SERIES #9 AND #10
Callbacks were posted last evening at 11:00 p.m. Dogs invited to the nineth series were 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 19, 22, 28, 38, 41, 46, 61, 64, 66, 70 and 74; sixteen dogs with dot 70 to start.
The test was a water triple in the same area as yesterday’s water blind, Test 7. The weather was overcast and windy; the morning temperature was 10?. The running line was high on a ridge on the left bank of a pond disected by a dirt road. The pond is an abandoned, blooded gravel pit. The bank from the running line to the pond was very steep (about 45?) and the pond was 39 yards from the line. The first bird, a hen mallard, was thrown left to right into a small bay. The distance was 185 yards and this was gun retired. Bird 2, a drake, was 12? right of gun 1 and also thrown right into a bay just inside the roadway a distance of 101 yards. The third bird, a hen, was thrown left of the line to bird 1, also 101 yards. Gunning stations 1 and 3 were in line. The first two test dogs handled but the judges showed their grit and continued with a very challenging and excellent test. The work varied but there were excellent jobs. Dogs called back for series 10, all finalists in the 1999 Canadian National Retriever Championship were; 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 19, 38, 41, 64, 66, 70 and 74.
The site for the tenth series was just several hundred yards northeast of the last test. This series was a water quad with two retired guns (guns 1 and 2). Dog 2 was the starting dog. The test site was another flooded gravel pit with two large diagonal ridges of highly piled gravel which crated two water channels beside the pont. Mark 1 was thrown right on the far side of the pond and back along the shore into a puddle to cause a splash. This mark of 202 yards was a mallard hen. Gun 2, to the left of 1, was only 48 yards. The throw was indented tothe right into the end of the channel. The bird was a mallard drake. Gun 3, a mallard drake was to the extreme right of the test, thrown right from the ridge to the shore at 78 yards. This was the longest of the four throws. The fourth bird was between guns 1 and 3 on the same ridge as gun 2 and thrown right and along the shore. This mallard hen was 98 yards from the line. Our twelve finalists and their experienced handlers all did an excellent job on this difficult test.
The test was completed at 4:30 p.m. and shortly thereafter the judges announced that
Dog #3, NFTCH RAINBOW MOLLIE, was the 1999 Canadian National Retriever Champion.
