Humphrey

Cathy V. can't pick favorites, but I can.  Humphrey is my wingman.  Humpers is the dog that blazed the path that I'm on with Larsen.  I saw Cathy's (and Humphrey's) frustrations first hand as she taught the dog to be steady to wing and shot.  It's a trail I'm on now, and when I'm down, I can think about how Cathy and Humphrey perservered.

Humphrey is a thinking dog.  He wants to please Cathy, sure, but if he can do it by improving on her instruction, he'll go for his own bright idea every time.  Sometimes he earned a good yelling at.  During his training, he'd get upset and crunch those birds - - not out of spite or meanness, since those are completely foreign concepts to Humphrey - - but out of insecurity and confusion.  Now that he knows what he has to do, he treats the birds as gently as babes.

The biggest transformation was in his confident, powerful, rolling gait in the field.  The dog has the best nose around.  He knows what to do, and it shows in his confident step.

Cathy carefully monitors his ailing hip, and each day afield is blessing for her and that special dog.

Cathy and Humphrey move toward the line.  

Humphrey hangs with the gallery at the ESS AKC Hunt Test (2/24/2013).

Zelda

Possibly seeking new challenges, Cathy V. allowed me to un-train Advanced Master Hunter Zelda at the Sunday Hunt Test.

The point of the exercise was to allow me to run an accomplished dog under the pressure of a genuine Hunt Test to see how my reactions, body language, and commands stacked up.  Unhappily, the stack was a house of cards, as Zelda quickly learned that I was there for little more than company as she joyfully hunted the field on her own.

Afterward, Cathy (and Aki, and just about everyone else who could speak to me with breaking into laughter) said that my commands were far too soft and mother-may-I for the dog.  What's funny is that I would have no problem at all using a snarling voice, which I reserve for special occasions with Larsen, except that Zelda not only was someone else's dog, but I see her as a little white pillow, and not the true hunting dog that lies within that Bo-Peep coat.

This is going to be easy!

Ready?

Frank entertains Zelda with a medley of tunes on his whistle.

Fly-away bird and time for water.

Sunday morning

From Saturday morning until Sunday morning, we were enveloped in a cloud from a huge front that had dumped snow across the Plains and midwest and swirled into the south.  The wet and chill produced a mysterious air to the morning.

Judge Susan approaches as Bill, Al, and David prepare for the day's events. 


John and Bronwyn hold a skull session. 

Cathy and Frank fill bird bags as the fog begins to burn off. 

He held

At the Master Hunter level, the dog is expected to hup or sit when he flushes the bird.  This is important because the shooter is assured of a safe shot at the bird.  It is also quite stylish.

At the ESS Hunt Test in Bowman, Ga this past Sunday, Larsen steadied - - he did not sit, but he stood as still as a statue when he flushed the bird and I pipped him to sit.  We both stood for a very long time, and I thought that either it was taking an awfully long time to get the tap on my shoulder indicating that I could send Larsen for the bird, or else I was suffering from temporal distortion, which is common under stress.

Instead, it turned out that despite the efforts of the gunners, the bird safely made its way to the tree line.  Susan W., a judge, told me the bird was a fly-off and to bring Larsen in.

Here's where I made my mistake.  Larsen was poised, vibrating, really, and not sitting.  Standing stock still counts as steady, but it is not optimal because the dog is on the knife's edge of breaking.

I whistled Larsen in anyway, as he stood, and against my second-guessing  judgment, and he broke to the bird.  I believe that if I'd relaxed, hit the sit whistle again and commanded  him to sit, he would have done so.  Then, I could have let the adrenalin drain from both of us, pipped him in, and started again.  My haste in bringing him in caused the little dog to break.

The positive from the weekend, for me, was that in a Hunt Test environment, with guns, birds, milling and chattering people, bird planters, and judges, Larsen was steady as a rock on the flush.

It's our turn.

I'm paying attention, more or less.

Let's go!

Marin Lampshade

After a hike on Mount Tam, we repaired to a local cafe for refreshments.

This lampshade is actually a coffee filter.

Goodby Muttmobile

The Muttmobile (2001 Volvo XC70) was given in trade for the new Muttmobile.  The Volvo was bought at 6 years with about 55,000 miles.  Six years and 100,000 miles later, it was traded for a Mercedes ML 350.  The Muttmobile name is like Air Force One and transfers with the dog.  The Volvo XC70 is, or was, a good dog car.  Low enough to allow the dog to embark and disembark, and, of course, the fabulous pet-friendly dual cages.  The newer Volvo wagons lost two inches from their rooflines, possibly to make the shoebox car appear more rakish, but those two inches were critical in allowing us to slide a crate in.

We had some great miles in that car.

San Francisco

Lunch at a hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant with Aki on Valentine's day.

Scala's restaurant near the St. Francis is an inviting retreat.   

Is there a bad restaurant in all of San Francisco? 

Later, at work, a view from my assigned office space.

Westminster

Ring 9, 1:00pm EST, Welsh Springer Spaniels.  Sporting Group at 8:00pm EST, USA Channel.

• Spaniels (Welsh Springer) 1-1-(8-3)
• 545 entries representing 30 breeds in the sporting group

One for two

Larsen was one-for-two at Tim's on Sunday.  I'm talking about a sit-to-the-flush without a check cord.

The first unfolded perfectly in the sense that his birdiness enabled me to move up on him, and the flushed bird shot straight over my head, so that the geometry was Larsen, Frank, bird.  Tim shot the bird, which fell at the tree line.

We continued hunting Larsen, not letting him bolt to the tree line.  Only after a number of casts, pulling Larsen back in, and some sits while Tim and I talked, did Tim think it was time to send Larsen for the dead.

Larsen did not forget where that bird was, and he fetched it quickly.  His retrieve was notable for its sloppiness, and we took some time to work on it.  I could tell that Tim was warming to a project dog insofar as Tim would like to have as one of his training calling cards dogs with clean, professional retrieves.

On the second, unsuccessful flush, the bird shot out away from me, and low, suckering Larsen into a chase, which he did with his customary vigor.  We've come far, but we still have an awfully long way to go.  I maintain hope that these drills will synch in his head and he will suddenly become steady, but hope is not a very good training method, and I know that, so we'll go back to the field and try something old and something new once again.

Fetch!

This happened on our walk this morning.

I dropped the Dokken dummy bird and told Larsen to fetch.  He ran, grabbed it, and put it down 6 feet from me.  I told him to fetch, and he ran around, sat, barked, lunged at the dummy, ran off to pee, and came back (at my insistence) and lunged at the dummy again.  I put the dummy in his mouth and made him bring it to me, which he did without making any eye contact.  I let (made) him hold it while I whispered sweet nothings and calmed both of us down.

We did a second short fetch with somewhat the same results.  There was clear avoidance, and real anxiety on his part. He would lunge at the dummy but refuse to pick it up.  He would bark at the dummy and then try to wander around.  What the heck is that?

We had a successful third try.  I tossed the dummy.  Larsen ran out and brought the dummy back.  He made eye contact and handed the dummy to me.

All of this tells me that I should have been doing this type of yard work before.  This avoidance on our walk has really put the fetching issue in sharp relief.  It's something for us to work on in the yard, away from the field.

 This dummy has its head removed so that Larsen must hold it properly, around its fat middle.

Winter supper

It was sleeting in Chicago this morning, and cold rain falls in Atlanta this evening.  Christmas and New Years are distant memories.  It is the cold, dark, and wet winter nights.

How about steaming-hot, home-made pot pie for supper?

A little steadier

Larsen took a step up in the past weekend.  We had a reasonably good workout with Tim.  For the first time in ages, we did water.  Larsen uncharacteristically hesitated, probably because it was cold, but I told him in no uncertain terms that he had to swim the pond, and he did so.  

Sunday was a splendid, windy day at Circle W.  I quartered Larsen with no birds in the field, and he took off like he was shot from an aircraft carrier.  About a minute later, he caught his tailhook and sat where he'd started, and we began anew.  After a few minutes of quartering, we used Cathy's approach and put Larsen on the long lead.  Larsen was very good and sat to wing and shot without any reminder tugging on my part.  I know that he knows that there is a long lead around his neck, but it still is important that he sat on his own.

We had a few more hits and misses, but more hits (sits) than misses (breaks) and it was a good day overall.

I think my handling of Zelda improved over the prior week.  My whistles were still too slow.  The forgiving girl sat on the flush while I fumbled for the whistle.  She's still a little confused on the retrieve, obligingly bringing the bird to Gary rather than me.  We all figured that she concluded that all guys are the same.  Did I mention that she is a smart little dog?

  

Showtime!

Aki got into center ring to learn how to handle Larsen in a Conformation match.  Her goal is to be ring-ready  in time for the May, 2013 WSSCA Nationals in Perry, Georgia.  Adrian was kind enough to donate her time to WSSCA to teach Aki the A-B-Cs of handling.

Adrian detected an improvement in Larsen's bidability and attention since she saw him a year ago, as he paid attention to Aki's commands throughout the early evening at the ADOG facility.

  Adrian gives Aki some instructions as Larsen looks on.

Larsen was sporting as he endured the fuss from Aki and Adrian.

Photojournalism!

Ready for the ring. 

Monday blues

Post card from Chicago.

Trust your dog

Trusting your dog is an important rule in the field.  You may think you know where the bird is, but your dog knows where the bird is.  You may think you must guide the dog to cover the field, but the intelligent dog will understand where the birds most likely are and will give those places multiple looks from different angles.

Trust extends also to how you approach your dog when he's in repose.  Here's an example of a handler who hoovered over her dog.  She thought the little guy would break and race to the downed bird.  With a little urging, she stood up straight, and guess what?  The dog (who's been participating in Rally events, and so is no tyro when it comes to obedience) sat.  Good boy!

Don't you trust me?

Handler grasps the collar and looms over the dog.   

Ok, already.  I'll stay!

Doesn't this look better?  A handler standing straight, trusting her dog.  Her posture says  I'm in control.  Pup is eager and attentive.  

Bronwyn

Veterinarian and Welsh Springer Spaniel lover John S. submits  this video of his dog, Bronwyn.

John and Bronwyn huddle prior to a hunt test run.

2012 breed rankings

Welsh Springer Spaniels clawed their way up from 130 to 125 (out of 175) and 17 out of 24 in the sporting dogs group.  They were nosed out by the newcomer Boykin spaniel and even the Spinoni!