and both Deefa and Sage did us proud

For the first time ever, Deefa fully completed every part of the working -*test*-('")

And, rather surprisingly Sage didn't - she totally blanked the dummy on her blind retrieve and wouldn't pick it at all.

Speaking to the 'A' Panel judge afterwards, Sage actually had the highest score of all the novice dogs, however because she had scored a big fat zero for her blind she is automatically dismissed from any awards He had scored her 65/70 for her hunting (which was the highest hunting mark), 9/10 for her seen retrieve and 8/10 for her water retrieve. I didn't get to speak to the other judge, but for her to have had the highest marks without any from the blind, his must have been pretty high too.

So proud of both of them

Some pictures from today:

Well done guys

Can we have more pics of sage please - I love her face

Oh fantastic...well done all!!

well done to all of you

Well done guys

Well done guys, I love the updates makes me feel right humble

Well done you guys

It looks very daunting....having to perform well in front of the judges, and to get to where you are now is fantastic

Any ideas as to why Sage blanked the blind retrieve? She obviously did well in the hunting. Did she locate the dummy but just not pick it up? Were others having problems with the blind retrieve too (could it have been overly scent distracting)? Sorry too many questions but as always I value your replies

Well done you

Steve

Thanks everyone for your kind comments.

We've absolutely no idea why on this occasion she decided not to pick it. We normally have the opposite problem with her, she's usually too keen to pick them. She found it, looked as though she was trying to pick it up, but then just stood there, so she didn't go off self-hunting it was almost as though she didn't know what to do with it! The judge moved me forward to try and encourage her, and also just so that we could check she was blanking it, which she was. Tried everything I could to encourage her and still nothing. Then picked it up and threw it just in front of her, didn't want to know. We were mystified. She retrieved dummies after that incident, so we're just putting it down to 'one of those things' at the moment.

As far as I know no-one else refused to pick the dummy on a blind.

Secretly I was quite pleased we didn't win because it means I can stay a novice

Well that's a mystery then...or should I say that's blooming springers for you I know that Brandy has given me quite a lot of head scratching.....like the business getting her to jump into the car.....I'd practically given up, even went to a behaviourist and then she took us completely by surprise one day I turned round to pick her up and she had already jumped in I think I would have tried chucking another dummy in a quiet spot and see if she would pick up a marked throw after that, and I really don't think you're going to be able to hide in the novice ranks either

Looking forward to the next installment

Steve