A Vizsla Thanksgiving - Part 3

WHY

would a birddog serve a rotisserie chicken to his relatives at Thanksgiving?

BECAUSE

I was in Highland, Michigan earning the remaining two legs needed to finish my

JUNIOR HUNTER

title!

My first AKC title

Saturday

One of our judges in the bird field with an earlier brace

with Jen Miller and my bracemate, Nova

Sunday

Looking longingly at the bird field
(way in the distance beyond the yellow tree)

"Thanks for the road trip!"

"Gotcha!"

Watching the judges going out
with another brace

"Small World"

Turns out that Nova and I were both in the Winners ring at the Regional Specialty at the VCA Nationals (I won the 9-12 mo class and Nova won the Bred-by class) AND Nova is one of my cousins!  We share a grandfather - 4x BISS Am CH Pirok Kannon JH. Since Nova is a brother to Ash (can't remember if full from a repeat breeding or a half-brother) that means Ash and I are cousins, too!!!  Wow, it was by pure chance and timing that Mom met Ash's human, Alex "Jr Handler Extraordinaire" Haberbush, and asked him to be my handler!

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving weekend!

Thank you to all the judges and the volunteers of the Irish Setter Club of Michigan and the Nodrog Gordon Setter Club of Michigan for hosting the tests in such a beautiful setting. Thanks to Jen Miller for the candid photos.

Colour Me Orange

Saturday 

Whaaaaat?!?  4:30am and the alarm clock is screeching!?!  Bleery-eyed, we stumble outside in the pouring rain for my morning routine.  Followed by breakfast...flurry of activity...numerous bundles of stuff ferried out the front door.  Out to the car we go only to get soaked for the second time and it's barely past 6:30am!  I think I know where we are going...but, what's this...we are headed in a completely different direction than I was anticipating.  Where could we possibly be going at this hour??? I'm intrigued but it's dark, it's pouring, I'm sleepy...zzzzzzz.  I feel the car slow to a crawl...hey, I recognize this place, we drove through here with Uncle Vadasz on our way to Vizslapalooza - it's The Border!  Now, I am very intrigued but it's dark, it's pouring and I'm ... zzzzzzz. 

My first ever Hunt Test experience:

RAIN drive drive drive drive

wait wait wait wait wait

lunch break

rain wait wait wait RAIN

meet the judges and my bracemate

play play PLAY play play

ignore whistles

play run play run play

ignore humans

play run BIRD! work work

work work work work work

(my bracemate was 7 months old and we had FUN!)

 

"Is that my rosette? That colour matches my collar."

Sunday

In the car, headed west (or is that south, or east?), yup, I know where we're going - yippeee and it's not raining and it's not blazing hot!  As the sun begins to rise, the melodic tones of the radio are interrupted by a steady stream of unmentionable words ... something to do with the time of day, blinding light, too much chrome, how's a person supposed to drive with the glare from all the bleepin' glass condos!!!  I am way too young to be hearing such words so I better just...zzzzzzz.

"Thanks for not messing up my run, Mom."

"Are you sure they don't need me to double-check the field?!"

The AKC Junior Hunter test is similar to the CKC Field Dog Junior test with the added challenge of working with another dog in the field (also there are 2 judges in the field judging both dogs and JH requires 4 Qualifying scores whereas FDJ requires 3 Qualifying scores).

Great big thanks to Kathy Sadlon and Tracy Novoa and all the other volunteers from the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Western New York who hosted the test at Darien Lake State Park.  In spite of Saturday's inclement weather, everyone had a wonderful weekend working with their Pointers. Many thanks to all the judges for having tremendous patience with the youngsters entered in the Junior tests (even in the midst of Saturday's downpours).  And thanks to Liz Outram for helping us to prepare for the AKC style test.

NAVHDA NA Prize I

 September 2, 2012

Grand Valley Chapter

North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association

Natural Ability Test

Score 112/112

Prize I

with our 3 esteemed judges:
Dave Arnold, John Macneal (acting senior) and Don Vanderlip

The Journey

March 21 - August 26

58 hours (@ 4,000 km) of driving

2 awesome field trainers on 2 parcels of land (variety is the spice of training)

13 sessions encompassing 17 hours of field work

Less than 1 hour to impress 3 judges!

A great big thank you to Janice Wolff, Terri Simmons-Corneil and all the other volunteers from the NAVHDA Grand Valley Chapter for a well-organized test and to the judges who worked all day from 7:30 am in blazing sun (not a cloud in the sky), testing 10 teams in as timely a fashion as possible (taking all of a 15-minute lunch break), and for making the "newbies" feel like seasoned pros.  Thanks to Liz Outram for keeping Bodi's safety the number one priority while providing awesome training in the unbearable heat and humidity of every one of our summer sessions and for giving me the confidence to handle Bodi myself.  And, again, thanks to Mike Wilshire for fitting us into his hectic spring schedule (so we could take full advantage of the unseasonably mild spring), providing the foundation of Bodi's field career and getting us started on our field training journey.

Handling at a field test for the very first time provided plenty of mental and physical challenges for the camera hound so the camera was left in the car! 

A few shots from last weekend's training sessions with Liz

"Kisses...thanks for playing hide and seek with me... 
see you next time, Mr. Pheasant"

Ranger helping me to learn to hunt with a bracemate

"Once in a Blue Moon"
Here's what Friday's "blue moon" looked like at
5:00 am Sunday morning

 

Field Dog Junior

May 19th

German Shorthaired Pointer Club of Canada

CKC Field Test

Earned the third leg to complete my FDJ today! It was a scorching 27c so it was nice to be able to go for a brief swim in the middle of my test.

Here are the 8 categories of the CKC FDJ test: 

Desire to Hunt:     keen desire to hunt without constant encouragement

Style of Running:  distinctive of breed

Pace:                  consistent pace matched to terrain & weather conditions

Range:                hunts at a range suitable for a handler on foot; adjusts

                         range based on terrain to search quickly & thoroughly

Pattern:              searches forward; intelligent use of wind & terrain

Control:              responds to commands & movements of handler without

                         excessive/repetitive commands

Pointing:             locates game & establishes point long enough to 

                         demonstrate its natural ability

Reaction to Shot: dog exhibits alertness & eagerness at the sound of gunfire

                         (once a point is established and the bird is flushed (flies

                         off), the handler fires a blank starter's pistol into the air)

The dog must receive a minimum of 50% in each category with an overall score of 75/100. 3 Legs are required under 2 different judges. Dogs are run individually and have a minimum of 20 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes to complete the test. [In AKC, the comparable title is Junior Hunter (JH) and the tests are called Hunt Tests (as opposed to Field Trials which are competitive events) - there are other differences in how the tests are structured as well.]

 

Thanks again to Mike Wilshire!

And thanks to all the judges and volunteers who make these tests possible.

VSO Field Tests

After two successful days in the conformation ring, we drove somewhere completely new and I earned my first 2 legs toward the title of Field Dog Junior at the Vizsla Society of Ontario CKC Field Tests. The field tests were lots and lots of fun because I got to find birds and I got to get all muddy (can't do that on a "show" day).

May 13th
VSO CKC Field Test Highlights

All ready to go, Mike!  Is it our turn yet?

Wheeeee!

Bird!

Why are you flying away?

 Handler: Mike Wilshire     Judge: Mike Nelson 
Second Leg - Score: 97/100

Great big thanks to Mike Wilshire for his expert training and handling.

Many thanks to Elaine Hopkins for organizing the event and
keeping everything running smoothly and in an incredibly timely fashion,
to Liz Outram for hosting the event in such a lovely setting and 
to all the judges and volunteers who make these tests possible.