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I know some people that show Airedales in Obedience and Agility with great success. But, these folks are all acquiring their dogs from Europe as that breed has to pass performance testing over there before one is allowed to breed/register them.
The AKC also did no one any favors with how the dogs were placed in the Groups that they are in today. From what I understand, the Non-Sporting Group was a “holding area” until a parent breed club petitioned for their breed to be placed elsewhere. Standard Poodles are still in the Non-Sporting Group (so are Minis) but are eligible for Hunt Tests.
But, I’ve always said, “Be careful what you ask for”. If Standards were placed in the more appropriate Sporting Group, they would then have to show against all the pretty Retrievers, Setters, and Spaniels who can barely carry a stick in their mouth much less a bird.
BTW, your Pearlie-girl is adorable! I love the photo with the feather in her mouth and your videos on her tracking drills. Isn’t it great to see when the light bulb goes on in their little head?
I know some people that show Airedales in Obedience and Agility with great success. But, these folks are all acquiring their dogs from Europe as that breed has to pass performance testing over there before one is allowed to breed/register them.
The AKC also did no one any favors with how the dogs were placed in the Groups that they are in today. From what I understand, the Non-Sporting Group was a “holding area” until a parent breed club petitioned for their breed to be placed elsewhere. Standard Poodles are still in the Non-Sporting Group (so are Minis) but are eligible for Hunt Tests.
But, I’ve always said, “Be careful what you ask for”. If Standards were placed in the more appropriate Sporting Group, they would then have to show against all the pretty Retrievers, Setters, and Spaniels who can barely carry a stick in their mouth much less a bird.
BTW, your Pearlie-girl is adorable! I love the photo with the feather in her mouth and your videos on her tracking drills. Isn’t it great to see when the light bulb goes on in their little head?
It is fun to watch! Tracking drills are so easy to do- cheap hot dogs, a piece of string- fun for hours. Not many people do things like that. Tossing a ball or playing tug is interactive for us, but dogs also have that sniffer on the end of that schnoz that should be excercised too. Really makes a dog think, keep focused and have a purpose driven activity.
Getting better! She's starting to figure it out. She pointed up a hen pheasant Saturday.
She's all proud of herself-
And this is the scenery we get to hunt birds in. Gorgeous day Saturday. A little windy early on, but we had birds all over the place.
She's definitely getting it, but alas still a pup. A covey of sharpies got up in front of her and flew off, and she was off to the races, lol. I think she ran about 3/4 mile and self hunted for about 1/2 hour before she turned back. Not like I've ever had that happen before, lol. Time.. just takes time... The force is strong with this one.
She is really beautiful! I love the GSPs. I had one over 20 years ago and for awhile, I fostered them. I fostered a one with black marks that I was tempted to keep but she hadn’t been docked. They are such clowns.
It was a really hard winter- the property was a glacier for 3.5 months, and finally spring has arrived. I worked with her in the house during winter with retrieving bumpers to hand. I can toss a bumper, she'll retrieve and bring right to me and drop in my hand on command. I am very happy with that. Her tracking ability is great, but I had no chance to put her on birds until this weekend.
We had a training session with our local club from Thursday to Saturday. Thursday afternoon I introduced Pearl to a wing tied pigeon, which she chased with passion but refused to pick up. No worries, I'll try a live quail next time. Some pups don't like pigeons, cause their big and well frankly- they kinda stink.
I planted a live quail about 200 yards out into some sage- she did a great field search and pointed (briefly) the quail, then busted it out of the sage and gave chase. She caught it, but played cat and mouse with it. That's not great, but still not too concerned.
Decided to stop with the 'bird in mouth' drills for the day.
Friday a trainer friend and I were showing other owners how to set up tracking drills. We took a pheasant on a string, which was attached to a light pole and led the pheasant on a 75 yard walk about. We left some feathers by the starting point. We showed how to keep a pup on a lead and get them on scent. If they varied from the scent cone we led them back into it.
Of course Pearl is really good at this, so she zipped the scent trail right to the pheasant and got it running. That REALLY excited her. She dove on the bird and mouthed it.. Hmm.. Getting better..
Later in the day we set out launchers with pigeons in a big field- Maybe 1/2 mile square filled with sage, grass and brush.. We set Pearl out on a field search- she pointed and then busted the first bird, the second bird she found and held a point! We released the bird, the shooter shot it, she got on top of it but refused to retrieve. No biggie. Now I know what I have to work on.
Second go around was later in the afternoon and Pearl did fantastic. She ran the field big and fast, scented and pointed two launcher held pigeons, the shooters bagged both and she ran to them and stayed but would not retrieve.
All in all I am very, very happy. Her natural ability to field search and point is very strong, and if the only thing I need to focus on is retrieving birds to hand I can deal with without forced fetching. I'm sure I can clicker train retrieving during training and in the field. Of course things totally change when hunting wild birds. As some may recall she did retrieve sharptails during last years hunting season- so I am not concerned.
Looks like she is going to be a fine field dog with some pretty sharp abilities. I'm quite happy to have her!
That appears to be full destruction of said pigeon.
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