A Day at the Eastern GSPC Field Trial

Snip's Sixth Sense Wyatt MH

This past Saturday I ventured to Medford, NJ to the Eastern GSPC Field Trial. This was the very first field trial I have ever attended. I'm by no means new to dog hunting events as Jim and I run our GSP Cleo in NAVHDA and AKC hunt tests, but hunt tests and field trials are substantially different. What I found to be very much the same with them though is the great people you can meet at either style event.

Raf and his Setter

Kona the 11 month old English Pointer

Lovely Mae

I ended up at the field trial because I was hired to photograph an amazing GSP named Snip's Sixth Sense Wyatt MH. Wyatt had a great weekend placing 3rd in Open Limited Gundog on Friday, 2nd in Open Gundog on Saturday (both days he was handled by Bruce Shaffer) and he placed 3rd on Sunday in Amateur Limited Gundog while being handled by his owner Jon Sensinger. I got to witness his impressive run on Saturday with him taking 2nd out of 20 dogs. He is ranked 11th with the GSPCA Open Gundog and 13th with the AKC GSP Open Gundog for 2011. Wyatt is 34 months old, has his health clearances and is available for stud to approved dams. For more information on him please contact Bruce Shaffer through his website.

Wyatt

One of the most interesting aspects of the field trial for me were all the horses. At one point I had to laugh to myself as I was jogging along next to about 6 of them.  I can understand after attending the trial why a horse is a necessity. The dogs run so big. Unfortunately I can't get good pictures on a horse. I can only hope that Nike and upland boot manufactures will team up and develop a cross training mud boot. After running about 6 braces I appreciated the fact that I'm in good shape otherwise it would have been a really long day!

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Redemption? : AKC Senior Hunt Test

Sadly not today. Cleo failed to qualify again this morning for her Senior AKC Hunt Test. We were pretty bummed out. I know Bob Corsaro is going to bust my chops for sounding depressed about it but I down right felt dejected today after she failed to qualify again. The best way I can describe the feeling is its exactly how I feel after I loose a fight. Like my everything was just not good enough. The thing that made it so much harder to take than yesterday's failure was that she actually did a phenomenal job today and I was so proud that she was our dog.

To say Cleo was a hunting machine today would be a gross understatement. She nailed every bird that was put out for her brace and then some. The judges kept commenting about how much drive she had and how that's something you can't teach a dog. They either have it or they don't. She would barrel through the thickest cover without hesitation. At one point she actually army crawled under a log to get into a hedgerow. The  judges kept saying wow she can really hunt. But on her second to last bird, just like yesterday the bird flushed itself and Cleo broke. She lept into the air, caught the bird and delivered it to hand to Jim. It was such a great feeling that she brought it back but at the same time we knew she failed.

Cleo on the go!

Cleo not only hunted great and found birds today but she listened wonderfully and honored. I think everyone in the field was disappointed for us. When we were finished the one judge shook Jim's hand and said, "I'd love to pass this dog but I can't. But feel free to drop her off at my truck on your way out because she is one driven dog." That's such a nice thing to hear and we know she did well. So it's back to training. We won't be able to run her in another AKC event until the fall. We also plan on running her in the NAVHDA UT Test at the end of September so we have a few more months to keep working on things.

Cleo's brace mate a male Vizsla named Jak

Overall this weekend was a great experience. I can tell you both Jim and I learned so much about handling. There was an AKC official there from Tennessee that walked with me yesterday and he was super generous with information. All the judges were friendly and helpful. I also want to take a second and say thank you to the Del Val German Wirehair Club for sponsoring the event. Their volunteers really work hard to make sure things go smoothly and if it wasn't for people like them, people like me and Jim wouldn't have a place to do this stuff. It would have been nice if things would have been different but just like in fighting you always learn more from your losses than from your wins.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: Senior AKC Hunt Test

I'm huge fan of spaghetti westerns. Of all westerns really. But my favorite has to be The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. If its on TV there should be no doubt that's what I'm watching. I don't know why I love it so much. It could be that iconic music they play, the fact that Clint Eastwood was a total piece of ass back in the day or maybe it's because it has a little bit of everything in it....just like the title says.

Today we ran Cleo for her first brace of the AKC Senior Hunt Test. Today's experience had it all just like my old favorite western. I'll start off with The Ugly part which was no one other than myself. You see, I'm deathly allergic to grass and trees. Lucky for me there's not a whole lot of that stuff around. Anyway, I had an awful allergy attack last night, the worst I have had in 8 years and spent the wee hours of the night suffering terribly. With about an hours worth of awful sleep, swollen eyes and face and not to mention me covered in hives Jim and I set off to spend a day in field with my arch nemesis, evil pollinating grass. We pulled in this morning and I instantly looked like I had the chicken pox (hives) and was so cracked out on allergy medicine I'm pretty sure I was incapable of holding any kind of cognisant conversation. I was not fit for human exposure. Great start to the day. But I toughed it out....below are some pics of the dogs we saw today:

A wirehair and some GSP's staked out

A bunch of Brittanys

Jim and I always call this area Viszla Alley

 A nice Setter

 Another Wirehair....they always remind me of shaggy GSP's with goatees

So for The Bad: Cleo did not pass her first brace. We were disappointed to say the least. In the AKC Hunt Tests two dogs test together. Cleo ran with a Weimeraner named Maya who is owned by Lance Fargo out of southern Delaware. Maya had already passed two braces of her Senior her AKC test before today.

Maya the Weim!

The beginning of the test

When Jim cut Cleo loose from the start she and her brace mate Maya took off. Both dogs went to the right and disappeared from sight. Eventually Maya popped back onto the trail and continued down to the next field but Cleo was a no show. She was also not responding to Jim's calls. That was because she was locked on point on a distant hedgerow. Jim and an AKC judge went over to Cleo and Jim said when he came around the corner she was locked on point. Before Jim could make his way over the bird jumped. Cleo did not move and flush the bird but when it jumped he said she caught it in the air and brought it back to him and delivered it to hand. That's how she failed. She was not allowed to move until Jim fired his starters pistol and he never got the chance. He said in hindsight the second he turned the corner and saw her on point he should have whoaed her. In reality it may have not made a difference but its all a learning experience. The judges were kind enough to let us continue on eventhough we knew she had failed.

It was pretty hot out so we stopped a few times to water the dogs before continuing

Cleo's second point which went very well

Cleo on point with Maya backing while Jim flushes the bird 

Maya did a great job today and below are some pics of her in action. She had a very nice retrieve that I know it made her owner Lance very proud.

So for The Good....the little negative devil on my shoulder wants to say nothing about today was good. But I'm pretty sure that's just the allergy drugs that I'm cracked out on making me feel that way. The reality is, today minus the hives and burning eyes it was an all around good experience. Jim as a handler learned alot, we got see some amazing dogs run in both the Master and Senior divisions, Cleo got more time in the field on birds in situations we train her for, and in the end we get to go and try again tomorrow.  It was also great that when Cleo caught the bird she brought it right back to Jim. A few months ago she wouldn't have done that. It's also just more practice for her NAVHDA UT Test this fall.

In the end the bitter taste of failure always sucks but those are the times you learn the most. It would be so easy to just quit or walk away or find an excuse for why she should have gotten it. But we will learn from it and will stick with it and we will get it. It's not a matter of IF but WHEN. Hopefully tomorrow is the big day and if its not we will just keep working for it.

And just for fun below is a video of Cleo waiting for her turn to run in her brace today. She's such a wackjob.