Nashville HT folks

[CF]

..and if it weren't for the pretty scenery me and T-bone were lookin at in the holding blind this afternoon it woulda sucked ........

...where are the pics???

[stumpjumper]

Im proud of my girl this spring 4 finished passes, 1 Grand pass and we pulled 2 Master passes out of the bag the first time out. I did'nt know what to expect going into this weekend but with a good dog she did the work and I was the co driver. Hope we can do it again this fall the wife and kids had fun.

[swamprooter]

I just figured out what ya'll were talking about what was so nice to look at "in the holding blind". Ya'll remember what flight and dog # she was in? I don't want to miss gettin my dog in that flight on the next hunt test

[Duck Chaser]

swamprooter, where in the heck were ya?? I rolled in eearly friday morning.. that place was a beehive by saturday. wouldn't doubt I ran into you and didn't know it. I headed back after we finished C-1, so missed out on some socializing.

billy, I'm trying to figure out what kind of "favors" you performed for a certain judgette?? heck, I didn't have but 2 handles... oh, and tell your trainer he can't handle in masters anymore. you did a much better job.


ldh, chuck summed it up.. those "in-line" marks had all of us in deep thought. I'd guess they were maybe 20-25 yds apart, depending on the throws. fairly heavy cover and fairly flat ground. no real seperation to be seen. memory bird was a poke em in there and hope they stumble on it gig.. we couldn't figure out why you would train for it, or how you judge marking with in-line overlapping aof's... I'm thinking "somebody" don't know how to throw a good mark, but I'm no judge, so what do I know. the cold honor was no biggie.. just sort of fit well with the overall cluster theme.

I decided to burn my handle quick on the "deep" memory bird and get OUT of that sucker. ran the blinds and we were good to go... so, line-up to get the 50 yd dump bird for the cold honor. they throw, shot comes from a gun opposite direction, behind us. (another nice touch..) rusty freaks and looks back thinking he missed a bird, and my dumazz sent him! he went right where he was lookin, runnin around like a de-headed chicken. so another handle on that dayum walk-up bird.. there was a lot going on, and I did want to send him asap, but that was a DAH award winning performance. don't forget rusty in your prayers, and be thankful he pulled me through the other one.

[Lady Duck Hunter]

The Shot came from a different Station than the bird that was thrown? or was it just a very bad echo situation? Either way....it isn't a fair way to test marking, nor is overlapping areas of the fall. Oh well...congratulations on the first test's ribbon...we'll be watching for that MH in the fall.

[T-Bone]

LDH,
The shot came from a gunner located just behind the working dog... at the line.... shot in opposite direction ....away from the mark/walk up.

[cdwyer]

You see that kinda stuff in Master. I've posted this before, in Central KY, 2nd series water test:dog sits at waters edge, you walk back 10 yards into the woods. A gunner is between you and the dog. He shoots all three marks from behind the dog. Last bird down is a breaking bird, splashes in the dogs face. The gunner was using popper loads, not primer and the echo was incredible as he was shooting from inside the woods as well.

There was another test at Boothill. Water series quad, all the shots were from opposite gun stations from where the bird was actuall thrown from.

[swamprooter]

Duck Chaser...i was the guy there sitting by himself!!..Didn't know a soul there but left with few new friends. I had a eye opening time running our first Masters (2A) on Saturday after getting our Senior title on Friday. But luck was on our side we passed both. Realized things I needed to work on and thankful for things we have worked on ( pinched in marks). My pup just turned 2 so we're takin our time and smellin the roses!....maybe we will meet at Flora this fall.

[Lady Duck Hunter]

LDH,
The shot came from a gunner located just behind the working dog... at the line.... shot in opposite direction ....away from the mark/walk up.

You've got to be kidding me!!!

[Lady Duck Hunter]

You see that kinda stuff in Master. I've posted this before, in Central KY, 2nd series water test:dog sits at waters edge, you walk back 10 yards into the woods. A gunner is between you and the dog. He shoots all three marks from behind the dog. Last bird down is a breaking bird, splashes in the dogs face. The gunner was using popper loads, not primer and the echo was incredible as he was shooting from inside the woods as well.

There was another test at Boothill. Water series quad, all the shots were from opposite gun stations from where the bird was actuall thrown from.

Thank goodness WE dont' see that kinda stuff out here! most of our tests are ok...we did go through a period where stupid stuff and tricks were pretty pronounced, but it seems to have settled back into a more common sense time again. Hope that happens for y'all real soon!

Your "do not run" judges list must be a book!

[Marty N.]

Alan Bruhin is world famous for "Unique" Master tests, he can and does put a bird where a dog does not want to go. You will see in-lines about 75 percent of the time in a Master Test, a AKC rep's famous saying is a "Master dog should be able to handle any mark/blind or concept anywhere anytime under any conditions, if he can't he's not a Master Hunter".
One other thing, Alan is a Master National judge and can and will make you and your dog think through his tests. He is extremly fair, If he and Michelle had judged that series as they could have then there would have been only about 20 dogs not 36 going to the third. If you think about the way they ran the flight, 1st series made you pucker, 2nd you got to play and you and the dog felt good about what they and you did, then they turned up the heat a knotch or two to really let you show case your dog and your handling skills in the last series.
For what my two cents are worth it was not that big a circus just another series that when you think about it was really pretty cool. Especialy if your dog did a good job on it or had to have your help to complete it. Running that type of tests or flight lets you know just how good you and your dog are as a team, not just two seperate entity's(sp) picking up ducks.

Oh and Chuck thanks again for the loan of the whistle at the end of the blind, first time in 20 years of running Hunt Tests or Field Trials I have had a whistle stick and quit working. Alan and Michelle did not penalize me or the dog for a stuck whistle. Had her at the stake one whistle and a cast from a 3 or 4 whistle blind when the pea on my whistle hung up. Got kinda harry there for awhile, couple of wild moments slapping that whistle to make it work stop the dog, handle slap whistle, blow, slap whistle blow repeate as needed. Then this big ole' hand passes me a whistle and with two blows and a couple of casts we got the blind. She passed and that ribbon has a notation on the back that the blind was a team effort. Thanks agan Chuck.

Marty

[swamprooter]

Just my 2 cents..... but in a hunting situation especially timber.....shots could be fired behind, to the side and in front of a dog. I handle my dog routinely from a remote stand because I may be behind another tree......I personally welcome the different scenerios the Hunt Test provides. It's Hunting. A group of 3-4 duck hunters are constantly downing ducks that cross each other's fall. But here again I'm new to this ( dog games) and this was our first master test having a dog that was barely a Senior Title less than 12 hours but when I saw the tests unfold, to be honest, i thought they would be harder. My dog's hunting experience this past fall definitely carried him through the tests. Now.... we got some work on some holding blind manners but it seems shooting a couple of hundred ducks this winter over his head gave him a tremedous advantage over some of the Tahoe dogs. Of coarse I'm ignorant of the entire printed rules for AKC Hunt tests.......but it should would be boring if every line in every state for every hunt test, you kicked your dog off the same way....

[cdwyer]

Congrats on your title and first Master pass!

I agree just saying thats the kind of stuff you will see in Master. After every master test I ran I saw something to train for and did. A master dog should be one that is able to deal with any situation it may encounter as Marty stated. I've heard a well respected pro from Jonesboro who is an SRS guru say he hates training for master because of the concepts that you may or may not see on a weekend test. You never know what your going to get so the dog has to be at the top of its game for three series over two days. Its a heck of a title to be proud of once you get it!

[Lady Duck Hunter]

We've seen our share of "unique" stuff, too.

Let me see...
I remember a first series water...tight little water, flooded timber type with a serious r-l cross wind. Walk up to the line and "boom" a bird is shot and thrown from an over grown ( lots of vegetation) peninsula across the way and lands in open water about 65-70 yards away and off to your right about 45 degrees... 2nd bird is from other side of pensula, really high launched bird that clears the trees on the pensula and splats on the shore line protected from the wind at about 50 yards. 3rd bird is live flyer shot about 50-60 yards from line, with the honor dog sitting on that side of working dog about 5 yards closer to the usually swimming live flier....sometimes there was a slewse shot, sometimes not, because if the bird landed at a certain angle, the shot would have been unsafe.

There was a downed tree down wind of the shot flyer to catch any bird that might drift due to the fairly stout wind. I mention this because there was nothing to stop the first bird down from drifting.

so far so good, right?

You "No" the dogs off these 3 birds in the water and handle them to a blind about 75-80 yard down the middle....while the honor dog is sitting there watching the live flyer. The line to the blind first crossed the drift path of the first bird down....some handlers had to box their dogs around this bird as it was directly in line when the dog got there, others had to try to keep their dogs from getting that bird as it drifted upwind of the dog in open water - clearly visible and maybe only 10 feet away and closing the gap steadily. Also in line to that blind were 2 other scented areas, with that cross wind coming right to left....from the two bird stations and the #2 bird on or near the shore.

After you picked up that blind you got to do the marks - two of which weren't where they landed and then you get to honor...sometimes multiple times as dogs that failed on the blind didn't have to pick up the marks. I think 9 dogs out of nearly 50 made it to the 2nd series and if my memory serves me correctly, only 7 dogs passed at the end of the day.

Since someone brought up Master National, I'd like to tell everyone that they go to great lengths to insure that the marks will be seen. Each controlled bird station has a duck or pheasant call to alert the dog that something is coming from that area and then, bird is thrown, and the shot is fired. There is no attempt to misdirect the dogs attention to look away while the bird is being thrown.

I see nothing wrong with inlines or making a dog go through an old fall area. I've seen remote sends for marks and blinds, I've seen two birds in the sky at the same time thrown in opposite directions and ina different test thrown in the same direction but one bird traveled further away than the other. I've seen 3 birds coming from the same very well hidden bird station but launched at different anges landing all over the field at varying lengths from the line.

You can be creative without misdirection. Any dog that hunts knows to follow the gun that is doing the shooting to have a chance at seeing the birds go down. It doesn't make sense to me to fire the gun from behind the working dog and pointed in the opposit direction from where the bird is going to launch.

If you aren't going to shoot from the bird station, then shoot from the line pointed in the appropriate direction so the dog can have some clue where to look for the bird.

and in answer to the "you might see or do this hunting" argument....yes you might.... and you would still consider it a decent day to have to handle on all three of the birds you shot. But this isn't hunting it is testing and if we are evaluating marking, we should give the dog an opportunity to mark.

[GulfCoast]

If you aren't going to shoot from the bird station, then shoot from the line pointed in the appropriate direction so the dog can have some clue where to look for the bird.

and in answer to the "you might see or do this hunting" argument....yes you might.... and you would still consider it a decent day to have to handle on all three of the birds you shot. But this isn't hunting it is testing and if we are evaluating marking, we should give the dog an opportunity to mark.

Well said!