Like the movie Groundhog Day, each new puppy we keep starts
off the cycle of conformation shows and hunt tests once again in our
household. At the moment we have four
generations of dogs, great grandma Viña, Grandma Jolie, mother Schöne, and son
Ries, still a puppy. All three of the
older girls are currently at the Senior Hunter level, with Jolie two qualifying
rounds (of the required five) away from Master Hunter status and Viña
functioning at the Master Hunter level in the field, even though she resists
honoring random brace mates in hunt tests.
Today’s post will again focus on Ries, who has already completed his
Junior Hunter certification (at 7 months of age), and what the earning of the
title of Senior Hunter will require.
What are the judges
looking for? Senior Hunter
competition, like Junior Hunter is still about the dog’s instincts and
motivation to hunt. But now we add in
the criteria of trainability and having the required skills to hunt with minimal
guidance from the handler. At Senior
Hunter level the animals need enough training to understand what is expected of
them, but finding a bird and pointing it should be instinctual in a well-bred
pointing dog. On top of these skills the
judges are looking for the fundamental skills of the trained bird dog – steady
to wing, and the honor.
The Process: In hunt tests each dog goes out with another
dog, often a complete stranger. The pair
is called a brace. Most of the dogs
competing at this level are young adults or mature adults. They are expected to have some, or a good deal
of, experience hunting. The Senior
Hunter must demonstrate that he or she is there to hunt for the handler, not
for the dog’s own entertainment. Each
animal is scored on their performance by two judges (typically on horseback, sometimes
on ATVs or on foot, so they can keep up with the dogs and see what’s going
on). The dogs are scored in several
categories, on a scale of 0-10 as explained below. For the dog to pass a test, he or she has to
score an average of 7, with none of the categories lower than 5. The dogs are sent out through “the backfield”
to run off some energy while they get oriented; this phase doesn’t get scored. However, the dog must show his training here
in the backfield if he comes across a bird.
If your dog finds a bird in the backfield and breaks on point or disrupts
the other dog in their brace, your dog may
be “picked up” (at the judge’s discretion), which ends his/her opportunity to
continue into the bird field for that day’s hunt test. The handler eventually brings the dog to the
bird field, and from there on out everything the dog does counts towards its
final score.
The Test:
Category 1-Hunting: The
Judge has to decide if the dog is actually hunting or just running around
having aimless fun. Is the dog working a
pattern? Is the dog using the wind to find bird
scent? Is the dog using their nose to
find a bird? Does the dog go out and
look for birds but stay under the handler’s control while he/she is hunting? This is the same skill set as Junior Hunter,
but the judges are looking for more.
Does the dog cover a lot of ground in the allotted 20-30 minutes? If there were birds in the field where the
dog was working, did the dog find them?
If the dog finds additional birds, do they perform at the same level
each time? A single significant mistake (see
below), even if it’s on the fourth bird the dog finds, can get it disqualified.
Category 2-Bird Finding: This one is pretty much self-explanatory. Did the dog find a bird? Did they find several?
Category 3-Pointing: When the dog finds a bird, does it
establish and hold a point until the handler flushes the bird? This is called “steady to wing”, and requires
a lot more training than at the junior hunter level, where just establishing
the point was enough. In order to earn the coveted perfect 10, the dog must
show style on point. He must be rock
solid and picture perfect.
Category 4-Trainability:
This category is pretty subjective, and can vary by judge. It’s the rest
of the package that will make the dog a potential hunting dog in the
field. Has the dog shown that it’s part
of a team and responds to the human handler, that it’s not hunting completely
on its own? Has the dog demonstrated
that it isn’t afraid of a gunshot so we can shoot a bird it was pointing if we
were actually hunting? At the Senior
Hunter level the birds are shot by trained gunners who seldom miss the bird
after the handler flushes them.
Additional skills not
needed for Junior Hunter:
Category 5-Retrieving: Now
we add retrieving the bird into the required skill set for the dog. The dog has to mark where the bird falls
after it is flushed and shot, go out, retrieve the downed bird, and bring it
back to the handler. The dog will pass
if it drops the bird within a step of the handler’s feet, but the judge is
looking for the dog to understand he’s working for the handler here and
retrieves the bird for the handler. The
dog is expected to show he’s not keeping the bird to play with but retrieving
the bird efficiently and in a timely manner to the handler. Many dogs at the Junior Hunter level have eaten
(or thoroughly chewed upon) birds. Senior
Hunters must retrieve for the hunter, not themselves, and must retrieve the
birds in the condition they found it, not half eaten.
Category 6-Honoring: An
additional skill the dog has to demonstrate at the Senior Hunter level is
honoring, which means learning to respect their brace mate and to stop hunting
and to point the other dog when its brace mate establishes a point. This is an important skill as the dogs will
be visible and stationary in the field when a bird is shot, preventing
accidental shootings of dogs in the field.
A passing score in honoring requires the establishment of a point on the
other dog in the brace whenever that dog points a bird, and holding the honor
until the bird is flushed, shot, and
the pointing dog has completed the retrieve.
Grounds for
Disqualification:
Scoring: Both of the
judges will score all of these categories and calculate the average score. The handler and/or owner may silently pray for a 7 or better average
score at this stage. If a dog is picked
up in the backfield, is not steady to wing and breaks his point prematurely to
get the bird, or fails to honor its brace mate properly, it will be
disqualified. If the dog doesn’t find
and point a bird in the allotted time, it will not qualify. If the dog receives any score below 5, or an
average score below 7, it will not qualify.
There is an optional intermediate stage between Junior and
Senior Hunter called Advanced Junior Hunter, which your dog can compete for
after it becomes a Junior Hunter, before attempting to qualify as a Senior
Hunter. The test is exactly the same as
the regular Junior Hunter, but the dog has to qualify with minimal scores of 8
in each category. It’s a way to keep a dog actively competing in hunt tests
even if it isn’t ready yet for Senior Hunter but you want to continue training
the dog and competing with it.
Rationale for the
Senior Hunter Level:
Senior Hunter is a lot more difficult to achieve than Junior
Hunter. There’s a lot more training
required, as we are now asking the dog to go beyond its instincts and to work under
control for the hunter. The training for
the Junior Hunter level competition is a foundation for the more advanced
training to come as the dog moves into the Senior Hunter class. This is a much more difficult test, and most
dogs competing at this level are mature adults. Many of the dogs we see hunting
in the field with contented bird hunters are trained only as far as the Junior Hunter
level.
A lot of hunters would be thrilled to hunt over Ries right
now with the skill set he brings to the field.
He’s currently learning the new skills he’ll need for Senior Hunter
competition, but has some maturing to do before we can expect him to be able to
consistently put all the necessary skills together to qualify at the Senior Hunter
level.
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