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Training & Handling Pointing Breeds For Field Trials & Hunt Tests
I enjoy spending my time in the field training pointing breeds for hunting, hunt tests, field trials or tracking.
Regardless of whether your objective is to have a finely tuned hunting companion, successful hunt test dog or field trial champion, they need birds and lots of birds.
I prefer to expose the dog to birds as early as possible. (see M.J. Nelson article in Gun Dog Magazine June 2006 where I am quoted on this)
I love training and trialing Master Hunters because it is the pinnacle of performance and training.
If you choose to field trial your dog is it roughly the same set of behaviors however we encourage the dog to hunt out further and more quickly as this is a different game entirely.
Additionally the rules are different and the Master Hunter must be steady with only a very quiet ‘whoa’ from the handler. Field trials we generally see handlers screaming “whoa!!!!” at their dogs over and over again. I really like to play both games as they are challenging in different ways and most dogs are able to adapt to field trials and hunt tests. Plus you have the added variables of field conditions, weather, your dog's bracemate, the other handler, gunners and much more. Additionally I have to qualify a dog 6 times to become a Master Hunter and some breeds must pass a water test prior to be awarded the title. I always say that obedience trials are challenging but it is not typical that you put obedience titles on your dog in a blizzard or the pouring rain. The variables and ever changing scenarios in the field are what keeps me interested after all this time. You have to have prepared yourself and your dog for just about anything imaginable in the way of weather and situations. Especially when we are training dogs to be of service in the way of tracking and SAR work.
A FEW OF MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE FIELD….
Justice: Male GWP
I completed his Ch. at 10 mos and finished the 6th leg of his MH title when he was 14 mos. This record has never been broken and I seriously doubt it will be. I did not set out to do this however this dog turned on. His owner realized his potential and we went for it! Interestingly enough, when I first brought the dog out to Master Hunter tests he was 12 months old and his first test, he qualified in the morning and then we needed to wait around for a callback for him to honor his bracemate in order to qualify that day. Needless to say I was a bit concerned bringing out a 12 month old puppy who had basically been sitting waiting to hunt again all day. What a great pup - he NAILED the honor when I put him down in the field after being in the truck for several hours. This was my luck with this dog. Had the same situation on leg six, but true to form Justice nailed the honor later that day on a dog other than his bracemate and we had a new 14 month old Master Hunter!
Justice on point
Justice proudly hands his 1st Master ribbon to Sandy
Ari: F Weimaraner
When Ari came to me she would point but then bust the birds, jump in the air and catch them and then proceed to run around the field tossing the bird back in the air and catching it again. I would walk back to the truck shaking my head…
She quickly learned there were many more fun things to do in the field than this aforementioned set of behaviors (which was pretty funny as she was really enjoying herself) and became a MH in 6 of 7 starts. Ari got a compliment from a GSP trialer at a Nebraska field trial when she blew the socks off her GSP bracemate “Wow, she brings Weims up in the food chain for me!”. I guess ya gotta take those compliments for what they are...
I also put a bench championship on Ari as well as a TD (AKC Tracking Dog) title after she was finished with Master as well as Weimaraner Club of America Shooting & Retrieving Ratings. She will jump out of our boat after ducks and will stay in the water swimming until there is something (anything) to retrieve. If somehow we get another day in the week I will put a NAVHDA Utility title on her.
"Ari" Ch. Arnstadt Silvershot Arietta TD MH SDX NRD VX
Ari honoring 1st leg MH Nebraska
We bred her to Ch. Seabreeze Colsidex Windy Cliff TD with the hopes of a great litter. We got one. One puppy that is… That ONE turned out pretty well and is at this time the record holder of youngest TDX in the breed at the age of 11 months as well as the record holder of the youngest VST and CT titles. Lady is the Weimaraner breed's FIRST Bench Champion / Champion Tracker earning all her tracking titles before the age of 3 and the Ch. just after!!
She is a tracking fiend and comes from a line of dogs with great olfaction.
I am really looking forward to getting her back on birds. Lady’s other big claim to fame was she appeared in an article in Gun Dog magazine and in Dog News when she was 4 weeks old checking out her first quail.
She is sweet, exceptionally intelligent, loves to work and has a great sense of humor.
Click here to see Lady on the Weim pages.
Tomi: F GWP
I picked Tomi out of a litter when she was one day old. Her breeder said to me “Sand, you can’t pick a dog at one day old!”. I replied “Yes I can and that is the one I want!”. Miss Tomi the hunting machine…. She was definitely a challenge and we went thru a period of her breaking and chasing on the shot after she learned something bad in a hunt test. Took me three tests to work it out of her but she came back and in stellar form finished the 6th leg of her MH at the Indian Nations Brittany Club in Oklahoma. I also hunted Tomi on grouse when she was 11 wks old in Northern Wisconsin and took her to South Dakota to hunt pheasants and sharpies. What great fun it was watching her learn how to work wild running birds! (I don’t hunt game farms only public land so there are wild birds).
The start of Tomi who I turned into Ch. Blu SandStorm Atomic Fyrball CD MH
When cancer was kicking my butt and I wasn’t sure if I would ever be out hunting again I got a call from a GWP friend of mine saying she knew of a retired guy that needed a hunting companion. In consideration of the best thing for Tomi I spoke with this man for probably 10 hours on the phone in total before I agreed to have him come down and meet us. I also spent many hours learning about this individual and let her go with the edict of if you can’t keep her she comes back to me.
He has taken her hunting all over the west and it took her awhile to realize her new home but she turned on and became a great hunting companion for him. We had a lot of great times and she is one of those wiggly wirehairs that loves everybody. Tomi was also finished in the ring with a Ch. and has a CD title with placements. She is a girl with quite a set of wheels so I field trialed her a bit too and we managed a few placements in that venue as well.
Another smart and funny wirehair. I spayed her though as she didn’t have a great coat, I didn’t care for her topline and she had just a hint of a hitch in her gait which her dam also had. On top of that her litter brother was psycho and needed to be put down so I did not want to risk passing the psycho gene onto any puppies and potentially having more people hurt.
Boise: M GWP
My first MH wirehair! What a GREAT dog. He is what got me hooked on the breed. Was a total couch potato in the house but you put him down in the field and he was to the farthest treeline in no time flat. I also put a bench championship and a CD title on Boise. All before he was 3 years old. Boise’s very first time in the obedience ring was at the GWPCA National in 1996. He came away with High in Trial!
He also achieved a number of field trial placements including Open Gun Dog retrieving stakes. Boise was also my best helper when training other dogs in the field and we also enjoyed time in South Dakota on wild birds.
More than that, Boise was a true gentleman and loved everybody. I lost him in 2006 just shy of 13 years of age. Fortunately I have his son Stogie and we do have frozen semen stored on him. Some day we will use that semen to bring back the best attributes of the Haar Baron line of wirehairs.
Boise standing thru the shot and the fall prior to me releasing him during training
Iger: M GSP
What a great dog! Iger would stand birds at 100 yards with a very stylish point.
His owner decided I should take Iger to a field trial, so we entered him in Derby.
He won his very first time out! The owner was so giddy with excitement he was jumping around like a kid at Christmas. Judges kept saying to me “Sandy he is a broke dog!”. I replied “He is a broke dog today” What great fun to get out there and trial with that dog and even better to win that stake. It was one of those deals where I kind of came in from left field as nobody expected me to show up at this trial with this dog.
I really enjoy teaching people how to work with their own dogs in the field and have worked with just about all the pointing breeds with the exception of the Spinone Italiano (so far, but if you want to send me one I will consider it).
Each breed has certain characteristics they were bred for, thus you have to expect a Gordon Setter is not typically going to cover ground like a GSP. Too bad most hunt test judges are unaware of this profound difference.
Training the handler is sometimes more challenging than training the dog but we always make it interesting, informative and productive.
I developed a program for handling called “Don’t Train The Dog”! © I have presented this program to a number of groups and dog clubs and it has been enthusiastically received.
The AKC has approved rule updates which go into effect on January 1, 2008.
This should encourage standardization of judging across the country and help develop better hunting companions for anybody that tests their dogs.
There have been many more dogs that I have either titled or worked with people to get titled across many of the pointing breeds. I really enjoy watching “the light bulb go on” for the dogs as they begin to understand what we need them to do. People often forget we are taking a set of behaviors that are completely natural to any dog and modifying those behaviors to suit us.
Puppies are my favorite though. I find it very exciting to watch a puppy on a good solid point, head and tail held high, nostrils quaking as they take in that gamebird scent…
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