Working Tests

[NigelM]

Now I’ve always had a bit of a thing about people who do working tests and field trials. I’ve seen a few robots in the shooting field which have lost the ability to use their instincts because they are over trained to follow instruction.

However, a move across the country last year coincided with a new GWP pup and we happened to have a very good HPR club just down the road so we joined. My objective was training in company with lots of distraction and socialisation.

They are a great bunch, about half of them focussed on walked up shooting over their dogs and all into Working Tests as a way to measure how training is going and identify what you really need to be working on.

I have the pup out on the deer once or twice a week and work on tracking outside of the club too. The two seem to work well together for my dog, the discipline of each helping the other.

Anyway, proud daddy moment today as Max at the tender age of 12 months and youngest in class finished 3rd in the competition, beating a lot of older dogs he really shouldn’t have done.

I’m never going to get sucked down the robot route, my dog is for shooting, but as a training discipline it is a lot better than I thought it was.

 

[countrryboy]

Congrats, very well done.

Was it a working test pointing/counting or a more normal style with dummies?

To be fair Hpr FT's and spring/summer counting tests are still very much like a days walked up shooting, the spaniels and labs have became very specialised now ( in my opinion) and the standard there training them to is far away from wot u ever need on a 'normal' shoot day.

U don't see many/any robot hpr's most are lucky to keep there dog in the right drive/district, even the better dogs cna soon beat a drive efore anyone else has started.

 

[jimmy milnes]

Well done on the award Nigel, yes working tests are a good way to assess a dogs weak points id agree, ive helped out at a few, and judged one element of one once which I didn't really enjoy "it can be hard to find a tactful way to tell someone that their best friend couldn't find its dinner never mind the dummy" ive flaged a couple of FT's and enjoyed seeing most of the dogs run.
Stick at it its a decent social day imo.
Oh regards to robot dogs, certainly several of the judges i know would mark the dogs down for needing over handling, however i also know some who wouldn't for fear of being negative and putting the owners off competing.
Jimmy.

 

[Lloyd90]

Good result

It’s an odd concept this “robot trial dog” idea that keeps getting passed around …

The J Reg’s (rules and regulations for field trials) clearly state a dog should show natural ability, and in the trials and tests I have been to, and run in, the dogs that require lots of handling, direction from the owner etc and aren’t able to get on with the job with natural ability have been market down.

The dogs that I have seen win are the best that showed a lot of natural ability, their handler pretty much never made a noise / never blew the whistle and they required the least handling, however the handling was there if needed.

This is what the J Reg’s specifies and this is what I have seen in practice in my (admittedly limited) experience.



I’m not sure what others class as a “normal days shooting” but for me it’s a days rough shooting on walked up game.

This is what I do with my spaniel and I ran him on a few trials and won a novice third time out … the day he won was similar to our days out rough shooting over him.



I see a lot of people going beating etc who can’t keep their dog under control and you’d have no hope shooting over a lot of the dogs, only for the owner to tell you how great the dog is, and how they wouldn’t want a “robotic trial dog”.


Sorry but I’d pick a well trained trial dog for a days rough shooting over one of these “non robotic” beating dogs any day of the week.



Keep going with the club Nigel and see how far you can go It’s great to aim for high standards even if you never want to compete as you’ll have a class dog for shooting over.

I have it on my bucket list to shoot over some decent pointers / HPR’s.

I am thinking of lining up a day on walked up grouse, maybe next year over pointers, as god knows how long before shooting is banned.

 

[wytonpjs]

With our second Vizsla we started doing FT - our first which we had at the same time came to us late and out of the Exchange and Mart and, whilst he was a natural in the field, we never had the degree of control we would have like despite doing training sessions on the way to work and back home in the evenings. Indeed, fond memories as I was living on my own in Army OMQ’s in Cardiff then and Janos and I went for a job “interview“ with estate owner and his gamekeeper before we were allowed to use this fantastic piece of ground en route. Tamas, our second Vizsla was a very different animal and having had him from a pup, we put the training in and started following FT.

I have never been as proud as I was that day he won the Hungarian Vizsla Society’s Puppy Plate at Stow. Sadly, I found the atmosphere rather toxic and we were always outsiders so we stopped attending and concentrated on what we thought was right - there were few HPR training clubs then. I think times have indeed changed and the scene is now more inclusive but to a young married couple not from the right background, we didn’t feel comfortable and welcome.

 

[Dunwaters]

Congratulations, and I hope that you stick with it.
The only real difference between a field trial dog and an ordinary well trained shooting dog is a little bit of polish.