THANKS!
At this point in the game we wish to acknowledge our three major sponsors who have so generously supported the 2003 Canadian National Amateur Retriever Championship.
They are:
IAMS: who gave a substantial cash donation and provided outerwear for the Marshals’ Committee and handlers’ jackets, bags and handouts to all contestants. They donated dog food for the silent auction and sponsored the workers’ Pig Roast on Wednesday evening. They distributed dog food, biscuits and other goodies and set up the EUKANUBA E-Z up shade shelters for the benefit of judges and gallery. Their fuchsia shelters could be seen for miles.
TRI-TRONICS: who gave a substantial cash donation and provided numbered keepsake bibs for the contestants and jackets and shirts for judge’s presents. They donated a Bark Limiter collar and a Remote Release XL transmitter and receiver for the Silent Auction and a Pro 500 E-Collar for the raffle.
PURINA: who gave a substantial cash donation and provided every contestant with 40 lbs of dog food. They have paid for breakfast on the grounds for 3 days of the National and gave out samples of dog food and biscuits all around. They will be sponsoring the closing ceremony at Highland House (a beautiful B & B on the way to the trial grounds) with drinks and appetizers and will provide the winner and finalists with a substantial supply of dog food.
From all of us at the 2003 Canadian Amateur National we give our heartfelt thanks to these Sponsors and to their representatives who added so much to the trial.
Day 5 – Friday July 25th
The morning dawned sunny and cool and stayed comfortable throughout the day. There were 26 dogs back with the test dogs running at 8:20 AM with dog #6 started the test at 8:47AM.
Test # 7 – Double Land Blind with Poison Bird
As the dogs came to line and sat on the mat, a gun was fired and a “poison” bird thrown at 160 yds. to the right of both blinds. The first blind of 105 yds was across the edge of a pond of wading water. Handlers were instructed that the dogs had to go to the left of a red stake placed at the near edge of the pond. The terrain beyond the pond was composed of several moguls that made accurate handling difficult.
The mat for the second blind was about 20 feet to the left of the mat for Blind #1 and again the handlers were instructed to keep to the left of the red stake. The 2nd blind was 232 yds long and the line to it was also through the edge of the pond and continued out between the first blind and the poison bird, through a dry marsh and angled up a hillside to the bird. The wind was quartering in from the right.
The test finished at 11:00AM and dogs # 4, 9, 28, 32, 33, 35 & 40 were not called back leaving 19 dogs to start Test #8.
Test #8 – Land Quad with 2 retired guns
The two stalwart test dogs, Waggs & Briko ran about 1:15 PM and showed that the wind coming straight in at the handler was giving too much advantage to the dogs. The test was scrapped and set up at a different angle on the same grounds. About 2:25 PM new test dogs ran. They were Jazztime Hanging Chad, handled by Anna Calvert and Dreamfield’s Cassiopia run by Jim Borsberry. Dog #15 started at 2:47 PM.
The test was run from near the top of a hillside overlooking a magnificent panorama of meadow and trees. The hillside dropped in three steps with a fairly steep slope down to a narrow plateau that then sloped down to a wider plateau of about 60 yards followed by a fairly lengthy slope down to “bottom land”. After another 60 yards the ground rose again for about 125 yards. The cover was generally fairly light but was lusher with higher grass on the bottomland and the hillside beyond.
The No. 1 Gun Station was directly out from the line about 60 yards up the far hillside and 262 yds. from the line. The bird was angled back from left to right and the gunners retired by lying under a flattened blind – eliciting rude comments from the gallery. The retired faded into the landscape to be almost invisible.
Gun Stations 2, 3 & 4 were in a row to the left of the line and running straight out from Gun Station #4.
Gun Station 4 was at a fairly narrow angle to the left of line at the bottom of the initial slope and was 95 yards from the line. Their bird was thrown straight out towards # 2 Gun Station.
The No. 2 Gun Station was 160 yds from the line and at a 40 degree angle from the line across the hill to the left. The bird was thrown at an angle back from right to left and the guns retired to a blind set in front of a lone pine tree.
Gun Station #3 was on the “bottomland” at 243 yards about midway between No 2 and #4 Gun stations and was thrown at an angle back from right to left.
The wind started from right to left and changed to come straight in at the handler, then switching to go from left to right and then back again. It pretty well died down for the last few dogs. There were a number of handles some good and a few not so good.
Callbacks to the ninth series are: 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 25, 29, 38, 41, 43, 47, 48, 50. 14 dogs in total. Dog # 38 will start the ninth series, which is expected to be a water blind.
Studying callbacks to the eighth
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