Their Timing Was Perfect
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By Chris Robinson
One of the things that I noticed during the 15 or so years that I judged all three types of AKC hunt tests was that dogs seem to have perfect timing for when they royally mess things up. Things they’ve never done in training suddenly pop up, frequently in the most spectacular fashion, when the money’s on the line in a test. This seems to be especially true if dog and handler are within one orange ribbon of a title.
I once judged a Golden Retriever that, according to his owner, had never had a problem busting through cover. Never, that is, until he was confronted with a strip of grass that was no more than six inches high and about three grass spears wide behind which the bird had fallen as the dog was trying to pick up the last bird to earn the final qualifying score needed for his junior hunter (JH) title. The dog apparently was convinced that this “awful” cover concealed at least a half dozen Golden Retriever-eating trolls and was having none of it. Sent for the bird, he rocketed off the line until he got to the “cover.” Then, like he’d hit a brick wall, he skidded to a stop and began dancing around in front of the grass strip. Despite many pleas to “fetch it up,” there was absolutely no way the Golden was going through that bit of grass. There might be a very desirable bird on the other side of the strip but, at least to his mind, nothing was worth the risk posed by encountering the trolls hiding in it. So, no title that day. Adding insult to financial injury, when the dog and his owner returned to training a couple of days after the test, the dog happily busted through six feet of heavy cattails to pick up not a nice, freshly shot bird, such as the one he’d rejected at the test, but a lousy old bumper! Another entry fee, travel and lodging money pounded like so much sand down a rat hole.
Another time, judging a spaniel test, I encountered an English Springer who apparently suffered from role confusion as she thought she was a Coonhound, at least briefly. She was going for her final orange ribbon to finish her senior hunter (SH) title when a pheasant flushed wildly and flew off with the dog in hot pursuit. Despite many whistle blasts and cries of “Hup” from her owner, she was not about to let the bird escape. She chased it all the way to a tree on the boundary of the course where the bird took refuge. Slightly nonplused by this turn of events, the spaniel hit the brakes at the base of the tree. Looking up, she spotted the fugitive pheasant. Something had to be done to tell her owner that all was not lost if only he and the gunners could arrive at the tree before the pheasant bailed out again. So, reaching back for the genes of some long ago hound ancestor, she pointed her nose in the direction of the elusive bird and bayed while jumping up and down on the tree, sounding and acting for all the world like a Treeing Walker. While it was a spectacular performance by any estimate, the rules for the spaniel tests clearly prohibited an “uncontrolled chase” at the senior level. So, as impressed as all who saw it were by her act–including the judges–it was just another day that ended with no orange ribbon fluttering from the sun visor in the cab of her owner’s pickup and no senior title.
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Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=191271
Posted by AnthonyA
on Oct 21 2020. Filed under Current Articles, Featured.
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