PCA Upland Certificate Series
The Greater Milwaukee Poodle Club will be hosting its 3rd PCA Upland Series Certificate testing on May 20th, 2016, at Wern Valley Sportsman’s club in Waukesha WI. http://wernvalley.com
Our Judges are : Robert Deihl and Joanne Peck
All are invited to come out and watch the upland poodles work, we have a nice 15 dog entry this year, so it won't be a long day.
In the past 4 years, to date there have been a total of 87 certificates awarded in the 3 levels of certification:
Upland Instinct Certificate offered for beginner dogs with little to no field experience, Upland Working Certificate for dogs with some upland field experience
Upland working Certificate Excellent, for dogs that have been hunted over and have a lot of field experience.
The total certificates in each level that have been awarded are:
UIC 26, UWC 48, and UWCX 13. There have been 5 tests so far offered (this the 6th) all of them filled, and this year at PCA National, we overdrew the 30 dog non titled limit, with 7 dogs on a wait list.
At PCA this year, we also had one of the oldest poodles to complete the test, the UWCX, she was 12.5 yrs and you would have never known it she was spry and excited and really loved the work...and the youngest dog...a 6 month and one-day old standard in the UIC (who was also shown in breed at PCA as well) passed with flying colors!
Coupled with this program, PCA also approved of the Hunting Poodle Program, which requires a dog to earn both the UWC Upland certificate and the WC retriever certificate, to prove the dog as a Versatile Hunting Poodle (or HPC). Holding the UWCX and the WCX the Poodle would then qualify for the HPCX. So far there have been 42 HPC certificates issued, and 13 HPCX.
Poodles have long been recognized as waterfowl retrievers, but just as much, they are upland hunters - tried, true, and long-time proven.
Upland hunting traditionally consists of walking through the fields, locating birds, flushing them out of cover, and shooting and retrieving them. Upland hunting varies widely from the sparse vegetation of the high desert, to the high cover of corn fields, to the dense cover of fence rows, to woodlands. The type of bird varies, based on the habitat. Game birds include pheasant, chucker, partridge, woodcock, doves, various kinds of quail and grouse, and pigeons. With all of them, a good dog makes a valued hunting partner, a role that poodles have been filling for a long, long time.
They were developed as the spaniels were for use as flushing dogs to ‘spring’ (flush) birds for falcons in medieval times. The harsh weatherproof coats of the poodles and ability to work and scent in marshy areas easily, lent them to be used as flushing water spaniel for ducks and marsh birds. They were multipurpose versatile hunters of the day… a trait that is strongly still evident in the breed.