 |
|
|
|
|
Judges Corner June – July 2005 - from Hunting Retriever magazine by
Tim Gibson For
most of the membership, the spring hunts have all concluded by the time this
issue of Hunting Retriever reaches you. On
behalf every handler who had a chance to run an HRC hunt test, I want to take
a moment to thank all the clubs, hunt committees, marshals, and particularly
our judges for making it possible for us to continue to enjoy running our
dogs. From time to time I hear
comments about how HRC does not make it easy to attain or keep a judging
license. To that I
say, the commitment our judges show to the program is directly reflected in
the quality of the tests and dogs running them.
Soon our judges will be taking yet another judges test.
I hope they will not see this as a burdensome task, but an opportunity
to take a few moments to re-visit the rulebook and perhaps read some portions
they hadn’t looked at for awhile. The
dedication and hard work our judges willingly undertake is what continues to
make HRC the premier hunt test organization for hunting retrievers. Our
first scenario concerns an honor situation that may or may not have happened
recently at an HRC test near you. It’s
certainly not your plain vanilla honor whereby the HD watches the marks fall
and is dismissed after the WD is sent for the go bird.
Scenario: The Finished land test
consisted of a left to right triple marked retrieve and a blind.
It also included an honor. The
working dog handler was instructed to shoot each mark.
The honor dog was placed about 10 ft. to the right of the working dog.
The judges advised the handlers that the honor dog was to remain on the
line until all the marks were picked up and the working dog was sent for the
blind retrieve. At that point
they would excuse the honor dog. The
honor dog had done a good job on the test and took its position as the next
working dog came to the line. Both
handlers signaled ready and the marks were thrown.
As the working dog was returning to the line with the go bird, it
veered over toward the honor dog position then stopped and dropped the duck.
The handler told the dog to “fetch it up”.
It took multiple commands in an increasingly loud voice to get the dog
to finally pick up and deliver the duck. Needless to say, this created some
very anxious moments for the honor dog.
Question: What do you think of this honor
scenario, and do you believe the judges should have intervened in some way
when it became clear the working dog was having enough difficulty with the
delivery that it was affecting the honor dog? Answer: Our rulebook gives judges few
specific rules or guidelines about setting up or judging the honor, which is
required only at the Finished, Grand and Upland Hunt test levels.
The rulebook indicates that at Finished and the Grand the honor will be
part of the marking test, and during the honor the dog’s view of the hunting
test cannot be obstructed. Under
the Guidelines for Judges and Conducting Hunts, item 28, page 52 the rulebook
states, “If another dog interferes with a working dog and causes a bad
performance, the dog interfered with should be given a rerun.”
In the Judges/Handlers Seminar we spend some time discussing the honor,
especially emphasizing to judges that gun safety is most important when
setting it up. We also advise
judges to keep the dogs far enough apart so as not to encourage fighting or
interference. With these things
in mind, our judges are pretty free to let the honor dog or honor handler
become as involved in the test as they want.
Examples of the honor handler being involved would be blowing a call
and/or shooting the gun. Personally, I like to the think calling and shooting
gives the honor dog the impression that they’re still in the game and they
just might get to pick up another bird. If
they’ll then stay put while the working dog is sent, I can feel confident
I’ve evaluated their ability to honor. Examples of the honor dog playing a
role beyond sitting and watching the birds fall would be to perhaps pick up a
walk-up bird thrown as the working dog comes to the line, or picking up the
diversion or even one of the marks in the test.
And it would include having the honor dog sit through all the retrieves
as in our scenario. In my judging
career, I’ve had the honor dog and handler do about everything you can think
of and probably a few things you can’t imagine which I won’t go into!
However, over the years, I began to realize the more I have the honor
“team” participate in the test, the more I needed to have a plan for what
to do if something goes wrong. As
a matter of fact, good judges have a plan for everything that might go wrong
with an honor even if the dog is just sitting there.
I recall a test where the working dog came up and ran a cold blind
while the honor dog watched. After
the blind, the honor dog then watched the marks being thrown and was
dismissed. I saw one dog sit on
the honor while four consecutive dogs went down in flames on the blind that
none of them could even pick up! Was
this a good honor situation? The judges in our scenario did a
good job with both gun safety and their honor setup.
A Finished dog should certainly be able to sit while another retriever
picks up the marks and if that’s what the judges asked of the honor dog,
fine. If I were to fault them for
anything it would be for not reacting when the working dog was having
difficulty completing the delivery. In
my opinion, the honor dog in the scenario was being asked to sit through
something above and beyond what was necessary, and certainly more so than what
was intended or asked of the other honor dogs.
“Fetch it up” is a pretty basic command, but what else did they
expect the working handler to say? The
judges could have stepped up and asked the honor dog handler to hold the honor
dog when they saw what was happening. They
surely had to feel the honor requirement was fulfilled.
This would have allowed them to focus on the working dog’s problems
and certainly avoided a potential break or altercation had the honor dog not
remained as steady as they were hoping it would.
The lesson here is for judges to be involved when necessary, be
adaptable if required, and solve test problems before they escalate. My focus in most of the scenarios in
the Judges Corner, including this discussion on honoring is to look at things
from a judging perspective. I
want to take a moment to talk about the honor as a handler.
My training group, who are always ready, willing and quick to point out
my shortcomings and flaws as a handler (bless them for their brutal honesty)
would probably say at times I’m the last handler other handlers need to take
advice from. To that I’ll quote
a good friend of mine who likes to say, “My strength is I know where my
weaknesses are”. At any rate,
this is why I’m going to give my training buddies full credit for the
following advice about getting through an honor.
The following information does not appear in our rulebook or seminar
manual but if anybody has a good handler manual I’m sure it’s there. It goes without saying a handler
should be conscious of the call name of the dogs who will be honoring and
working at the line with his or her dog.
Given the choice, I would not want to be on the line with my dog Dusty
with a dog named, say…Rusty! Also,
if I had a young and excited dog, I’d probably want to try to be on the line
with some calmer and more experienced dogs.
I’ve come to understand that the honor and working dog situation
should be thought of as a partnership you’ve entered into, if only for the
duration of the test. Good
sportsmanship dictates that neither handler disrupts or distracts the others
dog with loud verbal commands. A
good honor handler let’s the working dog handler lead the dance.
After both handlers agree they are ready, the working dog handler
should be the first to start calling and the last to stop.
Courtesy dictates the honor handler not try to out call the working
handler, nor continue to call after the working handler ceases.
For obvious reasons, if the scenario calls for you as the honor handler
to shoot the gun, especially at the same birds the working dog is shooting,
please try to shoot at the correct time.
If you have a shell jam, don’t clear it and shoot after the birds are
on the ground and just as the working dog is being sent!
I’ll give you one last thing to think about as an honor dog handler
by relating an incident where an honor handler almost caused the working dog
to fail. I was the honor dog
handler. The scenario had the
honor handler on the right shooting the first bird out with the working
handler shooting the other two birds of the triple.
The second bird was a long bird up the middle.
Bird boy number 2 was totally hidden and was throwing the second mark
on a two count after hearing the first shot.
The lovely working dog handler who I was honoring for, and happened to
be a member of my training group, several of which had ridden with me to the
hunt, admonished me before I went to the line to not to shoot too quickly at
the first bird when I was honoring. As
fate would have it, the duck came out of the winger head high on a line drive.
I jumped on it like Mark McGuire going for a chest high fastball.
There was no arc to it, but that was really no excuse.
I shot it just as it cleared the pouch yet it went what seemed like 40
yards before falling to the ground. Of
course the poor working dog could not take its eyes off this enticing bird.
The second bird was thrown, over the top of its arc and on the way down
about the time bird one hit the ground. Luckily,
the working dog was sharp and experienced and just caught a glimpse of the
second bird just as it landed. The
lesson here is a good training group has a memory like an elephant and 100
miles home can seem like a thousand! I
have never been a proponent of letting bird boys throw on what trap shooters
call “report” and I hope this little story gives both handlers and judges
something to think about. I’m
sure some of you have some more good advice for honor dog handlers and if
you’ll send it to me I will be glad to share it in future columns. Finally, I want to brag on some
judges at a recent hunt test in West Tennessee.
They had a nice water test set up with the honor dog on the left and
working dog on the right. The
first mark came from the left into the decoys in front of both dogs.
A center mark was thrown onto the far shore of the pond, and then came
a long go bird from the right that landed on a point of land jutting out down
the right shoreline. A second
after the working dog left for the go bird, the honor dog broke for the bird
in the decoys. After a couple of
verbal “no’s” (and to his credit no whistles which would have certainly
disrupted the working dog) the honor dog handler realized there was no
stopping his dog. The judges
astutely noted that the working dog remained oblivious to the honor break and
was driving hard for the go bird. They
calmly picked up another duck and tossed it into the decoys.
The working dog successfully completed the triple none the wiser that a
duck had been picked up and replaced. I
was running in the flight and watched all this unfold from the gallery.
Kudos goes to these judges for their common sense and quick thinking.
The judges in our next scenario almost got it right.
It’s a simple Started marking test with a good lesson for every
judge. Scenario: The
small Started pond the judges were asked to use was all swimming water.
It had a steep bank around it so the judges had the handlers standing
at the water’s edge. The first
mark came from the right and the Started dog was sent for the bird, entering
at an angle. On the return, the
dog beached some 10 yards right of the handler, had difficulty climbing the
bank, dropped the bird, shook and came to the handler without the bird.
The handler then had to cast the dog back for the bird several times
before the dog was successful in returning the bird "to the area"
which the judges had indicated was "one step" from the handler. Question: Was
there anything wrong with this test set up and had the handler not been able
to get the dog to complete the delivery would it deserve to be failed? Answer: One
of our field reps witnessed this situation at a hunt test a while back.
After the handler left the line the rep asked the judges, “How many
other dogs were having the same problem?”
They indicated a couple had. The
next question the judges were asked was, "What
if the handler had been unsuccessful in getting the dog to pick up the bird,
would you fail the dog?" Their
answer was: "Yes."
The
rep went on to explain to the judges that it was the mechanics of the test
rather than the dog’s performance that were failing the dog. The field
rep reminded the judges that our seminars teach to avoid angle entries and
steep banks. The judges had the
steep bank problem solved, but failed to plan for some of the Started dogs to
beach early. The rep advised them
that a simple solution would be to move the retrieving line for the right bird
to get a more squared entry as they had for their left mark.
I think the rep was dead on when he mentioned how test mechanics can
influence performance. It’s
certainly something many of our judges don’t think about as fully as they
should. I mentioned in the
earlier scenario about having a plan for things that might go wrong.
Add to that, good preventative planning so things don’t go wrong!
Judges at all testing levels would benefit from taking a few moments
after they’ve set up a test to mentally run a dog through it.
Judges should ask themselves if there are mechanical issues that might
affect a retriever’s performance and cloud or hinder their ability to
properly evaluate the dog’s capabilities. By
the time this magazine reaches you, the 2005 National Meeting in Memphis will
have concluded. Once again, your
field reps will be gathering to discuss judging and testing issues.
I’m sure there will be some interesting stories and sharp commentary
and I’ll report all to you in the next issue of the Judges Corner.
We hope the “Judge’s Corner” will both entertain and inform you. |
|
The Judges Corner - copyright
2006 All Rights Reserved Last modified: February 18, 2008 |