You place them

[mostlygold]

Derby Stake - I will stick with the 7 dogs that finished. By nice marks I mean the dogs took good line to mark and had no hunt. Excellent marks means you could draw a straight line from the mat to the mark. First 2 series marks were not very challenging and most dogs did them pretty well. 3rd series was short mark first followed by long flyer; most handlers opted to primary select the short mark and take the flyer as a memory bird. Dogs #1, 3 & 4 took long flyer first.

Dog #1 - 1st series - nice marks; 2nd series - nice marks; 3rd series - controlled break on 1st bird (judge actually waited until handler had dog back in heel before calling for 2nd bird which was the flyer) - nice marks; 4th series - minor cheat on go bird, took both pieces of water on 2nd bird, came up a little wide but went straight to mark.

Dog #2 - 1st series - nice marks; 2nd series - excellent marks; 3rd series - nice marks - no hunt on long bird; 4th series - minor cheat on go bird; took both pieces of water on 2nd bird, came up a little wide but went straight to mark.

Dog #3 - 1st series - nice marks; 2nd series - nice marks; 3rd series - nice marks - no hunt on long bird; 4th series - minor cheat on go bird; took first piece of water, cheated around 2nd piece of water (shallow cove); went straight to bird

Dog #4 - 1st series - nice go bird; moderate hunt on memory; 2nd series - excellent marks; 3rd series - hunted short in water, then went straight to long bird, good short bird; 4th series; slightly more of a cheat on go bird; cheated both pieces of water on memory but went straight to bird.

Dog #5 - 1st series - nice marks; 2nd series - nice marks; 3rd series - came up out of the water on the long mark on the correct side of the guns, but went deep and had a very big hunt, behind the guns and deep of the mark, eventually found the bird; 4th series - only dog to take correct line to go bird; took 1st piece of water, cheated 2nd piece of water and came up a little wide, but went straight to bird.

Dog #6 - 1st series - nice mark; 2nd series - nice marks; 3rd series - came up on the correct side of the guns, but went deep and had a moderately long hunt (not as big as dog #5); 4th series - minor cheat on go bird; took both pieces of water on memory, came up a little wide, but went straight to bird

Dog #7 - 1st series - nice marks, 2nd series - nice marks; 3rd series - came up wide to the right of the mark and went deep, had a very long hunt, longer than dog #5 but eventually came up with bird; 4th series - hooked gun station on the go bird; took both pieces of water on memory bird and went straight to bird.

I was not judging this stake but here are my placements:
1st place - Dog #2
2nd place - Dog #3
3rd place - Dog #1
4th place - Dog #6
RJAM - Dog #5
JAM's to Dogs #4 & 7

Here are the actual placements
Dog #1 was given first place
Dog #2 was given second place
Dog #6 was given third place
Dog #7 was given fourth place
Dog #3 was given RJAM
Dogs #4 & 5 were given JAM's

Go figure!

[Granddaddy]

Sounds like there was not enough test to get good separation which can lead to dogs being placed based upon personal preference of style, lines run etc because there is littler discernable difference in the marking ability of several dogs.

[Dogtrainer4God]

I would agree with the first three places, I think I would have more put #5 and #7 in JAMS.
IMHO,

Abby

[mostlygold]

Granddaddy - that was indeed part of the problem. None of the 4 series really had enough of a challenge to show good marking ability. At the end of the 2nd series, I could see no real separation in the dogs. It almost seemed to me that the dogs were judged on the last mark. Any dog taking both pieces of water placed, despite their earlier performances. It was quite an interesting day.

[John Gassner]

I care more about how well the dog marked than if it takes a couple of pieces of water, especially in a Derby. Obviously tougher tests would have helped. If time permitted, another series would be a nice option.

Hard to say unless you actually held the book. Everyone's memory is a little different.


John