To the Experienced Men/Women who use trainers to train for AKC JH/SH/MH Hunt Test

How long do you give your trainer to work with your bitch/dog to know if they are able to pass their JH/SH/MH?

1 month, 3 months? Does it take a full 6 months? Shouldn't your trainer know in a more reasonable amount of time whether or not your bitch/dog can do it and have fun doing it?

Just curious abour your experiences. Thank you for helping me sort this out in my mind!

2 months max to tell if your dogs can cut it or not. Any good trainer should know by then. Thats not saying they should be ready to run hunt test that soon but should be able to tell if the dog is trainable. If you need a jam up trainer that want waste your time and money post your email and I will send you his info.

Speaking AS a TRAINER.... IT DEPENDS ON THE DOG ...BUT if you just want JH, the trainer should know by 2 months whether the dog has what it takes. This gives them time to get marking and obedience and maybe beginning FF(force fetch) in . I have titled hard charging, excellant marking show bred dogs, JH, with just two months of training. Others with less drive would take longer.
If you are looking at SH add about two months, because you will need the FF done and T pattern and beginning blindwork,and multiple marks to get the idea if the pooch has the trainabilty..... MH work add more time

We use a pro who is very upfront and honest with us every step of the way. We've seen him send a dog home after a couple of weeks if he doesn't think it has an inclination. He'll also tell you that he doesn't promise specific results on a timetable.

That being said, our young dogs, who are out of CHMH lines with lots of drive, are typically ready for a JH after about 3 months. We usually expect maybe 3-4 months the following year to get ready for SH tests. We had a young boy running master tests this last season and he was with his trainer from April 1st until he ran his last test in mid September. Part of the reason for him to be there that long was not so much the learning aspect as keeping him sharp and in condition.

I think it's kind of up to you to watch your dogs attitude and progress from week to week. If your not local to your trainer that's a bit more difficult to do so you better trust him/her. I think a good way to assess that honesty and ability is to observe his/her success rate at the tests over a period of time.

I'll be the first to admit that when my trainer takes one of my dogs or any other dog he's working with to a hunt test, it doesn't always go well but his pass rate is much higher than his fail rate with all of the dogs he's worked with.

There are some long time professional trainers out there, whom over time, I've watched run dogs at the tests. Based on their success rates at the line, I wouldn't send a dog to them. This is just my assessment but to me it seems that more often than not they're running any assortment of dogs that just don't do well. It implies to me that they're taking client money to run dogs that aren't prepared.

Being hunt test ready also depends on what your level of expectation is. For example, some will run a dog in a JH test before it's force fetched as long as it's delivering to hand most of the time. Other's will train thru to the next level before they start running hunt tests.

When it's all said and done, go with your gut.

For clarification my estimates are to evaluate the dog not that they should be able to run tests at those time frames

Than you for your responses. I am very new with this and appreciate your experiences.