Brutus' NA Test
Amanda and I traveled to scenic Wolfe Island to Natural Ability test Brutus with our adopted foreign chapter, Ottawa Vally, a few weeks back.
I've not posted it here, because it was maybe my most humiliating experience testing, and I have gotten no-pass in NA and the Utility tests. Brutus passed.
We started at the water and Brute hit the pond like two tons of bricks. I let him pick a bumper and gave it a pretty good chuck on the first one. It was swimming depth, but the judge wanted it out further. OK, I heaved the second one as hard as I could. Two tosses of the bumper and you are done, can only mean one score.
About three minutes into the field portion, I thought I might just have the first 112 NA score I've ever had. After working a scent cone, he jacked up. Brutus was statuesque on point. We flushed a pair of birds in front of him at a good distance. Not the planted birds, not the scent of feet and bird bag set on the ground, birds that had flushed and located there.
Then the wheels came off the wagon. He took a huge run after one of the birds that flew maybe 1500 feet, and there was no calling him off. The conditions were not hot, but it was muggy and it kind of sapped his energy. We spent the middle portion of the test kind of pottering. The judges trying to help had me work the area where the birds had been planted, which just makes me and the dog look bad. They'd fanned out around a big circle upwind of the bird THAT WAS NO LONGER THERE and Brute went to socialize.
We did finished up with another point, but I was unhappy with the result.
The track was inexcusably laid into the wind. The judges told me the bird jumped (the gallery later told me how far). There was a pile of feathers, then the bird made brief contact about 30 feet out, before another 20 foot leap then running over short grass. Brutus is more a high-head tracker, so when he found no scent and was headed into the wind anyway, he picked up his heels and went into search mode. In my book, smart dog.
We were in the middle of at least 40 acres of hay, so I don't know why the tracks were run the direction they were, except that's the way they did it yesterday and the judges just weren't thinking. You can run the track at almost any angle, except into the wind.
Two dogs passed the NA test that weekend, Brutus was one of them. The conditions were not horrible, but less than ideal.
Scores as follows: Use of nose 3, Search 2, Water 4, Pointing 4, Tracking 2, Desire to Work 2, Cooperation 3. 82 points and Prize III. Everything normal. Coat: Dense Medium Harsh. Medium Dense Medium Harsh is typical for GSP's but we throw really great coats here.
I've not posted it here, because it was maybe my most humiliating experience testing, and I have gotten no-pass in NA and the Utility tests. Brutus passed.
We started at the water and Brute hit the pond like two tons of bricks. I let him pick a bumper and gave it a pretty good chuck on the first one. It was swimming depth, but the judge wanted it out further. OK, I heaved the second one as hard as I could. Two tosses of the bumper and you are done, can only mean one score.
About three minutes into the field portion, I thought I might just have the first 112 NA score I've ever had. After working a scent cone, he jacked up. Brutus was statuesque on point. We flushed a pair of birds in front of him at a good distance. Not the planted birds, not the scent of feet and bird bag set on the ground, birds that had flushed and located there.
Then the wheels came off the wagon. He took a huge run after one of the birds that flew maybe 1500 feet, and there was no calling him off. The conditions were not hot, but it was muggy and it kind of sapped his energy. We spent the middle portion of the test kind of pottering. The judges trying to help had me work the area where the birds had been planted, which just makes me and the dog look bad. They'd fanned out around a big circle upwind of the bird THAT WAS NO LONGER THERE and Brute went to socialize.
We did finished up with another point, but I was unhappy with the result.
The track was inexcusably laid into the wind. The judges told me the bird jumped (the gallery later told me how far). There was a pile of feathers, then the bird made brief contact about 30 feet out, before another 20 foot leap then running over short grass. Brutus is more a high-head tracker, so when he found no scent and was headed into the wind anyway, he picked up his heels and went into search mode. In my book, smart dog.
We were in the middle of at least 40 acres of hay, so I don't know why the tracks were run the direction they were, except that's the way they did it yesterday and the judges just weren't thinking. You can run the track at almost any angle, except into the wind.
Two dogs passed the NA test that weekend, Brutus was one of them. The conditions were not horrible, but less than ideal.
Scores as follows: Use of nose 3, Search 2, Water 4, Pointing 4, Tracking 2, Desire to Work 2, Cooperation 3. 82 points and Prize III. Everything normal. Coat: Dense Medium Harsh. Medium Dense Medium Harsh is typical for GSP's but we throw really great coats here.
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