Lake Ontario Upland test

Ranger on his walk up

Crispin, quartering the field

Crispin, flushing the bird

Ranger, with his retrieved bird

This weekend, Mark took Crispin and Ranger to run Lake Ontario HRC's annual upland test.  Ranger needed 2 more legs for his title, and Crispin was really just along for the practice.  Mark just started training her a couple of weeks ago on sitting on the whistle and she'd never done a walk up or any formal quartering until the day of the test.  It was very fun to watch her learn as she went.  She did a nice job of the walk up and sat nicely on the whistle.  But in the first test, she really didn't understand that she needed to sit when she flushed the bird.  But, by the second test, she'd figured it out (no sit, no bird!) and she passed like a "big" dog.  

Ranger, on the other hand is a rock steady, awesome gun dog and had no issue at all.  He passed both tests yesterday with flying colours and is now HR UH Tidewaters Raising the Bar Can/Am WCX CCA.

I went along to shoot some photos yesterday, but man, it was COLD.  So, they're off today for day two without me.  It looks bright and sunny out, but we got a whack of snow last night and it's feeling a lot like Christmas today, so I'm home with the older guys and the younguns are out with Mark.