The IAMS Workers Party on Wednesday night was a great success, with delicious food and a festive atmosphere. All of the NRCC sponsors (IAMS, Purina, Tritronics and Dogs Afield) were sincerely thanked for their contributions to the success of the National Amateur and National Open Championships. Dennis Voigt handed out the NRCC officials pins and Sue and Garry thanked a long list of Workers, handing out 54 workers pins, illustrating what a strong and active Club the Saskatoon Retriever Club is. The IAMs representative Terry Groves was introduced and there was a draw for IAMs prizes (towels, food, cookies, bags) to workers, with lots of goodies for everyone.

The meal, a baron of beef, salads and vegetables was outstanding and everyone enjoyed the meal. Competitor photographs taken by local landowner and professional cattle-show photographer Kim Harder were a big hit - they were all excellent. . The bidding was hot and heavy in the silent auction, but the organization was excellent and all the items were sold, announced and paid for by 9pm. Now for many competitors all that remains is figuring out how to get some of the loot home. The draw was done for a Zinger Winger (won by Club member and worker Peter Holmes) . The raffle draw was done by Earla and Don Lardner, and there were excited winners for the Thunder Bird launcher, the Tritronics E-collar and the Tritronics Bark Limiter. Great Western Beer was flowing freely from a keg and a good time was had by all. The late evening brought a few showers, with heavy rains in the wee hours of the morning, but by dawn the rain had stopped and it promised to be another nice day. The Club workers cooked ham, cheese and egg English Muffins for everyone for breakfast - compliments of Purina and they were very popular.

TEST 5: LAND TRIPLE WITH ONE RETIRED GUN, HONOUR

 

Tests 5 and 6 - Land Triple and Blind

 

Test 6 - Blind

Dog 32 had to be scratched this morning as she came into season. There were therefore only hirty-one dogs running test 5. This was a triple with a retired gun. The long right gun ( Gun 1: 350 yards) threw a mallard drake from right to left and then retired behind a bale. The second gun (Gun 2) was positioned adjacent to some willow cover and threw a pheasant from left to right, landing behind a hay bale 106 yards from line. The third bird (a mallard drake) was 168 yards away, thrown from right to left, landing approximately in line with the pheasant.. There was then an honour. The first running dog started the test at 7:50 am and the test took 7-8 minutes/dog.

A number of dogs had difficulty with this test. Some dogs blew through the short gun to the long gun, and then needed to be handled back to pick up the short bird. Many backsided the middle gun, but most found the bird with little difficulty. One dog, having already picked up the short gun, barreled through gun station 2 on the way to the longer gun 3 - knocking over the bird can with a loud clang and spilling beautiful cock pheasants all over the ground. Especially late in the test, many dogs broke down their hunt when they were short of the long gun (Gun 1) - some may have encountered drag-back scent, others may just have mismarked which bale the gunners were seated behind. The wind changed a number of times - from South-East to North-West to dead calm but did not seem to be a big factor for most dogs. There were 8 handles and one pickup in this test. 7 dogs were dropped: Dogs 3, 5, 7, 15, 16, 25 and 41. Twenty-four dogs were called back to the 6 th series, a land blind.

TEST 6: LAND BLIND

This blind had a no-sight initial line, starting just behind the left slope of the mound that the marks were run off of. The dogs then went down a steep slope and had to hold their line through a distinct patch of grass cover, pass just left of a bale and carry through a number of dips and swails 390 yards to the blind. The wind was variable in intensity but prevailed from the Northwest.

Many dogs had some trouble getting a good initial line and had to be handled right to get the patch of cover but then had difficulty taking a cast back into the wind. A few dogs disappeared behind bales as they were stopped and a couple of dogs who were right of the line seemed to trail the blind-planters and refused casts to the left. In general, most of the dogs who had trouble were refusing the left hand casts into the wind. Although there was a great deal of concern about visibility (looking back towards white clouds in the bright sunny sky), mostly this resulted in worry and wardrobe changes for the handlers rather than any real difficulty for the dogs. (“Are you going to wear white or black?” was a commonly heard question.). Four dogs were dropped : Dogs 9, 31, 35, and 39.

TEST 7: WATER TRIPLE

 

Twenty dogs were called back to the 7th series, a water triple. The line was on the North side of a very large pond facing South and East. The large pond had a tapering canal out the West end of the pond (10 yards wide at its narrowest point).

The No.1 bird on the left (160 yards) was thrown from right to left - from the base of a point to a spot midway down the point and this gun retired. The No.2 bird (218 yards) was thrown with a large arc from left to right to land in front of a bale. The correct line to this bird was over a running mound and through heavy grasses just as the dog exited the canal. When they sat down, only the heads and shoulders of these gunners were visible to the dog from the line The No. 3 bird was thrown from the base of a mound (124 yards from the running line) to land on the top of the front face of the running mound and those gunners sat down partially obscured by a hay bale. The test started at just after 3pm There was a slight breeze coming from the NorthWest.

A few dogs had a bit of a hunt on the go bird before going up on the mound to find the bird. Most of the dogs or handlers selected the left hand retired gun second, but this caused problems for some of the dogs. A few of the dogs split the difference between the 1 st and 2 nd gunners and had a hunt or a handle before finding the gunners at station 1. Many dogs landed at the base of the point on or around the blind surrounding the retired gun - they generally then hunted the point and scented the bird. There were handles and pick-upsp on this bird. The No.3 long bird caused less difficulty - a few dogs went fat in the water and landed on the left side of the guns, but seemed able to re-orient themselves once they caught sight of the gunners. There were quite a few handles and 2 pick-ups. The test finished just before 8pm, leaving the judges tired but in full control for tomorrow. Dogs 28 and 38 were dropped after this test, leaving 18 dogs to run the 8 th series tomorrow, a land series. Dog 23 will start.

 

Writeup and photos submitted by Sue Taylor