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!