Well, we went to our first APLA (American Pointing Labrador Association) Hunt Test last weekend. Originally, we were only going to go to see the test and not enter Claire. I was very hesitant to enter a test that I've never even seen. But we decided to give her a try, she had been doing great in training. Then she got sick and had surgery and lost nearly a month of training. We only had two weeks after surgery to prepare and she was almost there but not quite. Her issue before leaving for the test was that she didn't want to bring birds all the way to me. She would run out any distance or swim out and bring birds to within five feet of me but would then just play around with the bird for a while. As you'll see in the video this is what lost her the CRP title.
Claire ran the upland portion first and she did okay. We were looking for Chukar in the field and she had only seen one chukar in training. She winded the first two but got too close and flushed the birds. She pointed the third bird great. She held point for much longer than the required 5 seconds. Then she lurched in and caught the bird when the gunner approached. On her simulated retrieve she went out and got the bird but was VERY slow to bring it all the way to me.
The judges decided to send her on to the water portion. They thought that she did great, had a nice natural point but stated that she would have to run the water portion perfectly or risk a cooperation score below a 2 which would fail her.
Her issue was still there and she wanted to play with the duck and wouldn't bring it all the way in. She failed Cooperation and failed the test. Oh well.
It was a great learning experience and we know what to work on and we'll get the next one.
Anyway, here is her run.
