Submitted by Brooks McMullin
Photos courtesy of Dennis Voigt

EIGHTH TEST - COMBINATION LAND AND WATER QUAD

Series 8

Friday was a mainly sunny day with a wind from the south-southwest.  The eighth series was a combination land and water quad run to the north from a high mound.  The first bird, positioned to the left of the line at 172 yards was thrown in along the shore. The gunners then retired into a canvas blind covered in with poplar branches.  The second bird, to the right of the first bird, was thrown right to left in an alfalfa field at the end of the slough (290 yards).  The third bird station sat in the alfalfa field to the back and to the left of the slough and the duck was thrown from left to right at 232 yards.  The go bird, a pheasant, like the retired gun was thrown inward toward the line (right to left) to land on the base of a spit at a distance of 120 yards.  The dogs that handled, and there were several, handled on one mark, either the retired gun or the long gun in the field at the sloughs far end.  The retired gun with its inward throw presented some difficulties.  Handlers that risked a water cheat appeared to give their dogs a better chance of winding the bird if the dogs ran through the fall area up into the field. Dogs that were "honest" and completed their "swim-by" emerging from the water at the backside of the blind were not in as favourable a position to wind the bird if they did not turn behind the blind and enter the fall area.   The go-bird, a pheasant, also caused considerable difficulty with several dogs.  It was thrown inward toward the line in deep grass on the spit and many dogs hunted the back side of the gunners and on up the hill.  However, there was also some very nice marking done by several dogs on this test.  Soon after the completion of the test the marshall announced the callbacks in the field with 12 dogs (numbers 3, 5, 10, 11, 17, 21, 22, 28, 40, 41, 44, 48) returning for the ninth series, a land triple.

SERIES 9 - LAND TRIPLE

Series 9

By the time the ninth series had been set up the wind was still from the south-southwest but was much stronger.  The ninth series began at 6:30 p.m. after the first land triple set up was scrapped.  The test was a long hip pocket consisting of two birds thrown from right to left into medium cover. The first bird at the right gun station, was thrown at 270 yards while the middle bird was thrown was at a distance of 184 yards.  The first bird was almost in line with the middle gun station. The go-bird at 142 yards on the left was a pheasant thrown left to right. The line to all three birds went through dry potholes, buckbrush and heavy grass cover.  The dogs had litle difficulty with the test as none of the dogs had to be handled and all no dogs were dropped.  Thus, from a field of 47 dogs the finalists of the 2001 National Amateur Retriever Championship of Canada are dogs 3, 5, 10, 11, 17, 21, 22, 28, 40, 41, 44, 48.  The final series a water quad is scheduled to begin early Saturday morning.