Saturday, 19 September - 9th-Land Quad-10th Water Quad

We awoke to another clear day but there was frost on the pumpkins at 32 degrees. We caravanned north a few miles to a large cut hay field valley where the line was high on the east side. Across the big valley was a steep hillside with goldenrod, scattered orange sumach clumps and a few pine trees. The land quad started with a long gun 244 yards on the right throwing a drake to the left into the cover. On the left but long at 340 yards another pair of gunners stood in the far hillside cover and threw a drake right. Then the shorter right hand pair threw a hen duck steep angle back left into cover at 120 yards. Finally on the hill to the left a pair of gunners with a huge throw threw another hen angled down the hill and shot twice. Both the long guns retired. There was a group of Canada Goose decoys left of number 3 guns at 90 yards.The wind was very light from the north on right to left.
The first test dog, Grouse, run at 8:00 am by Tom Hawley did an excellent job. The second test dog, Nick with Marg Murray also did well but had to hunt long and hard in the area of fall of the long bird to scent. Judges scented all the areas and the test was a go at8:40 with dog no. 9 coming to line. Dogs started off doing quite well although there were a few hunts. At one point there was even discussion about whether there were enough hunts or weak birds but then we had some looser hunts on both long retireds. A couple of dogs drove the far hillside and we had a couple of handles, by the first bird change at 11 dogs. After the bird change the wind became more variable, sometimes from the left, sometimes from the right and also there seemed to be an uphill flow on the longest bird. We’ll be done close to noon when it is expected we will move back to headquarters for a water quad. Lately the dogs have been doing well There is lots of speculation about who and how many Finalists.

Click on photo to enlarge





Finished at noon with Callbacks almost 40 minutes later. The test took a bigger toll than most thought and 13 dogs have been called back to the 10th. The Finalists are #’s 7, 9, 27, 32, 43, 45, 57, 58, 59, 63, 64, 65, and 70. We’re moving to a water quad an awaiting set-up at Headquarters at 1:15pm.Tenth Series

It’s taken until 2:00 pm to set up the 10th Water Quad and get everybody gathered. The test was set-up on a hillside over-looking the same set of double ponds where we did the 8th series water blind yesterday. The first test dog was Richard Dresser with Willie. He had 3 good birds but missed the longest retired and eventually had to handle. The second test dog, Briar, run by Marg Murray had hunts on two but smacked the longest bird. The long bird is being changed as I write this so I won’t describe more until it is official.

Revised 10th. The longest bird was moved in across the pond to land. Another test dog, Tiny was run by Dennis Harwood. After he handled, the judges declared a go. No. 1 gunners were across the right hand pond at 145 yards on a clearing in the forest. They retired. No. 2 was across the left hand pond and down the shore at 200 yards. They also retired. No 3 was a big throw to the left on land at 158 yards (retired) and the last bird was in front to the right of the line at 90 yards. It was thrown into open water. After a few dogs we were getting some hunts but the dogs were getting the birds. The test was finished by 6:00 pm approximately. We are awaiting results. Only 1 dog handled and there were considerable good jobs. Quite a few dogs had short hunts on # 3 and quite a few dogs landed on the shore behind # 2. Also dog hunted in the forest opening on #1. Halfway through the test, # 1 and 2 gunners were in deep shadow and then the sun glare on the water became extreme. Consequently several dogs did not see #2. However, as testimony to the dogs, they often did well. At this point the gallery has not singled out a single dog but speculation is mounting. Of course, only the judges have seen ALL of the work.



The 10th Series Water Quad. This is a panorama shot so click on it to enlarge