Last Friday I ran Olaf, 2.5 YO PP, in our first UT test. He did well in the field, 5 finds held steady WSF. Nailed the drag as well covering the ground quickly and returning the duck to hand. On to the duck search and he was solid- searching for 10 minutes and breaking thick cover and expanding. His search brought him pretty close toward the end and he was heading back out when the lead judge said I have seen enough call your dog. The last event was steady by blind... He healed well, stayed at the blind well and when I sent him he went with the vigor he has all year, squealing with enthusiasm and leaping into the water. He swam out to the duck grabbed it and started back. When he got to the shore he did something he had not done in the heavy training we did prior to the test. He walked around the shore mouthing the duck. I had to give him two commands and he finally brought the duck to heal and delivered. We received a 2 on duck retrieve and a 189 prz II.
I was pretty disappointed, since he was 10-15 feet from a Prz 1, but also very proud of all we accomplished. It was a fun test and I have gotten to know some great people and dogs in the past 2 years of training at NAVHDA. We will clean up the retrieving issues and probably make another run at it. But for now- lace up the hunting boots and get this dog on some wild birds here in Michigan.
Happy hunting all!!!
