Sadiki´s APD F took placed on April 2nd 2011. There were only 3 dogs (1 Lab, 1 Golden & Sadi) entered for this test, so the judge decided to start with a double marking for the F-class.

1. Double marking: Judge, dog handler and dog stand on a meadow surro…unded by trees. At distance of apprx 10-20 m there´s a lake. On command a dummy is thrown into the lake, then handler and dog turn around (180°) and another mark is thrown on land (distance apprx. 50 m ). The dog can only mark the thrown dummy, because since there are a lot of trees the dog cannot see the point where the dummy hits the ground. The judge tells you when to send the dog, the handler can decide which dummy should be picked up first. After the land mark was thrown I decided to turn Sadi around again and send him on the water mark. He retrieved the dummy and I sent him on the land mark. He marked well, but needed some time to finally find the dummy underneath some fallen trees. I also gave him an extra hold command when getting out of the water. We got 17 out of 20 points.

2. Direction work: Other than I expected there were 2 dummies hidden on a little hill at a distance of apprx 60 m. But the judge told you which dummy the dog was supoosed to retrieve. He wanted Sadiki to pick up the one in the middle. Actually an ”easy” task, but I think I made a mistake and sent Sadi too early when he was not quite concentrated. He went out on command, but got slower 10 m in front of the hill. He then turned right and I had to stop him and sent him back. He took the command, but didn´t went up the hill. He was now searching  in front of the hill, but didn´t get any wind. Therefore I sent him to the left and back once again and ”voila” he got the dummy! He needed an extra ”verbal” stop command and didn´t respond to my 2nd back immediatly. We got 15 points here! I think quite okay!

3. Walk Up: Three dogs walk in a line, at a distance of apprx 60-70 m there´s a mark thrown for each dog. As soon as the left dog retrieved this dummy, he closed the line and the next dog is now the left dog of the line and he works the mark. Of course the dogs are handled unleashed. Sadiki´s heelwork was awesome, just like his marking ability. We got full house: 20 out of 20 points!

4. Hi lost ”free search”: O my god…. 8 dummies are hidden in an area of 60 x 50 m. Well, that´s actually an easy task for Sadi boy, BUT because the judge wanted to get a closer look at the dog´s work he went IN the search area. When I sent Sadiki he ran into the area and suddenly stopped and looked at the judge…nevertheless he serached for one dummy and retrieved it. When I sent him again he was like ”Alex, I won´t go in there again, there´s a strange man in the middle of my search area and I don´t trust strange men in my search area…” I was like ”O m god, Sadi boy, you´ve never done this before…..” I then sent him again, making the search area REALLY exciting and finally managed to send Sadi in 6 times. He needed a lot of extra commands to get in the forest with the ”bad guy” LOL and he just searched the deep part of the area, because he probably thought that was far away from the ”bad guy” … Well the judge said Sadiki had an excellent nose, but he needs to search more systematically. We got 7 points. That´s fore sure not what I´ve expected of Sadiki, but considering that he has never seen a man standing in the middle of his search area, he did a good job, at least he found and retrieved 6 out of 8 dummies. That´s just a very brief summary of Sadiki´s APD F and I think I´ll need to correct some mistakes and details later on, but I thought it´s nice to get an overview of what sadiki had to do and where he got the points… I´m soooo happy and proud! Love you, my Sadi-buddy!

Av: Alexandra Westermann