SEPTEMBER 17, 2024
CALLBACKS: 1,4,5,6,9,11,12,13,14,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,25,29,30,31,32,33,34,40,42,43,44,45,46,47,49,50,51,52,54,55,57,58,59,62,65,66,68,71,74,75,76.
47 Dogs back.
Dogs dropped: 3,7,8,10,23,27,36,37,38,41,53,63,72,73.
Dog # 51 starts series 6, a land triple at the corner of Hazel Glen Rd and Hwy 654. Caravan 7:00 am.
UPDATE 5:10pm Dog #20 is on line with 11 dogs to go and one more bird change. Guessing it’ll be another 7:00 pm finish. Dogs are generally doing some nice work on the water blind. If they get the picture, they have no issue getting a good line down the shore and over the point. The short blind hasn’t seen too much trouble. The long blind gets interesting once the dogs hit the swale past the blind planter; most dogs drop their head in the scent and need a whistle to push them past. There have been issues where the dogs want to go right behind the poplars and then get a little loose at the end.
UPDATE 2:00pm We are just passed halfway through 61 dogs. There have been 6 DNF on the blinds. We’re going to be racing against the clock again today to get finished.
The September 17, 2024 Daily Report is brought to you by Banded – Avery Sporting Dogs (ASD) official sponsor of the National Retriever Club of Canada.
Good morning and welcome to Day 3 of the 2024 National Retriever Championship in Callander, ON. We were greeted with another glorious sunrise and with that another day of ground fog. @ 7:00am the temperature was 11 degrees but is expected to warm up to 27 by 2:00pm. The winds are calm and with what there is, is coming from the SW and rising to 5-7km this afternoon. Today’s breakfast is brought to you by Chris & Gary Mason – Thank you!
Today’s tests are concurrent series 4 & 5 – a water blind, then double land blind (by invitation). We are at the same location at the Lefebvre farm on Quae Quae Road as yesterday’s water triple and the running mats are also roughly in the same location.
Test 4 – water blind is run from the right hand mat and is down the right-hand shoreline of the same ponds as the water triple. The line is through two pieces of water, over the land bridge and over the point and down to the end of the pond. The blind planter is in a white coat and visible in a chair from the line, situated roughly near yesterday’s go-bird. The blind is 198 yards and planted with a hen mallard.
Once you run the water blind, you are asked to move to the left hand mat where you begin test 5 – the double land blind. You run the shorter land blind on the right @200 yards, then the left blind @ 300 yards. The water blind planter is in between the two blinds and the dogs must cross his trail en route to the long left blind. Deep of the blind planter is a shallow swale, a group of poplars on the right, and a large single pine tree to create a slot. Both land blinds incorporate a piece of the front pond. Both blinds are planted with hen mallards and the planters are concealed deep of the blinds.
Cici & Doug were up first today. Cici took an initial line to the land bridge then was left and behind the tules and Doug couldn’t see her so she was fat of the point.. Handlers were instructed that the point “is online”. Cici ran the long blind first and need a few whistles to get to where the blind planter is sitting. She got hung up on the scent trail then seemed to have difficulty seeing Doug with the tent and handlers in the background. It took several whistles and casts to push her past the poplars and out to the blind. The 2nd land blind (short) didn’t pose too many issues with a few whistles to keep her on line.
The second test dog Jameson, needed a whistle up front to put him on a better line into the water, from there he carried a good line over the land bridge and towards the middle of the point. He had one whistle before the point and carried the cast into the last piece of water. It was difficult to see him and he popped out in the right corner at the end of the pond and needed two more whistles to put him on the bird (10 yards back from the shore). The judges asked to run the short blind first to compare – Jameson took a couple of whistles to try to get the skinny edge of the pond, but he skirted the edge, then ping-ponged needing a few more whistles to the blind. There was a lot of suction to the left. Jameson was a little left getting into the water on the long land blind and needed a whistle to straighten out. He had a whistle on exiting the pond and carried it to near the blind planter where he flared left. He also seemed to get caught with some scent in the swale but pushed back towards the blind. The single pine tree pulled him left again and needed a couple of right-hand casts to the bird. Both tests combined take approximately 12: minutes.
Running dog #36 came to line at 8:35 am. Of the first eight dogs that ran, three dogs were not invited to the land blind or picked up, one dog was picked up on the long blind, and four dogs completed all three blinds.
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