HD

January 8, 2011 Covington, GA

I took Tessa to a field event in Milner, GA today. She is not ready to run in the Senior Hunter yet but I entered her in a Hunting Dog stake, for fun, exposure and feedback. She was braced with Vince, a 7-year old Irish Setter who already has his Master Hunter title. Vince was a great bracemate for her because he had solid points and I wanted to work on Tessa'a backing.

One minute into our walk into the field, Vince pointed his first bird. As we walked up, Tessa stopped to point hers, about 30 feet away. It was decided to deal with Tessa first, as Vince was more seasoned. Tessa held the point until the bird was flushed, at which time I already had her by the collar. When released, she ran over to Vince about to steal his patient point and in my despair I called out "whoa" and lo and behold, she slammed into a dead stop right then and there. That was good, even the gunner said so.

Tessa was very cooperative over all, I was able to turn her with the whistle and again the gunner said that was nice.

After that, Vince kept beating her to the birds, which was good because we could work on the backing. Towards the end one gunner suggested to leash Vince and let Tessa find the last bird. Before Vince responded to his recall he was pointing the last bird, but his handler walked up and led him away. Sorry Vince! Tessa had not seen his point and had to start her own search, and found the bird a short time later. It was flushed, shots were fired but the bird was missed - or so it seemed. Tessa refused to come back to me (to head out of the field), instead searching for that last bird, and sure enough, she located the dead bird where we didn't think it could be.

Overall, as great a run as I can expect from her level of training and I was very happy with it.