I have an older QAA dog that isnt doing field trials anymore but I would still like to run some master hunter stakes for a title. My question is what is the best way to get the dog used to hidden throwers and short birds. At the retriever club training day she did find the bird by hunting back. Acually on another bird sh stopped short and hunted a bit around so i handled her to the dummy.I think she hunted short because she had hunted long and came back to the short fall before. Her blinds a great even without the white coat.
Transitioning an older QAA field trial dog into a master hunter in AKC
jefish1
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Whoppee do !! Sad to see so many hunt test dogs not being able to think and sort out and find birds without a handle. That was the premise of a solid retriever back in the days in Escalon CA.
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Right on.... give the dog a direction to follow.
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Are you to help or are you to hinder?
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84 Posts
Thanks for your input, Im not here to win anything just want to have fun and learn a thing or two, I appreciate everyone who have joined this thread. I want to learn so I can help other people train their dogs up the ranks from puppies to MH or field trials.
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84 Posts
Yes he was, I found out from his previous owner that he does say easy when there is a short retired gun. Today we did some triples that were in between hunt test and field trial distances. she did fine and checked back on the long bird on the short bird she just went straight to it like it was easy. It was thrown from behind a mound of dirt through water to on land.
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Hi Arnie we did ok in our retrieving this weekend, found ot on the blind that I should have set Lilly up on my right to go through a small bit of water and land into the water on the other side. She kept wanting to move her head to the road on her left, finally she did go through.She runs on either side.
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8,978 Posts
Oh my God, I love this! This was exactly how it felt back when I was trying to run Hunt Tests with my Indy! Never meant to be. Chief on the other hand, loves hunt tests and has given me some confidence there. If they ever get the entry process leveled out, I might go back and run some Masters. Thanks for the post. It made me smile.Hunt'EmUp;1404840 HTs are relatively short said:tems you'd never even think of come up, can't get the dog to heel, dog starts making a bunch of noise, dogs turns circles in the air, dog bites the handler gets him bleeding. [/SIZE]Then you got things like Walk-ups, where the dog can't beat you to the line, Bubba Gunners, Poison birds, that you do pickup eventually. Just a bunch of fun, to give a handler ain ulcer. Another item start making sure you know your hunt area, that the dog will go to it and stay in it. Take hints on when to handle, FT types seem to let dog run all over until they find the bird, or will let the dog line to the bird, whistle stop them so they don't over run it, but not allow them to establish a hunt. HT judges want a mark with a tight hunt area, they don't want a dog to line them easily, so they will be in different cover and most will need to be hunted up, dug out. If the dogs all over out of the hunt area, or doesn't establish a tight hunt it's not gonna get it done in Masters. Also make it a point to not point out the stations to the dogs, seen a few doing that makes HT judges have fits. Shoulder the gun, and handle it properly even if it is a broom-stick. But Most importantly DON'T wear any white, people get grumpy with anything bright white at HT's
P.S. Very smart asking and training on items rather than just showing up to run a HT, seen many people just show up, think as they have a high level dog, no problem they can just do it. Seen many people also heading home early
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My first dog was a perfect first dog for a newbie handler, very birdy, intelligent, good marker, but very calm and happy to comply. We came up the ranks together through Junior, Senior and finally Master. He didn't have the intense drive to be a FT dog, but he was a great hunter and hunt test dog.
Our next dog was field trial bred Golden, out of Zeke and Hillview's Ready to Smoke. This dog was the real deal, hyper drive, straight running, marking Jose, but a fast water cheat. In training throughout his life Cody (my avatar), was spectacular, but at a trial he went over the top and was pretty much a bust. About the middle of his Qual career we decided to give hunt test a try. He got a ribbon first try out, then broke on 3-4 straight walk ups. Mark Henry fixed that problem and Cody went six straight for his title. He was so fun in HT's, he would line most blinds as he gave me very good initial lines for 100 yards or so, he was a good marker and all the bells and whistles of HT's seemed to force him to focus, most of all he was having the time of his life.
After that Cody was better in field trials, he won a Qual shortly after going back to FT's, but never was good enough in the water to compete in AA. My next dog was a much better FT dog, Yoda won a 68 dog Open against Carbon and some other greats. I ran him in a couple Masters at the end of his career, he was spectacular and fun to watch. I'm a big fan of running these old horses in hunt test. No big deal if you handle on a mark, lots of action, blinds are easy and the dogs love it.
Our next dog was field trial bred Golden, out of Zeke and Hillview's Ready to Smoke. This dog was the real deal, hyper drive, straight running, marking Jose, but a fast water cheat. In training throughout his life Cody (my avatar), was spectacular, but at a trial he went over the top and was pretty much a bust. About the middle of his Qual career we decided to give hunt test a try. He got a ribbon first try out, then broke on 3-4 straight walk ups. Mark Henry fixed that problem and Cody went six straight for his title. He was so fun in HT's, he would line most blinds as he gave me very good initial lines for 100 yards or so, he was a good marker and all the bells and whistles of HT's seemed to force him to focus, most of all he was having the time of his life.
After that Cody was better in field trials, he won a Qual shortly after going back to FT's, but never was good enough in the water to compete in AA. My next dog was a much better FT dog, Yoda won a 68 dog Open against Carbon and some other greats. I ran him in a couple Masters at the end of his career, he was spectacular and fun to watch. I'm a big fan of running these old horses in hunt test. No big deal if you handle on a mark, lots of action, blinds are easy and the dogs love it.
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Thanks John Im finding in Practice now that Lilly is doing ok on the shorter marks. Is Going to be at least 3 weeks now until I can train because she just had surgery to remove a breast tumor which hasnt made her sick before. She still has stamna
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84 Posts
I have been training on some master hunter things now and Lilly seems to adapt to the differences so am not as worried as I was about her doing the hunt tests. and the shorter birds do not seem to bother her And she eats up the shorter blinds when I can get her eyes straight. I am working on syncing together with her, I am not as coordinated in the start setup of the blind as I could be. She usually gets herself correct though and I say THAT's IT softly she relaxes her body and I send her, I just have to wait for that relax. When she has it her lines are great and usually have to handle too quickly. In Daily training we have a patch of medium high grass and small clumps of sagebrush that I do pattern blinds everyday, I do three in the morning or evening,She is doing them now too easily so Ive got to find a biggger lot of land for that.I live in the desert (Palmdale CA) I will be going to Prado Park once a week for the rest of the training I do.
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84 Posts
I see some areas around that has sparse sage brush and Josuah trees that has some little hills that look like they would be ok, just worry about snakes and Chula cactus, I talked to a guy at the pheasant club out here about using some land of theirs for retriever training, he said you couldnt use birds there only his pheasants.but could get some of those and shoot as marks, or just use dummies, and of course i have to join the club. also I have someone to train with sometimes that we can get together near Ridgecres, or CRTA Lost Hills.
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