Hunting Retriever Clubs

[ebenezer]

The gun is the big difference between HRC tests and CKC tests. With HRC the guns are always at the line. With started tests a gunner does the shooting while the handler controls the young dog. This is probably what you would do when hunting a beginning unsteady pup. At the seasoned and finished levels the handler shoots blanks (poppers) at the birds as they are put out of wingers. In finished you may have two handlers at the line, one honouring and shooting, and one working and shooting. Makes for a little more excitement and the dogs must be under control and steady.
In Canadian tests the guns are out in the field where the birds are being thrown. The handler may be given a wooden replica at the line. The test I refered to in the previous had a single shot and many of the handlers wanted to hold it before the test started. Some did not know how to break it open or where the safety was and muzzle control was unheard of. What bothered me was that to start the test you came to the top of the bank and the gun was leaning against a tree, closed, you picked it up without opening it and then walked down the bank sat on a log and then opened the gun. The opening of the gun was the signal for the test to start. What is wrong with that scenerio! The HRC really stress gun safety every test at every level is started with a review of gun safety and the mechanics of the 870 pump that most use. I have started to use my own 20 guage as I do not have the same strength on my right side after a surgury. Gun safety with the CKC tests has always been a bugbear with me. When they first started they would have people with unsteady junior dogs carrying a gun and trying to do a walk up, if they were shooting from the line the gunner would want to off to your right but a little behind putting you right in the cone of the muzzle blast. I guess because they were not allowing the handlers to hold the gun they did not think things through. I remember one test where the judge, who knew her gun safety, made the handlers put the gun down and walk down a fence line and then cross and go back for the wooden gun. You should have heard the compaints. I have not got a copy of the new rules yet but gun safety is supposed to be stressed in them. We will see.
Terry many of the handlers at junior level are bench people that want to show that their lines are working line and never go beyond the junior hunter level. Those that run master are more apt to be breeders that hunt. I call the HRC guys the rednecks of the hunt test world, as they hunt. Here is where I get into real trouble. You do not have near as many women running HRC finished tests here in Canada as you do women running CKC master tests. I am a female so I guess I can say it.

[BurlyGirl]

I call the HRC guys the rednecks of the hunt test world, as they hunt. Here is where I get into real trouble. You do not have near as many women running HRC finished tests here in Canada as you do women running CKC master tests. I am a female so I guess I can say it.

Why would that get you into trouble? You're just callin' it like you see it.

Regarding the 'rednecks', the food at the HRC tailgates and potlucks is always incredible. It's one of the reasons I got hooked. I like HRC because it's clear cut and they give you a breakdown immediately of what they saw and why it equaled a pass or fail situation for handler and dog. Still being on my first dog in this game, we make many errors (the handler, I'm sure, more than the dog) so I like to know what I do that puts my dog out of contention while it's still fresh in my mind. The shotgun makes it more real for the dog, and I get a more animated cuppy-eared dog running Seasoned in HRC than I do when we run Senior in CKC.