Junior walkup?

[Jesse Higgins]

Do you think a walkup is appropriate for an AKC junior hunt test given the fact that handlers can lightly restrain their dog.

Isn't the primary purpose of a walkup to test steadiness? If you can restrain the dog, then how is steadiness tested?

[Lisa Van Loo]

Yes and no. Trainability CAN be asessed even on an on-lead wlakup. Not many judges will severely ding a dog that is dragging its owner through the weeds, gun waving in the air.

Walkups don't really make any sense in a Junior, except they can be fun, and do give handlers a taste of what's to come in Senior and Master. Back "in the day", I remember good pond "jump shooting" scenarios with walkups and dog off leash. Then again, they had to be steady to a certain extent.

Either give up on walkups, or judge them as appropriately as is possible in a Junior situation.

Lisa

[Miriam Wade]

Lisa wrote:

Either give up on walkups, or judge them as appropriately as is possible in a Junior situation

The very first test I EVER ran started with a walkup & it so wasn't clear to me what was supposed to happen. I ended up stoppoing too soon-the judges signaled for the birds. My dog never saw them because of where I'd stopped. We were out before we started. 6 hour drive for my first test & I was thoroughly discouaged & thought maybe this wasn't going to be fun after all. Lest you think it was just us-we passed the next 4 tests for her JH.

Soooo... if you're going to do it-be extremely clear-especially with the "Running their first hunt test" crowd!!

M

[Uncle Bill]

I'm not a big fan of them, and seldom run one when judging that level, since there's no requirement for one.

All too frequently, the excitement of the testing environment has already overwhelmed the beginners, and they have all they can do to just get the dog to be under quiet restraint, let alone be on the move when a bird is thrown.

I've just not found any importance to evaluate that form of control at that level. It's not what I'm looking for in a Junior dog.

UB

[Gun_Dog2002]

Oh, well here goes. One of the longest discussions I ever had with Keith was regarding walk-ups in junior. I feel in some circumstances it might be ok to do a walk-up, but that really depends on the setup. If the grounds just don't provide much of a test it might be acceptable, but most of the time I believe it's used when it doesn't need to be. That being said, you should train on it, your most likely going to see it at some point...

/Paul

[Angie B]

Sorry, Junior people barely know what they are doing there much less carry a gun or do a walk up. For juniors, KISS is in order.

Angie

[Misty Marsh]

I'm thinking that it may be better left for the senior set-ups in my humble opinion. I think that junior should be the place to start, have fun, earn a ribbon or two, and get that fire to train for the more advanced levels. I don't believe that making the tests harder is going to help the sport to grow if first timers are getting discouraged due to failure. With that said I don't believe that we should be giving these passes away, but make whats in the book held to a higher standard. I assume that the AKC alllows walk-ups in the book, but the CKC does'nt alow walk-ups in junior.

[Polock]

I believe the walk-up in Junior HT's is a valid test.
It's an exposure to a situation a young dawg may encounter.

Though I probably may not use this as my first single, I do believe in challenging the handler and the dawg and building to a cresendo as the marks progress.

At the same time, I also will spend the time in the scenario discussion to explain to the handlers what I expect, and try to make them comfortable with the test. Even to the point of how to work the lead and instructing the dawg to sit at the attention getting sound, so the dawg see's the mark.

The judges also need to be in control of the test so that the handler is not dragging behind as Mariam described.

Test them, but be fair. They're our future.