AT 3:30 P.M. THIS AFTERNOON, JULY 20, THE THIRD SERIES WATER TRIPLE OF THE AMATEUR NATIONAL WAS OFFICIALLY SCRAPPED!
We left for the grounds this morning as usual, and arrived at the site of the planned water triple at 7:00 a.m. Test dogs were run at 7:40 and both did excellent work. A few alterations were made to the test between the running of the two test dogs but, essentially, it was a short retired on the left halfway down the pond, a long visible gun out of a boat down the centre of the pond and a short shoreline “Go-Bird” on the right hand side. The order was Left (which then retired), Centre, Right. The left hand gun, 140 yards out, was thrown left-to-right from land into heavy reeds fairly close to the shoreline, which then curved out into a peninsula. A number of dogs sailed right past the bird and the peninsula into the back end of the pond. The long centre bird (187 yards out) was thrown from a boat anchored in the middle of the pond. The throw was also left-to-right behind what appeared to be a peninsula extending from right to left at the back of the pond, but which was actually a row of dead trees standing in the water, with a few reeds surrounding them. A number of dogs split the difference between this bird and the retired left-hand bird, which frequently resulted in a handle. The “Go-Bird” (79 yards out) was thrown right-to-left from the shore into the water (with a splash) and generally gave the dogs very little trouble. The dogs had to run through brush and tules to get to the “Go’Bird”. The long centre gun and the “Go-Bird” on the right hand side made an over-and-under configuration. It appeared that some of the dogs were so focused on the “Go-Bird” that they either didn’t see or didn’t get a good look at the long gun. The test dogs each took about 15 minutes to complete the test.
The rotation began at 8:45 a.m. with dog #20, our oldest dog, Fortway’s Darling Clementine, handled by owner Marlene Benn. The judges watched 22 dogs until 3:30 p.m., at which time they cancelled the test. Of the 22 dogs that had run, 2 had picked up and only 7 dogs had completed the test without a handle, and there were even a few double handles. Of those 7 dogs, some had a hunt on at least one bird.
The judges decided to begin another series tomorrow morning. We have not yet been told the start-time, what kind of test it will be or who will be the starting dog. However, Number 39 had had a “No Bird” and was next in the holding blind for a re-run, followed by Number 44.
Any handlers who might have thought they were “out” have been notified, so we are sure that no one has left the grounds and headed for home. A lot of people appear to be happy with this decision, but some of the handlers who had a clean run may be a little disappointed.
Thus, there are no Callbacks to enter. We will start tomorrow again with 43 dogs.
At 8:00 p.m. tonight, there will be a second “vetting” of the bitches. I understand that there has been a formal complaint.
The next test will be a water blind, starting with dog #20
