The car journey was two hours, I thought we'd never get there it was sooooo long :-(
Mum parked up and I jumped out of the car, NOT IMPRESSED, the field was full of thistles, I did the 'precious' Vizsla routine of refusing point blank to walk on the nasty thistles. Mum rolled her eyes and then carried me out of the field, much to the amusement of everyone watching, she wasnt half muttering under her breath at me about being a 'right girls blouse'!!!
Hunting was up first, we were number 30 so had to wait for a couple of hours before our turn. The judge was lovely and Mum explained we were Novice Class novices so she was really kind and helpful. I had to quarter across a field, I did kind of run out of puff though as it was mega hot and I'd been waiting around for so long but I still did a reasonable run so Mum was pleased. The judge gave us a few pointers for future training.
As I was so hot Mum decided the best plan was to do the water test next, oh yes I thought that was a good idea too some cool water to splash around in. Couldnt understand why Mum was making me sit and wait at the water's edge though I was desperate to dive in and cool off. I had a right wiggly bottom but did eventually sit still and mum took the lead off, she told me to wait which I did for a while but then the call of the water took over and I dived in just as the steward threw the dummy. I retrieved the dummy no problem and swam back to shore but was still mega hot so stood up to my armpits in the water cooling off and refused to come out until I was good and ready. Finally came out and gave the dummy to Mum.
We broke for lunch and Mum had set up a sheet over the car to keep it cool so I had a nice little tent thing going on.
Ok Mum I'm fully rested and ready to go again now.............
We then went on to do the split retrieves. I'm afraid we were a bit out of our depth on this, the first dummy was thrown the other side of a hedge and I was supposed to run through a gap with wire across it and retrieve it, Mum was pretty useless with her directions and I simply did not have a clue what she was on about, she walked up to me and that was better but I still wouldnt go through the gap without her.
Then the other dummy was thrown into a pen, never done anything like this before, I could see the dummy but didnt understand I was supposed to jump into the pen to get it, so Mum jumped in and showed me how to do it, I then followed her in, I must say my jump in was MUCH more elegant than Mum's jumping into the pen LOL!
Final test was a retrieve with gun shot, I sat perfectly still, even after the gunshot and the dummy throwing, great progress for me, then Mum sent me on to get it, I thought I was flushing pheasants so worked the hedgerow all the way down to the dummy, then realised it was only a boring dummy and not a pheasant I had to retrieve. Mum walked down and encouraged me to pick it up, I did so as I realised there wasnt any birdies. I did retrieve to hand and Mum gave me loads of praise and fusses so that was good.
All in all a great fun day and we learnt loads from the judges and just generally chatting to people.
Next working test in a couple of weeks so Mum and me are going to work on the things we learnt yesterday.
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