Kudos to Tidewater RC
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Allow me to pile on. I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the O/H Qual on Friday. Well organized, efficient workers, personable and knowledgeable judges and the grounds were impeccable. Thanks to the club members and to Steve Ferguson for use of his grounds. Hope to be able to make the trip down from MI again sometime.
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1,837 Posts
My first time down at a Tidewater hunt test. They are a great club to throw birds for. The Senior tests were challenging, although certainly pass'able, I saw a lot of dogs that blew off whistles!! Also saw some pretty darn good dog work! A good friends 21 month old pup passed her first hunt test, a MASTER pass!!
I think I met "Swampbilly" and his daughter, although I am not sure cause he used his real name... I forget names so fast these days! Anyway, very nice people indeed!!
My high moment was when I thought I actually called in my first Mallard!! Then I realized it was the that feller in the other holding blind.... Oh well!!
The Senior land series had the short walk up, and the go bird down and up the hill passed the check down (tight) walk up memory mark. You could see the hillside covered with feathers as the gunner's did their best... Lot of dogs had trouble lining the go bird, and then blowing past the memory. Lots of dogs had to be handled cause they either wanted to switch to the old fall, or blow past the memory. The blind was really fair, down the hill to the left off the marks, into a shallow hole between the woods to the left, and a tree and cover to the right.
The only way to recreate this test in training would be to get a dozen birds, run them through a Chipper/Shredder, and spread the remains across the base of that hill!!
Anyway, had a great time until I hit that northbound 95 traffic around Richmond....
I think I met "Swampbilly" and his daughter, although I am not sure cause he used his real name... I forget names so fast these days! Anyway, very nice people indeed!!
My high moment was when I thought I actually called in my first Mallard!! Then I realized it was the that feller in the other holding blind.... Oh well!!
The Senior land series had the short walk up, and the go bird down and up the hill passed the check down (tight) walk up memory mark. You could see the hillside covered with feathers as the gunner's did their best... Lot of dogs had trouble lining the go bird, and then blowing past the memory. Lots of dogs had to be handled cause they either wanted to switch to the old fall, or blow past the memory. The blind was really fair, down the hill to the left off the marks, into a shallow hole between the woods to the left, and a tree and cover to the right.
The only way to recreate this test in training would be to get a dozen birds, run them through a Chipper/Shredder, and spread the remains across the base of that hill!!
Anyway, had a great time until I hit that northbound 95 traffic around Richmond....
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2,504 Posts
Thats was a pretty good test. My yeller dog nailed the go bird flyer and almost blew by the short walk up bird and two whistled the blind. Black dog had a small hunt for go bird and I had to handle her on the short bird when she blew right by it and she had a good blind. Passed both dogs on that senior and failed both on the other senior,go figure. The other senoir passed 8 out of 29 dogs I was told. Thats all I'm gonna say about that.
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433 Posts
Yep....both tests blew my pups mind. We made it to the 3rd series in Senior A - one of the ten, but didn't get the pass. Actually, I called my dog in and thanked the judges on the water marks - horrible, just plain horrible. 2 for 2 in Kinston and 0 for 2 at TRC. As a new trainer, this weekend was very discouraging. We flew through juniors, went 2 for 2 in Kinston just two weeks ago, only to look ridiculous this weekend. Pup's still very young. We know what we (I) need to work on...
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372 Posts
I ran master A under Keith and Robert. They put on a super test, difficult but fair. Used several of the concepts that we train on daily, which we don't see often. Lost one dog in the second and passed the other, and I look forward to running under these two again. Tidewater is a class act club and the grounds were great as always. Mr. Ferguson has a beautiful place and I am really glad he is so willing to let clubs and individuals use this property to train/test these animals we love so much.
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2,504 Posts
Sorry I din't get to meet you Brian, I saw you walking off and was on my way to the other test. Running two in two tests at the same time was pretty busy. I just saw that only 9 passed B and I had two of them,made me feel a little better for bombing A. I thought the water marks on the A was a little much. Kinda crazy to throw a pinch on that little piece of water when they had all that tech pond to work with but hey I didn't even make it that far lol. I titled one dog and need one more for the young one.
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1,291 Posts
Hey I had fun Bryon! I missed the second part of the day. Didn't know who was who, but there was one handler who had his hands full, (or so I thought).My first time down at a Tidewater hunt test. They are a great club to throw birds for. The Senior tests were challenging, although certainly pass'able, I saw a lot of dogs that blew off whistles!! Also saw some pretty darn good dog work! A good friends 21 month old pup passed her first hunt test, a MASTER pass!!
I think I met "Swampbilly" and his daughter, although I am not sure cause he used his real name... I forget names so fast these days! Anyway, very nice people indeed!!
My high moment was when I thought I actually called in my first Mallard!! Then I realized it was the that feller in the other holding blind.... Oh well!!
The Senior land series had the short walk up, and the go bird down and up the hill passed the check down (tight) walk up memory mark. You could see the hillside covered with feathers as the gunner's did their best... Lot of dogs had trouble lining the go bird, and then blowing past the memory. Lots of dogs had to be handled cause they either wanted to switch to the old fall, or blow past the memory. The blind was really fair, down the hill to the left off the marks, into a shallow hole between the woods to the left, and a tree and cover to the right.
The only way to recreate this test in training would be to get a dozen birds, run them through a Chipper/Shredder, and spread the remains across the base of that hill!!
Anyway, had a great time until I hit that northbound 95 traffic around Richmond....
Can't remember if it was the Yella' dog or the Chocolate, but ever so often after you gunners shot, the flock of Geese using the pond would get up and circle around, and it happened once again to this particular handler and his dawg...The judge could have thrown his clip board at two of 'em and killed 'em if he wanted to, that flew right over his head with the dog at the line, a millisecond after the dog marked his go-bird..
I was impressed with how that dog remained focused and nailed all three marks in spite of the distraction.
Talk about an un-planned, natural wipe-out flyer, that could have been one for sure.. The handler, and the dog deserved an ice-cold beer.
So 8 dogs passing out of 27 is a bad test, but 9 dogs passing out of 26 is a good test?
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71 Posts
Very well done. My girl received her JH title there. Nice grounds and it was great to be able to get two quals in one day. I was a bit concerned about how they would run it but they did a great job and ran it efficiently. I was on my way home, with title ribbon in hand, by 5pm.
I have already talked to our club about doing the same thing.
I have already talked to our club about doing the same thing.
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2,504 Posts
The amount of passing dogs does not make it good or bad. It can be a good test and still be tough but fair or it could be a bad test with bad bird placement,bad mechanics and so on. I really didn't have a problem with either test but the dogs did.
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