Amateur Report: Lee and Bill Hanes
April/21/2009
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My husband, Bill, and I are in Texas training with Jack this week. Jack has trained Ray, our 3 year old Master Hunter. Ray has again qualified for Master National and we are excited that she went 5 for 5 for the 2009 Master National which will be held in Giddings, TX in October.
Today, we trained with John Blackbird from Mora, MN. (John will be one of the judges at the Tejas Hunt Test this week-end.) We started the day with the young dogs - handling drills over brush piles and logs. Jack advised me to run Ray on the drill - for my training, not Ray's. This gave me the opportunity to work on some basic obedience.
Next, we went to the Blackwater South training grounds. Since it rained 7 inches last week-end, the tanks are full and we had wonderful water! We started with the right hand technical single thrown angle back from one peninsula to another peninsula which required the dog swim by the first point & gunner. Second left-hand single was poison bird thrown across the water with a 50 yard exit. Dog was "no'ed" off mark and required to run water blind. The water blind required the dog to swim by the first point and gunner, get on the second point and then cast-off the point into the wind. After completing the blind, the dog had to pick-up the poison bird. Great stuff for a novice handler, can't express how exciting it was to complete this successfully with "my dog". Finished-up with a long center bird about 175 yards across the water, up a hill. Whew!!! (For the record, Jack also let me run "Blackie", another NC dog. The Tarheel dogs were leading the Long Horns at this point in the day.)
There was a brief diversion when we received a call from Dave Davis. Dave and his wife, Sandy, are wintering here in Texas, their home is Ironwood, MI. The heavy rains have created a little mud and quicksand. You can guess what had happened to Dave's truck!
Second set-up consisted of a water double. Memory bird was thrown 160 yards out - angle in & out at 15 yards - 50 yard run on land before hitting the water the second time for mark thrown down the shore. Go bird was another angle entry, then parallel to shore, up & over point, re-enter water and swim to next piece of land to the bird thrown by wild, wind-up Bill. Many of the dogs had trouble - lots of repeats.
Can't tell you what an exciting day it was for us! I'll try to include some pictures tomorrow. PS, Tarheels and Long Horns tied at end of day.
Lee Hanes
Today, we trained with John Blackbird from Mora, MN. (John will be one of the judges at the Tejas Hunt Test this week-end.) We started the day with the young dogs - handling drills over brush piles and logs. Jack advised me to run Ray on the drill - for my training, not Ray's. This gave me the opportunity to work on some basic obedience.
Next, we went to the Blackwater South training grounds. Since it rained 7 inches last week-end, the tanks are full and we had wonderful water! We started with the right hand technical single thrown angle back from one peninsula to another peninsula which required the dog swim by the first point & gunner. Second left-hand single was poison bird thrown across the water with a 50 yard exit. Dog was "no'ed" off mark and required to run water blind. The water blind required the dog to swim by the first point and gunner, get on the second point and then cast-off the point into the wind. After completing the blind, the dog had to pick-up the poison bird. Great stuff for a novice handler, can't express how exciting it was to complete this successfully with "my dog". Finished-up with a long center bird about 175 yards across the water, up a hill. Whew!!! (For the record, Jack also let me run "Blackie", another NC dog. The Tarheel dogs were leading the Long Horns at this point in the day.)
There was a brief diversion when we received a call from Dave Davis. Dave and his wife, Sandy, are wintering here in Texas, their home is Ironwood, MI. The heavy rains have created a little mud and quicksand. You can guess what had happened to Dave's truck!
Second set-up consisted of a water double. Memory bird was thrown 160 yards out - angle in & out at 15 yards - 50 yard run on land before hitting the water the second time for mark thrown down the shore. Go bird was another angle entry, then parallel to shore, up & over point, re-enter water and swim to next piece of land to the bird thrown by wild, wind-up Bill. Many of the dogs had trouble - lots of repeats.
Can't tell you what an exciting day it was for us! I'll try to include some pictures tomorrow. PS, Tarheels and Long Horns tied at end of day.
Lee Hanes