Pat’s Perspective
We are at the 2017 National
Retriever Championship in Boston, Georgia.
We had a chilly start under overcast conditions most of the
morning. Around noon the sun came out
and it has turned out to be a beautiful day.
The wind has pretty much stayed steady around 7 mph out of the
northeast.
We are looking at a land triple
with a very challenging short hen pheasant.
This test would be termed an indented triple. Often times when running over 100 dogs a
short bird such as this gets easier as the day goes on. That hasn’t been the case here. The indented bird has held up all day. I’m sure that has made the judges happy. Another interesting fact is that the middle
bird has been virtually impossible when retrieved last. That is not surprising, but pretty much
forces the handlers to execute secondary selection. Another random observation is that there is a
prominent hay bale in the distance that the dogs seem to be keying off of. If they get drawn deep, the likelihood of recovering is slim.
There is nothing more beautiful
than a perfectly placed short bird that holds up for a full day. There aren’t many things more challenging
than placing a bird like this one. Some
of the birds that I have placed over the years that I thought were perfect
turned out to be less than desired. And
some of the short birds that I thought were fairly innocent have turned out to
be deadly.
The judges are certainly in a
position of strength with lots of material in their books. If this test is any indication for the rest
of the trial, we are in for a lot of
challenging tests in the upcoming week.
Stay tuned…….
