(EP:22) Does your dog have what it takes to be a Senior Hunter?

In this podcast we discuss the ins and outs of how to run a Senior Hunt Test with your retriever. Things to do and to avoid.  If your looking for something to do with your retriever outside of just hunting, hunt tests might be the thing for you! 

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Transcript

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Hey everyone, welcome to the Bird Dog Podcast. My name is Ty Serikson and I am the host of this show. If you have been following along, you already know that. Anyhow, welcome to the podcast. Hope you enjoy this episode. And, uh, we're going to continue to talk about sex. So I apologize if the audio isn't as good. I'm not in my podcast studio. I'm actually driving, uh, down to, into Nevada right now as we speak. And I figure when I'm heading south on I 15, got a long nice straightaway, um, good time to shoot a little podcast here and share with you guys some things that will hopefully be helpful for you guys. Also, just a few plugs, you can follow us on Instagram at TheBirdDogPodcast, um, on there. Um, you can also email us at TheBirdDogPodcast at gmail. com. If you want to get a hold of us, uh, our training website is UtahBirdDogTraining. com. And also, if you're interested in a top of the line, high end, uh, hunting golden retriever, My wife manages it. Her name is Rachel, but fieldbredgoldenretrievers. com and we don't have as many lab litters as we used to, but we do have a lab litter here and there, um, uh, each year and utahpointinglabs. com is our breeding website, so we kind of have those separated to make it easier for people to find, uh, kind of what What you're looking for. Um, if you're looking for an awesome dog, um, cot or a stand, go ahead and check out, uh, um, NDA dog beds. Um, it's kaunda do.com, K-U-R-A-N-D-A. Um, easiest way is just go to Utah bird dog training, Utah bird dog training.com. There's a link there if you click on that and then go through there and buy a bed. That helps us out. Um, so and now they're the best caught we have found and if over time your dog were to tear a hole in the material that it rests on, they are super easy to just switch it out, order a new pad. They're not that expensive material and And a way to go. Um, I use the aluminum frames, the aluminum anodized frame and I have yet to have one be destroyed. And I've been using them for, Oh, probably four years now, three to four years. They have been the best. I used one brand before that and I didn't even last through the night. So, uh, do yourself a favor, don't go cheap, get a good one, and you will be happy with that. Also, we're a partner with Gunner Kennels, um, if you need a new gunner dog kennel, hit us up, shoot us an email, we can get you a discount on those. and help you out if you're interested in that. So anyhow, um, I wanted to continue, um, to talk in our last podcast, we talked about, um, how to run a junior hunter AKC hunt test. And since I am in route to a hunt test right now, let's just go to the next level and talk about a senior hunt test. So, um, Each level of the AKC hunt test, junior, senior, and master, obviously, is a step up. Um, a junior hunter test can be run with a little less skill. Um, when I run a junior, I like to over prepare the dog, really over prepare the dog, hopefully for all the tests, because I don't want to waste a lot of money on test fees and time. So obviously we're going to go ahead and train that dog, do all we can to get a pass at each test. Obviously everyone does that, but anyhow, um, we're going to just walk you through how to run a senior, kind of what's required. Um, there are some, you know, the judges judge the test. So there are ultimately things that a judge can basically just decide if they don't think your dog did good enough and they can drop your dog for a certain reason. So just a kind of word of wise, keep in good terms with the judges. Um, be respectful, be plightful, be polite. If you have a question on, um, your dog, how it ran a test, and maybe it didn't make it through, don't make a big deal in front of everyone. You know, uh, talk, you can talk to the judge after the test and say, Hey, I was curious, you know, why my dog didn't pass. If you truly didn't feel you understood why, and they will be scoring your dog, they can go back and look at the score books and tell you. you know, why they, why they did, why your dog did not pass the test. So there are different categories that they're going to, uh, score your dog on. And your dog has to reach a certain, uh, number of points in those categories, uh, that I don't want necessarily go into, um, to pass the test. So again, before you run any hunt tests, look at the AKC hunt test rule book, read through the rules. Um, learn them so you don't make any mistakes, um, even as a pro it never hurts to go back and just refresh my memory even though I've ran hundreds of, uh, dogs in HuntTest. So anyhow, let's talk about the Senior HuntTest, uh, the Senior HuntTest is a two part series, so you have a land series and a water series, um, typically you're going to be running the land series first. And the land series is made up of, um, it's going to be a double retrieve on land and a double retrieve on water. But, um, I wouldn't even talk about the junior hunt test. If you want to, you know, um, look at the differences kind of between that, go back and watch the previous. podcast. But in a senior hunt test, you're going to have a double retrieve. So you're going to have a line. Um, in every hunt test, you're going to have a line or an area where the dog is going to be ran from. And at the line, there's going to be two judges and maybe an apprentice or maybe another helper that'll be sitting there to help out. Obviously the judges are going to be judging your dog. So. That being said, there's going to be holding blinds going up to the line. Holding blind is a little piece of fabric that's put into the ground and you're basically going to stage your dog behind those holding blinds. Um, the reason is, is so your dog cannot see what is going on in the hunt test. Um, you're not supposed to let your dog see what's going on. And honestly, if you let your dog cheat and look around the holding blind and, you know, try to get a feel of what's going on in the test, it'll probably throw them off because when they get up there, they're going to be that much more excited because they've been watching marks or birds going into the air the whole way up to the line or portion of the line. They're going to be, um, uh, They're, they're gonna, their direction's gonna be messed up. I'm trying to get the word that would, um, uh, come to my mind there. But anyhow, it's not gonna help. So just keep your dog behind the holding blind. Now, something you can do, I see very commonly, is people walk the dog nose first into the holding blind. Um, that is okay if your dog has been in holding blinds and is comfortable in a blind, but a lot of times they hear everything going off and I see with young handlers that haven't really trained with the holding blind, the dog's trying to jump up, put its legs over the blind. It just is like this wall, why is this wall in front of my face? And the dog doesn't like it. So a little tip you can do is just heal the dog. So it's rear end is in the holding blind, the back of the holding blind. And so it's looking away from the holding blind. So basically it's rear end is facing the holding blind so it can look around, but it can't obviously see the hunt test. So instead of putting your dog's nose into the holding blind, turn them around so he can. Just kind of look around at the scenery and that'll help the dog to settle down. If you have not had your dog much in a holding blind. So you will have in the senior, your dog is running naked in the junior. They can have a flat buckle collar on them, but in a senior, when your dog and a master, when it runs the test, it will have. Zero zilch, nothing on it. If your dog goes up to the line and has a collar on it and you run your dog, it will not pass. So, uh, when you enter the holding blind, have nothing on the dog except a choke chain or a slip lead. Something to obviously keep the dog under control until the last holding blind. And, um, between the last holding blind and to the line is where you'll actually be judged. And you're gonna work your way up to from holding blind to holding blind. Usually there's anywhere from five to maybe three holding blinds and Once you are at the last holding blind the judge will say to you what's your number and you have Hopefully gone on Entry Express, you've looked at the running order, you've found your number, and you're going to tell them your number, say, um, your number 10, for example. They'll say, I'm dog number 10, they'll say thank you, they'll, they'll, they'll open their books to dog number 10, which has your information, your dog's information on it, and they will, um, get the, Get the test ready for you to run your dog. Um, once all the bird boys are ready, they will then usually say dog to the line. At that point, you will behind the blind, take your lead off your dog. And then you will walk your dog up to the line. Now in an AKC hunt test, they're always going to have a fake gun, and usually it's in a little gun holding rack thing by the blind. And you must come out of the blind and pick up the gun, or they may even give, have the gun next to the blind. So before you come out of the blind, you are, you have the gun in your hand. Treat that gun, even though it's usually just a piece of wood shaped like a gun, treat that gun, uh, like it's a real firearm. If you point it at the judges, you point it at your dog, you point it in an unsafe direction, they can drop you from a hunt test, um, because of un safe, um, handling of the firearm. So treat it like it's a real gun, um, and obviously a real gun if you point it in the direction, um, every time in a safe direction, no one is going to get hurt. So anyhow, you're going to come out of the holding blind with the gun or grab the gun as you come out. At that point, when the dog becomes visible, it's under the judgment of the judges and you're going to walk your dog up. to the line and, um, and sit the dog at the line. So there's one thing in a, in a hunt test, they're going to have what is called is a walkup. So walkup basically simulates you jump shooting a duck. So what the walkup is, is when you come out of the blind, you're going to have the dog at heel and walking towards a certain direction. As you're walking, the dog should. You remain at heel under your control and just walk usually nice and calmly like you're hunting. And once your dog passes a certain line, the judges are going to call for a bird. There's going to be again, two holding stations at different distances and different locations in the field. And when your dog passes that threshold, a gunshot is going to go off and a duck is going to be thrown as one of the marks. At that point, when the bird goes into the air, you can give one steadying command. The steadying command typically is a sit whistle, or a verbal sit, um, are typically going to be your two commands. I usually use a verbal sit. when the bird comes out into the air because that's just what I practice with. Some people use a whistle. Whatever you want to do it doesn't matter, but you can't just keep saying sit, sit, sit, keep bloin your whistle, doot, doot, doot. It's just one stating command when that gunshot goes off or the bird comes into the air. Hopefully your dog At that point, there's already one bird down. They'll wait about a three second count. And then, um, from the next holding blind, there'll be usually a duck call, and then a bird, usually a live flyer will be at this point. They'll take a live duck, they'll throw it into the air, and some gunners will actually shoot that live duck, is the second mark. This is typically, again, the land series. After the bird hits the ground, um, obviously it's a live flyer, so it'll land in different locations, typically within a 40, 50 yard area. Depending on your gunner, some gunners are better shots and they'll knock that bird down and the throwers will be consistent, but because it is a live bird. They can go all sorts of directions. Um, so hopefully the bird gets thrown, gets shot. It's a nice clean kill. Bird hits the ground. After about three seconds, the judge will release you with either your number typically or dog. And then at that point you can send your dog. to go pick up the retrieves. Now the dog does not have to pick up the birds in any particular order. For some reason, all senior dog wants the, the, the walk up bird, you know, bird, the memory bird, which is the first bird that was thrown down. It can switch and go grab that and then come back and pick up the go bird. It doesn't matter. The main thing is when you send your dog to go pick up that bird, it goes and gets the one bird comes straight back or it comes back at a good line. And then you can cue the memory, send the dog to go pick up the second bird. Um, so that's kind of one. situation. And then typically what they will have is a blind retrieve. After your dog successfully picks up the two birds, the two retrieves, they will have a blind retrieve. The blind retrieve in a senior is going to be to typically, I don't even think they can go in between the marks. Pretty positive. It always has to be left or right of the two birds that have been thrown. At that point, you'll then either go into a holding blind so they can't see. You can't see where the blind retrieve is. planted, um, or, um, they'll just have you turn your dog around so they can't see, or they may even plant the blind if it's further enough away and the scent does not allow the dog to smell the bird, they can have the blind be hot, which means the bird is out there on the ground while the marks are coming off. Um, typically they will, they don't do that generally. So you then will run the blind retrieve. Uh, you, the judge will tell you, hey, you're going to run the blind retrieve from the same spot that you picked, you ran the marks or they'll tell you, hey, you move over here a little bit and run the blind retrieve, um, keep your dog tight to the line. So if you draw a line between you and that bird, you want to keep your dog basically kind of on a roadway. Let's say you have a single track dirt road for a car or a one lane on a road. If you keep your dog kind of on a one lane, you know, width, left and right, and keep that dog under control all the way to the bird, your dog should pass and it should be fine. If your dog's running way far to the left, way far to the right, blowing you off on the whistles, not listening, he's most likely not going to pass the test. Um, and when you handle your dog, you're supposed to handle your dog. all the way to the bird. Don't handle your dog three quarters of the way to the bird and then just let the dog hunt around and find the bird. It should be under control all the way. Put the dog directly onto the bird. Now in a senior hunt test, they do give you more leeway. If you're probably as wide as a two lane road, you're probably still going to be fine. But again, you don't train for master type stuff, so keep it in kind of thing. The left and right width of, uh, um, you know, a single track road and get the dog there to, to, you know, and get it on that bird. Um, there's no rule about how many whistles it takes. So if you just, you know, your dog moves, you whistle, stop it. Moves another little 10 feet, 20 feet, stop it. But you keep it on the path. That is typically okay. Your dog doesn't have to line the blind perfectly. But again, just when you run your blind retrieves, keep the dog under control with your whistle sits. Hopefully it takes your cast good and you handle the dog on the blind retrieve. So if your dog successfully picks up the two birds and it sits, when you tell it, we're talking about a walk up here. Um, that's all good. And then in one of the series, and again the walk up can happen in the land or the water series. It doesn't have to happen in the land series. I'm just giving you an example of a hunt test. Then what they could do is an honor. And what an honor is, if your dog passes, picks up the marks, runs a good blind retrieve, your dog is going to honor another dog working. What that means is your dog is going to sit off to the side of where the running dog is. The running dog comes out of the holding blind. Um, again, if it's a walkup, the bird flies into the air, they'll shoot a shot. Um, and then the other bird comes out, shoot a shot. Your dog has to remain at your side or at the honor location and not interfere with the working dog. Now, when your dog is at honor, honor, you can quietly talk to your dog the whole time. You can tell the dog, sit, leave it, no bird, whatever you want to tell it that just says, hey, that's not yours, you better not move. Don't pay attention at all to the running dog. Focus on your dog. Let it feel your presence. Don't look. You don't need to look at the running dog. It doesn't even matter. The main thing you want is to watch your dog's body language. If he looks like he's going to move, and he budges a little bit, You know, give a firm sit, you know, something like that to just all you want that dog is to stay steady because if that dog breaks and he interferes, he goes, I want that bird for that other guy, you're going to be out of the test and anyone that's run these tests long enough, that's going to happen to you and it's going to humble you and you'll just learn. Don't look at the other dog. Focus really on your dog. And, uh, that's going to help you out. Um, some judges, you can kneel down by your dogs. You're closer to their head level. Some judges will say, that's intimidation. You can't do that. I don't really agree with that. I mean, I can see where they're coming from, but you can't really like lean over them really heavy and try to intimidate them. Um, but just hopefully your dog you've practiced it. So I usually don't sit. there and keep talking to my dog. I feel like when you keep talking to him that is going to just become kind of white noise and they'll just blow it off. So usually I'll just give him a firm sit, leave it, you know, that means just don't touch it. At that point, I'll just silently watch my dog. And then if the dog does move at that point, I'm going to give it a steady command. Um, I just don't want to go sit, sit, sit, sit, sit. And also the dog just breaks. So I usually just give him this command and Watch his body language and go from there. Anyhow, so let's say your dog, the dog stays sitting. The judge will then release the working dog. The dog, that dog is released to go around and pick up the birds. At that point, once the dog that's running is on his way to pick up the bird, the first bird, the judge will usually say, honor dog released. At that point, you will tell your dog here or heel. Pull the dog immediately away from the test, get it going away and get it out. Um, out of sight of the dog working at that point, you have successfully passed the test. Good job. Um, now you're not generally supposed to lease your dog up until you are out of sight of the judge or they say, Hey, at this point you can lease your dog up. So you will actually tell the dog here, heal, whatever. Get the dog kind of behind the judges. Kind of out to the, you know, by the first holding blind, out of sight, then you'll leash up your dog. But basically, the judges don't want to see a leash, um, in a test. So, also, word of advice, when you have that leash, do not put it in your pocket, put it in your jacket, have it be out of sight. So, it is not seen. Um, again, you can't touch your dog during a test at any point. Um, you can't tap it on the head, you can't say good boy, anything like that. So verbally, or physically, do not touch your dog. Otherwise, you'll most likely be disqualified and dropped from, dropped from the test. So. We talked about a walk up, um, the other option that they'll have in one of the tests, either the land or the water series, is not a walk up. In that one, what you will do is you'll walk up from the holding blind, the last holding blind, to the line, take your time, sit your dog at the line. What I do is don't go up to the line and sit him and then hurry, hurry and raise your hand and say you're ready. Take your time to keep the dog under control at heel. Remember to grab your gun and walk the dog up to the line. Sit the dog's rear end. And let the dog just get its bearings straight, right? Okay, it's looking around. Okay, there's a tree over there. There's a holding blind over there. Kind of just let him get grounded for a second before you call for the birds. That's going to help the dog just kind of chill out, relax. Get, get get a view of what's going on. At that point, you'll signal your, you'll raise your hand to the judges. And then that point they will tell the bird boys to start throwing those birds. Again, one of the birds is going to be a dead bird. That'll be thrown. A quack will go off, shot will go off, a bird will be thrown into the air. And then they'll have one holding station, which will be a live flyer. A quack will go off. They'll throw a live duck into the air and actually shoot that one. And, um, either order, it doesn't really matter, they can have the live flyer be first, or the live flyer be last, or vice versa. Regardless, your dog has to run out, pick up the birds, and come back. Now, I didn't talk about the gun yet. When you have that gun, you need to raise that gun up and point it like you, those, you are shooting those ducks over your dog. Failure to lift the gun up and actually shoot the birds, um, can cause you to be disqualified from the test. Remember it is a hunt test like you are hunting, even though it's usually a wood gun. Um, you still need a point. Don't keep it in your armpit or shoot from your hip. Actually raise the gun up like you're shooting a normal gun. The judges, you know, will like to see that. Um, after the birds have been. You know, shot, quote unquote, shot and are down, then you will set the gun down or typically give the gun to a judge again. Do not point the gun at them handed off. At that point, you will not have a gun in your hand because you've shot your birds. You know, air quotes shot your birds. And then you will be able to have your hands free to handle your dog. So, um, you will, again, when the birds come out, you point the gun at the birds. You know, you, and then the birds hit the ground. Usually a judge will wait two or three seconds and they'll release you a dog, whatever. You'll send your dog typically on its name to go make those, to go pick up those retrieves. And then you'll run your blind retrieve and the honor has to be done in the two series. And also the walk up has to be done in the two series. So sometimes they'll do the walk up in the honor in the first series and then the water series, you'll just walk up to the line, set your dog down and do that. Um, but it has to be done. Also, another thing that has to be done is a diversion bird or a diversion shot. What a diversion bird or diversion shot is the dog is coming back, you know, from retrieving a bird. And as the dog's coming back, a gunshot will be fired in the field by one of the holding blinds. Boom. Um, you can give your dog a little here whistle or a verbal here command. Just, Hey, come on in. No big deal. And most dogs, I think a diversion shot, they don't really, it doesn't really bother them. They might look around for a second. What was that? Is there a bird or something coming out? Um, but usually not big of deal. Another one is the diversion bird. And what that is, is the dog is it's coming back, a gunshot will go off and actually a bird will be thrown into the air. Usually not directly in line of the dog and you. But maybe just off to the side a little bit, um, and your dog at that point needs to finish the retrieve. So bring the dog, bring the bird back to you and then you can cue the memory and you need to pick up the diversion bird. If your dog drops the bird and makes a switch. So he drops the bird in its mouth and then runs over and grabs the other bird, he's gone. So you don't want that to happen, you want to finish the retrieve, tell the dog you know to come in and then you can cue the memory and send the dog to go make the retrieve on the diversion bird. The diversion bird is not judged as a mark, it's actually more of a blind retrieve type thing because it's kind of coming back and the dog doesn't really have time to see it real well. And so it's okay to handle your dog. Typically people will send it, pick it up, using the dog's name. But, that being said, if the dog is struggling, you can actually blow a whistle, handle the dog, pick up the bird, and bring that bird in, and that's not going to score against you. Um, in any way. So don't be nervous to handle on a diversion bird if you have to. Another one is another name for diversion bird is a bulldog. If they throw the bird right in front of your dog, that can be kind of challenging and almost can surprise them. And again, they're just testing to see if your dog is trained for these things. So make sure you train your dog for a diversion bird or diversion shot while, you know, it is in training. So, uh, that being said, that's going to be how you run a land series. with the AKC. Again, no touching the dog. The dog has to be naked. Now let's say you, let's talk about the marks. Let's say you send your dog on the go bird, which is the last bird down. Dog runs out there. He's hunting around. He cannot find the bird. Or let's say he finds the bird. Usually they do on a go bird. Cause it's the last one down. They have their focus on it. Let's say you come back and you, you cue the dog's memory, you know, where's your mark or whatever you want to say. The dog looks out. there for the second bird, and you send that dog out there to go make the retrieve. Let's say he goes out there and he starts hunting around, he can't find, can't find the bird. He starts going over to where he picked up the first bird, okay, that's going to be deemed as a switch. He's given up on the area, he's switching places, heading over to where he had previously found a bird. If you allow that dog to do that, and go over and give up and switch areas. He's going to be out. So at that point, you have to use a handle. You have to stop the dog with a whistle sit, or a verbal sit, usually typically a whistle sit, and then handle the dog to the down bird. Okay, so you're going to, once you put that control on the dog, it has to be a clean handle. It's like you're running a blind or treat. You can't just push the dog over and he kind of runs over and hunts around. It's like, oh yeah, I found it. You have to whistle sit him, whistle sit him, whistle sit him, and guide him all the way. to that downed bird. Now, typically in a senior hunter, in a senior series, it's not in the rules spelled out this way, but typically if you use a handle, you only get one handle in the two series. So on a one senior hunter day, you know, pass either the land series or the water series, your dog should typically pick up. a double retrieve without having to be handled. If you need to handle him in one of those series, that's totally okay. Your dog is still going to pass as long as it's a clean handle. So let's say in the land series, your dog runs out there, he smokes both marks, picks them up, no problem. Let's say you're now on the water series, dog goes out, gets one mark, comes back and he cannot, and he's struggling on the second mark. And he starts switching or doing something or taking forever. I would advise to hurry, put a whistle on the dog, if the dog hopefully handles good. And put him on the bird and call it a day and go get your ribbon. Don't make it a big deal, just use a handle and And get the bird in the dog's mouth, keep the test clean. Now you want to think about when these judges go back and score these dogs, they don't remember typically, Oh, that was Joe Schmoe's dog and he had a black lab that is three years old. The dogs all blend together and what they actually look back is on is their score sheets. And on those score sheets, they're going to have a starting line. They're going to have a place where the birds hit and they're basically going to draw, draw the path of your dog as your dog is working. And if they go back, and they're looking over the books together, and they see all these squiggly lines all over, and it's just this big old mess, they're gonna say, oh, yeah, I remember this dog, you know, ran all over the place, and da da da da da, and they're basically just going off what they wrote in their books. Plus their numbers of how they scored them. Then they're gonna compare notes and see if they're on the same page. At that point Point, they're gonna decide if your dog passed the test or not. So remember to keep the paper clean. So if you remember that, ideally, you know your dog runs out, it's a fairly straight line. There's not squigglies everywhere. It picks up, the birds comes back in, you run the blind retrieves, you know, on the line to the bird. The dog is fairly straight and keeps things nice and clean. The more you can keep those books clean. The higher your chances of your dog's going to pass that test when those judges go back and score your dog and look at their diagrams that they drew. So that's just kind of a tip there. Now I have been to tests before where a dog, I had to handle a dog on one mark in the land series and I had to handle a dog on a mark in the water series. It was a super brutal. Senior hunt test. All the dogs were pretty much having to handle high percentage. I'd say 80 percent plus Had to be handled in both series. It was just kind of above the dog's head level generally But if the dogs, you know in the other areas worked good and maybe the handles were clean many of the dogs It does not say you have to, that you can't do that. But again, typically you only are going to use one handle in both series, but don't count yourself necessarily out if all the dogs are struggling. Now, if all the dogs are not struggling and you have to handle in both series, there's a high percentage your dog is not going to pass, pass the test. So just kind of a tip there. Um, let's talk about running blind retrieves real quick. So the, the dogs, the judges are going to give you the starting point where you're on your blind retrieve. They're going to tell you where the bird is and they're going to tell you, you know, you're going to see an obvious line from, from the starting point to where the bird is at. Now there's something called the keyhole. A keyhole is maybe, let's say there's two bushes and between the bushes on the way to the blind or on the way to the duck on the blind retrieve. is a very obvious opening, kind of like a goalpost. Sometimes judges will say there's a keyhole right there. And basically what they're saying is you better put your dog through that opening on that line. Otherwise your dog may not pass the test, or they want to see at least effort that your dog goes through that keyhole. So if you see like an obvious opening in the line, do all you can to put your dog through that goalpost, through those, that opening in the bushes or whatever it may be. and keep your dog on the line to pick up the bird and you're going to, that's going to help you out. Now that's pretty much it on the land series. Um, if your dog does everything passes, they're going to do callbacks, which after all the dogs run, the Marshall will then say, Hey, dog five, four, Whatever, all the numbers that got called back, basically the dogs that didn't get dropped, will then be running the water series, the second portion of the test. Now everything I explained about is going to be the same, except now it's going to be on water. If they didn't do a walk up on land, they're going to do a walk up on water. If they didn't do an honor on land, they're going to do an honor on water. They have to check off an honor, they have to check off a walk up, and they have to check off a diversion bird or a diversion shot during the two series of the hunt test. So, let's say we've already done honor, we've already done, um, a walk up, the water series will typically be, again, you walk the dog up to the line, grab the gun, two birds. this point will come out from different locations. You go up, you go out, you pick up your birds, you run the blind retrieve and the dog will then get its first senior hunter pass. Um, so let's talk about water blinds and water marks because they are a water one. If there's like a pond and the bird falls on the other side of the pond and your dog runs all the way around the pond, grabs the bird and comes all the way back. It's not going to pass. The dog has to And so hopefully your dog does not cheat, um, too bad and your dog gets in the water, swims across, gets the bird and brings the bird back to you. Same thing with the blind retreat. When they put the dog, the bird, you know, down across the pond, you know, down on the other side of the pond. And your dog, if it does not enter the water and you. Don't handle the dog to the blind, to the blind retrieve in the water to a certain level. Um, the dog may not pass. If your dog just kind of runs and skirts down the shoreline, barely tiptoes its feet in, grabs the bird, it's offline, good chance it's not going to pass. So handle your dog in the water, again under control, all the way to the, the bird that's on the bank or in the water, wherever it's at, bring it back, ideally in the water too. Again, it's your test. They're testing the dog's skill set on water. So anyhow, um, that's pretty much your water series, your land series. Um, again, in the water series, they're generally, because the cost of birds, they can do another live flyer on one of the marks. They'll fly it, throw another dead duck or live duck and shoot it. Typically, they're going to use those. Those ducks that were shot in the land series, and they're going to use those as hand thrown ducks in the water series. And again, there, they might not be hand thrown. They might use wingers, loaded wingers. A winger is a device that flings the duck into the air. Um, so there's a little more consistency and, and, uh, they're going to use those dead ducks. Just, you know, with a quack gunshot and the dead duck thrown into the air, um, both birds will typically be dead in the water series. Not always the case. Again, they can mix it up. They can also use pheasants if ducks cannot be found. Uh, but typically that is not the case, but it never hurts to have your dog pick up some pheasants in case, um, if it's only picked up ducks and they throw a live pheasant or a dead pheasant and your dog runs out there, doesn't know what it is, doesn't pick it up. That could cause a problem. Also in the senior, senior level, the master level, they will typically have decoys. Um, so have your dog comfortable with a spinning decoy, like a mojo, have your dog comfortable with regular decoys, goose decoys, silhouette decoys, never hurts to even have some snow goose decoys mixed in there. Some judges I've seen put white decoys off to the side, you know, two or three of them. And then a bunch of goose, Canadian goose decoys with that. Contrast that draws the dogs to that, um, so just prep your dog, um, when it comes to decoys too. And if your dog hunts a lot and you use decoys, then that should not be a problem. Again, a, uh, a senior hunter is, uh, more of a seasoned, uh, hunter. You know, more of a season finished dog, um, type thing. So, uh, if your dog does great and passes both a series, a land series and a water series, then you will get what is called is a, is a senior, um, hunter, uh, a pass. For the test. Now if you have a junior hunter title, if you've already ran junior hunter, it takes four passes to get a junior hunter. If you're, have that previous title to get a senior hunter title, you need four completed passes. So basically four days of passing both the land series and the water series. So, uh, eight series total of completion, your dog can get a senior hunter pass. Now you can't skip junior hunter and go straight into senior hunter. And if you do that and you don't have a previous junior hunter title, then you're going to need five passes to get a senior hunter title. Now if you're trying to knock both titles out at the same time in the same day, you can run a junior test and you can run a senior test. Or you can run a junior and a master or a senior and a master. It doesn't really matter. The AKC will take your money. And happily let you run your dog and whatever test you want. But, that being said, we'll just kind of talk about Master real quick. If you don't have previous titles, it's going to be 4, 5, and 6. So 4 for Junior, 5 for Senior, 6 for Master. If you skip Senior and go straight into Master, you're going to need 6. If you have a previous senior hunter title, they give you one less. And so you only need five for master. And again, four for senior. If you skip junior, you need five for senior. Hopefully that kind of makes sense. So after all the dogs are run, they're typically going to go back to a designated designated location, maybe where the trailers are. a club is going to typically sponsor the test. So an organization or a club, maybe a, let's say a, the Wasatch retriever club, whatever its name is, they're going to have a trailer where they keep all their equipment, stuff like that. Kind of a starting location. You're going to go back there. Typically the Marshall's going to say, thank you. Let's thank the judges for their time. It's not really a paid thing. It's. pretty much all service. So be grateful for the judges for spending all weekend away from their families and doing something that they love and judging the test. So they're going to usually say, Hey, thank you for, you know, let's thank the judges. Let's thank all the bird boys for their help. Sometimes you can tip the bird boys for helping where they're not really paid a lot of time. That's volunteer service. So slip them a few bucks. Um, and they're going to thank everyone for helping out. Then they're going to start. um, awarding ribbons for those dogs that pass. They will then go through the dog's name and their numbers. Hopefully your dog did well and they will call your name and they will call your dog's registered name and you will go up to the marshal and the marshal will give you a ribbon and typically you'll shake the judge's hands, tell him thank you and everyone will give you a round of applause and then you'll go back in to You know, and with everyone else and congratulate all the other people for their hard work and time that they've put into their dog and also those that have passed. So it, it's a, you know, it's a great accomplishment to have a dog at a senior hunter level, even a junior hunter level or a master hunter level. Um, there's hundreds, if not thousands of hours behind these dogs to get them to that level. So be proud of your dog, you know, have fun with it. Um, and if a hunt test is something you, I've not thought about doing a highly recommend getting involved with your local clubs learning. Um, they have picnic day tests where they'll actually set up kind of practice hunt tests where they'll, you can go run your dog kind of in a hunt test set up, see how it's doing. They'll even give you some like picnic test ribbons. Um, but anyhow, when you do get your ribbon, A club will give you, it'll say, you know, senior Hunter Pass or Senior Hunt Senior on it. They'll have like a duck band or a goose band that's kind of attached to it lots of times, which is kind of cool. You can put on your lanyard or put wherever you want in your house to kind of show off your dog with your ribbon. But anyhow, once you get all your passes, let's say it's the last day and you pass all of your senior passes. You're going to tell them then that it's a title at that point. They're going to mark it. It's a title. They're going to typically give you a title ribbon or title band. Everyone's going to give you generally an extra applause, like, Hey, good job. You got your title. At that point, your dog will have its registered name plus S. H. or senior hunter on its registered name, and that will. with the dog for the rest of its life. So when you look at a pedigree and you look back and great great grandpa Joe Schmoe has his registered name there, it's going to say Senior Hunter and you're going to know that someone put some time in and got that dog at Senior Hunter. So pretty cool, um, and a Senior Hunter is a really nice solid dog. It runs blind retrieves, it's memory is starting to get developed, it'll honor, it can do walk ups, diversions. Really everything you're going to do in a master besides a triple, um, which is a whole nother ball game. But that gives you a really nice hunting dog. If you have a good, solid senior dog, you're going to be really proud of that dog. You're gonna have probably eight plus months of training into it, um, to get it to that level. Um, typically your dog, you know, don't get too caught up on running it. But I mean, I've seen senior dogs that are a lot older. But, you know, professionally trained, typically I have a lot of my senior dogs on the young age running it from 12 months, but I'd say 12 months to 18 months of age is a, if you're really dedicated and you're hitting it hard with your dog, you know, four or five times a week and keeping the dog on track and really developing things, you know, anywhere from that 12, you know, 12 on the low end, probably to 18 months of age, you can have a a senior hunter or obviously that's us professionally training or you can even, uh, it can take longer. You know, you could have a three, four or five, six year old dog running at senior hunter, but that's totally fine. No one's judging you. Have fun with it. Just do your very best and have a good attitude. Um, and it'll be fun. So remember to snap a picture of your dog with the ribbon on it. go ahead and put a collar on your dog or choke chain, something like that, put a ribbon on it and show it off all to your buddies. And so they can congratulate you for all the time that you put into your dog. So anyhow, that is how you run a senior hunter, a senior hunt test with the American Kennel Club. So hopefully, uh, that gives you guys coming to birds. I view of how to run it. Hopefully you picked up on kind of some tips, things to do or things not to do. Um, again, one last tip I'd say when you're running your marks and the dog brings back the first bird, don't get too quick to send the dog back for that second bird. Watch your dog, you know, let it get its bearings again, you know, until where's its mark or whatever you want to say, let him get those ears up. Cue his memory. Okay. Yeah. Okay. The dog's saying, Hey, that bird was over there by that bush. You're not judged on it. You don't have to hurry and get it done. So sometimes it'll feel like eternity up at that line, but wait five, 10 seconds, whatever. Let the dog get dialed in and then send that dog once he has his bearing straight to go pick up that second bird. I see some young handlers that come back quickly, grab the bird, and then. before the dog has really got its bearings, uh, straightened out. So anyhow, that's kind of just the last thought that came to my mind. So, uh, thanks for listening again. Hopefully this helps the next series. We're going to talk about how to run a master dog, the highest level with the AKC besides master national, but basically it's the same thing, just a longer test. So we will record that up. I'm currently heading down to a hunt test to run a master dog right now. So he is a young dog, just barely past two years of age. If you're running a master at two years, he's a pretty mature dog for his age. And, uh, this one, he has his bearings pretty, pretty straight. He's a nice golden retriever and I'm excited. Hopefully he passes, but also I'm going in at the greatest speed. That's all. I know he's young. I know he is still getting better and learning, uh, learning and developing and sometimes they make mistakes. So don't beat yourself up. Just keep training. Give the dog maturity and do your best to follow the rules of the test and hopefully your dog. We'll come home with a ribbon. Anyhow, hope you guys have a great evening. It's an evening time that I'm podcasting or day or whatever time of day is for you. Hope you have a great day and we'll see ya in the next episode.