Hunt Test Weekend Results

**Amber The Duck Dawg** · 05-09-2011, 04:08 PM

Well I ran Wave in his first AKC hunt test this weekend. I thought Junior Hunter (JH) would be to easy for him so we ran Senior (SH) Saturday and Sunday. 1st series Saturday was a converging land water double, followed by a water blind. Wave had a hard time because they sluiced his go bird (water) and I think he thought it was a third bird. He set up a hunt between the two marks about where the shot from the sluice hit the bank So I just handled him to the memory mark as he was a little closer to that and resent him to the Go bird. He did a good job on the water blind. The 2nd series is Land Water again, with the land blind. Live shot flyer up a hill with a memory mark out into a pond. Wave lines up telling me he is going for the Go bird and as soon as I send him he takes a right turn and goes and gets the memory bird first. He then comes back and lines back up on the Go bird and this time runs right out to it and comes back all proud of himself. The land blind was hard as the wind was blowing from the blind to the line so the dogs could scent it pretty quick. So wave got a senior pass in his first AKC hunt test.
Sunday by the time I got to senior people were all upset because it was a real cheaty water go bird and the judges told everyone their dogs had to get wet. The master dog they used as test dog missed the water, and the first 8 or 9 dogs that ran were handled on the mark just to put them in the water. The Memory bird was a land mark launched about 1/2 way down on the side of a hill, that was a pretty easy mark for the dogs running. Wave was the first dog that actually took the correct line straight thru the corner of the pond and boy were the judges happy. After Wave there were more dogs that took the water without having to be handled.
On the 2nd series it was a walk up out of order flyer water land series. The go bird is a water mark all the way across the pond and the memory bird is a flyer shot on the side of the pond. Wind is blowing from flyer station acrosss the pond. Wave went straight to the long go bird and then got the short flyer real easy.
The we ran the water blind and had a bunch of trouble. Wave locked onto something about 30 degrees the left of the blind and I could not get him to look off of it. fI finally sent and handled him off of it but it was Ugly. luckily we had done a good job on the land blind and Wave ended up with his 2nd SH leg. I learned there are to major things I need to work on with him, Push pull leave it drills lining, and I need to show him what a sluiced bird shot looks like.
I also entered Amber on Saturday she passed and got her SH title

I love when judges show you different things in a test.

**windycanyon** · 05-10-2011, 12:04 AM

Wow, congratulations!!! Interesting how he wanted to get the memory bird first. Go figure!!!!

**GulfCoast** · 05-10-2011, 07:20 AM

Congratulations!!! Senior is like a box of chocolates. You might get a Master double and one one of the Saturday master blinds, or you might actually get a senior test. It sounds like you had a shot flyer in both series both days. That is a club flush with money right there! I bet the dogs loved it.

Originally Posted by Amber The Duck Dawg

I love when judges show you different things in a test.

Most handlers want to call for a hanging rope when judges show them something different!

**Amber The Duck Dawg** · 05-10-2011, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by GulfCoast

Congratulations!!! Senior is like a box of chocolates. You might get a Master double and one one of the Saturday master blinds, or you might actually get a senior test. It sounds like you had a shot flyer in both series both days. That is a club flush with money right there! I bet the dogs loved it.

Most handlers want to call for a hanging rope when judges show them something different!

I am a member of the club and we do a few things to control bird costs. We tell the Master judges they get one flyer for the first series and one in the last series, this seems to keep us around 1.5 birds per dog for the whole series. Junior judges we ask that they shoot a flyer in the first and in the last series, and Senior same way. We pay the game farm owner to Steward for the whole test and he usually shoots for us and then he takes back any birds we dont use which saves the club money. All 4 of the local HT clubs do the same thing. The prices here are $70 for junior, $70-$72 for Senior, and $75 for Master. We also always fly in at least one Master judge and maybe one other Judging couple for junior/senior. We as a club think it is better for the sport to expose more judges to different regions of the country. This test we actually had 5 out of town judges. We also try and be aware of flight costs before we pick judges.

**GulfCoast** · 05-11-2011, 06:46 AM

Only at the Master National have I seen a flyer in more than 1 series of a hunt test, at any level. I would love to run at a club that gave the handlers more than one flyer series.

**georgie** · 05-11-2011, 08:41 AM

Congratulations!

**windycanyon** · 05-12-2011, 12:32 AM

Originally Posted by GulfCoast

Only at the Master National have I seen a flyer in more than 1 series of a hunt test, at any level. I would love to run at a club that gave the handlers more than one flyer series.

We normally see one on land, one on water in both JH and SH but this weekend the water location wasn't conducive to a flyer. I never thought to ask my friends about MH-- it's been so long since I could go watch since I'm almost always marshaling the tests I'm at. This weekend I may stop by to watch some of the MH and SH on my way thru from the obed trials though!