Saturday, June 22, 2002 |
Test 9 from the line
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Zoom view with blind marked
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Test 9 - Land Blind/Poison Bird
The big day began very promising. It was in the upper 50's, partly cloudy and little wind at 6:30 as participants traveled to the site on #9, the mountain climb to the meadow below, near HQ. There a single blind was nearly ready when contestants arrived. The line was located deep to the left of the pervious one and faced toward the old right, retired mark. A line mat was placed at the bottom of about a 3 ft. swale making it a "no-see-um start". To recover the blind, dogs had to go up over the swale and down the undulating hill to the bird below where the rooster pheasant lay at the base of a bush marked with a red ribbon 200 yards away.
At 7:40 the test teams began demonstrating that the dogs could roll left toward the old fall and needed a a few casts to keep them on line through the terrain. After the second team ran, judges had a poison bird gun placed on a hill to the right. He threw a dead rooster to the right and picked it up after each dog. Then they ran a third test dog and, satisfied with the results, asked for the first running dog. At 8:10 the first running dog, #105, initiated the blind.
Most dogs had several whistles to recover the bird, most nudged to the left by the old fall, hill and "no" off the poison bird. Several had handles near the blind since dogs could disappear behind surrounding bushes
Just before 9 am the ninth ended when #25 returned to line. All dogs were called back to the tenth.
Most people had been to the new site before so , once back over the mountain, most drove over on their own. Once on site, a wide land water quad was set up in an expansive pasture. The site was just off Poe road and easily accessible.
At 7:40 the test teams began demonstrating that the dogs could roll left toward the old fall and needed a a few casts to keep them on line through the terrain. After the second team ran, judges had a poison bird gun placed on a hill to the right. He threw a dead rooster to the right and picked it up after each dog. Then they ran a third test dog and, satisfied with the results, asked for the first running dog. At 8:10 the first running dog, #105, initiated the blind.
Most dogs had several whistles to recover the bird, most nudged to the left by the old fall, hill and "no" off the poison bird. Several had handles near the blind since dogs could disappear behind surrounding bushes
Just before 9 am the ninth ended when #25 returned to line. All dogs were called back to the tenth.
Most people had been to the new site before so , once back over the mountain, most drove over on their own. Once on site, a wide land water quad was set up in an expansive pasture. The site was just off Poe road and easily accessible.
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Test 10, Land/water quad - two ret.guns
The line was located in a grazed pasture that rolled slightly down to an area of islands and surrounding water. To the left, across a pond sat a flyer gunner station . They shot a flying hen pheasant to the left. It fell in pasture grass 170 yards out. Deeper, and to the right a second set od guns threw a dead pheasant across a strip of water to the land beyond. (It appeared to fall on the island in front, but did not). It landed in the pasture 190 yards away. Closer to line and again to the right, a third station shot a flying duck across the water where it landed on the far shore 126 yards from line. Very deep and to the far right a fourth set shot a flying rooster well ridden out to the left. The order was: Far right, middle left, far left, middle right. As the dog was sent for the closest flyer, only they and the left station remained out. It was a humongous test.
Once the cars were parked, test teams were called to the line. They arrived via a four wheeler decked out in an American flag and red, white and blue streamers. Willow had a 3 strand necklace of beads and seemed to enjoy the attention. At 10:25 am Glenn and Willie ran first to the strains of "Proud To Be An American " emanating from the PA system. He handled as did Susan and Willow. It took about 22-25 minutes to complete. As they and each competing team arrived on line, announcer Dean Ellis provided their names, titles, owners and handler. Contestants were allowed to view the line for a time, then requested to ready their dogs.
At 11:25 the first running dog, #44 stepped from the holding blind.
The sheer amount of birds, shot flyers, distance and terrain made it difficult for dogs to retain a sharp memory of all four marks. The center two were quite tight to one another and a short, "dummy" blind on the near middle left confused some dogs. The left middle fall caused hunting and handling. It's proximity to the middle right one and a switching wind wafting scent from it's crates created a difficult situation. The left one was pretty straight forward and dogs had the least amount of trouble on it. However the far right one lay across two strips of water in the pasture beyond with a retired gun station. After recovering the previous three (perhaps with a handle on one), a dog's memory could become dimmed. That, too caused hunts and a handle or two.
It was a time consuming and defining test that went well into the afternoon. Almost all of the dogs handled on one, sometines two birds, except for three. Those were: 85,70 and 69. It took 20-25 mpd to complete the test. Unfortunately, the last dog,# 26 (earlier NB) broke and he could not become a finalist. Therefore the National was completed about 5:15 when she returned to the handler.
In a short while, the awards were made in the field. Each finalist was introduced and presented with a chrystal champange flute and sterling silver photo frame. Then the winner, 01 NAFC-FC Candlewood's Ramblin' Man owned by Jim and Judy Powers, handled by Jim, was declared the Winner. Champagne was served the finalists and Jim and Judy invited all to a winners party at the Shilo a bit later.
Once the cars were parked, test teams were called to the line. They arrived via a four wheeler decked out in an American flag and red, white and blue streamers. Willow had a 3 strand necklace of beads and seemed to enjoy the attention. At 10:25 am Glenn and Willie ran first to the strains of "Proud To Be An American " emanating from the PA system. He handled as did Susan and Willow. It took about 22-25 minutes to complete. As they and each competing team arrived on line, announcer Dean Ellis provided their names, titles, owners and handler. Contestants were allowed to view the line for a time, then requested to ready their dogs.
At 11:25 the first running dog, #44 stepped from the holding blind.
The sheer amount of birds, shot flyers, distance and terrain made it difficult for dogs to retain a sharp memory of all four marks. The center two were quite tight to one another and a short, "dummy" blind on the near middle left confused some dogs. The left middle fall caused hunting and handling. It's proximity to the middle right one and a switching wind wafting scent from it's crates created a difficult situation. The left one was pretty straight forward and dogs had the least amount of trouble on it. However the far right one lay across two strips of water in the pasture beyond with a retired gun station. After recovering the previous three (perhaps with a handle on one), a dog's memory could become dimmed. That, too caused hunts and a handle or two.
It was a time consuming and defining test that went well into the afternoon. Almost all of the dogs handled on one, sometines two birds, except for three. Those were: 85,70 and 69. It took 20-25 mpd to complete the test. Unfortunately, the last dog,# 26 (earlier NB) broke and he could not become a finalist. Therefore the National was completed about 5:15 when she returned to the handler.
In a short while, the awards were made in the field. Each finalist was introduced and presented with a chrystal champange flute and sterling silver photo frame. Then the winner, 01 NAFC-FC Candlewood's Ramblin' Man owned by Jim and Judy Powers, handled by Jim, was declared the Winner. Champagne was served the finalists and Jim and Judy invited all to a winners party at the Shilo a bit later.
L to R: Chril Calgren, Gary Ahlgren,
Don Shaw and Gary Zellner |
Test team Glenn Gulvin, Willie and
flag draped 4 wheeler. |
