Retrieving
Retrieving is the dog fetching shot game — a dummy in training and at tests — and delivering it undamaged to the handler’s hand. What sets the sport apart is the distance: the dog is sent out alone and works far from the handler, who stays where they are. The retriever breeds are at home here, but any dog can train it.
Three ways to find it
- Mark: both you and the dog see the dummy fall. The dog has to remember where and go straight to it, unaided.
- Blind: only you know where it lies. The dog is sent out and then steered with whistle and hand signals.
- Search: nobody knows exactly where it is. The dog works an area and uses its nose.
How it is judged
At a test a judge gives the mark, and looks at the whole picture: memory for the fall, how well the dog takes direction, pace and stamina, use of nose, the grip on the dummy, steadiness and quiet. There is no line to measure against the way there is in blood tracking — the ideal is simply that the dog runs straight out on the line it was sent.
In Hundsporter you lay the session out on a map: where you stand, and where the dummies lie. Then you time each retrieve with three taps — sent, pick-up, delivered — and count the whistles on a button. The app doesn’t measure the dog, which works too far away for the phone in your pocket; it keeps track of what you can see yourself. Retrieving competitions are not run in the app yet.
Get the app
Sessions are laid out and timed in the app: mark where you stand, put the dummies on the map, and time each retrieve.
Free to download.