Junior Series NorCal 3-20-16

[TuMicks]

I was all primed for this one... had the rules in my head. Demand quiet down in the holding blind. Take off the choker, attach leather tab to flat collar, heel to line, say SIT, take off tab, stick tab in pocket and out of sight. Hand on/under flat collar, say SIT on more time, call for birds, wait for number, say SIT, take hand off collar, put hand down to send, wait, send. Do that twice, thank the judges and leave.

That went well. She was so surprised to get a duck flier, she didn't know what to do with it. Took it to show the gunners, came in when I whistled. Second bird went just like it should have.


There was like a two mile walk-up for this one, and about 5 holding blinds along the way. By this time, Rocket Dog had started to get truly wound up. And maybe because she was, I started to unravel with my sense of the rules since I started to focus on her and not what I had to do. Came to the line. Couldn't get the tab all the way in pocket, said SIT holding the collar, removed the tab but didn't get it in my pocket all the way (a violation). Hand under the collar. Said SIT called for the birds. Got my number, said SIT, hand down, waited, sent her.

She entered the water, up on the first point. Thought she would find it and put her nose down... went left to the gunner for several feet then saw the bird and jumped in and got it. She swam back the way she should have. Now the judge reminded me to put the tab away and I did.

But here is where I got frazzeled. I lined her up for the next bird, told her SIT. Handed the duck to the judge. Told her SIT. Called for the birds. Forgot each bird was a separate retrieve, we weren't lining up like it was a double. The judge gave me my number, I said SIT, put my hand down, waited and sent her. She took her angles out and back... did fine. The judge then told me "wow, you really trusted your dog". I told her I forgot what I was doing and she laughed about it.

THEN... it began to pour on us. A big, sudden squall. Of course I wasn't wearing my rain gear and I was soaked by the time we ran back to the truck.

Nothing in it was a challenge, particularly. I got a clear look at how wound up she will be getting at HT's... thus how vitally important it will be to ingrain steadiness with her. And I will do what my friend told me to do, which is write all the sequence of what I am to do on a 3x5 card and read it in the holding blind.

[barry581]

I know it's hard to keep you nerves under control when competing, but it sounds like you did a good job overall, and knowing how steady RD was has to make you feel good about all the work you did with her over the winter!

[TuMicks]

Thanks Barry. She did front-end me on that last bird so we aren't there yet.

For example: I got to watch a series or two at the Master. All the fliers were within 20 or so yards. Whoa baby. But when I was at the ribbon ceremony I asked one gal who runs a Master dog what the last series was. She said it was a breaking test. I looked at her incredulously and she said that they threw the duck over the handler's and dog's head at the line (obviously, poppers shot in opposite direction and obviously a dead duck!!!) Her dog is a notorious creeper/breaker and he got through it.

Yep, we have a ways to go. And I DO need to run Juniors to get my act together.

[Anna Scott]

Sounds like you and RD had a good weekend. Nerves always seem to play apart. Those short water marks would have given me heart palpitations especially after waiting through 5 holding blinds. Working on holding blind manners and breaking birds just went on the to do list. One of the fellows we train with insists that there is always a dog in the holding blind. It sure helps with manners especially when the guns are going off.
Today we are going to add bulldog (diversions ) and poison birds in to the 4 corner drill. She has the no no down pat now, no cheats even with the white distractions. Yesterday she did a great job on an indented triple set up but showed confusion on the blind. She is having trouble with the concept that you can run the blind from the same line (mat ) as the marks. Once I stepped up from the mat she was fine. I hope to get her over this confusion shortly with no pressure.

[TuMicks]

On another note... Junior has a whole nuther vibe to it. There were only 3 dogs being run by pros. So everyone was there with their own dog and many of them were flat out new to the game. And I saw a handful of Nova Scotia Duck Tolling dogs. They were a hoot. Remember the grass was 18" high in some spots.

So there was this one guy who was very well dressed (that's a big tip off right there!) and his dog had a bunch of conformation and obedience titles, so... this appeared to be their first rodeo. WELL... that little guy went flying out after that flier, practically disappearing in the grass. And he hunted, and he hunted, and hunted some more. He even crossed the road to another field, figured out he had it wrong, came back, hunted some more and honestly, the little guy started to weary a little bit... but he kept that nose going with that white tipped tail bobbing the whole time... and he hunted some more... never even thought of coming in without the bird. Finally you could see him get the bird on his radar and zeroed in on it and pounced. Probably this had gone on for 10 minutes. When his head came up with that big mallard, the crowd just went nuts. He brought that duck back on a run and held it beautifully for a perfect delivery to hand.

I enjoyed the junior a great deal. Great judges, very patient gals.

[TuMicks]

Sounds like you and RD had a good weekend. Nerves always seem to play apart. Those short water marks would have given me heart palpitations especially after waiting through 5 holding blinds. Working on holding blind manners and breaking birds just went on the to do list. One of the fellows we train with insists that there is always a dog in the holding blind. It sure helps with manners especially when the guns are going off.
Today we are going to add bulldog (diversions ) and poison birds in to the 4 corner drill. She has the no no down pat now, no cheats even with the white distractions. Yesterday she did a great job on an indented triple set up but showed confusion on the blind. She is having trouble with the concept that you can run the blind from the same line (mat ) as the marks. Once I stepped up from the mat she was fine. I hope to get her over this confusion shortly with no pressure.

I think I should buy my own blind, but it needs to be light weight since, when training alone, close to the house, it's usually in parks and the truck can't drive into the field. Gotta be in the parking lot. So it means carrying everything out to set it up. I think I saw one that was cammo cloth and PVC sticks, so not awfully sturdy. But for my purposes, it might be OK.

[Anna Scott]

I love watching and judging the junior. The owner handlers are great. They love to see their dogs work. We train with Toller people. These are game little dogs that show great heart. We treat them just like we do the labs and they go for it. Their blind work is different as is that of goldens and water spaniels and as a judge this something that I always keep in mind. Judge the work but keep the breeds traits in mind.
A friend had a really nice Toller that I used to tease her about. I said he always had to package his birds. He would go to the mark, roll the bird with his nose until the wings were all folded in neatly and then he would pick it up.

[TuMicks]

A toller mouth wouldn't have half the volume of RD's I don't think. Even their teeth look like baby teeth in comparison.

[windycanyon]

Great post... I'm just getting back to some field work finally after a long lapse and have to admit, it feels good.

I remember once describing the "breaking" tests I was seeing at Masters (friends/ pup owners running... not me!) on this board as I recall, and someone tried to call me a liar on that.... LOL. Nope... they seem pretty popular up here.

I finally dragged my wingers out to my field yesterday after thawing some ducks from my training freezer. I wanted to see how "far" 1 yo Ruby had come since starting FF last week. We still have a bit, but she's gaining an understanding of delivery anyhow and her drive is great. Will have to do a lot more marking w/ her in more cover, but was fine on my short field. 2yo (yesterday) Kanzi will have no issue w/ JH and I set up an easy blind ~50 yds away and did the 2 singles as a double in the end for her first ever double. Of course we'll have to get out to train on water as soon as things are a little warmer.

[Anna Scott]

The ice is off our front pond but I haven't been back to check the back ones. I was hoping that we could do at least one short water mark and a short water blind in the picnic trial we are setting up for Apr 10 but they are predicting another snow storm for Wednesday. This may set our plans back. Will spent the next couple of weeks doing tune up marks and drills then hopefully will get into the water by first of May.
That breaker over the head was a favourite of HRC judges here in Ontario. Our training buddy always made us do them from a remote sit when we were training for the Gold Whistle. Marks would be bumpers and that breaker would be a bird just to make it even more tempting.