Broken Dreams Carried Over To Next Year

Broken Dreams Carried Over To Next Year

As I write this post John and Gambler are headed back from a very hot long weekend of running a AKC Master test. Gambler did a great job on two series and needed to pick up two ducks in the third series to pass the test and receive his title. Something happened in Gamblers mind and he was having troubles picking up the last bird, John handled him but he did his own thing and for that he failed. No ribbon, no title and some broken dreams.

1st Master Pass

Big dreams I had, doesn’t everyone have big dreams when it comes to something you are passionate about? My passion is my dogs and this year my big dream was for  Gambler to receive his AKC Master Hunter title. Gambler started running Master Hunter tests last summer, the summer didn’t go as well as I had planned as we were to “newbie’s” to the game and it just wasn’t working for us. Needless to say that summer didn’t end to well for us and we were back to the drawing board on figuring out this whole master level test stuff. We took the winter off of hunt test training concentrated on hunting and was back at the hunt test game this spring.

Of course I had high hopes and big dreams for this summer of testing. When you own a dog your dog is the best in your eyes, your dog can do no wrong, your dog  is better than anyone else’s dog for that is how it should be viewed in my opinion. And that is how I feel about Gambler and even know I have some broken dreams to deal with Gambler will still be number one in my eyes and that is all that counts!

3rd Master Pass

As I remember this summer I need to reflect on how proud this dog has made me and how far we have come. I’m going to tell you a little bit about Gambler and I. Gambler is the first dog that I have trained by myself, I have trained other dogs through Junior Hunter level but I have never trained for Senior or Master level. This was a whole new experience for us. We had our ups and downs and we figured out what needed to be done and Gambler received his Senior Hunter title. Moving on to Masters this is a whole new game that is big league. I was happy with little league but big league? I’m not a big league person, I can’t think fast, I can’t remember too many things at once I can’t run with the big dogs but did that keep me on the porch? No sir re Bob it didn’t keep me there I got off the porch and ran my dog. We learned a lot during those runs, we learned that there is no I in team and that you have to be a team player to win so I stopped running Gambler as he wasn’t respecting me. I couldn’t even go to a hunt test and watch John run him as he lost his mind and would be looking at me in the gallery so that is when I decided that in order for Gambler to pass I needed to stay home.   I still trained him but John handled him. He responded better to John and this spring when John started running him he had his first Master Hunter pass, then he had number two, then three and four mind you he did have some fails during his run of passes but it wasn’t like it was last summer. Gambler turned 4 and I think it was finally clicking with him we were training really well together. John was continuing to handle him at the hunt tests and I would train, John would do a bit of training after he got home from work but not in a group setting. During this time we were training for two types of hunt test scenarios, besides running AKC hunt tests we also run UKC hunt tests which are run differently so the dog has to adjust to two different ways of competing, it’s hard enough to run one type of competition try switching gears one weekend and doing something different. Some may think if you have a trained dog then what’s the problem the problem is you are challenging their minds and switching things up often so how can you get consistency when you’re always switching things up? Mind you too that we aren’t training every day like pro’s do. I train when I  can, sometimes it’s once a week and sometimes it’s twice a week and when we train we normally set up a hunt test scenario so your dog comes to the line and makes 3 retrieves on land, does a blind or two then goes to water and does either a double or triple and a blind or two on water then it gets put up and that is your training for the day unless you do something on your own at home which most of the time I don’t have time for so I shouldn’t be disappointed when he fails as really he is doing great for the amount of training he has had and I have to remember he is just a dog and $hit happens!

4th Master Pass

So should I really say that my dreams are broken….no I shouldn’t. He has come so far this summer and ends the season with needing one more pass for his title and I have no doubt that he will get it when we start the season off next year. I am proud of him for what he has done and I thank my husband for spending every weekend at a hunt test this summer running my dog. Next year I might just be standing by his side handling him myself.

This is a Blog Hop. Thanks to Alfie’s Blog, Snoopy’s Dog Blog , Luna, a Dog’s Life , and My Brown Newfies for setting up this hop. Please go to any of the sponsoring blogs to find out who else has been mischievous.

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