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| Hero Shot |
Gentle Readers and Loved Ones,
Yesterday, Rory got off the porch and ran with the big dogs. I’m so dern proud I could bust.
Again, if you are offended by hunting, please take yourself off elsewhere.
Rory and I are enthusiastic Four Points Retriever Club and NAHRA members. Every March, FPRC runs an Upland Retriever Test, this year at Pheasant Ridge Shooting Preserve in Ogilvie, MN. A retriever test is not a competition. There are defined requirements and if you successfully accomplish them, you qualify. It’s more like a pilot check ride. I like that.
I quote these instructions to NAHRA judges, because the last two lines make my heart swell.
“A Senior Upland dog by definition is a finished upland hunting retriever. Senior dogs should be under complete control at all times and steady under all conditions. .... They are the elite of all hunting dogs and should show it. They are the dogs that any of us would be proud to own and hunt with anywhere in the country.“
There were two concurrent tests yesterday, so Rory had the chance to win two ribbons. We won just one. You ain’t handed a ribbon, you have to work for it. I also like that a lot.
Yesterday, my trophy wife, Ann followed us with her video phone. I could put you to sleep with the videos, but it is my fervent wish to keep this short and avoid that. Several of the judges and shotgunners recorded their footsteps yesterday. Their phones all said they walked north of 5 miles judging the test.
Doing math in public, there were roughly 15 dogs tested so that means a single test stretched out over a ⅓ of a mile and we did it twice. I hope that gives you an idea of the length of videos she recorded yesterday.
Further, video of the reasons why we failed yesterday are my business and I don’t care to share them here. Suffice it to say that Rory and I have to work harder and smarter on the Obedience Facet of the Doggy Mindset.
So, in the interest of brevity and in full disclosure, I’m only gonna show you videos that put us in the best light.
A Senior Upland Test has 6 components. Two Hunts culminating in "steady to shot and fall", Two Blind Retrieves and either a trail or a hunt it up. I’ll explain each below.
The first I want to show you is the blind retrieve. Rory does not know where the dead bird is, but I do. I use hand signals and whistle sits to direct him to the downed bird. This one went really well. The others went downhill into costing a lot of points. In this one though, I only had to give Rory one cast to get him to the bird. I think the scent trails of the previous dogs and a wind change really helped us on this one.
The second is a “Hunt-It-Up”. Neither Rory nor I know where the dead bird is. I’m given an area to start in and I send Rory out with the command “Find It”! He did a great job on this one.
Finally, the hunt and steady to shot. The goal of the hunt is a dog that intelligently quarters the area out in front of the hunters and remains in “reasonable shotgun distance.” Rory did great on this.
Now a little explanation. A live bird has been loaded into a bird flinger. Here’s a picture.
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| Bird Launcher |
At the end of the hunt, at a precise moment that requires some judgment, the judge presses the remote to fling the bird skyward to seek freedom. The gunners either knock the bird down or it escapes into the wild. In either case Rory must sit on my command and remain steady until I tell him what to do next. The theory here is that a dog that chases a flushed bird could get shot. Rory is rock solid until I release him to retrieve.
In all the retrieves, Rory must “deliver the bird to hand” which means he has to wait patiently for me to take the bird from him.
I gotta say, the ribbon looks good hanging on the cabin mantle.
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If you are still with me at this point, thank you. On that happy note, I remain,
Dad/Geoff
