# Can there be too much cover?



## EvanG (Apr 26, 2008)

You can neither handler, nor judge a dog you can't see. You also cannot expect a dog to mark a fall accurately unless he can see that fall from his vantage point.

EvanG


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

I think as long as you can see the dog, and the dog can see over the cover to mark the falls, you're fine.
Also some of the cover around here gets so thick, not just tall but thick, the dogs have a very hard time getting through it and you do need to shorten up the marks to 100 yards or less.
Fall cover around here, he's coming back with the bird. We ran a JH test in cover similar to this. People were complaining like crazy, but the judges maintained that you could see the dogs, and you aren't supposed to handle in a JH test anyway.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

If the cover is so high that a dog in the AOF or on an appropriate line disappears, then yes, there can be too much. That said, take advantage of training in cover when you can because you never know what conditions you will encounter in a test. Ideally cover should not be so high that the judges and handler cannot see the dog nor that the dog cannot see the marks fall, but conditions and grounds availability sometimes dictate that one stake will be given the short stick and have to run in marginal conditions. I have run in tests at all three levels where visibility was an issue with the shorter dogs (and Breeze is short stuff!) In the case of the JH the judges actually knocked down the cover in the AOF so that if the dogs perservered and pushed through the cover they were able to find the bird easily. Breeze had to bound like a fox on that one as the cover (hay) was head high on her. In the Master test where we had it it was where the flyer landed--the handler and dog both had a good vantage point as we ran from the top of a hill, but once the dog was down there they had to use their nose, and of course as a flyer the scent was EVERYWHERE! Smart handling helped there--it was an out of order flyer, so if you could select and get the dog on it first the dog had a better chance of recovering it cleanly.


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## Radarsdad (Apr 18, 2011)

I train for heavy cover. But I set the line where the dog can see fall. It his job to penetrate the cover and get the bird. I train for losing sight of the fall. What I am trying to teach is to hold the line.


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## hotel4dogs (Sep 29, 2008)

It seems to me that that right there is the key to success in the marking portion of hunt tests. If the dog can take a good line, and hold it no matter what suction/factors etc. are along the way, you've got a much better chance of success. Most of the birds are dead birds from a winger, so if you can point him in the right direction and know he will run dead straight until he steps on the bird, you're all set, whether or not he marked it well.





Radarsdad said:


> I train for heavy cover. But I set the line where the dog can see fall. It his job to penetrate the cover and get the bird. I train for losing sight of the fall. *What I am trying to teach is to hold the line.*


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