This years team were Kevin Doughty (Open) Chris Brown (Novice) and Kelvin Smith (Novice dog, Novice handler)
Sunday was a lovely bright sunny day with very little breeze, twenty teams made up of three dogs and handlers where to take part in the Southern Inter – Club Competition at Windsor.
We arrived early for a 9.30am start, tea and coffee awaited us for when we collected our numbers along with a file of which contained instructions to which order we would complete the tests, at each test we would give a card to the judge which he/she marked our scores on and kept to be handed in once the test was completed, I’ve never seen this before it worked really well and enabled the scores to be added up through the day rather than leaving it all to the end.
We started at test 5 this test was judged by Mark Polley. Three dummy throwers were placed on the far bank of a very beautiful lake with a small island in the middle. There were three shots fired the first dummy was thrown to the left hand side of the lake some distance up the bank into thick bracken this retrieve would be for the open dog. The next dummy was thrown to the right of the lake into cover just out of the water this retrieve would be for the novice dog. The next dummy was thrown onto the water just behind the island this retrieve was for the ND/NH who was to be sent first, once picked the novice dog would be sent once the novice dog had picked the open dog could send in his own time for the memory. We all picked successfully with minimal handling.
We then moved onto test 6 this was judged by John Stubbs. This was to be a walk up with the Judge paying close attention to our heal work. Once again the ND/NH was to be sent first, there was a shot fired and a mark to our right about 60/70yrds across a stubble field once the dog had returned you could then send in your own time for a blind out in front down a hedge line. This was repeated with the blind being longer for the novice dog and even longer again for the open dog. We all completed this successfully with once again very little handling.
From test 6 we went to test 1 this was judged by Alan Buckland. This test was another walk up through what looked like a Christmas tree plantation. A shot was fired and a dummy was thrown to our right the ND/NH was sent first once picked the exercise was repeated for the novice dog. Once the novice dog had returned a shot was fired and a dummy was thrown way out in front, this took us all by surprise as we were expecting another mark to the right. Kevin’s dog had marked this well and it wasn’t long before he was returning with the dummy, we all scored maximum points on this test.
Test 2 was judged by Barbara Kuen. For this test there was a blind retrieve for us all without a shot in grass about knee high, the ND/NH was to go first for a short blind, next the turn of the novice dog this blind was about 60 yrds straight in front. Then it was the turn of the Open dog which was a lot further again, once the open dog had been cast off you was allowed to move forward to a stake in ground but once again it wasn’t long before Zoro was returning with his retrieve. This was another successful test for us with only two points dropped between us.
Test 3 was judged by Colin Pelham. This test had been set up in the open part of a wood with a clearing to the left and bracken to the right, in front about 70/80yrds were two fallen trees. Three dummy throwers were standing in front of us the first was to our left the next was in the middle and the last dummy thrower was to the far right throwing into the bracken. Before we started the judge explained that we had to make our mind up to which order the dummy’s were going to be picked, the decision was made that I took the dummy to the left, the novice dog to the right and the open dog would have the longest retrieve way past the fallen trees. I couldn’t get Isla’s attention off the first two dummy’s thrown which meant she failed to mark her dummy, we did pick in the end but far too much handling meant the points just fell away! Never mind chin up and we moved onto the next test, another water retrieve to end what had been a really lovely day.
Test 6 was judged by Joy Venturi Rose. This test was a Duck drive for this test we were all asked to stand behind a screen with our dogs so they couldn’t see what was about to happen. Once again a dummy to the left a dummy out in front and a long swim to the right for the third dummy. Once all the commotion was over we were allowed to come out from behind the screen and make up our mind who was going to pick what. The Open dog was to be sent first and made a good job of retrieving the dummy to the right which was by now a long way down the lake. Both ND/NH and the novice dog were successful in retrieving what we had made up our mind we would pick but again quite a lot of handling. The last two tests were by far the most difficult and this is definitely where the points were lost. We finished the day with a huge group photo, a cup of tea and more cake to choose from than I think I’ve ever seen!!
Report by Kelvin Smith