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JUDGES CORNER - October / November 1997 - Hunting Retriever magazine by Tim Gibson
One
of the most enjoyable aspects of HRC has to be the many friends and
friendships you tend to collect and cultivate through the years. I had the occasion recently to call an old friend
in HRC to ask his advice about some organizational issues involving the
Fall Grand. After a few minutes, our discussion turned to our dogs, then
training, testing, and judging. This
gentleman is a well respected, experienced HRC Finished level judge.
He has trained several dogs to their HRCH title.
I mentioned that I had not seen him around this past year, and had not
heard that he was running any HRC events.
He said his heart was still in HRC because that’s where his roots
were, but he had a nice young dog he wanted to try and play the “other game”
with. The dog had in fact been
doing extremely well in the few AKC field trials he had competed in.
I thought I’d take advantage of his recent field trial experiences
and inquire about a subject I was considering writing about in the Judge’s
Corner. A lot of the concerns I’ve
seen surfacing recently have been in the area of
blind retrieves. I was
particularly interested in his opinion of the way
field trial judges looked at blind work, as compared to the way our HRC
judges were supposed to view blind retrieves.
He
told me that in the field trial game, the blind was considered a test of pure
dog control. The object being to
run a straight line to the blind. He
said he failed his dog more than once by letting the dog get too far off line
before making a correction. He
had to “re-train” himself to think straight line, and straight line only
to the blind. He remembered one
particular event where the dog two-whistled a very difficult water blind, but
he was “dropped” because the dog wandered too far off the line to the
bird. I asked him if this
bothered him, considering his hunt test background and his answer was:
“no, I finally realized it’s just a different game”.
Our conversation got me thinking about the role and responsibility our
HRC judges have in judging our dogs on blind retrieve tests.
I might be wrong, but it would seem to me that it’s far more
difficult to do a good job judging a hunting dog on a blind retrieve, for
several reasons. Our HRC judges
have to consider the obstacles and distractions they throw in front of the dog
(old falls, poison birds, etc.), and factor in what I’ll call dog common
sense, nose, and hunting
experience, and determine if the degree of control the retriever demonstrated
in a given test met our rule book standards. I asked several of our field reps to respond to some
questions regarding setting up and judging the blind retrieve. The scenarios we’ll be covering in this issue of the Judge’s
Corner contain their answers, thoughts and opinions, and I hope will give all
our judges and handlers some things to think about. Let’s start with a fairly simple scenario, but one that
came up recently at a Seasoned land test.
Scenario:
The judges did a good job in setting up the land blind retrieve.
It was a 40 yard retrieve through easy cover and there was adequate
room to maneuver the dog. The
test dog had performed well. The
first dog to run the test was a young retriever who was running Seasoned for
the first time. The dog did a
nice job on the double marked retrieve. The
handler fired a shot in the direction of the blind and cast the dog.
The dog didn’t take a great line, but handled well.
Three or four whistles and casts were all the handler needed to put the
dog at the blind stake. The dog sniffed around and proceeded to hunt.
The handler again succeeded in putting the dog on the stake, but again
the dog did not pick up the bird. The
handler finally turned to the judge and said he did not believe there was a
bird there. The handler was correct!
The judge had forgotten to tell the bird boy to plant the blind.
The judge told the handler to come back three dogs later to repeat the
blind retrieve. When the handler
returned to the line, he had a very difficult time getting the dog to the
stake, but finally got the job accomplished.
Question: Was
it necessary for the Judge to require the handler to re-run the blind
retrieve?
Answer: If
there is a judge among us who has
not forgotten to tell a bird boy to “plant the blind”, I’d like to shake
their hand! Unfortunately, this
happens from time to time at our events.
The judge in question was a newly licensed Seasoned judge and this was
a new experience for them. Logic
tells us that in our hunting tests, a dog should retrieve the birds it is sent
for. However, as respects the
blind retrieve, and because this situation happens more frequently than most
of us care to admit, we have developed an “understanding” (for lack of a
better term) in HRC hunt tests that goes something like this:
“If the retriever did an acceptable job in getting to the blind, and
it was not there, it is understood that the retriever successfully performed
the blind retrieve.” I
can’t show you where the rule book states this because it does not do so.
I can tell you however, that this has been a common and accepted
practice in our events as long as I can remember.
We expect our retrievers to pick up marks that they have seen fall (and
we know are there), but since the blind is a test of control, we have deemed
it acceptable if the handler successfully controls the dog to the spot where
the blind should have been planted.
There
are dogs who “blink” (refuse to pick up) some birds. If the judge knows the blind is planted, and suspects the dog
would not pick it up, he or she should do the following:
Walk out to the blind and confirm it is in fact still there.
I’ve seen live ducks untie themselves and literally walk off, and I
once saw a hawk fly down and pick up a pigeon we had planted for a blind
retrieve. Check to see that the bird is not covered with fire ants or
some other strange problem. Ducks
planted in the water can disappear.
In short, while the handler looking on, confirm that the blind is or is
not there, and look for reasons the dog might not have retrieved it. Use common sense, and give the benefit to the dog.
In most instances, re-running a dog is not necessary, and it might
prove difficult for a handler to get a smart dog back to a spot where it has
just been and found no game. The dog is thinking “been there, done that”!
Incidentally, it’s a good practice to walk out and check on a mark
that a dog is all over but cannot find. I
once saw a pigeon get thrown into a hole in the ground at a hunt in Kentucky.
The dog could not find the mark. Neither
could 2 bird boys and 2 judges until someone noticed a hole in the ground,
reached down it, and pulled the pigeon out!
This was the first recorded “hole-in-one” by a bird boy at an HRC
hunt.
One
last thought. Do any of you know
which bird is the only bird our rule-book requires the Seasoned dog to
retrieve? The answer is on page
19. Let’s look at another “blind”
retrieve scenario.
Scenario: During
the blind retrieve portion of the Finished water test, the retrievers were
asked to swim past a point of land to a blind planted on the far shoreline.
If a retriever took a straight line to the blind, it would swim 10 to
12 yards off the point which was at about 75 yards into the 95 yard retrieve.
There was only a few feet of open shoreline along the point, then thick
cover. As expected, several dogs
beached on the point and were cast successfully back into the water.
Some dogs hit the point, blew off a whistle or a cast, and found
themselves immediately in the cover. Most
of these dogs reappeared a few yards down the shoreline from the point on
either side and were then continued to be handled to the blind.
At the conclusion of the hunt, the judges failed most of the dogs who
got out of sight in the heavy cover behind the point.
Question: Where
the judges correct in failing those retrievers who got “out of sight” on
the blind retrieve? Also, how
much of a “line” should we require the Finished retriever to maintain? Answer: I’ll
bet several of you were wondering when we were going to get around to
discussing this subject. I
usually start an answer by discussing what the rule book says regarding the
scenario. In this case that’s a
bit of a problem since there are no Finished test rule book Guidelines
specifically pertaining to blind retrieves.
Our rule book does however have some very specific things to say about
“control”, and what characteristics we are looking for in a good hunting
retriever. Understanding the
intent of the rule book, and understanding what a “hunting” dog is doing
on a blind retrieve will help us sort out this complex subject and hopefully
help us make better judgmental decisions.
I
sent this scenario out to several of the field reps for their thoughts and got
some interesting responses. Let
me throw a few of their comments at you before we try making any sense of this
issue. Call it “food for
thought” if you will:
“A
judge who sets up a blind close to heavy cover, especially where a mark has
been picked up should expect dogs to get in the cover.”
“A
judge who says out of sight is out of control isn’t giving the dog and
handler a chance to show what they can do.
You could bring anyone off the street and tell them to watch the dog
and if it goes out of sight it fails”.
“We
should judge recovery of the dog. The
dog should come out of the cover in a reasonable amount of time, regain
control, and continue on.”
“I’m
an “out-of-sight, out-of-control” person.
I don’t however see anything wrong with a dog being out of sight
briefly. The problem arrives when
the handler cannot get the dog back in sight after repeated whistles.”
“Many
judges are failing dogs who are getting anywhere out of sight at all, yet to
keep the dog in sight the entire way requires the dog to almost run a straight
line.”
“Some
judges are asking dogs to “carry a line” through heavy cover, then
hopefully come out on line and proceed to be handled to the bird.
I guess this is being out of sight when the judge wants them to be. In
heavy cover, how can a dog keep it’s bearings?
Ever try to run a boat in the fog”?
“One
of the most frequent errors I see while judging is handlers not handling
quickly enough. It is like they
think the dog will correct itself back to the line”.
Some
interesting comments, don’t you agree.
On page 10 of the rule book, Manners and Obedience, item 2 states that:
“Failure may result from a retriever
out of control”. Under
Response to Direction, it states: “excessive
refusals by the retriever can result in failure.
The Judges must decide in each test what excessive is and judge
accordingly”.
In
our scenario there was very little maneuvering room on the point of land.
A dog who had one cast or whistle refusal on the point could easily hit
the heavy cover. If the judges
failed all dogs who got in the cover, they were in effect failing dogs for one
whistle or cast refusal. Throw in some bird scent on the point, an old fall, drag
back, etc., and I would ask you is this being fair to the hunting dog?
The Guidelines for Judging Finished Hunting Retrievers on page 25 of
our rule book , item V state: “Remember,
that when a hazard or diversion of any kind is set out for the dog, it
is the recovery that the dog executes that is important”.
Remember
what I told you about my phone conversation with the HRC member who was
running some field trials? He
stated that the blind retrieve in that game was purely a control test.
I would ask that you think about HRC’s purpose - to test hunting
retrievers under actual hunting
conditions, resulting in better hunting retrievers afield, less lost game, and
more enjoyable hunting. Remember our philosophy - evaluate retrievers on qualities
desirable in hunting retrievers, and to evaluate them as useful hunting
companions. To most of us, our
program is more than a “game”. A
well trained hunting retriever serves a meaningful purpose in our world.
Remember what our rule book says about Attitude and Intelligence on
page 11: “This
is an attribute that is hard to judge, but will surface in good hunting
retrievers. . . . A Judge should grade higher a retriever that has learned how
to use the wind, hunt the heavy cover, as well as keep its mind on business.”
We should expect a Finished retriever to be under good control,
better for the Grand retriever, but how can we ask our dogs
to not be “hunting” retrievers on blind retrieves?
In
our scenario, some of you might say if the dog had swam a perfectly straight
line, it would not have hit the point and put itself in a position to get in
the cover. There’s nothing
wrong with asking a handler to “run at the blind” and a
good judge will often set up the blind where the handler will want to
keep the dog going directly at it. Region
3 Field Rep Bill Rath had some interesting things to say about keeping a dog
running at the blind. I don’t
think he’d mind me sharing his comments with you.
He told me: “I try not to place hazards on both sides of the line.
I also like to think of the line to the blind as being a roadway.
There is a center line and the road itself.
The width of the road varies with the class of dog running.
As long as you remain on the road, no corrections are necessary. If you
get off the road, the first thing you encounter is the shoulder, and this
requires a small correction to get back up on the road.
If you do not make a correction while on the shoulder, you may end up
in the ditch which is really hard to get out of.
Morale of the story - Keep on the road!”
As a judge, keep in mind the hazards you set out for the dog and
handler. Remember, handling around the cover (or hazards) is different
than avoiding the test.
I
want to point out to you the Finished Guidelines, page 25, item VII that
state: “A Finished Hunting Retriever should be the type of dog that anyone
would be proud to hunt with in any conditions,. . . “.
Are you judges who expect a retriever to run in a perfectly
straight line telling me that you would be proud to hunt only
with dogs who will swim or run in straight lines on blind retrieves (and stay
out of cover or off points)! Think about that.
Each test and every situation is different.
Try to understand the picture the dog is seeing and what it might be
thinking when running your blind retrieve test.
Work with other experienced judges and feel free to discuss how to set
up a successful blind with your field reps.
They’re at the hunts to help you be better judges and make good
judgmental decisions.
I
hope our discussion in this issue
and the comments from our field reps have been helpful. If you have some thoughts on this subject, feel free to write
to the Judge’s Corner. We hope the Judge’s Corner will both entertain and inform you. |
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The Judges Corner - copyright
2006 All Rights Reserved Last modified: February 18, 2008 |