Early on Friday the 27th we left Slovenia to travel to the Czech Republic and compete in Bravantický pohár which consisted of 2 trials over 2 days.
On Saturday we had KPZ (CACT) which is similar to our LP-P though there were a few more exercises, including area search, land marks and obedience.
Yu didn't really have any problems with any tasks, I did keep her leash on at both marking tasks and obedience, which marked us down by one point to start with, but Yu really worked well and I was extra proud of her area search. There she searched wide and deep but also moved well and matched my movement, despite us only training this a few times before and never on such difficult terrain. There was a bit of a mishap on pheasant search, where she actually bought back another pheasant, that was still in the bag, unused. The wind was blowing from the direction of the bag so she ran there and got that one. Smart dog. ;-) All in all, she finished the exam with II. prize class and high 212 out of 232 points.
It was a long and hard day so after a good night's sleep, we were back again the next day, to compete in KZVP (CACT). This was a much more difficult exam for us both, not only because we were both tired (Friday's long, 9h drive + working Saturday) but also because most of the exercises were new to us.
In her first exercise, water area search, she started off by keeping herself to one area and not going in very deep into the reeds. Later on, she did go into the reeds and made a nice, wide, and deep search, thus earning herself a 2. It was a very dense and muddy terrain but she worked hard in the second half, pulling herself out of the mud, climbing over obstacles, and searching the area. On the next task, duck search in the reeds, she had no problems, though she was a bit more careful when moving around so she didn't get tangled in thorns (esp. once she had the duck in her mouth).
1 point on land mark. My fault completely. :-) I should have kept her on the leash, like the day before. Since I did not and she was a bit tired, she had a run-in (she did stop on command and waited, marking the duck all the time, so a 'good girl' for that ;-) ).
I decided we will do obedience off-leash, no problems there, she worked really well. Nice handling on the 2 ducks in the water, one point off for her being on the leash. I saw that she already knew where the other duck was so I decided to keep her leash on for the mark, just in case she would have another run-in, like on the land mark. In the last exercise we managed to get by with 2 points, it was her first time being so close to a gun but apart from moving around a bit, she stayed close to me and waited quietly. She finished with III. prize class and 135 out of 172 points.
All in all, it was a very eventful, educational and successful working weekend. The organization, terrain, judging and tasks were well done and we also got to see some really nice work by other handlers and their dogs. I can't wait for us to go back again next year! Now I have a better idea of what is expected of a dog on each task so we can set up our training plans for 2022 with a clearer image in my mind.