I took Storm out to her first HRC hunt this weekend.

Saturday was a fine day and all went like clockwork, and, silly me, I got
cocky.

Sunday, we had to run the water first, because the tide was quickly
removing the water from the area. Storm picked up the first mark like a
dream, but became distracted on the second one and went back to hunting the
area of the first fall. No Pass. :-(

We moved to the land. HRC lets you stay in the game, even if you've been
dropped, which is nice. I decided to make the best of the rest of the day,
and chose to run her steady. (They don't have to be in Started, but when
you're already out... why not? We didn't have anything to lose if she
broke.)

She was the rockest-steadiest dawg you ever did see. She went for the
first mark like a bullet, pinned it, and brought it straight back to heel.
Off she went for the second mark - you could see skid marks in the cover
from when she turned to pounce on the bird and bring it back.

I puffed up my chest a little and said, "Heel." Nice and quiet-like. She
cantered in and sat neatly at heel. The judge's heel. Judge Dave was
shaking and trying not to laugh. I cleared my throat a little. Storm
looked up and realized that Dave was not me... you should have seen the
look on that dog's face. Then she up and trotted over and sat down beside
me and presented me with a duck.

The gallery went nuts.

If you're going to fail Started, you might as well do it with style :-)

Kate
--
and Storm the FCR