On 11th May we had our annual fun day come working test.<\/p>\n
This day is to give handlers an opportunity to work towards something with their dogs and to test both the handlers and dogs ability in test conditions.<\/p>\n
We started the day at 11\u00a0o’clock\u00a0when i was joined by our 2 judges John Hilton and Barney Hall. John being a spaniel man and Barney a\u00a0Labrador\u00a0man so thought this would be a good combination. I choose John and Barney for 2 main reason’s they both work their own dogs to a good level picking up all season but more importantly I \u00a0knew they would be fair on each handler without being to harsh in there scoring.<\/p>\n
I set the tesst earlier in the week. The tests consisted\u00a0of 4\u00a0individual\u00a0test.<\/p>\n
Test 1 was a timed\u00a0memory\u00a0retrieve between two sets of straw bales. I done this test first to settle the handlers down and to give the dogs a\u00a0chance\u00a0to have a quick burst run to get rid of any edge or tension they were picking up off \u00a0there handlers.<\/p>\n
Test 2 was a marked retrieve followed by a blind\u00a0retrieve. Puppies which were dogs under 18 months of age were allowed to pick these in which ever order however the adults had to watch the marked retrieve then\u00a0retrieve\u00a0the blind retrieve first.<\/p>\n
Test 3 was a double mark once again the puppies\u00a0which were dogs under 18 months of age were allowed to pick these in which ever order however the adults had to watch both marked retrieve’s then pick the dummy which was thrown first.<\/p>\n
Test 4 was a marked\u00a0retrieve\u00a0followed by a distraction, which was a bolting rabbit! Which is a dummy on a piece of elastic. The puppies then had to leave the\u00a0distraction\u00a0and pick the marked dummy. Once a gain a little harder for the adult, there\u00a0were\u00a0to marked\u00a0retrieves\u00a0then the bolting rabbit. The handler then had to send their dog past the\u00a0distraction\u00a0ant the first dummy to retrieve the dummy behind the first two\u00a0distractions.<\/p>\n
Both handlers and dogs had an eventful day whilst trying to\u00a0avoid\u00a0the rain, but when the sun did show up it made the day more\u00a0pleasurable.<\/p>\n
After all four tests were complete we stopped for lunch.<\/p>\n
Whilst everybody enjoyed the hog roast i\u00a0added up the score’s and made our cut for the final.<\/p>\n
5 adults made the cut for the Adult \u00a0final and 3 puppies made the cut for the puppy final.<\/p>\n
The test we set for the adults was a blind\u00a0retrieve\u00a0over a jump followed by a duck call then a marked\u00a0retrieve\u00a0from the dummy launcher. Then duck call and marked\u00a0retrieve\u00a0came first then the handler set there dogs up to\u00a0retrieve\u00a0the blind\u00a0retrieve\u00a0from\u00a0the\u00a0jump\u00a0first.<\/p>\n
The puppy test was very similar, we\u00a0didn’t\u00a0use any shot due to the age of the dogs so they had a thrown dummy and a blind\u00a0retrieve\u00a0over a jump.<\/p>\n
We had 25\u00a0entries\u00a015 adults and 10 puppies.<\/p>\n
3 golden retrievers<\/p>\n
1 Cocker spaniel<\/p>\n
1 Nova Scotia duck tolling\u00a0retriever.<\/p>\n
5 English springer spaniels<\/p>\n
and 15\u00a0Labradors.<\/p>\n
Results.<\/p>\n
Adults.<\/strong><\/p>\n 1st Ella with her black\u00a0Labrador\u00a0Gin<\/p>\n 2nd Paul with his golden\u00a0retriever\u00a0Seth<\/p>\n 3rd “T” with her black\u00a0Labrador\u00a0Lillie.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Puppies.<\/strong><\/p>\n 1st Kieran with his\u00a0English\u00a0springer spaniel Arwen.<\/p>\n 2nd Mark with his black\u00a0Labrador\u00a0Jetta<\/p>\n 3rd Robert with his yellow\u00a0Labrador\u00a0Miester<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Fastest retrieve\u00a0also went to\u00a0\u00a0“T” with her black\u00a0Labrador\u00a0Lillie with a winning time of 14.13 seconds.<\/p>\n Steadiest dog also went to\u00a0\u00a0Ella with her black\u00a0Labrador\u00a0Gin.<\/p>\n Top handler went to\u00a0Natalie\u00a0with her black\u00a0Labrador\u00a0Floss.<\/p>\n I just want to thank everyone for there hard work in setting up the day and all the donations for the raffle and desserts.<\/p>\n Thank you to quest gundogs for\u00a0donating\u00a0raffles prizes for our dogs for the disabled raffle.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n\t\t