Boy, was that hard

Larsen and I got a fourth Master Hunter leg at the Boykin Spaniel test in Cheraw, SC on Sunday.  The test was very hard for us and taught us some lessons.   On land, I erred by hacking Larsen away from birds on the periphery, past the gunners.  I was under the impression that the dog was to hunt (basically) gun-to-gun.

Susan W., one of the judges told me that she said birds were planted beyond the guns.  I was not listening.  "I know," she said.  I was instead trying to tune out the noise judges sometimes make and focus entirely on my dog.  I guess I missed something.

Larsen obeyed my calls and did not flush those birds, but because of mistake #1, I was hacking him a lot.

Larsen sat on a sucker bird.  He bounced, but he sat.  This had been our first sucker bird in a long time and there was no telling what he might do, but he sat, and returned after my "leave it" command.

Larsen had a patented long retrieve.  I did not pip once.  He was sent for a fallen bird 60+ yards out.  He took off, did a big circle on one side (wrong wind side) of the bird, then trotted to the other side and did a big circle, identified the scent, and made the retrieve.  The handoff to me was a little sloppy, but it got the job done.

On hunt-dead, Larsen first went to the basket of birds.  He returned to me upon my pip, and shifted into a joyful full-out run on my "back" command.  He missed the bird, so I sat him.  As he sat (about 30 yards out), he looked over his shoulder, obviously scenting the bird about 20 yards behind him.  I simply let him go, and he went directly to the bird and brought it back.

Water work was coming up.