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| MONDAY,
SEPTEMBER 18, 2000 |
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We were on the field again this morning at 6 AM
setting up and getting ready to finish the remaining
dogs in the first series. The weather was
absolutely beautiful again with the day starting
out around 60 degrees with clear skies and very
little wind. It did get a tad warmish this
afternoon around 3 PM with some humidity but the
dogs are loving this. The test dogs ran at
7:45 AM in Group A and at 7:30 in Group B.
The field grass was somewhat wet with dew so the
scenting conditions for the first few dogs were
not the best but absolutely doable. There
was also a very light fog in Group B’s area.
Group A, which held the land series at Parking lot
C1 had a NW wind in the morning and that died out
about noon. |
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STATS:
Group
A: Moved to their second series at 3:10 PM, which
is when the first test dog ran. This is Test
3 and is a water series. In their first series
(Test 1) 13 dogs were picked up and 2 dogs broke.
Group B: Moved
to their second series at 4:45, which is when the
first test dog ran. They changed their plans
and instead of going to a land/water series the
judges talked with the hunt test committee and decided
to go to Test 1. In their first series 1 dog
broke and 2 dogs were picked up. |
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Group B - Test 7 -
Water |
SCENARIO
FOR GROUP B TEST 7 (LAND WATER)
It’s teal season and some of your hunting partners
are real anxious to get under way. Because
you are the only one with enough sense to have a
trained retriever, they have gone on out ahead of
you to set up the blinds and put out the decoys.
By the time you and your dog arrive at the pond,
they are already situated. Decoys are in the
pond and one hunter has his blind across the pond
to your left whereas, your second friend sat down
in a slight mound and is surrounded by natural tall
wheat colored grass. Then there’s the buddy
who loves to hunt from behind the tree. (You
sor of have suspected for years that he’s sleeping
most of the time but you can’t honestly prove it.)
So you get ready and position your loyal friend
by a clump of tall grass figuring this is the best
area to watch for birds. Luckily the first
teal comes in quickly and the guy was paying attention
and shot it. This teal landed in the marsh
grass on the left curve of the pond but more towards
you than him. Within seconds, the next duck
flies over from the left through the trees and,
by george, your friend was awake!! He shows
off his shooting ability by dropping this bird in
the open field with a slight rise to it. Unfortunately
though, there is a large flock of renegade geese
sitting there as well (and it isn’t goose season
yet so don’t get any crazy ideas). Now this
shot scares up another teal who flies over you buddy
who is hiding in the grass. This bird lands
somewhat crazily in the grass just beyond the gunner
by a mound or area of tall stuff. It seems
that this whole flock of 3 birds took a couple of
minutes to down but in reality it was very
short. Now you feel comfortable enough that
no more teal will be coming in and your trusty dog
is more than ready to pick up all the game.
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