G
Guest
·First I want to thank everyone that was part of the Field Trial. It was great to see a lot of you that I have not seen in a long time, due to my inability to get back in the swing after changing jobs, getting married, building a new house and learning to be a Dad to 4 children.
I would like to take the time to give my perspective on how the open was run. I am not a judge and don?t ever want to be, it is a thankless job! My hat is off to all judges! Some keep on judging when they do not even have dogs anymore, now that is impressive.
Here is what happened at the open while I was there, which I was the entire 3 days as stake chairman.
The first series;
It was setup as a quad. We ran the test dog around 9 am, mainly due to the sun, but there was a slow down on setups as well due to the grounds being quit wet, limiting us to use a 4-wheeler for getting equipment out to the stations, (4 stations) and only one 4-wheeler available. Long gun was thrown first, with an experienced thrower out there, as well as a backup, but he was a new thrower, and 17 yrs. old, but, a good arm. The flyer was the 2nd station and thrown by who all would consider the most experienced in ducks, the fella that we buy the ducks from, which all you out there know him very well, what a great guy! The 3rd station was thrown by a Pro?s hired man, he certainly knows how to throw! The 4th station was thrown by another kid that was experienced and we have had nothing but great comments about his throws over the years, he had a backup, new kid, but age of 17. Did we have to put 2 throwers at each station, no we did not, but we accommodated the requests. Granted this went until noon the next day, but remember we did have 85 dogs to start with and 4 scratches. so a quad. is going to take some time to do when it is a long one, with water included in the test.
Second series;
This test did not take anytime at all to setup.
This was a land blind, with 3 poison bird stations. The short one with a popper and a planted bird which was picked up. The other two; one consisted of 10 ducks lying out in the open to the east of the long blind, the other was 6 ducks in a crate to the west of the blind, the wind was out of the west. It took about 10 mins a dog and there were 46 dogs. We finished by 5:00 PM on Sat. There was a decision to not start the water blind until the next day.
Third series;
This test took no time to setup either. This test took about 10 mins. a dog and it was a water blind. There were about 26 dogs for this test. We were done by around 11 AM.
Fourth series;
This test took some time to setup. First I had to go out in the water and cut cattails. This took some time since I had to change into chest waders from hip waders after realizing I could not get to all the cattails the judges wanted cut down. This took me about 45 mins. total. I was the only adult out there working the setups, other then the judges. So that took me out of commission as far as setting up stations for the first 45 mins. On this test, we only had 13 dogs back. It was a long water mark on 2 stations and a shorter mom and pop stations. They all had experienced throwers and the long guns from my vantage pt., which was in a bad spot, and I could still see the throws which was very impressive. There was one station of these 4 that had a new thrower, but like I said, I could see the throws from my view. I can not say how impressive those throws were, I know if it was me running a dog I would have been pleased with them. Here is the kicker on the 4th series starting. I had to take two kids to the club house to catch a ride home. I was also going to watch traffic once I got back. Unknown to me they waited until I got back. I had no idea that was the case, had I known, I would have probably suggested that someone come out there to watch traffic until I got back. That basically was my fault for not following up on prior to taking the kids back to the club.
On another point,
The first day and a half, the line was quit a ways from the parking. As well there were many dogs in the open there were running in the qual. I believe the club members involved did a great job coordinating all of this. I also want to thank all the handlers for their cooperation! It is a great bunch of guys/gals! As well, we split up the chair and the marshal to do a double marshal job if you will. One person was up on the road while the other was down by the line.
:lol:
I would like to take the time to give my perspective on how the open was run. I am not a judge and don?t ever want to be, it is a thankless job! My hat is off to all judges! Some keep on judging when they do not even have dogs anymore, now that is impressive.
Here is what happened at the open while I was there, which I was the entire 3 days as stake chairman.
The first series;
It was setup as a quad. We ran the test dog around 9 am, mainly due to the sun, but there was a slow down on setups as well due to the grounds being quit wet, limiting us to use a 4-wheeler for getting equipment out to the stations, (4 stations) and only one 4-wheeler available. Long gun was thrown first, with an experienced thrower out there, as well as a backup, but he was a new thrower, and 17 yrs. old, but, a good arm. The flyer was the 2nd station and thrown by who all would consider the most experienced in ducks, the fella that we buy the ducks from, which all you out there know him very well, what a great guy! The 3rd station was thrown by a Pro?s hired man, he certainly knows how to throw! The 4th station was thrown by another kid that was experienced and we have had nothing but great comments about his throws over the years, he had a backup, new kid, but age of 17. Did we have to put 2 throwers at each station, no we did not, but we accommodated the requests. Granted this went until noon the next day, but remember we did have 85 dogs to start with and 4 scratches. so a quad. is going to take some time to do when it is a long one, with water included in the test.
Second series;
This test did not take anytime at all to setup.
This was a land blind, with 3 poison bird stations. The short one with a popper and a planted bird which was picked up. The other two; one consisted of 10 ducks lying out in the open to the east of the long blind, the other was 6 ducks in a crate to the west of the blind, the wind was out of the west. It took about 10 mins a dog and there were 46 dogs. We finished by 5:00 PM on Sat. There was a decision to not start the water blind until the next day.
Third series;
This test took no time to setup either. This test took about 10 mins. a dog and it was a water blind. There were about 26 dogs for this test. We were done by around 11 AM.
Fourth series;
This test took some time to setup. First I had to go out in the water and cut cattails. This took some time since I had to change into chest waders from hip waders after realizing I could not get to all the cattails the judges wanted cut down. This took me about 45 mins. total. I was the only adult out there working the setups, other then the judges. So that took me out of commission as far as setting up stations for the first 45 mins. On this test, we only had 13 dogs back. It was a long water mark on 2 stations and a shorter mom and pop stations. They all had experienced throwers and the long guns from my vantage pt., which was in a bad spot, and I could still see the throws which was very impressive. There was one station of these 4 that had a new thrower, but like I said, I could see the throws from my view. I can not say how impressive those throws were, I know if it was me running a dog I would have been pleased with them. Here is the kicker on the 4th series starting. I had to take two kids to the club house to catch a ride home. I was also going to watch traffic once I got back. Unknown to me they waited until I got back. I had no idea that was the case, had I known, I would have probably suggested that someone come out there to watch traffic until I got back. That basically was my fault for not following up on prior to taking the kids back to the club.
On another point,
The first day and a half, the line was quit a ways from the parking. As well there were many dogs in the open there were running in the qual. I believe the club members involved did a great job coordinating all of this. I also want to thank all the handlers for their cooperation! It is a great bunch of guys/gals! As well, we split up the chair and the marshal to do a double marshal job if you will. One person was up on the road while the other was down by the line.
:lol:
