My "Ace" in the hole and his hunt test career

Kaiser878 · Apr 14, 2015

This weekend marked the beginning of Ace"s hunt test career. At 8 months old he was the young dog at the event in JH division.....

Being new to this I had no expectations other than expecting Ace to pass..... so going into Saturday, I had no idea what to expect. The first land series was a breeze for Ace.... only 2 dogs didn't pass...

We for to the water section of the day and things looked good and not to difficult.... until I watched dog after dog fail the water series.... I never thought I would be nervous about running my dog.... well i was wrong, my stomach was in knots.....

Ace came up and hammered the first retrieve.... second retrieve was the hard one.... he struggled a bit but he got it.... a sigh of relief was all I had in me....
View attachment 31133

Sunday was a different story..... the second land set failed the first dog.... and a couple others. But ace rocked it.... the water series was no issue and ace cruised through it.....

So I will continue to update this thread as he progresses..... hope you will all follow and enjoy

RedCloud · Apr 14, 2015

Congrats to Ace and yourself buddy. It's not every day you see such a young dog do great things. More times then not they do the dumbest things you will ever see them do around that age lol.

Smart dog and a great trainer can do some pretty amazing things. Great job and congrats again Zach.

Boarhead · Apr 14, 2015

Congrats Zach!

Big_Holla · Apr 14, 2015

Heck yeah way to go Ace!!

jagermeister · Apr 14, 2015

Keep up the fine work brotha

huntn2 · Apr 14, 2015

That's great Zach, congrats!

Kaiser878 · Apr 15, 2015

Few photos from this weekend.

Pre run pep talk

Waiting our turn in the holding blind

Lining for the bird and watching it get shot

The anticipation of his name being called. The longer he waited the more he loaded, like a spring before it recoils.. he was cocked locked and ready to rock

Making his way back

Delivering bird to hand

Gettin' wet

Don't think he'd be legal in a no wake zone

Kaiser878 · Apr 15, 2015

Finally.... ended the day by watching other dogs run..... pure torture.... but builds character

teej89 · Apr 15, 2015

Awesome Zach and nice pics too!

And the video you had FB of his last water retrieve the first day in the trees, did he end up going past the bird and onto the land behind it? What qualifies as failing for that retrieve? Not getting the bird at all?

I'm hoping if all goes well with training my pup I'll have him in hunt tests as well.

Kaiser878 · Apr 15, 2015

Ya he went past it..... the judge allowed me one handle.... which is what the double whistle was. And he turned around on the bank and swam to the bird. There was a lot you couldn't see on that video....

Yes.... all the dogs that failed didnt retrieve the bird... mostly because they were not taught handling...... and the owners were not able to handle them to the bird..... or they gave up on that bird and swam back behind and went to where the last retrieve was. They allowed the dog to hunt for 3 minutes before failing them.

Kaiser878 · Apr 15, 2015

What was hard about the retrieve was the 20mph wind that was blowing the bird into the trees. Once the dogs went through the cattails and coils get a visual on the bird again, it was not where they marked it.... it was gone.... (floated left of marking spot by 10-20 ft) so they would focus on the first visible thing in the line they marked. Which was the stumps...

jagermeister · Apr 15, 2015

Kaiser878 said:
What was hard about the retrieve was the 20mph wind that was blowing the bird into the trees. Once the dogs went through the cattails and coils get a visual on the bird again, it was not where they marked it.... it was gone.... (floated left of marking spot by 10-20 ft) so they would focus on the first visible thing in the line they marked. Which was the stumps...

Yea I'd say the judges set a lot of dogs up for failure on that one. Ace got it because he can somewhat handle at this point. But really, it's suppose to be a MARKING test not a handling test... So the dogs all had the chips stacked against them right from the start. That's exactly why you train beyond what the minimum test quals call for though. Good thing you and Ace did too. Just kind of a bummer so many dogs had to fail. I mean, that's a hell of a tough mark even for an experienced dog... Let alone 8 month old Ace! Lol

Kaiser878 · Apr 15, 2015

I agree... there were a lot of pissed off people. They were griping like crazy.....

Honestly at first I didn't think it looked all that bad.... till the first 4 or 5 dogs failed..... then i realized something was odd about the way they were seeing it.... its hard for us to remember dogs don't see stuff like we do.... once I crouched down.... I realized it wasn't the same view at all

Kaiser878 · Apr 15, 2015

A well known trainer named pat Nolan says a dog shouldn't go to a junior hunt test until he's doing a "T" reliably..... bit his modo is test up for everything you do..... and im glad I did

Kaiser878 · Apr 15, 2015

I also know I got lucky that my dog didn't blow off my double whistle.... considering he is only 8 months old... so I got pretty lucky he was in an agreeable mood. Ha

jagermeister · Apr 15, 2015

They certainly do see things differently. That's one of the most challenging parts of training... Seeing what the dog sees for yourself.

finelyshedded · Apr 16, 2015

Awesome thread Zach! Awesome pics buddy! Love the pep talk pic! Teacher and student at its finest! Congrats on the trial and good luck in your future ones!

JBSedon · Apr 16, 2015

Saw on Facebook, great job Zach! He's a great looking pup. How's he compare to the old boy?

Fullbore · Apr 16, 2015

Cool thread Zach. Thanks for sharing.

Kaiser878 · Apr 17, 2015

JBSedon said:
Saw on Facebook, great job Zach! He's a great looking pup. How's he compare to the old boy?

Honestly I don't think you can compare them.... its just too early and they are two totally different animals. Leo was a bad ass in frigid temps in the river.... ace is a marking and retrieving fool. Ace appears to have more drive.... and like Jim and Zach said.... these high octane dogs are just different animals....

My "Ace" in the hole and his hunt test career

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