Saturday morning began with an early morning frost with temperatures around zero and a strong northwest wind.  As the sun rose the temperatures became warmer but the weather was truly representative of a fall day on the duck slough.  The 8th series initially began as a water triple with a dry shot off to the side.  The three marks were set very tight such that the line to the long retired gun was through both arcs.  Two test dogs were run which both handled and double handled.  The test was then scrapped and a new water triple laid out on the other side of the small pond.  The new test consisted of an in line triple with a long retired gun.  Another dry pop was shot on the near shore almost in line with the middle gun such that the arc of the middle gun was overtop the dry pop.  The sequence of guns was middle (155 yds), left retired (184 yds) and short right (134 yds) followed by the dry pop (45 yds).  The handler was required to pull the dog off of the dry pop and most selected the right hand mark first.  Handlers generally tried for the middle mark second however some dogs beached upwind and drove to the top of the hill behind the holding blind for the retired gun.  Work varied significantly with some excellent marks and several with handles.  For a few later dogs, the drag back scent and the suction of the short dry gun station caused them to break down, hunting the near shore.  Handles resulted for these dogs to cross the water.  The test began at 9:00 am and was completed by 1:30 pm.  In total, 9 dogs handled and there was one pick-up.  Call-backs were quickly announced.  12 dogs had been dropped, leaving 14 for the ninth series water blind.  Dropped were: 6, 7, 13, 25, 32, 39, 42, 54, 58, 68, 71 and 74.
 

The test moved over about 400 yards west, on same body of water.  A 215 yard water blind was set up along the left shoreline, running towards the southeast.  The dog was required to line into the water about 45 yards and swim by two grassy points on the left, fighting a gusty west wind.  Most handlers had good initial lines, needing right hand casts to keep them in the water going by the points.  At the end of the blind, there was an old tire, floating in the water just to the right, which some dogs seemed to key in on.  Left casts were needed to get the bird in those cases.  Two dogs were dropped 1 and 36, leaving 12 finalists to contest for the National Championship title.
 

Test 10 - Land Triple

A stand-up land triple was set up further down the same body of water around the edge of a big pond.  Two long guns were set up in flowerpot formation, the longest at 308 yards throwing a splash duck to the right to the back of a small bay on the edge of the water.  The shorter guns (198 yards) threw a rooster pheasant from right to left away from the water.  Off to the side on the right, a short gun station (127 yards) through a bird landing in front of the bulrushes in front of the water.

The Finalists are: