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Amateur Placings (L-R) 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th
Wednesday:
The Amateur kicked off at
11:25 am after a delayed start and offered a triple with a retired
gun on the left side. The test
proved to be harder than it looked with quite a few contestants handling
their dogs.
Description by Ginny Reed: 1st Series - Beautiful,
bright day.. the Amateur began with a land triple presented around
the horn from left to right. First bird thrown to the right at 175
yards from the line, gunner retires into the woods. After the dog is
sent on the first retrieve, middle/second bird was thrown right to
the left apx 215 yards from the line. The shot flyer station, 3rd
bird down, was presented 58 yards from the line, shot to the right.
This was an area with rolling terrain having mowed strips of cover
throughout. Several dogs found the close proximity of the flyer very
inviting and broke. There were several dogs needing to be handled to
two of the marks, some handled on one bird and others did really
nice memory marking on all 3 stations. There were a few missed
birds by our gunners and one of the running dogs was interrupted by
a the judges Lab that got out of the van and retrieved the shot
flyer before the working dog could be sent! 44 Dogs were
entered, 4 scratches, 25 were called back for the 2nd series on
Thursday.
Description by Mitch
Patterson
Thursday: 2nd
and 3rd series was a Land Blind and Water Blind
Combo... This test started late as fog dominated the early
hours. The Amateur blinds were well thought out, very nice bird
placement, very nice tests, a true All-Age quality water blind.
The judges setup a double blind, a land blind approximately 150 yds
with a gunner sitting approx. 25 yds to the left of the land blind.
The line to the blind cut thru several mowed strips. In general,
dogs did well on the blind.
The dogs came back from the land blind and looked out at a 250 yd
water blind to the right of the land blind. The line carried the dog
down a gentle slope of mowed strips approx. 150 yds towards the left
corner of a pond. The blind was a long angle entry into the left
corner of a large pond and down the shoreline. A gravel road circled
the pond which several dogs identified as the perfect place to run.
Several dogs had difficulty entering the pond, choosing to run the
gravel road. Several dogs had excellent work on this blind, casting
into the ponds, carrying their line to the far shoreline. Dogs
exited the water a drove up a hill 50 yds to the bird.
4th series, Water Triple with an Honor -
Shot left, right, middle flyer. The left hand bird was shot left to
right, approx. 300 yds. The retrieve required the dogs to run along
a slope which pushed them to the right, then enter into a stick pond
with a road weaving thru the test. After exiting the stick pond the
dogs had to drive up a hillside to the bird. Several dogs “fell” off
the hillside, entered the pond to the right, exited on the road
which placed the dogs far right of the fall and on the hillside with
the flyer gunners. The right bird was 140 yds, thrown flat and from
left to right along the back shoreline. This retrieve required the
dogs to angle into the first piece of water, then cross a land
point, reenter and swim to the fall. Several dogs overran this bird,
ending up on the hillside beyond the fall area. Center flyer was
shot right to left, approx. 150 yds. The dog would run approx. 100
yds to the water, swim approx. 25-30 yds, then drive up a gentle
hillside to the bird. The bird landed across a sandy road in light
cover strips.
This was a very nice All-Age test which challenged
the dogs trained responses to holding straight lines to fall areas
and courage in entering and swimming thru a heavy stick pond. Early
work was weak but several dogs had very nice work on this test.
Amateur
Water Triple, left & right gunners retire, center bird is a
flyer
Best
Amateur Handler in Trial
Tim Carrion
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Best
Bitch in Trial: JJ's Rachael
Owner/Linda
Patterson - Handler/Mitch Patterson
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