DVWC / GSWC Ratings Practice and Picnic

September 17, 2011. Today the Delaware Valley and Garden State Weimaraner Clubs had a Ratings Practice day and picnic.

Sawyer hasn’t done any field work in awhile and we need to start training for the next level of hunt and ratings tests. Beginning in September of 2011, Weimaraners may now compete in AKC Retrieving hunt tests, prior to that they were only eligible for the pointing hunt tests.

Sawyer loves the field work. There’s nothing better for a Weim than running in a field hunting.

The fields were pretty high so it was hard to even see him let alone take pictures.

Sawyer and Stella find the bird right away.

For the Retrieve Dog ratings test, Sawyer has to bring the bird back to my hand. He did the first time but the next time he thought, well you took the last one from me, why should I bring it to you. So he went through the circle…something we’ll need to work on.

I also need to work on my catching skills and get my hands in there quickly so I can get the bird before it hits the ground.

Sawyer has to wait his turn while another dog trains. He's anxious to get back out there.

Sawyer and Daisy wait in the car while we have our picnic. I’m hoping to get Daisy out on some birds but had to pull her from the training day because of her stitches. She shouldn’t really be running wildly through fields yet.

This was the first time Sawyer tried to retrieve in the water with dummies. It took him a few tries to figure out what he needed to do.

He doesn’t have the most graceful entry, but he’s entertaining.

He does eventually even out and swims smoothly but those aren’t the real ducks.

He tries to grab this one but it’s not real.

He swims around for awhile but then comes back in. We’ll try again later. First we need to shake off this water.

Sawyer knows there are ducks out there so he’s going to try again.

Could he splash any more water?

No go in finding the real duck which is out past the dummies.

This next time out I have the guys throw the duck close between the dummies and not behind them. Sawyer finds the duck!

Daisy says “Look what I found!”

There’s a whole box of them right over there on the back of that car.

Now it’s time for Daisy to find birds. I let her off lead so she could run a little bit.

I think there’s one way under here.

Well she at least had fun! We’ll have to do some training before she’s ready to compete in anything.