Reported By Dennis Voigt assisted by Rosalind Pentecost and Diana Beatty

Water Triple

Test 8 - Left

Test 8 - Right

Day 6

8th Series

Mother Nature dealt a new card today as judges awoke to find Luther Marsh and the surrounding countryside blanketed in heavy fog. The 8th series was nonetheless set-up in anticipation of a quick burn-off. The gunners in the middle canoe were not visible from line due to the thick fog. and thus there was a delay until 8:20 when the first test dog ran. Visibility of the long gun was still marginal. The first bird was thrown to the left by 2 gunners on an island on the left side of the stick pond. They took their coats off, sat down and disappeared from view. Next the center bird was thrown to the right from a canoe anchored amongst many sticks 128 yards from the line atop the dike. The last bird down was thrown to the right from a canoe on the right at 50 yards. The first test dog couldn't find the long bird in the fog and got lost but did succeed on a resend. The next test dog did OK but the judges discovered that they couldn't see the dogs in the fog if they swam behind the canoe. The canoe was moved out into the pond and the throw lengthened to land behind some sticks. The line to this bird crossed an island of cover making the gunners hidden to the dogs for the first 55 yards. A 3rd test dog did fine and the first running dog, #10 started at 9:30 as the fog started to lift and a slight breeze from right to left started. Work was very good overall on this test  A couple of dogs hunted behind the center canoe near a cattail shoreline. Another dog went to the left bird and hunted beyond it and then went on to get the long bird.

The Gallery View of Test 8

The test finished at 12:45 and by then a hot partly cloudy day was developing as temperatures reached the 70's and the humidity rose quickly. Thirteen dogs were called back as # 30 was dropped.

Series 9 - Water Blind With 2 Poison Birds

9th Series

The ninth series was a water blind with a duck placed on a float boards at 218 yards. A boat 165 yards distant was located to the right of the line about 30 yards with two gunners who threw a poison bird towards the line. Their duck was about 12 yards off the line. The judges placed another dead duck on a stick, 135 yards from line and a similar distance to the left of line as the poison bird.  The first test dog was at 1:20 pm. Both test dogs did credible jobs. The first running dog, # 27 ran at 2:05 pm. Work was variable with the best job being 3 whistles and the worst over 15. Halfway through the tests the wind changed 180 degrees as a large thunderstorm passed just east of us. Almost all dogs smelled and acknowledged one of the poison birds and some smelled both when the wind was right (for the judges) or wrong (for the handlers). Generally dogs were handled off the poison birds smoothly - some had quite a few whistles near the end of the blind as the scent swirled and confused dogs. The test averaged about 8 minutes a dog as handlers walked in the long dike in groups of 3. The last dog picked up the bird at 4:20. The judges announced that the 10th series would not start until 8:30 tomorrow morning. Shortly later they also announced that 13 dogs would be back as Finalists.

They were #'s 4, 5, 7, 10, 17, 26, 27, 39, 41, 43, 46, 50 and 53.

This group consisted of 7 black males, 2 black females, 2 yellow males, 1 yellow female and 1 chocolate male. There were 7 US handlers (1 female) and 6 Canadian handlers (1 female). Two handlers had 2 dogs as Finalists.