Fritz the Wonder Dog

Wandering Sagebrush

Free Range Human
Site Team
RV LIFE Pro
Joined
Nov 17, 2013
Messages
11,251
Location
Northeast Oregon
This should probably be a thread about "I wonder what he is up to now!" since he got into my wallet big time last week after eating something that made it appear like he had a blocked bowel. No fun having a dog that is going at both ends... Thankfully, he was OK with some rehydration and a bit of care, so today we went out to a NAVHDA (North American Versatile Hunting Dog Association) training day.

The training was for 3 skills, and I should really be honest and say that the training is for the handlers, not the dog. They already have the skills, it's just learning how we owners can take best advantage of it. We did a search for planted birds, then a tracking exercise with a pheasant scent trail and lastly retrieving from water. Fritz was outstanding in all three.

Here's a photo of him on point.

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Here with an experienced NAVHDA member showing me how it's done...

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In the tracking, Fritz immediately picked up the scent trail then worked back and forth across it until he found the bird. I was most impressed with his water retrieve, a skill to which I had not yet introduced him. A couple of shallow tosses of the bumper and he retrieved perfectly. A couple of longer throws where he had to swim and there was no hesitation. He went in and started swimming strongly, no thrashing at all. The worst thing was me losing my footing when taking a bumper, and landing on my butt in the mud.

I'm pretty proud of this pup.
 
Being a "dog-nut" it is great to see a dog in its clime. Doing Dog. A well trained dog is a wonder and you are right ... it is really training the owner. Dogs are happiest when they are bonded to their owner and "know the rules"... gives them a secure feeling. Thanks for the photos too... that is 100% concentration. A happy man and happy dog!
 
Last Sunday was our local NAVHDA chapter's Fall Hunt Natural Ability Test. Fritz and another dog (a pudelpointer) were the high scoring dogs, both earning 110 of 112 possible points. It was extremely hot and scenting conditions were difficult, all dogs had difficulty tracking a single bird that was released for each of them. Fritz and the pudelpointer dropped a point ( from a 4 to a 3, with a weighting factor of 2) during the tracking event, leading to the score of 110.

In the search event, where the dogs work a field to point planted chukar, Fritz gave us all a surprise. He discovered an unsuspected (by the judges) bird that was planted the previous day. It flushed when the shooter fired a blank, and Fritz then followed retrieving the live chuckar. On his last bird, he held point until I came up to restrain and praise him for holding. An additional reward was having the judge pick the chuckar up and let him give it a good sniff.

Next step may be the NAVHDA Utility Test that goes well beyond natural ability.

I'm pretty pleased with the 'Wonder Dog'!!!
 

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