|
Vizsladogs, Ltd.
The "Point" of the AKC Junior
Hunting Test
for Pointing Breeds
by Steven Wagle
This article was found in the May, 2000 edition of
“The Checkcord” ( http://www.radiks.net/~swagle/gsp.html
) reprinted with permission.
"Say, what was up at that hunting test you were at last
weekend? I heard those judges were really tough on the junior
dogs! Is it true that only 2 of 11 dogs passed even though only 3
of them didn't find birds?"
Ok, hands up. How many of us have been on one end or the other
of this conversation lately? It's funny how we accept the
"judges being tough" at the Master and even the Senior
level of the AKC hunting test program. It's not supposed to be
easy and it's not. The pass rate is usually something like 30% at
those levels. So what is up at the Junior level to bring out this
kind of a reaction when the pass rate starts to dip anything
below 50%?
What I have observed is that this anomaly is a function of
several things that gets this "the judges are hammering the
Junior dogs" ball rolling. Number one; at the junior level
you have alot more folks participating in the junior as an
"entry level" activity into pointing dog field events.
This is great and the more new folks when can get involved in our
tests and clubs the better. The Junior test was designed to be
exactly that for handler and dog. Number two, I think at the
junior level you have alot of folks running pointing dogs who are
not hunters per se. I am always delighted to see new faces at the
tests, but I think some of us more experienced hands do not
always give as clear a picture of the performance requirements to
our new friends entering dogs at the Junior level as we could. We
were all beginners once and we need to do a good job of
presenting this sport to folks who don't know all the ropes yet.
For instance; What's the first thing someone hears when they
ask an old hand "I'd like to enter my bird dog in a Junior
test, what does my dog have to do to qualify at Junior?"
Right! The pat answer is "Well, all the dog has to do is get
to the bird field and point one bird, that's all..."
Hmmmm...well...that answer is right, but it is not a complete
answer. I think the question posed at the top of this piece comes
about because there is a misconception getting passed around out
there (and it probably didn't start with the new folks!) that if
a Junior dog finds and points a bird, the dog has earned an
automatic pass. In fact, a quick read through the rule book will
tell you that it is entirely possible for Junior dog to find and
point not one, but several birds in a given test and still not
earn a qualifying score. One would do well to remember this point
that I will illustrate clearly from my own experience later in
this piece.
Most importantly, we would all do well to remember that this
is a HUNTING test, NOT a POINTING TEST! Also, one needs to keep
in mind that this is a progressive testing program with the
Junior, Senior and Master levels being logically interconnected
to follow the progression of a dog through it's hunting and
training career from green neophyte to a finished bird dog.
It is a pointing dog's job to "get out there" and
find the birds for the handler. This is the reason that the
Hunting and Bird Finding requirements are virtually identical at
all levels of testing. The Junior test was not developed and
should not be scored as a lessor or easier test and we should not
present it to newcomers as such. Each dog has to be judged in
each brace according to the standards that are set for the entire
hunting test program. The logic of this thinking is borne out in
the function of the test title system that a Junior title can be
counted as one leg of the Senior title and on down the road in a
dog's career one leg of the Senior title can be counted towards a
Master title. Therefore, those hunting and bird finding
compenents of the test have to be met as completely at the Junior
level because there are the exact same elements being scored
against the exact same criteria at the higher test levels. In
fact, these scores are some day going to count for that Junior
dog at the higher test levels. Since we have started down this
path, let's look more closely at how the Junior test fits into
the whole scheme of the hunting test program. A dog in a Junior
test is scored from 1-10 in four categories by the judges.
Pointing being only one and not even the most important of those
categories at any test level. Hunting, Bird Finding Ability and
Trainability being the other three categories for judgement. The
Junior dog must earn an average score of 7 for the test (the
lowest possible qualifying score then is 28 pts total for the 4
categories) with no single score in any category being scored
less than a 5. (So, even if the dog does earn 28 points through
the 4 categories, the dog will still fail if any one of the 4
scores given by the judge is less than a score of 5). So, we can
clearly see that while the POINTING of the birds might be the
hardest thing for a JUNIOR dog in a test, it is not the biggest
part of what he is being scored on at this or any level.
Lets look at each category separately to get an idea of what
the Judges of Junior dogs are doing with these scores and
therefore why dogs that are pointing birds in these tests at the
JUNIOR level are still not passing these tests.
The first category of judgement is HUNTING and
the rulebook reads; "scored on whether or not the dog
evidences a KEEN desire to hunt, boldness and independence and a
fast, yet useful pattern of running". Right away it is
evident where a young dog can fall short in this category. In
short, the dog must be applying himself to searching the
available cover for a significant amount of the time under
judgement. HUNTING is listed as the first item of judgement for a
reason. In fact, the requirement for HUNTING at the Senior and
Master levels reads exactly the same in the HUNTING category as
it does at the JUNIOR level.
Second category; BIRD FINDING ABILITY. The
rule book reads; "a dog must find and point birds in order
to receive a qualifying score...scored based upon intelligence in
seeking objectives (bird holding cover), use of the wind and the
ABIITY TO FIND BIRDS.
It is a pointing dog's job to "get out there" and
find the birds for the handler. It must cover ground in that
search so that the handler does not have to cover it himself. Too
many times at all levels I observe dogs that are continually
barely out of shotgun range and worse, are being hacked to death
to boot. So, just because a dog stumbles across a bird and tries
to point it, it does't mean the dog will automatically be taking
home a ribbon. How can such a dog hunt anything? If in the judges
mind the birds the dog finds are birds that the handler would've
flushed himself just by walking along through the cover anyway,
those finds won't count nearly as highly for scoring in this
category as finds made by a dog that is casting out and more
completely covering the back course and bird field. This element
needs to be made much clearer to participants at all levels of
the hunting test program. A pointing dog's job is to hunt and
locate birds that the hunter could not produce for the gun on his
own, period.
Again, this BIRD FINDING element reads the same for the
JUNIOR, SENIOR and MASTER levels. Again, much is expected here of
the JUNIOR dogs in this category. Granted, Junior dogs,
especially young Junior dogs will not exhibit as complete or
extreme a performance as the dogs at higher levels. However, I
see more handlers handicapping their dogs in this category than
all other combined. Too often inexperienced handlers spend the
bulk of their brace hacking their charge back in to them. Whether
they are trying to keep the dog in "gun range" or
simply not wanting to allow the dog to get out where he can make
mistake, I am sometimes not sure. Sometimes it is evident that a
young dog has no idea what he is even looking for. Several times
a handler has beamed to me "that was his first time ever on
a bird" and I just had to bite my tongue instead of saying
"Yeah!... I could tell, he wouldn't have found that one had
he not stepped right on it!". A young dog that has been
introduced properly to birds and worked even a little bit on them
will exhibit an active, joyful search of the available cover. A
dog that is simply on a walk waiting for the handler to lead him
to a bird is not a dog that is exhibiting good bird finding
ability. The dog must demonstrate that he knows that he will be
rewarded with a bird by seeking them out in the likely places,
working a good spot and then when assured it holds no bird
immediately seeking the next logical objective and applying
himself with a certain amount of fresh resolve for the handler.
It takes some training on birds in cover to demonstrate this
effectively over even a short 20 minute length brace that Junior
dogs are usually run in. I was dumfounded recently when a handler
took his dog's entire 8 minutes in a 10 acre bird field to have
the dog wallow around in a path about 50 yards long and about as
wide as my living room. Despite my encouraging this handler that
the field was full of birds to be found, he never allowed his dog
to break into even a good trot. The handler himself hardly ever
took more than 3 steps in turn or stopped vocally badgering the
dog for more than a few seconds at a time. This was not hunting.
In fact, this test is completely unfair to such a dog who I am
convinced had never encountered a live game bird in his life
before that day. Clearly, good marks cannot be given to a dog
that is simply doddling about, waiting for his handler to walk
him back to the truck because he has no idea of the fun that is
to be had out hunting birds in a field.
Third category: POINTING!
The rule book states "..the dog is scored on the basis of
the intensity of it's point and it's ability to locate game under
difficult scenting conditions and confusing scent patterns."
A dog that is out hunting effectively will find and locate birds
from a great distance, even if the young dog roads in on them
quite close before pointing them. There would be little to
detract from the score of a Junior dog handling a bird like this
as long as the dog locks up on a effective, reasonably intense
point without bumping the bird out first. Where I see dogs
falling down in POINTING is with dogs that are either A) already
handicapped in one of the first two categories by their handler
as described earlier (really, how could a dog miss a bird that is
right in front of the handler if that is the only place the dog
is allowed to hunt?) and B) simply too afraid to make a mistake
on their birds by early rough handling in training and not
exhibiting a natural hunting and pointing response, i.e. they
acknowledge the bird at distance and are then command into a
sloppy point by the handler, the dog left uncertain if they were
really supposed to find that bird or not. So, just because a dog
stumbles across a bird and tries to point it , it doesn’t
mean the dog will automatically be taking home a ribbon. The
JUNIOR dog must HUNT, FIND and then POINT the bird, pretty much
the same way a SENIOR or MASTER dog would. Remember, the
requirements in the first two categories are the same at all test
levels and the only element added for SENIOR and MASTER to the
POINTING category is the degree of steadiness after the flush.
Which brings us to the least component of the Junior test:
TRAINABILITY
This category is not nearly as problematic as the first three
categories seem to be for Junior dogs. If a dog is hunting
effectively and finding and pointing birds for you and allowing
you to blank them after the flush, the dog is demonstrating
acceptable performance in this category at the Junior level. A
reasonable response to commands is expected at this level along
with positive gun response. Although a handler and dog can run
afoul of the requirement here at the opposite extreme of the
spectrum from the faults I pointed out in the previous three
categories. As an example, I wish to present that I am the owner
of a young dog, not a year old yet, who as a six-month old, had
the distinction of running in two separate Junior tests on one
weekend and while without question demonstrating that she is a
"hunting machine" and did, in fact, point and allow her
handler to flush not one, but two quail in the running of each
test. It did occur to the one observant judge that this dog's
manner of hunting in these tests would have been
"counterproductive" as applied to an actual hunting
situation and this dog did not earn a passing score on either
day.
This was a nice way of saying that this young dog basically
just raised hell all over and then was seen to point, chase,
catch and then eat whole, several of the pen raised quail in the
bird field. Enthusiastic? For sure! Talented? Without question!!
Effective?...not hardly. "How can a Junior dog point two
birds and not pass?", some might ask...Oh let me count the
ways....! Sometimes too much is too much.
Again, I believe a lot of what is experienced in terms of the
misconception of the scoring of JUNIOR test dogs to be handler
inexperience in the area of actual hunting performance and
conditions. I think a lot of handlers would be well served to
join a club of experienced hunters and train with them, even if
the handler never intends to pick up a shotgun themselves. Also,
there are several good video tapes of hunting dogs in action
available that would quickly demonstrate to a novice handler just
what effective hunting dogs are all about. The AKC puts out a
wonderful series of tapes covering the field performance events,
including the Hunting Test program. There are also commercially
produced tapes available with marvelous action of bird dogs on
wild birds. Some titles that I would recommend are "Grits
Gresham on Pheasant Hunting" and Tom Huggler's series of
tapes; "Pheasant Hunting" and "Quail
Hunting" .
A better understanding of just what is involved in this sport
from the hunting aspect and not so much concentration on the
"pointing" elements of the Junior test will serve the
handlers and ultimately the dogs much better and ultimately
provide superior performance for those same dogs as they progress
through the Senior and Master Hunting test levels as well.
|