We will not be returning to the Master Amateur Invitational to be held in Missouri this spring. Angel came in heat 6 weeks early, and it caused us to scratch from three Master Hunt test in January. She “just” needs three more MH passes to qualify. There were HT three tests scheduled before Feb 28, the cutoff date for qualifying, but one club cancelled their event leaving us with only two tests. (more…)
It has been a fun learning experience, but making routine posts has proved to be more challenging. Blogging is a lot like exercising. Keeping up with both requires discipline. I’ll often find myself “thinking” about the next blog topic or run down the local trail. What is it that keeps me from doing either activity? (more…)
Flight C #91
Sugar-Twist Angel of Marks-A-Lot MH26 WDQ “Angel”
Owner: Daniel & Carla Epperson Handler Dan Epperson
Amateur 2017 Master Amateur Qualifier – Passed (more…)
It was a long journey to inaugural Master National Invitational, MAI in Georgia. Angel started the 2017 Master Amateur qualifying period (March 1, 201 to Feb 28, 2017) with her 8th straight AKC Master pass, but we stumbled on the next few hunt tests. Cleary, we were both a little rusty after duck hunting season.
Waterfowl hunting on a frequent basis has a way of eroding some of a retriever’s disciple. But, at the same time it affords you the chance to focus on some skills like steadiness. Angel has been hunting since she was five months old.
Now, I’d rather hunt with my hunt test dogs than to leave them at home just so we can pass “x” number of test in a row or title out as a Master National dog. I looked at these first few hunt tests as just “training days”. They are just a chance to identified our team short comings and develop a training plan for improvement. Shrug them off and move forward.
Our hard work over the summer paid off. In the fall, Angel qualified for the Master Amateur by passing a series of tough test that would also count for fall 2017 Master National. She was on a roll, our only big disappointment came from not being called back after the 4th series of the Master National in St Louis.
In the late winter, Angel bounced back and qualified for the fall 2017 Master National quickly. I signed her up for more test going into the Spring Master Amateur event. Once again, figured these tests would be a good tune up opportunity. Ha, we both made some horrible mistakes in the next few tests. Maybe it was just her coming out of her recent heat or me being absent minded. Whatever the case, we took the next few weeks to pull our heads out of the sand and fix the problems.
Angel had now traveled 8000 back and forth between hunt tests in preparation for the inaugural Master Amateur Invitational. I knew in my heart she could do it as we headed off to Georgia. Just another 900 miles to go.
Handler/dog teams must spend countless hours of advanced retriever training to keep their skills sharp. Dogs with big hearts, drive and trainability inspire you to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to qualify for the MN. Angel is just that type of dog.
Luckily, we got into the Sooner Retriever Club, (RC) in Oklahoma in mid-September. The demand for Master stakes are high with 180 spots filled within a few minutes online, so you’ve got to be on your toes just to get entered. We earned our first master pass of the season but, it came at a price, costing a grand for an emergency vet clinic visit and truck repairs!
At the beginning of October, I volunteered to be a worker at the Four States double masters. I arrived in Arkansas sick with a cold, but did the best I could to load wingers and help with the equipment setups. The first series started off with a delayed quadruple set of marks! Angel pulled it off and we got a couple of well-earned passes that weekend. Normally, I’d share our success with anyone willing to listen on the way home. This time I could barely talk and thought to myself, “this wasn’t going to be a normal sore throat I could just man-up and ignore.”
A few weeks later, with a heavy heart, I had to scratch us from the Master National due to my ongoing illness. The simple effort of standing upright and blowing a dog whistle was out of the question. Fall duck season and holidays passed by slowly. Angel stayed glued to my side as I rested.
When I could muster up the strength, retriever training served as my ongoing self-prescribed physical therapy. I’d often stagger out into the field with Angel for a brief training session and return home to sleep for hours. The goal of returning to the MN served as a motivator to keep me going. She always rewarded my effort by giving her all on the field.
Family and friends helped us to prepare in earnest for the spring hunt tests. Naturally, I figured I could will myself well enough to drive to the tests, but it was out of the question. Thankfully, Carla, my wife was able to drive me to every hunt test. Otherwise, our goal of qualifying for the 2016 MN would have been impossible. Angel passed some challenging tests at the Rose Country RC and Bryan-College Station RC masters with flying colors. With five passes for the season we just needed one more.
Getting the sixth pass to qualify turned out to be a struggle. We failed Brazosport and Waterloo club tests due in part to my dizziness and slow reaction time as a handler. Angel was also hyper at the line having missed training while recovering from a cut pad injury. She glanced back at me as I healed her to the line with eyes saying, “Don’t worry boss, I’ve got ya covered. Just stand there and hang on to the gun.”
We ate a little humble pie after a string of consecutive passes. My frustration with pain, fatigue and poor balance after six months lead to an MRI and a change in medication. I was still struggling to make it through a normal day after six months!
Mrs. E drove me to the doctors’ appointments and has supported my recovery every step of the way. So, it came as no big surprise when she offered to drive us to the double masters in Kansas. Shortly after signing up for the test Angel cut another pad, different pond this time. She was on the mend for two weeks. Maybe it was for the better? I needed the rest. We headed up north with only four days of tune up training.
Beautiful Kansas terrain, sunshine and cool 20mph winds greeted us for the Friday master test. The judges set up three solid series with an ample number of factors to challenge the dogs and handlers. (See below for Youtube video links of the test.) The third and final series turned out to be Angel’s moment to shine.
Her last mark, a long memory bird up the middle, required multiple in and out water entries. On her way out she took a jolt to the chest in an unexpected shallow pocket of water. The gallery gasped as she ricocheted to the side, never breaking stride on her way to pinning the mark. Jayhawk RC – Long memory mark
She ended the test by taking a solid line on a down the shore water blind. We only needed a couple of crisp, short casts to finish. The judges complimented and the gallery applauded us as we left the line. Angel had qualified for her third consecutive MN at 3.5 years old! Jayhawk RC- Water blind
In conclusion, the road to the Master National is a tough haul under the best of circumstances. Qualifying for the annual event is an accomplishment to be proud of. We beat back all the misfortunes in our path. Time for us to take a deep breath, continue toward a full recovery and just be very thankful for being able to travel this road.
See y’all in St. Louis!
Jayhawk RC – FRI-MH 1st Series -Go Bird
Jayhawk RC FRI-MH 1st Series – Right mark pickup
Jayhawk RC FRI-MH 1st Series – Middle pick up
Jayhawk RC FRI Ser 1 Right Hand blind
Jayhawk RC FRI Ser 1 Left Hand blind
Jayhawk RC FRI-MH 2nd Series- Walk up triple – Go Bird
Jayhawk RC – FRI-MH 2nd Series Right hand pick up
Jayhawk RC FRI-MH 2nd Series Middle pick up
Jayhawk RC FRI-MH 3rd Series – Triple – Go Bird
Jayhawk RC FRI-MH 3rd Series – left pick up
Jayhawk FRI-MH 3rd Series – Long memory pick up
Jayhawk RC FRI-MH 3rd Series – Water blind
Actually, looking forward to the end of duck season this weekend. The ducks are now weary and scattered among thousands of water holes created by record rain falls in North Texas. Forecast for the last weekend in January calls for bluebird days, calm, sunny and high of 75 degrees. Nevertheless, we’ll venture out one last time on closing day.
Overall, the season was a mixed bag for us. Illness kept me away way too many days. The highlight of the season came when I bagged my first Canvasback on a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon. Absolutely thrilling to watch my prized retriever haul in a waterfowl referred to as the “King of Ducks”. This trophy duck will forever remind me of the wonderful dog I’m blessed to have in my life. Time to turn the page and close the chapter on an autumn filled with adversity and launch into our spring season. Let the “hunt test” begin!
The first shot of the Master Hunt test season in Texas was fired last night. I can’t describe getting into a test as exciting, but it sure gets your heart pumping as you feverishly try to get entered online before the test fills up. Turns out, entering the Rose Country HT wasn’t too bad. We easily got entered along with 150 other dogs in the first 10 min. Surprisingly, it took another 20 minutes to fill the 30 remaining spots. Everyone has an opinion on the growth of the master hunt test. It will be interesting to see how the new Master National Amateur club impacts entries this year. Perhaps Rex Carr said it best, “You must learn to accept and make changes. Our sport demands it.”
Our goal this spring is to run a string of weekend master tests and qualify for the 2016 Master National in St. Louis. We must now return to a regiment of daily training in preparation for the spring tests. There will be hundreds of marks and blinds tossed and planted from 20 to 220 yards. Wingers will be dragged across miles of fields and set up in every possible combination known in the retriever world. We’ll train in the 90-degree heat, rain and snow all in one week, its “springtime” in north Texas after all. Hours will be spent on the road to a variety of locations that offer some unique factor the dogs might encounter in a test. Simply put, it’s a lot hard work, but the reward of standing at the line of the Master National together as team is worth the effort. Chasing trophy ribbons and ducks are what golden memories are made from.
Good dogs and handlers make mistakes. Nowhere is this more obvious than at a retriever Field Trial. Small errors committed by either dog or handler separate the top four finishers earning place ribbons from the balance of the field who go home empty-handed. Same rule can apply to hunt tests. It’s not unusual to see a Hunt Test with only one-third of the dogs passing. Seasoned hunt test dogs and handlers make mistakes too.
The sunrise had just peaked up over the horizon for our morning training session. The last mark down/go bird was long and she pinned it. It was one of those moments when you start thinking, “yeah, she’s on fire this morning.” Regrettably, I was about to smother out the flame.
As she sat down to pick up the short memory bird on my left side. I tapped my left leg, rotated my stance slightly clockwise and gave her the command “here” to realign her spine, head and eyes from a position of 12 to 2 O’clock. She reluctantly complied on the second request. I cast her off from my side with her call name with a quiet tone to remind her it’s a short mark.
She promptly ran out about the same depth as the fall, hunted a little circle, gave up and sat her fanny down. Ugh, she “popped” on me! I crossed my arms and barked at her, “hunt’em up!” This is a mark not a blind, nor did I whistle you to stop. Out into the field I walked fussing at her all the while to hunt it up. She found the bumper in the dense cover and returned. I was still upset and oblivious to my error. We are going to re-run this set up!
She sat perfectly still as we watched the short memory mark hit the ground together. Oops! Immediately realized I’d lined her up incorrectly on the previous mark. Big mistake to pull her position from 12 to 2 O’clock. She was right all along. I pulled her off the direct line to the mark. My fidgeting with her at the line was probably interpreted as leave the mark alone, it’s now a poison bird to be picked up after a blind. Strong possibility I created confusion as to whether or not it was a mark of blind in her mind.
Normally, good marking dogs don’t need to be lined up. Best to leave them to their own resources. The proper job of the handler is usually to watch the dog’s line manners while the bird is in the air during training sessions. There are instances however, when it is beneficial to help them focus on the correct path to the mark in an effort to keep them out of trouble. Long tight water entries where the dog is expected to get in the water and eraser marks that tend to wipe out the dog’s memory are just a few examples. Bottom line…. if you line them up on a mark you better be right!!!
We work hard together as a human/dog team to develop communication tools. Watching each other’s body movements constantly searching for cues. I didn’t listen to her or trust her normally keen marking judgment in our training session. Care to guess how far we would get in an actual test with that type of dialog?
We spent the next day’s training session on marking fundamentals. Goal of our session was for me to watch line manners and leave the driving to her. She pinned every mark without my two cents. Mark my word…. the only handler/dog team that doesn’t make mistakes is the team sitting on the couch at home.
After months of hot summer time training it was time to take the stage again in the Master B flight of the Sooner Retriever hunt test. Note: Click on images to enlarge. The first series setup included several environmental factors and training concepts typical of a master national level hunt test. A perfect test to gauge our training progress before heading out east.
Angel nailed the flyer/go bird, M3. Sent her to the right bird in the ditch next, M2. She returned quickly and lined up perfectly for the short memory bird on the left, M1. She took a nice initial line on the left blind, B1; however, she faded with the wind blowing left to right a tad but managed to correct herself. I stopped her in front of the bird for a final cast or two. The blind was laying in brush right in front of a ridge with a drop off behind it.
The long water entry blind (B2) was pretty much a make or break retrieve for the test. Screw it up and you have a long ride home without a ribbon. She took a good initial line and got a little “fatter” as she crossed the ditch and headed into weedy marsh area before the water. It took a few more casts to get her down the shore line blind because she wanted to stay “fat in the water” or away from the shore. Overall an acceptable job on a difficult blind.
Whew…. nice first series! Time to relax and catch lunch. My feeling good about the day took a dramatic turn when Carla told me she felt a hard lump on Angel’s back. A friend pointed out to us swelling down her elbow too. Could it be a snake or scorpion bite??? Off to the 24-hour emergency clinic in OKC.
The vet diagnosed the large lump the located above her right shoulder blade as a hematoma. There was mild infection in the swollen area but the lab test indicated it hadn’t spread to the body. Good news no cancer or poisonous snake/critter bites. Vet recommended we drain the fluid out and put her on antibiotics. It was past 9PM went we arrived back at the hotel with a very groggy dog. A small hole was left open to allow it to continue to drain overnight. It’s still a mystery what the caused it to grow so large within hours. I recalled her trying to jump up into the back of the van, the wind catching the door and blowing it shut just a little as she tried to leap upwards earlier in the week. It all took place in a split second out of the corner of my eye. It had to hurt! Checked her over and didn’t feel anything at that time. Nor did we feel anything when petting her on the ride up to Oklahoma just 12 hours earlier.
By late Sunday morning she was ready to run the second series. I had my vet’s letter authorizing her being able to return to “work” just in case there was any question. No question at all about her desire to retrieve as we headed to the line. No change in her gait or indication of pain, just a visible hunchback lump. Angel is a gamer always ready to rock and roll when it comes to tests…. showtime!
The second series……triple land combo with long blind under the arc.
She did solid job on the second series of flight B. We headed back to town for lunch. The chicken tenders were warm on the way back to the test site when suddenly the engine bellowed out with a loud rat-tat-tat like someone drilled a hole in the muffler up near the engine.
