| Riversides Hunter Hudson, SH "Hudson" 9/30/98 - 2/28/11 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Riversides Hunter Hudson, SH When we lost our old Lab mix to age-related illness, we decided to buy a purebred, possibly to train for a hunting dog. Up to that point, I had never hunted nor trained a dog to do so. I made all the classic mistakes, didn't check for hip/elbow/eye clearances, didn't litter of chocolates my husband's daughter's neighbor had and picked out Hudson at the age of 3 weeks. Hudson showed all signs of promise, intense desire to retrieve, intelligent, hard going, and he went to John Flink of Monday Lake Kennels for formal hunt test training. He earned his Junior Hunter title in 4/5 passes, the first one a truly inexperienced (I had never even seen a hunt test when I ran Hudson in my first one) handler error costing him a ribbon and dealing my ego a pretty low blow on our first time to the line. After finishing his Junior, he went back to John for handling training and the following summer, completed his Senior Title in 4/6 passes, both of us learning a tremendous amount along the way. Hudson is an outstanding marking dog, great memory, intense upland hunter and after he matured, a very nice handling dog. His early years combined with my inexperience were marked with handling issues at the Master Level in Hunt Tests. As the saying goes, if I knew then what I know now. . . Immediately upon completing Hudson's Senior title, we moved to Michigan for four years for my husband's job. Having no training group, trainer or even more than a couple of hunt tests in that state during an entire season, all of my dogs were in a state of limbo and none of us made much progress towards titles. Upon moving back to NW Wisconsin in 2005, Hudson was retired from Hunt Tests. Click here for more info and health clearances. |
Hudson Photos
| Enjoying the fire. And the furniture. |
| Hudson has always had a special love of kids. |
| Even as a pup, full of dignity despite my best efforts to spoil him. |
| Grandpup "Ruger" |