Good news today: The Deadly Dog Show won today's (7/26/14) Indie Book of the Day Award. This Roger and Suzanne mystery novel features Juliet, a poorly disguised Jolie, as one of the detectives in a complex murder case. Romeo, a poorly disguised Ries, is born at the end of the novel. Sooner or later Roger and Suzanne will have to solve a murder or two at a hunt test.
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 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 focus on Ries,
who has already completed his Junior Hunter certification (at 7 months of age),
and what it requires to earn the Junior Hunter title.
What are the judges
looking for? Junior Hunter
competition is mostly about the dog’s instincts and motivation to hunt. 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.
At this level, the judges want the dog to show they want to go out in
the field and search for birds. The
judge is looking for the dog to demonstrate using its nose and searching for
birds by their scent.
