I got a new collar! (and decided to start writing a blog)

Well, I didn’t get a new collar, Amore got a new collar.  I was looking out the window at the box on the porch wracking my brain as to what could be in it.  99.9% of my boxes say amazon but not this one.  I tried to think to a few nights back, Had I taken ambien?  Was this an ambien purchase like the great purple curtain debacle of 2010?  I was coming up blank, Thinking shit what did I order now?  Finally I went out and got the box.  Low and behold it was my order of collars for Amore.  I clearly remembered ordering these (measures your puppies neck with a metal tape measure is no easy feat).  I was pretty excited they had arrived as they are for our upcoming hunt tests next weekend.

See we went to our first Hunt Test ever 2 weekends ago (had never even seen one) and entered Amore in it.  Now we knew you needed an orange collar, We also knew you used a fake gun and didn’t actually get to shoot a bird for your dog (which is kind of a dick move).  What we didn’t know was that you were supposed to bring your own fake gun as well and this “special” collar in which one side is orange and the other is yellow.  Yeah rookies.  Anywho we were lucky in that my dogs aunt (my dogs brothers mother(that makes me laugh)) was there and let us borrow hers.  But I made a mental note to make sure to order Amore her own as soon as we got home.  Then when I got home I forgot to order her one. Actually I forgot for an entire week (Hey I have tiny human, a puppy and a full time job I can’t even remember what I wore yesterday).

So I had convinced my husband that he needed to run Amore, He had way more experience in the dog training arena.  He pointed out that I had actually hunted her one more time than he had, So maybe I should run her.  I said no no, You sir can whistle, I am lucky to whistle 20% of the time when I try, See for some reason she responds to the human whistle better than a plastic whistle.  So I won and he agreed to run her.  Really I was semi chicken to run her and semi wanted to blame him if she didn’t pass (amazing wife aren’t I).

So mind you our dog is just a pup.  She is 6 months old and has some amazing instincts.  I have never trained a hunting dog, My husband has, our lab.  Neither of us has ever had a pointing dog.  So we have been pretty much clueless what to do with the dog once it points a bird for us, aside from shoot the bird of course.  So out the hubs goes…the judges asking us are you top or bottom dog….HUH? What the fuck does that mean.  Oh let me tell you it means NOTHING.  It means your dogs name is listed either on the right or left side of the pairing list.  WTF?   How about just right or left? But this top dog bottom dog shit tells you what color your dogs collar should be..Orange or yellow.  I supposed if you have two dogs of the same breed knowing who is who could be an issue?

So our dog nails it! She passes no problem.  My husband on the other hand was in so many words told by the judges if your dog wasn’t so amazing you would have failed.  Whoops. They gave him a lot of great pointers (pun intended) though and were very nice.  Things like stay closer to your dog, get to her faster when she points, don’t try to shoot the bird with a fake gun etc etc.

We (meaning my husband) ran her the next day as well (fuck if I was going to go down in flames like he did with the judges, plus it was raining) and she again nailed it.  My husband did a lot better as well.

So what did I learn from all of this.

1. My husband is willing to be the sacrificial lamb for me.  Yet another reason to love him.

2.Taking a 2 year old tiny human who loves dogs to a hunt test is a huge pain in the ass.  We have already started taking her into the field hunting with us, but that is just with our dogs, The temptation for her to go love every dog at the hunt test was very overwhelming (read chasing her got old quick).

3. You should somehow know what the fuck to bring, because it isn’t listed on the AKC website (Well not that I could find) and the clubs putting in the hunt tests don’t list it anywhere.

4. Hunt tests are way more fun than dog shows (which we also did our first one this year).

We run again next weekend..At which point I may be begging the judges to let me run my dog with a toddler strapped to my back if my husband has to work.  I go meet with a dog trainer this week which I am hoping gets her and I ready to do this as team.  I wonder if he can teach me how to whistle.

Oh, Lastly I started a blog.  It will surely be all over the place but mostly will be about my tiny human, hunting, dogs, guns, camping,and generally doing stupid shit that I am to old to be doing.  Feedback is always welcome but my husband will tell you is mostly disregarded.