Hunting at Heard Pond

Hunted at Heard Pond today.

Blue sky day.

Only one group of three came by.  I got one.  Here's pictures;

Retrieve was about 50 yards, out to sea type.  Had to throw Argus in - he doesn't like to jump in from boat when water's cold.

Training at Concord Rod & Gun Club

Trained at CRGC with Audrey throwing bumpers - fantastic.  Hopefully she'll come more in the future.

Kept it short and sweet - less than 30 minutes.

three sets of doubles.

Audrey threw long go bird.  I threw a short memory bumper on the left.

On first one, Argus wanted to go for the short memory.  I handled him off twice and finally got him to cross pond.

Second series, He looked but made across.

Third - didn't even look - straight across.

We got dropped in first series yesterday at the Del Bay Hunt Test at Rebel Ridge Farms, Elkton, MD.

Great facility.

Here's picture.

Basically run around/through a dry technical pond.

My biggest complaint was the flyer.  The flyer station was in the ditch, below the horizon.  The gunners hand threw the bird and shot very quickly.  Many were landing up on the top, so dogs had good view, not great, but good.

Argus' flyer was terrible.  low throw, I could barely see and I'm 6' tall, Argus when sitting is about 2'.  the Bird hooked left, and down,  They basically shot it on below ground level from Argus' point of view.  I had hooked left, so the line to the bird was basically through the flyer station.  My understanding is that this would normally be called a "No Bird".  Surprisingly, judges released us.  I thought Argus didn't see it, but he had a good initial line.

Well, he goes down into the ditch.  I can't see him or bird, so I wait.  And wait,  He eventually pops up near the tree where the #1 bird was thrown from.  Not, the land drops off behind the flyer station, so from the line, Argus went into the ditch, I never saw him until about a minute later when he hunted back.  Not wanting him to switch, I handled him to the bird.

Ok.  Got Argus back - said in low voice - "shitty flyer", lined him up  - Argus seemed to want to get the #2 bird - so that's what he usually does, so I said fine.  I didn't think he had a great look at it, so thought it good to get it over with.  Well, he starts on good line, then hangs a left to get the #1 bird.  He stops the hunt though about 10 ft from the bird.  I wait him out.  Wait, wait, wait.  I can only think that since I handled on flyer, he was looking for more handling.

Well, finally got tired, blew couple of whistles and he picked up bird.

Sent him for third one.  Bad line, hooked left, went back to #1 bird.  Tried to handle, but he refused a hard right cast, so called him in.  Disappointing.

I think he would have done the blind well - that's one we practice at Estabrook - over a horse jump.

We honored on lead.

Lessons learned - ask for no bird - if think bad.

Practice marking with trees in background.

Practice marks that converge.

Here's description of the Master Test.

First series (land).  Triple, with two blinds.

First bird - from left, thrown left to right
Second bird - center, thrown left to right
Third bird - flyer, from right, thrown right to left.

I set up Argus on right side.  I was not worried about him breaking on flyer.

Got up, had a no bird on the second bird, so went back three.

Got up again.  Set up Argus on right.  He saw all birds go down.  Helped him mark with gun and he moved well with me.

He took birds up in order, flyer, center, left.

Two blinds - first one we took was bascially up the middle, to the right of the center bird and further back.  I set him up on the left since he takes direction better from that side.  (Buck would have had him on right to help steer away from suction of center bird).

Argus took a good initial line.  A little right of the bird.  He responded to a couple of whistles, casts to left.  Got bird.

Second blind was just to right of the left bird and deeper.  He took a good line to it.  One whistle and recast.  Got bird.

Second series (water).  Triple with one blind.

At the big technical pond on property.

First bird - from left, thrown left to right.  Behind little spit of land, landed in water, but the wind blew it right to left onto the shore.

Second bird, straight away, thrown right to left up on land.

Third bird - right.  Thrown right to left into the middle of pond.

Argus got go bird.
We lined up for middle bird, but he started out, but the wind took him to the left, so he selected the first bird.  Let him roll.  He got up on land, continued into water and got bird, came back on nice line.
Lined up for middle bird again, tried to get him a little to the right due to the wind.  Argus had good line, and worked to swim against wind.  He got up on land about five feet to the left, easily got bird, good line back.

Lined up for the blind that was in a channel up on land to the right of the go bird.  He took good line, drifted left.  Whistle stop and since he turns to the right, he got in a good line.  Back right and he took it.  Drifted again to the left.  Back right - great line back and got bird.

Third series - Land/water - stick pond.

First bird in water - right to left.
Second bird on land - left to right.  From left trees.

Argus got both easily with a little hunt on the land bird.

Overall no handles on any marks.  Great lines on all blinds and handled well in water.  Couldn't have asked for anything better.

Poodle Club of America - 2015 - All Passes

Argus passed all the events we entered this past weekend at PCA.

Upland WCX
Master Hunter
WC
WCX

Argus in HCC

Had Argus clipped into his HCC two weeks ago.   Tired of combing him out.

He is looking great.

Pick up duty at Markover

Did pickup duty at Markover on Saturday.  All pigeons - which Argus does not like.  He would spit out when he got back to me.  So, did a little forcing on hold- much better. 

Actually, it was good that it was not a mixed bag (pheasants and pigeons) as Argus could not choose.  When we have done mixed bag before, Argus would select pheasants and ignore pigeons.  This time, he couldn't do that.

It was snowing out, nothing accumulated, but it did get Argus wet.  He was shivering by the end of the morning session.  I put on his camo vest for afternoon - much happier.

Water still frozen around here, so no opportunity to do water work.  We'll just have to see how PCA goes.

Training at Baker Ave

Snowed yesterday so went over to Baker Ave to see if we could do some work on the asphalt.

It was too icy, so did some blinds in the snow in the small field.  Argus did really well, but wasn't sure if he was following our footprints.

Here's pic of the yeti.

Addieville in snow

Great day at Addieville.

14 birds - 7 chukars and 7 huns.  We found all but one.

Heavy cover - with birds hiding deep in grasses - not flushing - holding tight.  Argus had a couple of traps.

Did some hunt'em up training.  Overall great day in the field.