[Brian Anderson]

I am curious what everyone does the week before leading up to a test. Do you continue business as usual or do you have some sort of a tune up program to get them focused and build momentum. Im sure it varies with the diffrent types of dogs but it would be interesting to hear diffrent things that people do. I personally have a dog that I don't breath till the walk-up and honor is over..

 

[Larry Thompson1]

On a younger dog going into finished or master I will occasionally tune up the swimby drill just to be sure of control, but ya never know when you get to the line with a young dog. Good luck.

 

[Justin Allen]

Not that what I do means much, but I keep it simple and try to avoid picking any battles. I stay away from multiples and try and keep the blinds relatively simple. Confident and care free going into the test.

 

[hollypoint]

going through that now in prep for first Senior on Friday. Just running through the skill set required of the standard. nothing new.

realized that while we often do a diversion with a bumper i had never done with a duck. guess what? diverted to the duck! Only took a minute to fix that, but wouldn't that have been a laugh?

 

[maxx]

I would think it would depend on each dog.

For me my dog was always a boarder line breaker. She was always on the edge. So the week before a test we would always hammer home breaking stuff. I would try to get her all jacked up, shoot multiple guns at the same bird, always try to make her give me a reason to correct her.

The rest of the stuff was normally pretty easy for her if she could keep her butt still.

 

[captainjack]

Up until the day before a trial I train as normal (which lately has been not much at all). The day before the trial I run Mike Lardy's pre-trail triple. Dennis Voigt calls it an all-in-one triple.

Run as singles.
Start with the long gun hidden...
Shoot a middle distance flyer converging with a short bird with the short gun out.
On return, with bird-in-mouth, throw the short bird and retire.
On return, throw the long bird and retire.

The all-in-one is a fitting name because you work on many concepts you will likely see in a trial like...
Look for the long gun past a shorter stand out gun and don't head swing.
Check down on a short retired in front of a tempting flyer after running long.
Drive long, tight off the back side of a flyer station after having just run a short mark.

I like to do this before both HT and FTs, just shorten things up for the HT.

The day of a hunt test I like to do Dennis Voigt's come in drill with my high drive dogs. It gets the dogs in a more compliant frame of mind by sending them toward a bumper, stopping them, bringing them in several yards, and casting over to a different bumper. I finish the deal with disciplined casting with the last bumper.

 

[Carol Cassity]

8 bumper Wagon Wheel
Remote 8 bumper WW casting
Push Pull
Swing with the gun
singles off of multiple guns
water singles
concept sight blinds on water - channel, parallel to shore, over and by a point

A couple of days before a test, I am working on line manners, head swinging and being a team player.

 

[i_willie12]

Going through this now! Ran a double MH last weekend, then UKC HT this weekend, and next... Yesterday all singles on land and some no birds.. Today all singles on water probably a couple no birds as well.. maybe simple blind.. Tommorrow probably a multiple on land and water with simple blind. thursday wagon wheel in yard, casting drill on pond by house (where we drill) and a back pile to work on whistle sit. Then off to test!! I try to bring them back from mulitple marks from the test to just singles... Concentration.. Everything real smooth, calm, and simple...