Let us know how you found it, his sense of humour can be an acquired taste..................

I know

Hi folks as promised as brief as I can description of the test I set at the weekend.

The Briefing
The competitors were told their task would be to check an area of land, and on finding anybody to challenge them as to the reason for them being there.

First exercise
I decided to start with the search and escort, with dog and handler at a pole 20 yards from an area with a wall of 25 feet high conifer trees, and several large bushes in front of them.
They were told about a couple who had been seen in that area, shouting hysterically for help.
The handler challenged for the couple to come out and show themselves at the same time keeping their dog under control. At this point, a young couple came from out of the bushes, speaking mainly Spanish, with a spattering of English, which was just enough for the handlers to decode a garbled message, about a man who had been chasing them with a knife. He had hidden in the bushes and the couple with a mixture of english and Spanish, were now beconing the handler and dog to come forward, this was the start of the escort through the bushes.
The young couple gestured in panic this greatly excited all the dogs, but the handlers were told these were innocent people and were not to be bitten.
Approx. half way down the line of trees, a criminal rushed out at the handler, carrying a large plastic knife. The dogs were expected to immediately switch focus from the couple and deal with the attack. The handlers were expected once the dog has bitten, to take charge telling the man to stand still, drop the weapon, and then call the dog off.
The criminal was then searched, and the thorough handlers would have found a small penknife, which would have given an extra point to their total.
Once the man was disarmed, he was told to join the couple and was escorted off the land.

The Quarter
The handler was told to send the dog across the field 70 yards to a farm gate, then along the fence to the bottom right hand corner of the field where a hide had been set up. The steward informed the handler they could move to various points out into the field to help the dog with the quarter. The dog then had to cross the bottom of the field to another hide, and finally travel down the left hand side pushing back out into the field where on the corner of the fence there was camoflage net with an innocent man underneath bird watching. On arrival the dog was expected to bark, to inform the handler he had found someone. The handler then moved forward and dealt with the situation, which in this case was just to ask the man what was the purpose of his presence on the field.
Chase and detention
On walking back from the last hide, the handler would spot a man walking across the the field, he was told to stop at a pole with his dog under control off lead, and challenge the man who was by this time half way across the field. The criminal would not listen, and would not return to the handler to be questioned. At a set point the criminal ran, and the dog was sent, once the dog had bitten the steward ran up with the handler. On arrival the handler called the dog off, searched the criminal and escorted him off the field.
The Recall
With the handler and dog now at the edge of the field, and the test set up so the wind was taking the handlers voice or whistle across to where the recall criminal stood. A short challenge took place, and the recall criminal ran, immediately the dog was sent. The criminal had a 90 yard start on the dog, and at a set point with the dog halfway between criminal and handler the dog was recalled. On this being successful, the dog, handler and steward could now walk back down the field giving them breathing space before the final exercise.
Test Of Courage
Approximately 25 yards from handler and dog, was a man with a string of 10 empty 2 litre plastic milk bottles. Once the handler had challenged, the criminal started to shout loudly and aggressively at the handler and dog, whilst irately shaking the string of bottles. The steward tapped the competitor on the shoulder to release the dog, who was expected to race towards the criminal and bite without hesitation. The handler then followed up, telling the criminal to drop the bottles, back off, and called the dog out.
That was the end of my test.
I've tried to keep it as brief as possible and realise it is a long post, but am sure there is a lot it doesn't explain, I'll answer any questions about this test or PD in general if you wish.
This took place in the afternoon, following a morning which consisted of a 2 hour old track, a search for property, a gun test, a speak exercise, a sendaway and redirect, heelwork at three paces, 3 foot clear jump, 9 foot long jump, a 6 foot scale with control on the other side and return over the scale and a 10 minute out of sight down stay.
At the end of the day we had 4 worthy qualifying teams, the results have been posted on another WT thread if you would like to see them.

Thank you dry much for taking the time out to post that Dave, very interesting!

Just got my copy of WTM in and saw you in there with your 2 dogs for the KCCs. Best of luck there

Your x breed looks mostly GSD.

Hi Nick glad you found it interesting, thanks for your good wishes. I agree he does look more GSD ,but hes a short coupled body and has a lot of BC traits.

Dave

Is he the litter mate of Margo or Dianes dogs?

And a handsome lad too!

Hi, full brother to Margos Ryan same mother as Dis Tom.

Thanks for that comprehensive description of what was required of each handler and dog. I found it very interesting - and am also very impressed with the teams that qualified.

Wow great stuff, many thanks for posting this