Reminder: think ahead, have a plan, don’t assume

Of all the things that can go wrong at a dog competition, I think the most painful must be handler error.

I’m not talking about disqualifying errors, like the guy I watched at a recent hunt, who sent his dog for the retrieve before the judges released him to do so. He had a great dog who could do the work, but the team was disqualified for that error.

I’m more talking about the errors in judgement, where, maybe, if you’d made a different choice, the outcome might have been success rather than failure.

Dog competitions are, for the most part, team sports. Both team members have to be on their game. And if one team member falters, the other one has to pick up the slack. And mostly, it’s on the human half to do the human thing — to think ahead and have a plan.

I’ve been on the successful side of this from time to time. For one example, Tooey and I were in what I hoped would be her third pass for her CD obedience title. I studied the course, and watched several other dogs run, and I saw the place where Tooey would likely falter. There were two about-turns in a row, and I thought she’d stay with me for the first, but lose me on the second. So I saved my second “Heel” command for that moment just as we came out of the second about-turn. I lost points for using the command, but it helped her remember what to do, and we passed.

But I’ve been on the fail side of it too. Like today’s Junior retriever hunt test with Carlin. Carlin had passed his 3rd Junior test yesterday, so if we’d passed today, he’d have gotten his Junior title. But due to series of errors, we didn’t.

The root problem is that I have not force-fetched Carlin. He and I have worked a lot on picking up birds. But I have never taught it to him in such a way that he believes he must pick up a bird whether he wants to or not. And by this weekend, I had been lulled into thinking that, since he’s been picking up birds pretty consistently for the last several weeks, that this would not be a problem today. Error in judgement #1.

I also, for some reason, did not do a good job myself of marking the spot where the bird fell. Carlin has always been an excellent marker, and I was relying on him to mark the fall of this bird for me. I knew sort of where it was, but not really. Error in judgement #2.

So when Carlin ran out the 100 yards, across a road, over a dike, and into the cover, and put his nose down, I assumed that he’d pick up a bird out of that spot. Error #3.

But then he lifted his head without the bird in his mouth. Not having marked the fall of the bird myself, I then assumed that he’d put his nose down into a spot where another dog’s bird had been, and would shortly go over to his own bird and pick it up. Error #4.

But Carlin didn’t pick up a bird. Instead, he began to hunt around in wider and wider circles. He stopped at one point, and stood looking at me. I’d been advised recently to just let my dog work it out and find his own bird, and besides, I didn’t exactly know where the bird was myself. So even if I’d tried to handle him to the bird, I would be handling just to be doing something.

Finally, when Carlin had gotten himself way out of the area of the fall, the judge suggested I try to handle him. So I tried. Carlin took the first handle, but not the rest of them, so he never did find his bird on his own. The judge told the gunner to throw the bird for Carlin again. He did, and Carlin picked up and delivered it smartly to me. But of course, by that time we’d failed.

So, this is what I think happened, based on what I saw and what observers told me. He really did mark the fall of his bird, and when he put his nose down, that actually was his bird. I should have, at the moment he put his nose down, given him an emphatic come-in whistle. I think that may have helped him decide to pick up his bird, even though he didn’t want to.

Having not done that, my next move would have been to give that whistle as soon as he lifted his head without the bird in his mouth. If that had been the spot where his bird was, then that might have helped him decide to pick it up. If his bird was actually somewhere else nearby, then that whistle might have told him that I knew the bird was close by and and that he should pick it up and come in.

Having not done that, then when he later stopped his hunt to look at me, I should have realized that he was asking for help. I knew he was between me and bird, so I could have just given him a back command. It would have cost us points, but it might have helped him. Of course, if I’d known where the bird was myself, I’d have known whether to give a left back command or a right back command, but I didn’t.

I can’t recall feeling this crushed in quite a long time. Carlin failed one of the hunt tests in McCall last month, but that wasn’t due to anything I did or could have done in that moment. That was a training issue, something to keep working on.

Today’s failure was more on me than on Carlin. Yes, it’s a training issue about picking up birds, but it’s also about my being the one that knows her teammate’s weaknesses and comes to the game ready to pick up the slack.

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Carlin 3/4 JH

The day just outside of Butte, MT, started out beautiful: misty, a cool 41 degrees F, and quiet (or as quiet as a it can be at a retriever hunt test with almost 100 dogs and their people). It had been so hot in Boise, that this weather was sweet indeed.

And the day ended up just as sweet, even if quite a bit warmer.

The test was put on by the Helena Valley Gundog Club at the Bob Sparks Retriever Grounds in Elk Park, MT. Absolutely beautiful grounds.

The land work came first. It was held in a field of knee high grass and scrubby bushes, surrounded on three side by tall conifers. Carlin was early in early in the running order, which we both like because a long wait in line to run can really amp him up and get in the way of good focus.

The marks were short, probably only about 70 and 80 yards. But there were odd dips in the ground, and places where, if you’re only 24 inches tall, it can look like the ground is going up hill. Some of the other dogs had trouble, but not Carlin. He went straight out and straight back with the second bird. He stopped and hunted a bit about 10 yards in front of the first bird, but soon pushed out and then dived into the cover to grab up the bird.

When Carlin got back, one of the judges even called it, “Such a nice run.”

The water work was held in a very odd pond. The water was essentially U shaped, with an island coming down the middle of the pond, almost to the start line. A perfect recipe for bank running. This is where the dog stays on the land as long as possible instead of going in a straight line the whole way to the bird, no matter if that line crosses water or land. With this Junior test, the judges are just looking for the dog to get into the water at some point to get the bird. And in this case, the bird landed in the water, so if a dog were to run the bank, they’d have to jump into the water at some point to get the bird.

And that’s what Carlin did. On the first bird, he ran half-way down the bank, jumped into the water and swam to the island. Then he ran down to the end of the island and and then at the top of the U, finally jumped into the water to get the bird. On that one, he swam almost all the way back to the line, got out onto the land, and then came over to me to hand it over. (And thank God, he didn’t drop the bird when he got out of the water.)

On the second bird, he did almost the same thing, only this time, he ran all the way to end of the U, jumped in, got the bird, then got out onto the land at the end of the U, and ran all the way back down the bank to me.

I was very happy to get all 4 ducks delivered to hand. I did wish that he hadn’t had the opportunity to run the bank — that undid some of the training I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks. If he is to run a Senior test someday, he’ll need to go in a straight line to the bird, without succumbing to the temptation to run a handy bank.

But still, with these 4 birds, he earned his third pass. Just one more to go!

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