JH Legs 2 and 3 are in the books
Brooks and I took another trip to Connecticut last Thursday, again hosted by IRISHWHISTLER, for 2 days of field training and Hunt Tests on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday's event was held by the Colonial Retriever Field Trial Club at the West Thompson Dam recreation area. Brooks did a good job both on land and water, pretty much pinning all his marks. We were pretty lucky, as there was very heavy rain and a tornado warning (one actually touched down several miles from our venue) that caused the test to be suspended for almost 2 hours.
Sunday's event was held by the Labrador Retriever Cub of Greater Boston at the same venue. Brooks did a great job on his land marks, both judges complimented him on his marking ability. Of course this would come back to haunt us. The first water mark was a dead bird off a winger thrown over thick cover into lily pads along the bank which ran at a 90 degree angle from the line. I send Brooks and he swims along the edge of the lily pads right past the fall. He continues following the bank around a corner to the left and goes out of sight. My heart sank. I could hear him swimming around, for what seemed like an eternity, when I heard someone at the gun station say he was on his way back. He came back in to view and was heading from left to right, away from the area of fall. Of course he finds a good size stick floating, and grabs it and starts heading back in. I'm laughing, and I can hear the judges laughing. As he's on his way back and getting closer to the area of fall, he drops the stick and seems like he's winded the bird. He has been doing land blinds for a while, and he's pretty good with a sit whistle and casting, but we've not done swim by's yet, and I've never tried to handle him in the water, but I figure what do I have to loose at this point. I blow a sit whistle, and he slows, so I cast him over to the left. He didn't respond, so I did it again, and he turned towards the bird, but was slightly off line, so I did it once more, and he turned on line to the bird and it was clear he had indeed winded it at this point. One of the judges tells me I need to handle him all the way to the bird, and to give him another "over" command, which I did. He was into the lily pads, got the bird and came back. We then lined up for the live flyer, which of course he pinned.
As we were going off the line I thanked the judges and asked if we had passed. The judge smiled and said they'd have to talk about it, but since all of his other mark were excellent, we should be ok.
I ended up leaving for home before the announced the qualifiers. We had been waiting almost 1 1/2 hours after the last dog finished, and were still waiting on the trial secretary to come over from the Master venue. IRISHWHISTLER said he would wait and call me with the results. I was over an hour down the road when he called to tell me we had qualified.
I was pretty happy with Brooks performance, but actually trialing does seems to show you where there are gaps in your training program. Things that aren't a problem, or are just minor issue can become real issues under the excitement and stress of an actual trial. I've made my notes and have my plan for going forward.
Once again I must thank IRISHWHISTLER for all the help, encouragement, and most of all his brutally honest constructive criticism, which has been instrumental in our success to this point, and no doubt going forward.
Oh, and the highlight of this weekend tests...….. This lady who ran her two miniature poodles both days, she failed to qualify with her female, but took home TWO orange ribbons with her male! You could not help but smile watching these dogs, and you could clearly see how much they loved their work!!!
https://photos.smugmug.com/Irishwhis...MG_2396-X2.jpg
