DogWood Club AKC Hunt Test

                                           A GREAT DAY FOR  THE HOME TEAM

On a sunny day in October 2003 seven friends who train with Pat Nolan entered the Senior Hunter test sponsored by the Dogwood Retriever Club at Shirley Plantation in Charles City, Virginia.  I personally will remember this test more than the others we entered because it was the hardest test most of us faced in reaching our SH goal; and all of us passed – two Chessies, one Golden and four Labs!  It was wonderful to share achievement of a goal together.

The land series was a “walk up” with a long shot flyer off to the right at a tree line and a shorter bird thrown out of bushes to the left.  It was made more difficult for some because the flyer was landing all over the place, making it harder for the dogs with higher numbers.  We all passed.

Then came the “blinds from hell”, described by a more experienced competitor as more of a Master test scenario. We had to walk out of a blind down a hill toward a wide expanse of water, then turn our dogs up the hill to the left for the land blind.  I was first. As I tried to heel my dog uphill and she wanted to face the water, I was reminded of Pat’s admonition, “don’t give up until the judge says you are out”.  I felt like I was trying to get her lined up for five minutes. And the judge kept saying, “move back, move back”.  But he didn’t “excuse” me, so I kept trying.

Almost all the dogs did what “Cannon” did – headed for the water.  But, everyone in our group successfully stopped their dog and got them pointed uphill for the land blind. Then we had to send them back through the area where we had stopped them for the water blind.  We successfully completed the second series.

It turned out that was the “make or break” series, as the water double – a bird thrown at the water’s edge, and one uphill on land wasn’t that hard.  The only hard part was walking our dogs out on a floating dock.  None of our dogs had ever done that before.

But, one by one the we all passed until we got to Victor and “Brown Ti”.  “Ti” got the first bird of the double.  But when Victor leaned over to send “Ti” for the second bird the dock dipped down, startling the dog. As the rest of us held a “collective” breath -- and after when seemed an eternity – only a couple of seconds I am sure – “Ti” dove in and made the retrieve.

There were 38 dogs in the test. Twenty-six were called back from the land series.  Only 17 were called back from the “blind” series.   And all of these dogs passed the test.  Of the 17 dogs that passed, seven (7) train with Pat Nolan.  That high “pass” rate for us was no coincidence.  That day proved that Pat has trained us to deal with situations beyond our level.  And, we all met the challenge.

 Martha G.Cole, And Cannon

 L-R Dan Bordes (“Rudder”), Martha Cole Glenn (“Cannon”), Jan Estes ("Jasper"), Kevin Anderson (“Lexi”), Mike Stabolepszy ("Black Ti”), Victor Gonzales (“Brown Ti”) and Jerry Wilks (“Jackson”).