I was at a Local Finished Hrc test..
It was the Water series.. It was run on a river..
There was a triple thrown. all marks across the river channel...
One of the marks that were thrown, required the dog to swim across a piece of the river channel that had pretty sustantil current to it. The mark was placed in a back eddy,, and the mark would stay where placed,, but the dog would be swept downstream waypast where the mark fell.. Most dogs marked it well,, and really wasnt that big of deal,, but,,, the RETURN was!! You didnt want tha dog to return to you straight back the way he went out.. he would either get in the current and get stuck in place trying to swim against it,, or,, he would get swept farther downstream, where when he did get a chance to get back out,, the route back to you on the handlers side of the river was a real bitch for the dog to navigate... Most all handlers, after their dog picked up that mark,, whistle sat the dog,, and handled the dog from that spot , onto sand bar,, then back upstreamon dry sand,, to a point where they would then call them in,, and the current, once they got back in the river,, would drift them back to a point in front of the line..
Ablind was run acroos that river current also, with the blinds palcement on the far bank.. Dogs drifted WAY "off line" on that blind!!
You had to show Finished controll to get the dog back upstream on land to the bird, once the dog beached.. The controll was judged as to how well the dog took those casts and whistles.. You could NOT blow a whistle on the dogs way out to the blind while in current,, cause if the dog stopped,, and treadedwater,,, he would just be swept father downstream off line!! You just had to let the dog drift til he got out,, then Handel...
Very common senario when you hunt rivers..
Very common senario for the type of Hunting you see in region 13..
How can you judge a "LINE"???[/QUOTE]
Very realistic hunting scenario, much better than many of the contrived test I have run.
You ask your question about judging the line as if people are arguing with you that it is important to judge the line. Nobody on this thread is saying that. We are all saying, and you seemed to agree with your second to last post, that owning a well trained dog (you used Ted's FC-AFC as an example), training to a high standard would make passing HRC blinds easy. I imagine Ted's dog or any well trained dog would have no problem doing well on that blind, and that any judge worth his salt would know that holding a perfect line against that current was impossible.