Saturday, July 26th

Thanks
One of our sponsors was missed in our list at the beginning of our reports. This is “LaFrenz Winery” (Steve Martin), of Penticton, B.C., which generously donated a selection of their excellent wines for auctioning. Our thanks

Day 6 – Saturday July 26
The day was sunny and warm but not as hot as earlier in the week thanks to a cooling breeze and being close to Ware Lake where both of today’s tests were run.

Test #9 - Water Blind with Dry Gun

The Test dogs ran at 8:10 AM.  There were 14 dogs back starting with dog #38 at 8:30 AM. The blind was 230 yds long. The mat from which the dogs ran was on a small rise among the trees. The line was down through high grass, over some casual branches, up over a dirt road and into the water. The line then went across a scented point of a long grassy island about 90 yds out and out into open water to a bird set in a rat trap at the edge of a large patch of tulies. There were 2 pairs of decoys set widely apart, one pair on either side of the line  about 2/3 of the distance from the point to the bird. The dry gun was on the island about 20 yds to the right of the point. The blind planter was visible in a boat off about 40 yards to the right of the bird. As the dog came up and sat on the mat the dry gun was fired.  The problems encountered, by a few dogs only, were in taking a good line into the water and getting across the scented point. The test took about 5 minutes a dog and completed around 11:00 AM.

Dogs  # 8, 29, 38 & 50 were not called back for the 10th series.

Test #10 - Delayed Water Quad with retired gun.

The ten Finalists going into the 10th series were:

No. 3  FTCH AFTCH Pilkington’s Wylie Hunter, Owned by Lynne Hare and handled by   Bill Cumming

No. 6  FTCH AFTCH Taylorslab Magic Trick MH, CD, owned by Gary & Susan Taylor and handled by Gary

No. 10  FTCH AFTCH TNT’s Mr Peabody Prairiemarsh, owned by John & Janice Gunn and handled by John

No. 12  FTCH AFTCH Erinhills Seattle’s Lu, owned and handled by Brian Pratt

No. 15  Q-Man Too, Owned by Doug Shade & Chris Sundstom and handled by Chris

No. 25  NFTCH FTCH AFTCH Clubmead’s Steel Magnolia, owned by John & Sharon van der Lee and handled by Sharon

No. 41 NAFTCH FTCH AFTCH Prairiemarsh Madness, owned Dennis & Fiona Voigt and handled by Dennis

No. 43  FTCH AFTCH Clubmead’s Autumn Breeze, MH, owned by Gary & Sue Taylor and handled by Susan

No. 47  FTCH AFTCH TNT’S Wild Thing, CD owned by John & Janice Gunn and handled by John

No.48  FTCH AFTCH Harvans Foxhall’s Rascal, owned by Chris & Nancy Allaire and handled by Chris Allaire

There was a variable wind mainly from right to left but switching for short intervals from left to right or straight in.

The test dogs ran starting at 12:15 with the first running dog starting about 1:30 PM. The mat for the running dog was on grass 25 yds from the shore facing a long narrow island of marsh grass about 110 yds from the line and about 100 yds long.

On the far shore at 290 yds the #1 bird was thrown from a grassy point from right to left to land out in the water in a small patch of reeds. The gunners then retired behind a blind.

No 2 bird was also on the far shore at 208 yds. The gunners were at the water’s edge sitting in a boat and threw from left to right to land at the edge of the shore in marsh grass.

No 3 gun station was at 113 yds on the island directly in front of the line and about 25 yds from the right end of the Island. They threw from left to right to land in the grass.

No 4 Gun was in the middle of the Island at 115 yds and threw from right to left landing in the grass.

Birds #1, 2 & 3 were the thrown and when the dog returned with the first bird retrieved, No 4 guns fired and threw their bird.

The line to No. 1 bird was over the island crossing a few yards behind the No 4 guns.

The line to No. 2 bird was about 20 feet out from the right end of the island.

The difficulties of this test are obvious with about an equal number of dogs handling and not handling. The latter group included some big hunts. The test ended at 5:30 PM having taken about 25 minutes per dog – with no gun changes.

Recognition is due to many people including the handlers and their spouses, almost all of whom took from one to several shifts at gunning or throwing. A sincere thank you! Without your help there could not have been a trial.

THANKS TO THAT SPECIAL GROUP

The group that got this trial up and running and made it work  every day were:
Rick Regamble, John Hatfield, Malcolm Ruddick,Doug Leach , Geoff Cake & Mickey Rawlins. They were there working from the set up of the test until the last dog had run, at which time they cleaned up and got ready for the next day. Adequate thanks cannot be given.

We haven’t forgotten – THE WINNER  of the 2003 National Amateur Retriever Championship is:

No. 25 NFTCH NAFTCH FTCH AFTCH Clubmead’s Steel Magnolia owned by John and Sharon van der Lee and run by Sharon van der Lee.

Congratulations to Sharon, John and Maggie