# Shooters Master Hunter Journey



## 3goldens2keep (Feb 13, 2019)

Well our boy ran his second MH test last weekend. We were very hopeful as he made it to the third series, land/ water, in his first test and only had problems on the last mark and last blind in that test. 

But, you just never know. The first series was a land/ water set up. He 'blew up' on the third mark, just seem to be lost. He would not handle well either....strange as he usually has no issues like this...

Not sure what's going on with him. 50% of the dogs past, and three were within 6 months of his age (one was 11 months younger)....our next test is on 6-11, so hopefully more training will help him get back on track!

Any of you had anything like this happen when you began running MH level tests? I know we cannot expect all passes like in JH and SH, but I thought 50/50 would be possible.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

3goldens2keep said:


> Not sure what's going on with him. 50% of the dogs past, and three were within 6 months of his age (one was 11 months younger)....our next test is on 6-11, so hopefully more training will help him get back on track!


First thing is, do not compare dogs. The ages of the other dogs and how many passed the test are irrelevant. 
Second thing, training will get you back on track. Hopefully you left with a better idea of what you need to work on. 



3goldens2keep said:


> The first series was a land/ water set up. He 'blew up' on the third mark, just seem to be lost. He would not handle well either....strange as he usually has no issues like this...


Not uncommon, he knew there was a mark and desperately wanted to find it. 
Work on good tough marks in training. Take it slow, build on success and work toward more difficult marks than you are likely to see at master tests. Do more singles than multiple marks. 
The way to build on a retrievers marking ability is to constantly challenge them. There is only so much time in a training day and a dog has a limited amount of fuel in the tank. Every mark should be meaningful and challenging and ideally, will push your dog to the edge of his ability.


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## Golden Gibby (Jan 8, 2011)

SRW gave good advice, don’t compare dogs and don’t focus on age.
As for your question, yes it happened to me. My dog passed her first two tests then “cuckoo” got out of the clock. We went out on the first series in the next two tests. Including one being unable to find the flyer go bird.
Her main problem was boiling over with excitement. It happens. We got there, just not as soon as I would have liked. But I gained a lot of valuable experience along the way.


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## SRW (Dec 21, 2018)

Golden Gibby said:


> Her main problem was boiling over with excitement. It happens.


Yes it does. the event atmosphere has a profound effect on many dogs and possibly even more handlers.


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## 3goldens2keep (Feb 13, 2019)

Thanks for the feedback, I got the idea of age from our trainers, suggesting that our boy was the youngest in the hunt, when I checked the birth dates he was not! But I won't let that be a discussion point going forward...


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