Tuesday, June 21, 2011
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Fourth Series -- Water Triple with Two Retired
It's 50 degrees and clear. The test is located in a pasture that contains two ponds with long channels. Standing on the mat, the handler will be facing North. This water test is a triple that is using all hen ducks. The order will be middle retired, right retired and then left flyer. The middle bird is 171 yds from the mat thrown left to right on the other side of the pond. The dogs have to travel through two pieces of water. The right, long bird is 235 yards from the mat and may be only 60 or 70 yards to the right of the middle retired gun. This bird is thrown left to right. The dog must cross at least one small pond and three channels of water on the way to the bird. On the left side of the test and 212 yards from the mat is the flyer station. They are shooting right to left. The dog crosses a channel from a larger lake located on the left side of the field.
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| Duncan Christie, Gay Freuling and Judge Mitch Brown |
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| Charlie Hines, Jack Vollstedt and Charlie Hayes |
The first test dog, Nancy White with "Lily," did an excellent job on the flyer and right retired. When going for the middle retired, it was discovered that she was unable to handle due to heavy cover. A piece of farm equipment was quickly moved to the field were strips were mowed to alleviate this problem. The second test dog, Barbara Furlano with "Wilson," did an excellent job as well.
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| Pete Hayes and Larry Morgan |
Dog number 9, Windy City's Bent Tail "Hook" with handler Charlie Hines, came to the mat at 8:07 a.m. to begin the test.
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| Mowing the field for more visibility... |
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| Judge Pat Nicholls confers with his wife |
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| Molly Schlachter and Judge Mary Howley |
Note: The middle retired bird is being thrown into heavy cover on the edge of the bank of the pond. The fact that they mowed out there was to aid the handler in seeing their dog, it did not affect the thrown location of the bird. The middle and right bird are a hip-pocket and that is providing a challenge to the dogs.
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| Arnie Erwin and Steve Ritter... What's in their coffee this morning? |
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| Hal Gierman's new champion. |
The wind has started to change in the field. Currently it is swirling with a strong breeze out of the north into the handlers face. There are sudden gusts out of the west that change the test. The dog's going for the long right-hand retired cannot seem to get past the middle retired. There have been 6 handles and 1 pick-up out of the last eleven dogs since the wind started shifting.
The wind from the right to the left. Our success rate has improved greatly and the dogs seem to be marking versus winding the birds. As we look straight out across our test, we are looking out at Glacial National Park. It has been such a cool spring here that many of the mountain peaks remain heavily snow-capped. In fact, the portion of the Glacial Park that is the greatest tourist attraction, the "Going-to-the-Sun Road" has been closed and there are stories in the newspaper of snowplows still clearing away the lingering white stuff.
The Marshal said that they hoped to reach #99 by the end of the day...approx 7:30 pm.
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This summer at the Retriever News, we are fortunate to have journalism major, Caitlin Furin, as a summer intern at the News. She has come with us to Montana and on Monday, she went into the Gallery and asked a few questions to a handful of contestants.....
We are in full swing here in Montana and participants and professional trainers are expressing their contentment with the trial so far. We asked the following questions:
How many Nationals have you competed in?
What are your opinions on the first series?
How are you feeling standing in the holding blind before the line?
The first series was difficult but 97 dogs rose to the challenge and were called back. “I thought it was a real good hard test,” said Pro Bill Eckett. “Wind changes made things difficult, but I thought it was a fair test.”
Judy Powers, who handled FC- AFC Badger State Ram Kicker, thought the test was pretty stout for an opening series. “The only thing that really concerned me was the difficulty in the dog seeing the flyer when there was cloud cover and the dark mountains in the back.” Powers expressed her feelings of anticipation while standing in the holding blind before the line. “The first series is always so great because the announcements come on and your name is announced.”
It is David McMahan’s first National appearance with Maple Creek’s Mattie Mae and their first few days have been very enjoyable. “It has been interesting to see all of the pre-National training and watch all the other pros and their clients and how everybody does things different,” he said. It is also McMahan’s first time in Montana and he thinks it is beautiful.
The sun is beginning to shine a little more each day and the tests are demanding, but everyone is enjoying watching and participating in this year’s National Amateur. “The opportunity to come to a national is one of the most fantastic things I can imagine,” said Ken Neil. “I hope in my heart that everyone that is serious about this sport has a chance to compete in a national.”
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It's just after 6 pm and we've had our final gun change of the day. They were thinking of not having another change this evening, but decided to relieve the gunners who had been out in the field at the hottest part of the day. The slight breeze from right to left continues and we will probably get another ten or so running dogs in before we wrap it for the day.
An announcement was made for the "Double Header's" dinner which was located at the the Headquarter's hotel and was going to commence between 7:30-7:45 pm.
The announcement has been made that dog #101 will be the last running dog today. The first Test Dog will be at 6:45 am Wednesday.
posted by Retriever News Team
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Tuesday, June 21, 2011
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