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When he finally located the dead duck in the tall grass of the Chena Flood Control Project, Angus wasn’t sure what to do.

Up until then, everything had gone according to plan. The 1-year-old black Labrador had stayed at the side of his owner, Lee Dockery, following the sight of the dead mallard flying through the air and the sound of the shotgun blast. He obediently waited for Dockery’s “fetch” command before bolting after the bird.

Now that he had found it, though, Angus appeared confused. This was the first time he had ever dealt with a dead bird. He looked at it and nudged it with his nose but wasn’t sure whether to pick it up, even though Dockery encouraged him to do so.

“Fetch it up, Angus,” he yelled as the dog continued his search.

“He’s looking for a bumper,” someone in the crowd of camouflage-clad spectators said as they watched Angus circle around.

At that point, Sherry Young, who had thrown the duck from behind a blind, popped out from behind the blind and playfully picked up the bird, swinging it around and tossing it in front of Angus, trying to get him interested. After about a minute of Young’s animated antics, Angus finally got the hint, picked up the bird in his mouth and ran back to Dockery as the crowd cheered and applauded his efforts.

A second retrieve a minute later went much smoother, though Angus did wander back behind the blind at one point before finding the dead duck and returning it to Dockery, this time with no hesitation involved, which produced another ovation from the crowd.

“That’s his first bird ... I didn’t know how well he would take to it,” Dockery said a few minutes later, pouring Angus a drink of water in a collapsible bowl.

“You did all right, didn’t you boy?” he said proudly to the dog, “and you even brought it to my hand.”

It was a graduation of sorts for both Angus and Dockery, who spent the last three months in the Fairbanks Retriever Club’s spring training class, which culminated Sunday with what is officially called the Bob Dunn Memorial Picnic Test.

Every year, Fairbanks’ two bird dog clubs — the Fairbanks Retriever Club and Interior Alaska Gun Dog Association — team up to host a spring picnic and hunt test. It’s a shakedown of sorts, a chance for both dog owners and dogs to get the season’s first taste of action in a hunt-test setting without being judged.

If a young dog like Angus needs help, he gets it. No dogs are disqualified or failed and veteran trainers offer advice to rookies still learning. The picnic test also gives rookies an idea of what a real test is like, including handling a shotgun.

“It’s to find out where you’re at and get help from people,” Mark Barnes, secretary of the IAGDA, said. “This is very much like a normal setup only the judges aren’t keeping score.”

Gearing up

On Sunday, the IAGDA ran the on-land tests under Hunting Retriever Club rules while the FRC ran the water test under AKC rules, one of the subtle differences between the two clubs. The FRC adheres to AKC regulations, which tend to be more strict then the HRC rules followed by IAGDA, which are geared more toward hunting. The FRC also allows only purebred AKC retriever breeds to compete in field trails.

Both clubs are geared toward training better hunting and retrieving dogs, and in general, if you belong to one you belong to the other, said IAGDA president Susan Monetti.

After a long winter of inactivity, it’s hard to tell who’s more excited when the snow and ice melt each spring, bird dog owners or their dogs.

“I couldn’t wait,” said Mike Ganley, who brought his 2-year-old chocolate Labrador, Gibbs, to Sunday’s practice test. “There’s not much you can do in the winter up here.”

Besides, the $20 entry fee was too cheap — a normal hunt test costs $75 — to pass up, he said.

This is the second year Ganley is running Gibbs in IAGDA hunt tests. A longtime duck hunter who had always had hunting dogs, Ganley decided last year to enroll Gibbs in the FRC’s intermediate training class and compete in the “started” division in IAGDA’s hunt tests. He performed well enough for Ganley to move him up to the “seasoned” category this year.

“My other dogs were OK but they weren’t as under control,” he said, comparing his previous dogs to Gibbs.

On Sunday, Gibbs made two perfect retrieves, one that required the dog to stay at Ganley’s side as they walked through the grass toward a blind when a bird “flushed” and Ganley shot it, and a double in which Ganley stood behind a blind and shot two ducks out of the air thrown from two separate blinds. Gibbs marked and retrieved both birds.

But Ganley opted out of a blind retrieve, in which a bird was stashed in the brush and the handler used whistles and hand signals to steer the dog to the bird.

“He’s just not quite ready yet for the blind part,” Ganley said. “Hopefully he will be in a month.”

That’s when the IAGDA will hold the first of two scheduled “double header” hunt tests this summer. The first is scheduled for June 21-22 at the flood control project and the second is set for July 19-20. The Fairbanks Retriever Club, meanwhile, has a hunt test scheduled for June 14-15 and a field trial set for July 12-13.

Working relationships

Stacey Clark was thankful no judges were keeping score after her 3-year-old yellow Labrador, Jersey, botched what was supposed to be a double retrieve during the “seasoned” division by returning to the site of the first bird she retrieved before finding the second bird. She also strayed out of the hunt zone, both would have resulted in a disqualification in a normal hunt test.

“We would’ve been DQ’ed right off the bat,” Clark said. “Now I know what I need to work on.”

Clark’s apprentice, 13-year-old Joe Dahlberg fared better with his 2 1/2-year-old black Labrador, Oprah. Dahlberg started training Oprah about a month ago after talking with Clark, his seventh-grade science teacher at Ben Eielson High School and a former horse-turned-dog trainer who got hooked after watching a hunt test two years ago.

“I knew he had a dog and he expressed a little bit of interest,” said Clark, who sits on the board for both the IAGDA and FRC. “I brought him a couple books and he devoured them, so I started bringing him out to (IAGDA) training sessions on the weekends.”

On Sunday, Oprah didn’t disappoint. She didn’t show any fear of her first birds and made both land and water retrieves without a hitch.

“I wasn’t surprised about her retrieving but I was surprised by her obedience,” Dahlberg said. “She’s pretty hyper.”

Though he will be out of state this summer and unable to run Oprah in any hunt tests, he said he plans to keep working with her in hopes of competing next summer.

Sunday’s practice test marked the first time Cynthia Udarbe had ever worked with her dog, a 2-year-old yellow Lab named Star. Udarbe sent Star to a professional trainer in Mississippi as a 5-month-old pup and didn’t see her again until she picked Star up at Fairbanks International Airport on Friday night. She has tracked the dog’s progress by watching DVDs sent by the trainer and weekly phone conversations.

“Today was the first day I worked with her; I was very nervous,” said Udarbe.

Though she already earned her “seasoned” title competing in hunt tests in the Lower 48, Star broke from the line on Sunday during a double retrieve, which would have resulted in a disqualification in a normal test. But given the circumstances, Udarbe wasn’t disappointed.

“She does have her seasoned title so I know she can do the work,” said Udarbe, a 51-year-old child care provider who has been competing in IAGDA events for the past five years with her black Labrador, Tar. “She just has to get the trust in me. We have to get a working relationship.”