A report on the Open?
This is delayed a bit, since I drove home and got caught in an ice storm in Kentucky and later a snow storm in Illinois. Had to stay in a motel for over 12 hours. Saw numerous wrecks through Illinois. Now that I have had a day to rest up, I have enough energy to post. First I want to thank Barb and Jerry for being stake chairman and marshal. Could not have had a successful weekend without you two. The land work was done on Mike Lardy?s property. Had excellent terrain and cover for both the land marks and land blind. The water blind and marks were done at Lynn and Mac Du Bose?s property. The first series was a triple with one retired gun. The retired gun was 270 yds away. We had both a thrower and a popper on that station?very visible. The line to this mark was through ponds that had just a trace of water (maybe 6 ?inches deep on part of it). This with the terrain made most of the dogs not go directly to the area of the fall and had significant hunts. The second bird down was a single thrower who sat down in a chair which was visible to the handler but the dogs could not see the station till they got half way to the mark?this was 160 yds away. Many of the dogs hunted on the wrong side of the throw due to the terrain and a little water in front of the line. The flyer was off to the right at 150 yds, thrown with the wind and completely out of the test. The two memory marks were down wind. There were 65 starters and 42 made it back to the land blind. There were no handles called back?there were no successful handles in the first series.
The first series concluded about 4:30 pm on Friday. The land blind started Saturday morning. The line was deep of the flyer station, partly behind a mound. The handlers could walk up on the mound to handle. There was terrific suction to the right on this blind. If the handlers did not get an early whistle and correct the line on the dogs, they quickly got too far off line, where they could not get successfully back and complete the blind. This is a blind where if you had a string of dogs you would go to school on this blind and the handling would get better. But the handlers were amateurs, most with one chance. They thought the dog would carry the line?they waited too long before putting the first whistle on the dog. 23 dogs were called back to the water blind.
The water blind was at Du Bose?s. We took advantage of a recent down live oak tree, blown down in the recent hurricane. So we were pretty sure people had not had a chance to train with this diversion. We had a poison bird and the line to the blind was under the arc. Some dogs succumbled to the poison bird. Other dogs got out of the water early on the shore to the left of the blind and had trouble. We called 14 dogs back to the water marks.
The water marks started Sunday morning at 10 am. We waited for all the amateurs to come over and see the test dog run. We had twelve handlers for the 14 dogs?there was one pro with one dog. This was a water quad with two retired guns. The test took about 20 minutes per dog. 7 dogs did the test without handling. The test was completed about 4 pm and the placements took about 5 minutes as the dogs clearly separated themselves. The winning dog had an excellent first series (I had it as the best land marks in the trial). Its land blind was good. Its water blind was excellent. Its water marks were the best in the trial?excellent ones.
Jack
This is delayed a bit, since I drove home and got caught in an ice storm in Kentucky and later a snow storm in Illinois. Had to stay in a motel for over 12 hours. Saw numerous wrecks through Illinois. Now that I have had a day to rest up, I have enough energy to post. First I want to thank Barb and Jerry for being stake chairman and marshal. Could not have had a successful weekend without you two. The land work was done on Mike Lardy?s property. Had excellent terrain and cover for both the land marks and land blind. The water blind and marks were done at Lynn and Mac Du Bose?s property. The first series was a triple with one retired gun. The retired gun was 270 yds away. We had both a thrower and a popper on that station?very visible. The line to this mark was through ponds that had just a trace of water (maybe 6 ?inches deep on part of it). This with the terrain made most of the dogs not go directly to the area of the fall and had significant hunts. The second bird down was a single thrower who sat down in a chair which was visible to the handler but the dogs could not see the station till they got half way to the mark?this was 160 yds away. Many of the dogs hunted on the wrong side of the throw due to the terrain and a little water in front of the line. The flyer was off to the right at 150 yds, thrown with the wind and completely out of the test. The two memory marks were down wind. There were 65 starters and 42 made it back to the land blind. There were no handles called back?there were no successful handles in the first series.
The first series concluded about 4:30 pm on Friday. The land blind started Saturday morning. The line was deep of the flyer station, partly behind a mound. The handlers could walk up on the mound to handle. There was terrific suction to the right on this blind. If the handlers did not get an early whistle and correct the line on the dogs, they quickly got too far off line, where they could not get successfully back and complete the blind. This is a blind where if you had a string of dogs you would go to school on this blind and the handling would get better. But the handlers were amateurs, most with one chance. They thought the dog would carry the line?they waited too long before putting the first whistle on the dog. 23 dogs were called back to the water blind.
The water blind was at Du Bose?s. We took advantage of a recent down live oak tree, blown down in the recent hurricane. So we were pretty sure people had not had a chance to train with this diversion. We had a poison bird and the line to the blind was under the arc. Some dogs succumbled to the poison bird. Other dogs got out of the water early on the shore to the left of the blind and had trouble. We called 14 dogs back to the water marks.
The water marks started Sunday morning at 10 am. We waited for all the amateurs to come over and see the test dog run. We had twelve handlers for the 14 dogs?there was one pro with one dog. This was a water quad with two retired guns. The test took about 20 minutes per dog. 7 dogs did the test without handling. The test was completed about 4 pm and the placements took about 5 minutes as the dogs clearly separated themselves. The winning dog had an excellent first series (I had it as the best land marks in the trial). Its land blind was good. Its water blind was excellent. Its water marks were the best in the trial?excellent ones.
Jack
