Test 1 - Land Triple

Test 2 - Land Blind

The Caravan left “Ag Hall” at 6:35 a.m. Monday morning, with Trevor Dickens leading the way under a blanket of fog, (Some of our readers will catch the fun of that statement, I hope!)  All traffic at our first site, a land triple, was ably directed by the ubiquitous Corey Closs.  However, it was another “hurry up and wait scenario” as the fog didn’t begjn to lift until 8:30 a.m.  Nevertheless, at 7:30 a.m., our Assistant Marshall, Tom Glen, gave an awesome introduction to our Honourary Test Dog and handler, after which we all had the honour of watching Charlie Howard run his beloved “Cash” (NFTCH FTCH AFTCH FC LISONALLY’S ONE FOR THE MONEY).  It was very moving to watch Charlie, literally a “Founding Father” of the Amateur National, demonstrate his determination to stay in the game he so loves.
Carol Brethet, with Mandalwood’s Georgia of Comaro, and Ken Crosby, with Ida Red Calvin and Hobbes GRM, ran as test dogs, beginning at 8:45 a.m. and both did an excellent job.  Ontario Pro’s Jamie Balesdent and Marie-Josee Moranville took turns throwing for the first half of this series; and can M.J. ever throw!!!
The series began with Dog #1, Fraser Dot Com, handled by Rob Fraser, at 9:00 a.m.  The sun came out just as he came to line.
The line was set at the top of a moderate hill, with double gunners placed at all three stations, and all gunners sat, still visible, immediately after throwing their birds.  The order was Centre, Left, Right.  The Centre gun was 200 yards, the Left gun 146 yards and the Go-Bird on the right was 126 yards.   Drake Mallards were thrown right-to-left from the centre station, hen Mallards left-to-right from the left-hand station and cock pheasants were thrown right to left for the Go-Bird.
To retrieve the left-hand gun, dogs had to run down a slight hill, across a 10-yard strip of mown hay into a cut hayfield bordered on the left by a dark row of cut hay left lying in the field, which acted as a kind of road to the dogs.  The bird landed behind a small mound, but the dogs were forced to veer either right or left of a hay bale set halfway out but precisely on the true line to that bird.  The bale, the mound and the curving mown hay pushed most of the dogs to the left of the left-hand gun between the gunner and the bird; but, since the wind was generally southwest or west, most of them winded it easily.  Most dogs did an excellent job on the middle gun, which was thrown into cover, although several hooked that gun around the right side of a pile of stones to the right of the gunners.  The “Go-Bird”, thrown down a hill, across a row of mown hay and into cover, provided no problem for the majority of dogs although, when the wind shifted later to a more westerly direction, some of the dogs winded the bird pail, thus causing some extensive hunts.  The series ended at 1:30 p.m.
The only dog not called back was #42, which happened to have been my  nine-year-old dog, who broke, for the first time in his life!  Well, at least I can say I ran the Amateur National without a whistle!

At 2:30 p.m., our same two test dogs did a wonderful job of showing the handlers the second series, a 286-yard “no-picture” land blind.  Number 11, Hiwood Yukon of Forest Dell, handled by Sally Ann Early-Costello, started the test off at 2:45 p.m.  It was quite cloudy initially, with a fairly consistent west wind, which now was almost behind the dogs because the judges had moved the line to the right of the previous line so that it was almost behind the spot where the Go-Bird gunners had been standing for the first series.  The blind ran well in front of the other two falls which meant that the suction was more due to the rolling hills and the attractiveness of the dark row of cut hay that wound down to the deepest part of the valley, about 2/3 of the way to the blind.  Handlers were allowed to move up to the crest of the hill after the dog had gone “over the top”.  Dogs may have had some difficulty seeing the casts as the handlers were backed by open sky, but it didn’t seem to present any major problems.  Handlers had to challenge this blind by threading the needle between two of the three haybales that had been strategically placed (or should I say strategically rolled into place by our muscular and multi-talented Field Trial Committee members, who had also filled in a huge bear cave within yards of the blind!!!  This shall henceforth be known as the “Bear Cave Blind”).  A good number of dogs fell off the hill into the valley, which resulted in more whistles, but there were also some superb jobs done on this blind.

The sun came back out after the first dozen or so dogs had run and stayed out, and hot, for the rest of the series.  The wind remained steady and did not appear to be a factor in this blind, except that it wasn’t helping the dogs wind the bird at the end of the blind, where some handlers had difficulty.  This test ended at 5:4+0 p.m.  Dog Number 2 was dropped. (We’ll host the first party together!)
Tomorrow’s test, a water triple, will begin tomorrow morning for the 43 dogs remaining!

Judges, (l to r)John Sellick, Sharon van der Lee, Pat Fitzpatrick and Chief Marshal Bill Kennedy	Charlie Howard running "Cash" Honourary Test Dog