First hunt test on Friday

c_d

c_d

New member
I'll be entering (and viewing) our first HT this Friday. After reading the regs and talking to a couple folks, we're just going to enter the Junior. I know she's got way more drive and talent (at least I think so), but Fillmore's delivery has gotten sloppy, and if she's not playing with the bird, she'll just drop it at my feet instead of hold for a true hand delivery - which seems to be a DQ. We'll get our feet wet on this one, and see what it's really all about. May enter SH late March, which'll give me some time to work on a few things.

question for the vets - how different are pigeons from chukar in terms of scenting in the field? Filli has been on Chukar for training, and pheasants, but never on pigeons. Only pigeons have been in the streets, when she's on leash I don't let her pay too much attention.
 
Good luck at the hunt test. Call a few feed stores. Some will have pigeons or know of a customer that has them for sale. Iwas just up in Santa nella training with Donny Mock and I believe he is one of the judges. I started in hunt tests in 99 which got me to trialing in 2003 it's addictive. If your dog drops it back up a foot and say hold or whatever you use and grab the bird quick dont worry about a nice sitting delivery.Good luck and let us know how it went. John
 
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Affordable, abundant and they're dirty and stinky...and that's good! Putting out a lot of scent gets your dog using its nose. However, ideally IMHO you'd want to use the exact bird(s) you'd be hunting or trialing with that dog. If you can afford too!
 
Good luck Filmore, give 'em hell.

Where is the test C_d?
 
springerchaser said:
Good luck at the hunt test. Call a few feed stores. Some will have pigeons or know of a customer that has them for sale. Iwas just up in Santa nella training with Donny Mock and I believe he is one of the judges. I started in hunt tests in 99 which got me to trialing in 2001 it's addictive. If your dog drops it back up a foot and say hold or whatever you use and grab the bird quick dont worry about a nice sitting delivery.Good luck and let us know how it went. John
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not too many feed stores near Oakland. at least not ones I know off. sure are plenty of pigeons though :cool: might have to just stumble upon some.

She's a fierce hunter, I'm sure just letting her loose in a field with any birds in it are in for a flush. I'm not too worried about that, but I guess we'll see.

Thanks John. we need to work on hold. Been doing it half ass, but will build myself a bench, and be working specifically on that over hte next month before the next one.
 
I'll check in to it, probably Spenceville WA. I might have to come check it out.
 
Good luck. You can also get down on your knees and pat your lap and chest area letting Fillmore crash right up on you and hug and rub the dog up and praise like hell letting her hold the bird. Treat he or she like a puppy. "OH what da ya got there" etc. it works well, I do this all the time even with the older dogs. They like being treated like kids and being praised. Pretty soon when you stand up they deliver fine. Worth a try. Go and havd a blast:thumbsup:
 
thanks for the tips guys. I'll get back to working with her this afternoon. It's just like cramming for a test back in school. oh boy...


QH - PM me your email and I'll send you the info.
 
It's official, quailhound is coming up to see the spaniels run. I hope there will be an Airedale or two there also, always wanted to see one work. I can't wait to meet c_d and Filmore and see what these tests are all about.
 
well, that didn't quite go as expected. not to make excuses, but scenting was really non existent, and we had to run the course twice since the pigeons were a little tooo dizzy, and not flying. Plus, she's not allowed to chase pigeons because they're everywhere in our city. anyhow, by the time she got her bird up, she was hot and needed water, so she just brought the bird about halfway, dropped it, and laid down in the shade panting. fail. oh well, I know to carry water with me when we hunt, and know she's got sloppiness like that when she's overheated. so, oh well. it was a learning experience for sure. and while i love to hunt with my dog, she just isn't tuned into the 'test' levels that we were seeing.

It was great to meet Robert and see what a HT is all about. Sorry that he didn't see Fillmore run the land portion, and the h2o portion was just terrible. Sorry you had to see that QH. ugh.

How was the hunting? success?
 
Nothing to be embarrassed about, at least you had a dog in the game while mine was in his kennel. You have an idea of what to work on and what to strive for now. Filmore is a beautiful dog and my dog looks like a tank compared to all those other dogs.:eek:

The hunting was good, found 1 covey after I left you guys and me and Sooty moved 3 coveys and bagged 15 quail Saturday. If you go hunt the berries near water.
 
yeah. i guess so. I now realize how much more i need to get her out. I think she's a machine of a hunter, but needs polish to compete.

Glad to hear you got on birds. Not a bad Saturday!
 
First off don't be embarrassed about notin! if you can;? train with some one. If not work on what you need to. Go back and give her heck later. If you were in junior tests, I know you can do it. After that it will come easier for you. I hope you watched plenty of others so you can grasp the Master etc. Don't give up, after you lay down your work while hunting is over, you will be proud of what you have done. And Fillmore will love ya for it, trust me the dog wants to try, they love it. Springers want to please, so let them I say. Not sure why they used pigeons though. Possibly the bird crunch is out there too. Hey River has done Great this year, but there was a trial as well that she broke on a runner and took off across a plowed field with her ear plugs in. No matter how loud I yelled or whistled at her.:D She went the whole half section, little s?%t. I took the walk of shame. Some days they just decide to be a little jerk. Next trial she was in the 5th series of a National.:thumbsup: Every one has not so proud moments, and if you keep going, you will see them all have those times. Hang in there.
 
Good advice Fc. I got a feel for the tests also and see what to work on to get my male to the MH level. Hupping to flush shouldn't be to hard but through the shot and fall may be hard. Then there is the blind water retrieve. A situation he has been in but I usually throw a rock in the birds general location instead of trying to handle him to the bird.:D You were right Fc, I can handle training to this level but the question is can we carry this level of training through a whole bird season to the hunt test season? I can't say for sure but I got the impression that most of the dogs at the test do little, if any wild bird hunting.
 
quail hound said:
Good advice Fc. I got a feel for the tests also and see what to work on to get my male to the MH level. Hupping to flush shouldn't be to hard but through the shot and fall may be hard. Then there is the blind water retrieve. A situation he has been in but I usually throw a rock in the birds general location instead of trying to handle him to the bird.:D You were right Fc, I can handle training to this level but the question is can we carry this level of training through a whole bird season to the hunt test season? I can't say for sure but I got the impression that most of the dogs at the test do little, if any wild bird hunting.
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I would not say they do no hunting. I hunt the crap out of mine and know several others that do as well, some on this forum. But yes there is some, plenty that don't. Most of those are in geographic areas that have no wild birds or many pros, that are just too dang busy training. Once you got the dog steady to flush wing and shot, and did it solid as you can. You will have no trouble keeping the dog steady through hunting. But, you can toss it away as well by hunting the steady dog with un steady dogs. The steady dog will take getting no retrieve so long. So you need to watch that. I hunt my dog that is not steady separate, and most take turns any way. There is a simple method to the madness of steadying a dog for those events and trials, that is the same. I hear ya on the water and rock. I have used that for my whole life,LOL. If you guy's want to have the steps laid out let me know, and I will teach you board steading, which you can do all on your own. It is the soundest way to get to your goal. I can help with the water thing as well. Most of it is easier then you think. It just takes some time, and Patience.;)
 
I agree, I wouldn't say none of them ever hunt wild birds just that from over hearing conversation I don't think most of them hunt much except for on a preserve. I know you, Springerchaser and many others hunt your dogs extensively on wild birds like I do.

All in all it was a great experience except for one thing I didn't like. They set up the blind water retrieve and a guy brought out an obviously old, slightly out of shape female to "test the test". By his own words she hadn't had an work in 6 months and was clearly having a hard time. After easily over 10mins she was slowing down and the handler was clearly frustrated with her but she would not give up and finally found the bird. After taking a short break on the other bank she got back in the water, swam back, and clawed up the bank for a flawless retrieve to hand. The crowd cheered for the old gal but the owner didn't so much as give her a pat on the head or an atta girl.:( A bit upsetting to watch her work so hard to please her master and him not even acknowledge her effort.
 
"overwelmed Vs underwelmed"

Interesting thread folks, testing and hunting, usually dogs that are part trained are underwelmed during a wild bird hunt, and overwelmed during a hunt test.
May have something to do with standards. Hunting places the focus on the "bag" and the birds of the day. Testing places the focus on a prescribed set of standards at ever increasing levels of precision for the dogs behavior to meet or exceed. JH being a bare minimum set of requirements, SH being slightly expecting a more precise dog behavior and MH being the "ultimate gun dog".
The key is to prepare the dog, so it is underwelmed in the job you are asking it to do today.

Concerning game birds Vs pigeons. I have always thought putting a young dog into game birds for training or for their experience, was like putting a 10 year old boy in the batters box against major league pitching, it would not be helpful for young ball player to have to face a 100mph fast ball.
Pigeons are a great way for the young prospect to build confidence on the many behaviors being asked for,quartering, steadiness, marking and delivery.

And there is a game bird shortage in the production areas of the country I'm here in Michigan. Not sure about the long term effects but many producers have sold off their breeders. Bird prices in the future are going to bubble upward.
Best of fortunes
 
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