The 2025 Spring testing season is officially underway. This past weekend I participated in the Nekoosa, WI VJP hosted by Mike and Wendy Hack. Saturday I judged a very nice group of dogs but Sunday was my turn to run Penny in her first test.
The morning always starts early on test day. We were up and out the door with a beautiful sunrise to guide us east.
Our group headed to the field first for search and pointing work. We had a nice field to run in and Penny did a great job. She ranged out (a little too far for the judges a couple of times) and did a thorough job covering a lot of ground. If you knew Penny when I first got her you’d know she didn’t like to get too far away from me and checked in often. After a winter of hunting her with a dog that ranged out farther she seemed to get the message that the birds were “out there”.
Her pointing was “on point”. She found and pointed 3 chukars left over from the day before and then had a real nice point on the bird released for her. Earning a 10 in search and 11 in pointing.
Our old girl, Callie came along for the day too. She doesn’t get to participate in too many things anymore so sometimes its just fun to hang out and remember the old days.
Josh Powell, you aren’t going to eat that whole bologna sandwich, are you?
Next it was on to the rabbit pen and tracking.
Penny had two nice rabbits and did some solid work. She loves to track and it showed. She picked up the scent both times and took it right down the track earning her an 11 in tracking. We tried to find another rabbit she could see to get marked sight laud but the bunnies weren’t cooperating by that time and we couldn’t kick one up for her to see. I’ve heard her bark on rabbits before so it could’ve happened but we’ll save that for another day.
Penny ended her day with 75 points.
As always, it’s great to see old friends and meet new ones. Mike and Wendy do a great job of hosting. My group was Katrina Powell, myself and Rod Brandenburger with judges John Pagel, Darwin Paddock and Wendy Hack.
