Sonic updates!

[Berna]

Well, Sonic is now 14 months old and he is doing great! We are currently on a show hiatus but have a couple of specialty shows planned for September and October. Also, we are practicing on taking a hunt trial test, which I guess is close to the junior hunt test in the US. The dogs are getting points for heeling, steadiness, steadiness while hearing gunshot, retrieving from water and retrieving from land. From what I understood, the dogs are not ranked, you just pass or you don't. At the same time, once we are there, we'll also take place at a national field trial, which involves all of the above mentioned, plus tracking lost game, plus taking out submerged ducks (which means the dog must dive in). Dogs are being ranked and getting titles for first and second place. I doubt we'll be ready for that, but I plan on at least having some fun with Sonic while we are there anyway.

I am also planning a week-long trip to Greece mid-September, and on our way back home we'll stop by some mountains and get to a couple of peaks. I can't wait for hiking season, it's been a long, hot, dry summer here.

I couple of recent pictures and a video from our training this morning. He's getting better and better at delivering the dummy, I had an issue with him dropping it before reaching me, that is why I am way still too fast to take it from him. He's also munching on it which I guess he won't be able to do with a duck which is much heavier than this dummy, but I'd like some input on that. I tried teaching him to 'hold', but he just gets anxious and nervous trying to spit it out when I put the dummy in his mouth, so I chose this method instead, to just reinforce his natural delivery.


Anyway, I hope you are all having a great summer!

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[Kleb]

Sonic is certainly a handsome fellow. I know nothing about hunt trials or what’s involved in the training. Good luck with the training and the shows in September and October.

[barry581]

Sonic is doing great for just 14 months! He truly looks like a Lab, and works like a Lab!!

[Jeff]

That's awesome and good for some down time. Hemi did the Hunt trial test and we both had a total blast. The biggest problem we had was Hemi Retrieving on water. It was a huge change for him. He grew up Dad throws bumper, Hemi goes gets it brings it back to land drops and jumps back in the water before dad can even pick it up waiting for it to get thrown again. We just swam for fun, dock diving and that where the drive to go get the item in the water was what you wanted. So having to sit on the shore while someone threw something was so hard. He eventually passed it. But yeah he just enjoyed water too much. We did do tracking as well. He was great at but he got bored quickly and pretty soon smelling and tracking something he would find more interesting scents.