Competing your retriever is fun for you… and your dog !
Competing your Labrador, Golden or Chesapeake Bay in UKC hunt tests is a great way to grow and improve your retrievers hunting skills and have fun too!
Our Hunt Test programs develop your dog’s natural desire and potential. Because each dog learns at his own pace, program times are approximate only.
Started
Program length: 16 weeks
This is a great gateway into the retriever competition world. Many dogs at Otter Tail Kennels start out at the Started level, and the owners, as well as the dogs, enjoy it so much they choose to keep advancing onto Seasoned and even Finished level.
Upon completion, your dog will be able to do single marks on land and water out to 100 yards, be steady on-lead, and deliver to hand. Live birds are shot over your dog and exposure to a wide variety of competition style marking scenarios are practiced.
Seasoned
Program length: 16 weeks minimum
Prerequisite: Completion of Started program, our Sportsman hunting program or equivalent
Upon completion of this hunt test training, your dog will be ready to retrieve double land and water marks, perform land and water blind retrieves outside of marks, honor, and understand diversion shots. He/she will also be steady off-lead.
Finished
Program length: dependent on previous training and dog’s ability
Prerequisite: Started and Seasoned programs or equivalent.
This programs is not for all dogs as it requires a dog with strong desire, a high level of trainability, perseverance, brains, and a good working attitude. This is an ongoing training program. Time length all depends on dog’s ability and previous training.
During this training, your retriever’s skills are honed and stretched. They are trained to be comfortable with triple marks out to 150 yards, blinds in between marks, walkups, honoring, diversion shots and diversion birds. We also focus strongly on line manners, the result is a impressive and responsive competitor and hunting companion,
During training…
During training, we provide owners with weekly progress reports. We do, however, ask that you keep visits to a minimum especially for the initial part of your retriever’s training. A transition is scheduled as your retriever’s done date approaches. During transition, we teach you what your dog can do and how to maintain his/her training longterm.
