Gun Dog Forum

Anyone ever been to one?

For the heck of it, I have Shooter running in one this coming weekend. I've read the rules and saw a few Youtube videos of some test runs, just curious if anyone had had any experience with them.

To me, they are a lot more structured than Pointing events. Retriever people are hardcore about obedience.

Hope you get your passes. Good luck.

That's what it looks like. I'm only doing JH for now, and based on what I've found, I don't see anything that we haven't already trained for. It's 2 marked retrieves on land and 2 marked retrieves on water. Barring a screwy situation or something I'm missing that I just don't know about the test, it looks like something my dog is more than capable of passing.

phermes1 wrote:That's what it looks like. I'm only doing JH for now, and based on what I've found, I don't see anything that we haven't already trained for. It's 2 marked retrieves on land and 2 marked retrieves on water. Barring a screwy situation or something I'm missing that I just don't know about the test, it looks like something my dog is more than capable of passing.

Phermes, I didn't post because I was hoping that someone who runs them would respond. I have attended one, however only watched SH, been to a trial also. Basically the concept is your dog is suppose to do all the work on marks so don't blow your whistle if you don't have to. In JH I believe you are allowed to handle on one out of the four marks, blow your whistle on two different ones and you are out. In Junior they will allow your dog to run around obstacles in SH, MH they want your dog to go through them. The whole concept is for you dog to run directly to the mark without cheating the line and wind up on top of the bird without any help, and not have your dog stop short or long and hunt their way to it. Basically they want your dog to use his eyes, not his nose. Decoys will be used. When you advance to SH you will see 2 or 3 birds at a time (one will be a flyer that gets shot), the dog is suppose to retrieve all three birds with little or no help and not cheat any land or water. Then they will do one blind retrieve.

I'm going to enter my pup in a junior HT, but I'm completely new to the sport, dont belong to a club, and dont know anyone who does Hunting Tests.
I've browsed the rule book a few times, but still find myself questioning a few things. Plus I'm a little slow on the "lingo".

The way I understand it, in a Junior HT the dog has 4 retrieves, and must get good scores on all 4 retrieves to get a "qualifying score" or "pass".
Is that right?

Next, I guess the dog has to "pass" 4 times before being awarded a JH title.
Is this correct? If so, does that mean that we need to commit to at least 4 different events if we plan to chase a JH title? At $65 a pop, plus gas, sounds like an expensive 16 retrieves.

Also, can dogs compete in both a JH and SH test the same day? Does that usually involve double the fees?

Sorry for the newbie questions, THANKS for the help.