AS a Judge for the APLA I thought I would throw out a tip for those of you new to handling and new to APLA tests.

The water retrieve portion of the CPR test does not require your pup to be steady but you are required to wait for the Judges signal (usually your number or the word dog) to release your dog.  Collars are not allowed like in AKC Junior Hunt tests but you are allowed to restrain your hard charging non steady pup with a lead wrapped around its neck.   Now for my words of wisdom:  Practice this at home!  It seems like this is a simple thing and I am sure most of you reading this are thinking how hard can this be?  You wrap the collar around the pups neck and then you release it right?  Well I have seen many beginner handlers screw this up.  I am one of them.   If you have not practiced this at home you may not realize the easiest way to release the dog is to drop one end of the leash.  What I have seen time and time again has been the very awkward pulling of the lead off of the thrashing pup while pulling his head one way or the other( off the mark) and or swiping the lead in front of his face(also taking focus off of mark)  My personal experience was I jerked Brady's head completly to the right causing him to take a bad line to the bird.  I was really nervous and had been running AKC Junior tests and just did not practice using the lead ahead of time.   He still got to the bird and we got our ribbon but it was not pretty and I felt like a dork.  Take my advice and practice the restraining with the lead technique at home before you come to test.  Trust me you will be glad you did.   


Joe