Today was Basko's Spring Derby test. This is supposed to be a test of the puppy's "natural abilities". So we are glad to report that our little darling came through and was awarded Prize III!
I'm not well versed in this hunting dog training lingo but as far as I could determine, the test evaluates four main areas:
He got excellent marks for "Nose" and "Cooperation and Attitude". We knew he has an excellent nose, but as far as "cooperation" well, if they meant "obedience" we would have been in big trouble.
The areas he did not do so well were "Search" and "Pointing". He is still too chaotic on his searches and gets distracted easily. For the test is up to chance what kind of wildlife they get to work with. He only got some bird and he was totally uninterested in the little thing. On the other hand, another dog in his group got a deer, was gone for miles and never came back, (that's probably what Basko would have done also) and got bad marks for it, so I guess we were lucky with the little uninteresting bird, at least he got partial credit!
I don't know how much that test really measures the dog's natural abilities, the parents' genes, I suppose, since there were 3 of Basko's siblings doing the same test and all four had very different marks. So training and handling also has a lot to do, but these are abilities that supposedly are tested on a later test when the dogs are older.
Anyhow, we are happy, we got a good pup and he's in the right track of learning to be a good hunting dog!
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