reliable so I wasn't too worried, but the lack of training since the last test which was 4 weeks was still a bit of a concern. The tests Saturday went alright. She had a low flush on each of the tests, getting feathers on both of them. So those were tough but she did stop after chasing each bird for about 15 yards. All in all though she did well, her line manners were not up to par, but certainly good enough and we earned a pass both days.

I didn't get to run as early as I had hoped, but I still got out of there before noon. So then it was off to drop the boat off. After a quick raid of the lunch buffet - a delicious spread of homemade dishes by members of the club - I headed out. But seriously, this test is worth going to just for the lunch - and the blueberry pie was incredible! Anyway, we were off. Through Milwaukee, Chicago, and across Indiana. I met the guy about 6 and the sale went off without a hitch. I was glad to make the sale, but certainly sad to see it go as well. The black brant is a great boat. Someday if I have room for 3 duckboats I'd like to have one around. Meeting someone for the first time after you have both driven cross country just for a boat is certainly unique. But duck hunters are a different breed. And generally, they're good folks. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and a cup of coffee before parting ways. So it was back on the road. I got back to WI late of course, but still managed about 7 hours of sleep.

So came Sunday. Usually, I can relax a bit more on Sunday. The few tests Elsi has failed have all been on Saturday, and for whatever reason she's usually a bit more relaxed on Sunday. Odd, but it seems to be that way. Well, not this day. She was pretty amped up for some reason. And her line manners were, well pretty bad by my standards anyway. I got on the list to run early, 2nd in one test and 6th in the other. So the first test she gets a low flyer for the first bird again, traps the second one and then another low flyer for the replanted one. The gunners didn't have great shots at either, so she ended up with two flyaways, getting some feathers on both and the typical chase before stopping. I'm getting frustrated with this now and seeing what we need to work on. The honor was ok, although I did have to reheel her, she was only a couple feet out. On the bubble for sure. The second test, by contrast went very well. 2 more flyaways, but they flushed nice and high and she sat promptly. She wouldn't however sit at heel for the honor, but she stood nicely and barely moved an inch. I didn't stick around to find out how it ended as I knew I was heading to Montana as soon as I got home. So it was a long weekend, I think I ended with about 1300 miles when I rolled in. Just in time to unpack, do some laundry, repack, and hit the road. But at least it should be a nice relaxing week.

She's back!

Well, it's good to have my dog back. She had some wierd stuff going on for a while - determined by the vet to be Vestibular Disease. She was dizzy, walking in circles repeatedly, seemed sluggish and after about a week she developed a pretty good head tilt. It started a bit before Christmas and took about a month for her to fully recover. So unfortunately she didn't make it down to AR with us. But she's been getting better all the time, and seems to be completely over it now.

Friday at the game farm she did great although I could tell she wasn't in the greatest shape from the sickness and that much time off. We put out 8 birds in training scenarios and she did well on all of them despite the deep snow. So I decided to run her at our test on Saturday. And it paid off - she went 2 for 2 earning her UH title (finally). She's had the HRCH title for several years, and always been a very good upland dog, but I'd only ever ran her in 2 tests before. She has a good hard flush but has learned to be good and steady, most of the time she'll sit to flush without a whistle. I'm planning to run some tests in WI and possibly SD this winter/spring, so maybe we'll start racking up some points and finally work on that 500 point mark. But don't hold your breath - we've got spring snows to get after too...

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!