Unfortunately there were no catalogues
Monday night for the start of the trial. They finally arrived late
today and were given out at the Tuesday night dinner. First series was
a nice triple in a cut hay field with huge bales scattered about and an
honor. 2nd test was a double land blind to the left and right of the
outside marks. The 3rd series was a double water blind with 19 dogs called
for competition there. Only 9 were called back for the 4th series water
marks Wednesday morning at 7:30am. The water triple was found to be
very challenging with only 3 dogs having a clear round on the marks, 2 had to
pick up, and 4 handled. The slippery mound proved to be a hazard for
a few of the handlers! Two tripped on the matt (Jon Knapp and Tom Cox)
and Marston tripped while the dog was in the water, picked himself up,
dusted himself off and continued to run the dog! And boy, do we
know it is DUSTY here! All the roads are clay based
gravel-crushed stones..We go 20 miles an hour so the neighbor's houses don't
get covered over and over! The vehicles are coated totally on the back
windows and when you slam the doors, you sneeze from it all! But, we
are having a great time!!!! Photo on the left is Linda Harger who won
the Open with Yakity and chairman Rich Larsen. On the right are the trophies
for the Open and the outstanding decoy for the 1st place in the Open.