Empire Trial

[Labber]

In Western New York.
36 dog open.
In line triple.

1st bird 300 yd Long Station, Tealfin and Blackstorm Jr.

2nd bird 175 yd Middle retired, Huntinalot
(Two stations with gunners who had arms like cannons, throwing a more realistic bird than the flyer station!)

3rd bird 150 yd flyer station

All birds thrown L 2 R

Yours truly marshalled.

36 dogs started (You can see the running order on Entry Express.)
24 called to 2nd series.

A 125 yd short blind on the right.
a 350 yd long blind on the left run under the arc of the fall of the middle retired gunner from the 1st test.

A poison bird station at 75 yds between the 2 blinds thrown R 2 Left.
Gunners Huntnalot (the brains) and Tealfin (the Brawn).

15 dogs brought back to Water for tomorrow.


Sorry, forgot my camera.

[quackaddict2]

sounds like ya had the dream team on the job there:nice work:

[blackstorm]

The Am today was a very stiff test, they used the field with the water filled ditch and ran from feeder dike. The test was an over under test with the long gun retiring to a brushed up blind. The flyer was launched from the mound inn the next field out towards the high power tower. started with 25 ended up with 14. the blind was a single blind agagin run from the dike but a little closer to the parking area. The line for the blind was over the end of the mound past the high power tower. They are going to water with 9 dogs. Don't know callbacks, I think one is Medie Robinsons dog

Open was won by Dan Devos with dog#35 and new FC FTCH Duk Dawg's Ali Mccall who also qualified for the US National this year - can't say how the test went I was throwing the long retired and saw nothing of the test. It was set up from the sand hill facing the big pond run from the pine trees. The flyer was on the right thrown from the dike down the dike and just catching the pond edge. the gun on the left side used a launcher and was thrown from the edge of the pond towards the other sand hill. My gun was on the back dike thrown from left to right if viewed from the line. I was inline with the edge of one island and the bird landed in line with edge of the other island. Not a huge throw about 20 yrds, but apparently very effective. They went in with 10 and finished 9 and I think Dan finished 3. Won with 35, and jams for Di Howards and Carol Brethets dogs.
Glynn

[huntnalot]

Hi Labber

I had a great time yesterday . Met a great bunch of people (including Jammer and his son ) .Threw a ton of birds .Iced the arm when I got home .Couldnt have asked for a nicer day . Good thing I had the sunscreen .Thanks again for the invite .

Gerald

[captainjack]

The first amateur test was not an over and under. It was a hip pocket with 150 yard seperation between the two stations. The long bird was retired and difficult to get to - about 250.

The difference between the two terms is that an over and under requires the running dog to go thru the arc of shorter gun's throw to the long bird. A hip pocket requires the dog to run behind the gunner to the long bird. There was ample room as the flyer which was the go bird was completely out of the picture - this is called a swing bird. But the comment was correct it proved to be a difficult test, but still gave over a 50% completion rate with many excellent jobs.

The land blind was about 120 yard due to the wind and the difficulty in hearing the whistle.

The water was - double with a retired gun on the long bird and wide open - long retired was about 225yd and short bird was about 75 years. Marks were shot first. The dog picked up the marks and then ran a water blind behind the short gun - water, land, water, out to sea and a cross wind . They had to negotiate about 75 yards of shore line onto a point and then off and carry about 125 to the bird placed at the base of an island. When the dog returned from the blind - there was an honour.

5 dogs finished out of the nine started - unfortunately our canadian handlers did not fare well as Pozzy and Medie did not finish.

Empire only had 25 running dogs and many Ontario handler missed an opportunity to support the club and have a great weekend - weather wise anyways.

The club is in need of members and if interested you should contact the executive about joining and helping out. I believe with membership you might even get the opportunity to do some training on the grounds. Check in with Glynn Mathews - I am sure they would appreciate some new "working" members.

That's all folks.

[captainjack]

Sorry there is more..... the first test was not a hip pocket as a hip pocket throws the bird to the hip pocket of the shorter mark. The long mark was thrown in the opposite direction of the throw on the short mark. I hesitate to call it a momma and pappa as the stations were so far from each other. Perhaps we should all read the section on a previous online where Dennis describes the terminology.

Now that's all folks.