Nebraska Dog and Hunt Club Junior Hunt Test

Transcription

1 Nebraska Dog and Hunt Club Junior Hunt Test I have a new found respect for handlers and dogs who have completed the Junior Hunt title or any field title. There are so many things that can happen at a test to skew what happens it s almost impossible to train for everything. Jade and I have been on a quest for the Retriever Junior Hunt Test title for several months now. It takes 4 passes to achieve the JH. A dog must find and retrieve 4 birds (usually ducks) for each pass. Two of the birds are on land and two are on water. Simple, right, not so fast, think about a hunting situation, with wind, sun, clouds, heavy shadows, deep grass, wet or dry, birds that get up and run, guns that do not fire correctly, birds that are thrown incorrectly, dogs that are hot and go to find a place to cool off before fetching the bird, and the list goes on and on and on. It is almost like having your tongue just right, while standing on one leg, patting your stomach and tapping your head at the same time, and singing the Star Spangled Banner all in key and everything at the same time. Wha la, you have all the conditions just right to complete one Junior Hunt Test. Now the next time you try the test the conditions will change and adjustments will have to be made. You will obviously be training for all these situations and variations during the week/s before you go to a test, hoping to cover every scenario that can happen which is next to impossible. You just hope the dog understands what his job is and adjusts to whatever happens or occurs. There are times when everything is in line and all goes well the dog passes having found and retrieved four birds, brought them to your hand and you want to scream YES. The Sun, Moon, and Stars have aligned and you are engulfed in their light. June 25, 2010, Jade and I traveled to Lincoln, Ne for the Nebraska Dog and Hunt Club Hunt test. I am not one to travel alone but made the decision that this was a quest and would make it happen come H or High water. The trip was basically uneventful until I got to the Motel Six and was going to check in could not find my billfold with my money, credit cards. I almost had a panic attack. The last time I was in Lincoln I had locked my keys in the van and had to have a lock smith open the doors for me and still get to the trial site to run my dogs that was a Sunday morning. Now on a very hot, humid Friday afternoon I could not find my billfold and had no idea where it was. After some searching it was found, I checked in. I decided I should go out and find the test site as I get lost very easy and did not want that pressure on test day. I drove out to the site pretty easily with the help of Garmin. When I pulled up I found a couple of SUV s with drivers so I asked if this was the test site. He replied yes, and wanted to know what stakes I was in, I replied the Junior at which he said we are moving the Junior to another site about 10 miles west, will have directions for you in the morning or you can follow us now to see where it is. That sounded really good to me so away I followed the two SUV s. We arrived at the new test site. I saved it on my Garmin and thought I have it made for tomorrow, I will just come here and be ready, cool, calm and collected. The rest of the evening was spent just resting and I gave Jade a good massage. We both had a good night s sleep. Saturday, June 26, Jade and I head out to the new test site. We arrive, but there is absolutely no one around. I considered pulling off to the side of the road and waiting, but something told me to go to the original site. Sure enough the test was going to be the original site. I was early so not a big problem. Saturday June 26, 2010: one word, hot and humid, well two. I have let Jade get in the lake a couple of times to keep her cool. She seems to be handling the heat better than I am as there is little or no shade. We are number 29, the last team to run and the wind is blowing 15 to 20 miles/hour into our faces. The wind had changed directions from earlier in the morning. The cover is about 12 high in

2 most places. The first bird is a flyer about 100 yards out. It is tossed into the wind is downed. I send Jade. She goes out directly toward the bird then suddenly turns left and goes around the blind, does a wide circle, circles again, then comes into the bird, finds it and brings it back. I remember winching several times as she looked for the bird and thinking, what is she doing? Second bird, thrown by a winger, it is located about 60 to 80 yards out. The wind is blowing away from the bird toward the west and the blind. It lands in about the same location as all the other birds. Jade marks it. I send her, she goes out with good speed and in a line for the bird until she is almost there when she turns left, goes toward the blind searches a little then picks up the scent of the bird and goes for it. She proudly brought it back and presented me the bird. I am thinking she could have done better so do not know for sure if we will be called back. There were 20 dogs called back we were in that group. It s to the water. Two more birds to pick up, whew! Maybe we can do this. The first water mark is out in the pond, about 50 yards from the line. Not too bad except there is a narrow opening through thick cattails for the dog to see and go after the bird. We again are the last dog to run. Jade is on the line, sees the bird hit the water and I send her with the confidence she can do this. She runs out through the opening, hits the water, starts swimming then suddenly turns to the right. I am baffled, what is going on??? Then I see the decoy, Jade has been pulled toward the decoy. She checks it out, but gets disorientated and starts to swim toward me. I give a go back in the hopes of turning her back out toward the bird. She does turn, but not enough and I can no longer see her due to the heavy cattails. I hear her pull up on the shore then appear out toward the blind. She is looking for the bird just not in the water. The judge remarks I should call her in and I do. Darn! I had wanted to go home and it had been early enough to do so Saturday. I am not much for hot weather and another day in the heat was not something I was looking forward to. I even considered going home and not staying for Sunday s Hunt Test. I was pretty depressed when I went back to the motel. I had a little talk with myself and went over why I was doing this in the first place. Jade likes going after birds and it did not matter to her if she got a ribbon or not. She had had fun going for the birds and would have really liked to have found the one I had to call her off from. I decided to stay. I decided when I walked to the line it would be with the resolve that if she passed or not we would have a good time doing it. Sunday, June 27, 2010: There had been some rain during the night and a North wind was noticeably cooler in the morning. Well, I thought, at least it won t be so hot. I arrived early at the hunt test and found that the Junior Hunt Test was moved about 10 miles to the west from the Nebraska Hunt grounds. I think someone said "out by the airport". Anyway when I drove up and looked over the field I didn't think I had much of a chance of passing. The cover was waist high, the marks were 80 to 100 yards away and after what Jade did yesterday, well, you can understand my concerns. The one thing we had in our favor was cool cloudy weather. My number was 12, but there were several handlers who had dogs in other stakes back at the hunt grounds, so they were allowed to go first. The grass was waist high and I did not relish walking around in it. Chiggers really like me whether I have bug spray on or not so I stayed in the van and listened to audio books until it was getting close to when I should be able to run. Jade would whine every now and then, especially when she heard a rifle noise. She was ready. I gave myself another lecture about having fun, at least it was cool. My number was up and I was called to the line. The first bird was thrown with a winger and went as it should. I sent Jade and could not see her after about 20'. We waited about an eternity (30 seconds) and here she comes with the duck, one down, gooood girl! The second bird was a flyer that was shot low to the ground, not so good, as it

3 did not give much time for Jade to see it and it dropped pretty close to the gun station. I was a little surprised the judge did not call "no bird". They did not and I sent her. She again disappeared, an eternity again passed (about 45 seconds) and then I see her, bird in mouth, I could have cried and almost did. We immediately went to the water marks. The pond was wedged shaped. The first bird was tossed with a winger into one of the corners of the pond. We were about 50' away from the edge of the pond. I could at least see what Jade was doing. She entered the water, swam directly out to the duck, came directly back, but was coughing as I took the duck from her. She has been swallowing water lately and she definitely had this time. I waited a little bit to make sure she was ok before I set her up for the next bird. It was hand thrown to the far corner of the pond I would say 70 to 100' swim for Jade. She marked it. I sent her. She went directly to the water and was in a line toward the duck when she started to pull to the right in the direction of where the first duck fell. My heart started sinking, I watched, considering trying to handle, but if I did and it did not work...anyway, I watched. Jade swam to the shore got out started up into the field going to "who knows where" then turned back to the pond, entered the water got the duck and swam back across the pond with it and presented it to me. I could have cried, I wanted to scream with celebration but held it in after what had happened a couple of weeks ago. (She had done a good job of getting four birds by most everyone's opinion except the judges.) When her number 12 was called today for the ribbon everyone clapped and cheered, I was pretty proud of my girl. Jade was thrilled too. They gave a biscuit with the ribbon and she quickly demolished it. Jade, Junior Hunter. Judges are Steve Adair, Springfield, NE and Bill Blake Omaha, NE.

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