I got conned into running my pup in NA test this coming weekend.  The closer it gets the more I'm wondering if this isn't a huge waste of my time and resources.  Has anyone here done one of these things?  What am I in for?

It's 100 degrees out.  The test site is about 150 miles from here in relatively open sage brush country.  She is supposed to 'run' on Sunday, but I don't have clue as to time.  They said handlers should be on site by 6:30 am.  I'm handling my own dog - I think.  

Camping is in a gravel pit.  Great! overnight in a gravel pit - primitive camp - no water, no shade, 100 degrees, they do have a porta-poty on site.  Some of the test is done in said gravel pit, some a few miles away in a pond.

They have a training day - on Thursday.  So I could go to that - and sit in a gravel pit for 3 days waiting for her turn to 'run'.


This sounds like a huge CF to me.

No experience to speak of unfortunately.

Does not sound too fun to me either.  If you go, post results please.

It was hot.  Kind of a CF (on my part).   The chapter did a great job running the test and administering things.

We were there for Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday - and were burned to a crisp.  Many other people were there for 5 days (of course there were a lot of campers with generators and A/C, while Rosie and I were in a tent and had a sunshade)

We (my dog and I) were just unprepared.  I managed to miss all the training days for other commitments so test day was all new for both of us.

They ran 10 dogs through 3 tests.  All 10 dogs run each test, then on to the next test.  We were the second dog/handler team in each of the three tests.

First test was the dog had 20 minutes to hunt a field with planted chucker.  Rosie was distracted by the judges following us and wouldn't search ahead.  Eventually, with help, she found and pointed 3 chuckar.
She got decent marks for pointing, bad marks for searching.  That test took nearly 5 hours for all 10 dogs - started at 7 am so over about noon.

Next test was tracking.  They pull feathers from a rooster then let it run.   Then you put the dog on the trail and turn it loose- no commands, no guidance, no interaction with the dog allowed. The dog is supposed to track the rooster.  They score based on how well the dog does following the line.  Rosie followed it well for about 20 yards and lost it.  We were allowed one restart, but she lost it at the same point.

Third test was water.  Just had to throw the bumper out and have her retrieve it twice.  She did well on that test.

It turned out to be an expensive training day more than anything else for us.  (Rosie is only 6 months old, I think she did fantastic, and I liked what i saw her do naturally with a minimal amount of training)

 I know this is a tech forum, but I think the rules still apply: we need pics of  wife  Rosie.
I don't have any experience really with NAVHDA and their NA test, but I know some anecdotally and from reading. For 6 months sounds like she performed well and the test did what it should- got her and you out on some birds. No doubt with some better trailing conditions things might have gone better. Seems odd they had multiple opportunites for water retrieve and pointing, but only 1 for trailing (with the restart). 

Thanks for update, Rosie will be more prepared next time.  

Agree with post above....where's the pic of Rosie???

On Google photos.   They don't link well.

I'll download a couple and resize them to under the 3mb limit in the am.

Rosie as a pup:

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Rosie this morning (Just over 6 months old)


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Rosie and my other Weim - jaeger (7 y/o ish)


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Good lord she's gorgeous.  Mine's right at 6 months too, he's got a long way to go.