Last Updated Monday, June 21, 2010
Sunday,
June 13: Made it to Billings, and on to Spokane tomorrow. Very uneventful trip so far, which is what I was looking for.
The boys make the acquaintance of the Sinclair dinosaur during a quick stop to check out what all the excitement regarding Wall Drug is about. Still not sure, but they have at least 50 bill boards advertising themselves once you get on I-90 in South Dakota.
Wednesday,June 16:Sorry for not having given any updates since Sunday. Things have been very hectic and I just haven't had time. Hopefully I'll catch up tonight, but we just got back from the banquet and first dog goes at 7AM tomorrow, so I'm fading fast and will do the best I can.
First of all, the last part of the trip was somewhat eventful. Only had to call the police on one occasion and it worked out okay, but was exciting for awhile. Also ran into Dennis Hopper reincarnated at the site of the Testical Festival in east jesus Montana. Details when I have time, but since most of you guys are more interested in the dog stuff I'll concentrate on that tonight. Lets just say Bozeman was way more exciting than I would have imagined.
Here's a picture of my training group for Tuesday and Wednesday. The Midwest folks were gracious enough to take me into their group, even though they've run with me before and knew the pitfalls involved. Actually I left them no choice, when I pretty much just walked up to them and refused to leave until they invited me. I believe Dan Hove's direct quote, after some minutes of uncomforatable silence in which I'm sure they were praying I'd take the hint and walk away, was "You don't want to train with us, do you?" A total absence of pride allowed me to say yes, and the die was cast.
Dan Hove, Bob Riggs, Dan Tongen, me, Dick Ofstedal. I'm trying to figure out what scenario we should set up. The other four boys are trying to figure out how they got themselves into this mess. Patsy Hove was also in the group, but refused to appear in a picture with me.
Also on Tuesday, I was able to help the test committee with a small relocation project. This was actually what I was working on right before I inserted myself in with the Minnesota/Iowa contingent, and it may have played a part in their reluctance to contenance the partnership.
This is just a quick picture of Vik and me after a wonderful dinner of Rocky Mountain Oysters at the Enaville Inn, more widely known as the Snake Pit. They actually answer the phone "The Snake Pit." I'm including it just to prove to you doubters that we were there. Now Vik didn't actually go for the oysters, but I did, although I saved a small portion for the boys. Wasn't bad, but can't say that I'd go out of my way to have it again.
Today began with a handlers meeting at 9:30 at the test HQ. Had a nice continental breakfast, received our handlers packet and gifts (there were a ton, too numerous to go through)and surprisingly enough, a few pre-invitational awards were passed out. We got two, one for most invitationals attended, and one for furthest distance traveled. I think there were actually one or two people I jobbed for the attendance award (Dick Winton has been to 7 for example) but their failure to completely fill out the official information form left it to me. Since I am an overpaid government hack that depends on ridiculously complicated offical forms for a living it actually seems appropriate that it worked in my favor.
Here we have a picture of various officials, headlined here by East Coast judge Bill Whiteford. Bill was in particulary good humor, and I can only hope that he wasn't thinking of his test setup and having an unfortunate case of schadenfreude at the expense of us handlers!
In the first edition of this page I included a jpg of the running order. After rethinking the issue, it screwed up the page too much so I will just post a list of call backs
Tonight's banquet was an excellent affair, and mercifully concluded at a reasonable hour. I'm fading fast so likely won't get to everything I wanted to, but I do want to let Frank and Val know they were missed, and Frank's letter to the handlers was very well received. I'll just throw up a few pictures and hopefully I can amplify on them a little more tomorrow if we get done early enough.
This first picture is of all the handlers posing in front of the sponsor banner from Dan Hosford. It was taken inside the banquet room, and for reasons that I'm not entirely clear on, it was deemed unsatisfactory by the official photographer, who then demanded that we all reconvene outside on the front steps of the Ramada. Any of you that are familar with the compliance of the average NAHRA handler can imagine how well that went over.
Now this picture was taken from my vantage point in the reconvened handlers photo on the front steps. It shows the offical photographer, after expending no small amount of time trying to get the group to comply with her instructions, expressing her opinion of the group. Let me mention here that I may have photoshopped out an upturned digit on her hand.
This is a picture of the Invitational Committee. So far, as near as I can tell, they've done a fantastic job.
Auctioneer Rick Steenhoven did a great job raising a ton of money. Here is is ably assisted by Barry Crose.
And this is Seattle's own Laura Kinney and swag.
Done for tonight, more tomorrow.
Thursday, June 17:
Most important stuff first - here are the call backs from the first series. Six dogs were dropped, with many more weak.
2. Shaun Brien - Teal
3. Larry Wilson (Dan Hove) - Major
4. John Gilbert - Fire
5. Carl Strebe - Dusty
6. Dick Ofstedal - Chase
7. John Gilbert - Corky
8. Kent Walker - Duke
9. Lance Sennette - Sam
11. Manny Salazar - Torito
12. John Johnson - Smokey
13. Don Benson - Jade
14. Joan Sharpless - Fortune
16. Harry Williams - Hope
17. Douglas Rowden - Rudy
18. Dan Tongen - Kate
19. Scratch
20. Joe Cook or Joanne Perler - Blaze
21. Carl Strebe - Ripp
22. Scratch
23. Joanne Perler - Dreamer
24. Barry Crose - Raven
25. Tim Lockard - D.D.
26. Tom Hunter - Beau
27. Rick Steenhoven - Spirit
28. Ron Adlington - Ink Spot
29. Kody Bull - Addy
30. R. Alan Black - Daisy
31. Rick Latham - Jed
32. Harry Williams - Wily
33. Larry Housman - The Goon
35. Larry White Jr. - Kody
36. Scratch
37. Patsy Hove - Grace
38. Scratch
39. Bob Riggs - Josie
40. Greg Doughty - Rylee
41. Wally Kobeski - Peaches
42. Paul Pommerening - Brooks
43. Michael Hughes - Chloe
44. Ed Foster - Tapo
45. John E. Gearnes - Rev
47. Bob Boeh - Holly
48. Richard A. Winton or Dorothy Simmer - T
49. Paul Pommerening - Tansy
Redoing this write up Thursday night. The land series. A real big dog test if ever there was one, and that was if all the mechanics ran okay. Unfortunately that was not the case for all the dogs. The right bird was first, thrown left to angle back right at 72 yards. Landed back in heavy cover, high enough that you could see your dog, but not particularly well. Middle bird thrown right to left at 98 yards, in the same cover. Left hand flyer is last, at about 70 yards. A very stout test, eating up dogs and workers, with most every one of the first ten dogs getting at least one one-bird. Numerous tweaks to the flyer as we went along, including changing from a winger to a hand throw.
As usual the picture doesn't do the test justice. The test started with the handler blowing a call, with the dog on a remote sit in front of the seated handler. Then ALL the stations blew calls in return. When the judges put up a signal, the right hand bird came out. There really wasn't a single call for the first bird down. The major problem with that from my point of view was that a lot of dogs locked on to the flyer station on the left, because that was a bunch of guys slhouetted on top of a large outcrop. A lot more interesting than the hidden guys in the field. So dogs often didn't get a real good look at the right hand bird. Then the middle bird was hand thrown after a very short call, and then the flyer, which landed over a hill, so basically you just hoped your dog came back in a relatively short period of time with the bird. If you saw your dog, it was way over on the right, and you were in trouble. Because it was a remote sit, you couldn't heel your dog on the right to screen the flyer out while the first two birds were going down.
After you got the go bird, you had a choice of the middle or right hand bird. The falls weren't really all that tight, but it felt that way, and both fall areas looked the same, so it was tough to get them both clean. Many handlers opted to go for the middle bird first, and that seemed to work out better, but there were a crap load of handles, many of them not pretty due to the cover and scent that had been scattered around. Quite a few double handles. There was a fairly stout breeze most of the day that helped or hurt, depending on your luck. After you got the marks, it was on to the blind.
The blind was run to right of marks. 100 yards even. There was a small dip past the initial cover so you lost your dog for awhile. Tremendous suction off to the left from old marks and gun station. Way harder than it looks in the picture. The first few dogs either did a nice job, or a complete butcher. Nothing much mediocre.
Not exactly sure when it happened, but apparently Tony Hayward dropped in early to help set up the flyer. Not anybody's fault, but from set up day when things apparently ran great, to this morning, the wind changed, a few personnel changed, and the flyer was just a disaster for the first ten dogs or so. As near as I remember, only one dog didn't get a no-bird, and Shaun Brien was on his second when I left this morning. I know that after a 7:30 AM start, at 9 AM when I left, they had gotten maybe five dogs through the series. The gunners didn't miss many, but they were landing on top of the outcropping, behind the outcropping, and I think one was dropped in the photographer's blind at the base. Again, it was not really anybody's fault, but it was pretty disconcerting to the dogs and handlers.
Another testy issue was the gallery. It was stationed behind the line, and a lot of people were off to the right as you were behind the handler looking out at the test. One thoughtful individual was wearing a duster length bright yellow raincoat, which I thought was not really helpful to the working dogs. But I'm from back east, so don't really know the etiquette out here. Eventually the gallery was moved back more out of the way, but it was a problem all day.
Dan Hove and Chai ran first dog, and paid a heavy price for it. Every thing that could go wrong for them did - at least one no-bird, and major interference from the gallery. For later dogs the flyer station didn't call with the other bird boys to start the test, but they were obviously still in the mix for first dog and that wasn't helpful. Their marks were fine, but they went out on the blind when Chai just couldn't pick out Dan. You could see her looking off to the right and not at Dan, and he just couldn't overcome that. Major jobbing I thought.
For you NPRC and Old Dominon folks, The Goon had a workmanlike run with which I was pretty happy. Didn't do great, but didn't hurt ourselves either. Got the flyer after a longer hunt than I would have liked, but nothing excessive, and since neither the judges nor I could see any of the dogs on that hunt I wasn't too worried about it. Then I lined him up for the right hand bird, he was looking that way, but the little bastard split the middle and went to the left of the gun station that threw the right hand bird. He then went up the hill, and turned left and eventually worked his way out to the middle mark. Not what you'd like to see, but not ugly either and I was never tempted to handle him as he was always working it out and going in the right direction. Then when I sent him for the right hand bird again, he did the exact same thing - up the hill behind the gun station. At that point he could go back left and switch, or keep deep and get lost. God love him, just when he was getting a little too close to the top of the hill and I literally had sucked in air to blow a whistle, he took a hard right and picked up the bird. All in all not pretty, but no whistles and not bad either. Many handlers would have happily taken that run.
The blind turned out okay too, but it was an ordeal. Trying to line him up, he just kept swinging between the gun station to the left of the blind, and something way out on the right, possibly Seattle 5 hours away. I just couldn't get him looking through the initial cover. After a 4 day drive, he might get away with lying to me, but he was for damn sure gonna at least be looking in the right direction before i sent him. So we did the circle around and reheel thing three times before I finally got him lined up right. Then he took a great initial line, broke through the cover nicely, and I stopped him at the top of the drop off, even though he was already on a perfect line. I was just afraid he would hie his little ass over to the gun station when he was out of my sight, and I didn't want to deal with that. (Forgot to mention earlier that the wind was blowing right to left, and that also contributed to dogs that got too far left not wanting to get back to the right). So I whistled him, he sat nicely, and then spent an eternity looking at some guy dressed in black in the gallery (I was wearing a black top, and found out about my doppleganger later). It was incredibly obvious to everyone that he thought he was looking at me, but I finally got his attention after he autocast once. Don't think I'll get dinged for that since I assume the judges knew what was going on since they had seen it all day. He then took a pretty good cast and carried it across the field. He was a little loose at the end, but most of that was the usual smelling it and not quite knowing where it was within 10 feet of the bird so I don't expect we'll get dinged much for that either. I figure at best we've got a pair of 8's, and at worst a 6 and a 7. Assuming we do well on the trail and upland tomorrow, which I fully expect, we should have some points to use on the water. Big thanks to Jim Tracey, The Goon's sister's handler, who was nice enough to get the guy in black behind a truck for the rest of our blind.
One thing I really haven't mentioned much is the weather. It's been pretty crappy the last two days, very cold and windy with intermittent rain. The kind of weather that will leave me with fungus and mold growing in places that I may not be able to reach. Now before we left last Friday, the weather forcast was for temps in the 80's and only a small chance of rain - just the kind of weather you'd expect in an arid, semi-desert area. Not so much now that we are here. I did pack some appropriate gear, but we have desperately shopped for at least a long sleeve sweatshirt all over town to no avail. It was so bad yesterday that I got into a testy bidding war at the auction last night with Harry for the Four Points gift package, which included a knife set, tee shirt, hat, and the real prize, a heavy long sleeve fleece which I just had to have for Victoria. Mike Hughes was also bidding on it, but I was able to buy him off with the promise of his choice of knife if I got the package. But nothing I could do could disuade that prick Williams. In the end I got it, and wore it to handle today so it worked out well, but he shot my whole raffle budget right there. While I had intended to get the fleece for Vik, who really didn't pack for the unexpected weather either, I ended up trading her my leatherstocking fleece jacket for it and I think that was best.
Frank, Kody won your hunt again.
A few more pictures from today. This is the handlers assembled for the judges instructions before the beginning of the land series. The 7:00 AM Pacific time start turned into 7:00 AM NAHRA time.
This is Dan Hove and Chai. I can't say for sure if this was her first run or second, but I suspect their second, since the flyer bird in the background looks like it will fall where it's supposed to. Subsequent to this run, the flyer station was gradually moved more and more to the right, which made it stand out much more. Also note the photographer's blind at the base of the outcropping. The picture makes it look like it's right on top of the handler, but it's actually at least 50 yards away. Speaking of photographers, this one may be very talented, but she has a unique marketing style that I don't think is working very well. Most of these folks will take your picture, and if you like them you buy some. She takes a different tack, in that if you want any pictures taken of your dog you have to sign up in advance, for a minium charge of $65. Makes no sense to me, since either way you're spending all day in a blind, and how much do digital images cost anyway. But I guess it's working for her.
The judges, Kent Ernst, Bill Whiteford and Greg Monroe before the test began.This gives you an idea of how the flyer station guys stood out when they were throwing, although obviously that's not going on here.
Final picture of the night. This is the handler's dinner at test HQ tonight. The food has been excellent all week.
Friday, June 18th::
I'm typing this on-site about 11:00 AM Pacific time, and the trail is still going on. Won't be posted until this evening. It's a pretty straight-forward trail once your dog gets to it, but there was some serious thinking outside the box for the prelude.
As you can see from the attached picture, the dog and handler start off quartering up a short hill (red line), and at some point in time a shot is fired to simulate a yellow headed black bird being shot. Judge Bill Whiteford walks with the handler down the hill to a scented area. It was scented by dragging a duck all over the ground there, and your dog is expected to just pretty much pick up the trail on its own. You were allowed to heel your dog and give it your trailing command, but there was no distinct pile of feathers or start to the trail. After your dog was off you and judge Whiteford walked together in a slow march to the left side of the field, and when your dog picked up the bird you called him back and you were done. I thought it was a very neat, realistic scenario. Weird to not have a distinct start to the trail, but in real life I've never actually seen a pile of feathers at a fall. The picture gives the impression that the cross leg of the trail was much longer than the first leg. That's not true, as in actuality the up leg was about 100 yards and the cross leg about 70.
The trail was your standard post pattern to the left. Down by the high cover on the right, with a left hand turn at the black stump, nothing fancy. But many of the dogs had a lot of trouble. Lots of swirling wind caused some issues, and the trail broke down more frequently then anyone thought it world. The Goon got lost the first time in some water in the heavy cover to the right, and the second try he came real close to the bird, but over ran it and got lost off to the left in the woods and I had to call him back and start him a third time. Then he ran right to it. Don't know how it will be scored, but if on a curve we'll be fine.
Here are a couple new pictures from the trail, one shows Dan Tongen and Kate walking the trail with Judge Bill Whiteford, and the second shows Bill and I discussing some journalistic integrity issues prior to our trail. The final trail picture shows the actual yellow headed black bird that was shot for the trail.
I found out an additional piece of information about the land series today that I hadn't realized before. I saw where the judges had placed a dozen or so goose decoys on the line to the two right hand birds (a couple are visable in the land series photo), but I didn't really pay them much attention. What I found out today is that there were actually about 50 more down the hill that virtually none of the handlers knew about, and couldn't see from the line, and they were situated such that if your dog didn't take the correct line to the birds, it funneled them back to the middle and farther off line. Now I know why The Goon went straight up the middle both times. That was also another source of suction on the blind. Makes me all the more glad I blew that whistle at the top of the hill yesterday on his blind.
I haven't talked much about the topography yet, so while I'm doing nothing I'll catch up, courtesy of John Gilbert, who gave me the whole geological run down yesterday. All over the place are these moguls that are about 4-5 feet high, and 20-30 feet in circumference. Although the judges didn't use them in the land series, we may get thim in the upland later. In any event, they are actaully the only places where one could drive in a blind pole. Everywhere else the bed rock is not more than an inch or two below the surface and you aren't driving in anything. That has resulted in some unique test equipment adapted to the cdonditions. They have a bunch of holding blinds that are just fabric covered panels set up in A frame fashion. The dog and handler stand/sit behind them and they just sit on the ground. Not terrific in the wind, but John showed me a few tricks to combat that as well, and I may make a couple for the club to see how they work out. They'll take a lot less time to set up and take down, although storage might be more of an issue.
A few other observations as we moved out west:
Every gas station in Montana seems to also contain a casino. I didn't have the inclination to check any out, but clearly these folks like to gamble.
In South Dakota, everybody that had a dish hooked to the side of their trailer also had a second one, that was apparently for internet. Just looked kinda goofy to see two dishes side by side on an outhouse.
Medical Lake is the small town that you have to drive through to get to the test site, and it is an interesting little place. Believe it or not, it is sited by a pretty large lake, which got it's name back in the early 1800's when it was reputed to have medicinal properties. A thriving business sprung up, and at the time it was larger than Spokane. Now it has fallen on hard times, and seems to support itself with property taxes and moving violations. Harry was nice enough to warn us that they took their 30 mph speed limit seriously, and he wasn't kidding. Virtually every time I drive by, which is averaging 4-6 times a day, I see the man out with the radar gun. We just set the cruise control to 30 (which for some reason strikes me as absurd, but it works) and move on through. They have two of the ubiqutous little coffee shacks that seem to populate the state at a density that rivals that of meth labs in Arkansas. Don't see how you can make a living just selling coffee right next door to someone else just selling coffee, but like the photographer, its a marketing plan that works for them. Some of them are cute little structures though as the picture below will attest.
Gas prices seemed to fall as we went west, then shoot up as we hit Montana and Washington. It's $2.99 a gallon out here, was around $2.50 mid-way through the trip, and we started at $2.63 at home in Baltimore. Still can't believe they haven't shot through the roof yet, but it's coming at some point.
Okay, its now after 5:30 Pacific time, and the testing is done for the day. We lost three dogs on the trail, don't know yet how many on the upland. I'm just back to change clothes and will be leaving again, so I'll have to wait until later to finish up. Larry Wilson, you are still gold. I believe The Goon is still good for tomorrow, but who can say for sure.
Upland was a pretty cool set up - nominally a brace, but the dogs were separated by a large ridge and only started out and finished up in sight of one another. I ran with Larry White from Arizona and we both did well. The Goon hunted a little close to start out, but he moved out about half-way through the test so we should be fine. Rock steady on the flush. Larry found a snake as we were walking the 3/4 of a mile back to the trucks, and I pretty much did my best imitation of a six year old school girl seeing her first snake. Not a proud moment for me, but I had the wit to plunge my handlers gun into the ground to mark the danger spot for those to follow. In the end it turned out the snake was about as dangerous as an earthworm, but I'm still going with the better safe than sorry theory. Besides, it wasn't my handler's gun.
Sorry about no pictures, even though they have been referenced in the write up. I will catch up with them tonight. Frank, answer my email!
A couple of catch up items from the banquet: the committee put together a really cool powerpoint, with original music, of a montage of dog pictures, both of ones sent in by handlers and some form what I assume are SBDA dogs. Puppy pictures are always in vogue, but the music that accompanied it was really first rate, and the producers and talent are to be mega commended. As near as I can remember, the main players were Paul Pommerening, Paul Swenson, Mike Noyes, Roy Ware and and Janet Pommerening. Somebody please tell me if I left anyone out, as it was just way cool.
The Judges were active participants in some of the bidding at the live auction, not so much by bidding themselves, but more so by collecting bidders' running numbers are the bidding progresseed. The also had thier picture taken with successful bidders. Don't know if thaose bonus points will carry over to tthe test, but every little bit helps.
My 14, going on 15 year old dog Nils is my old guy that started me in NAHRA. He's also the namesake of this blog, which started when we went out to Colorado in 2006 for our first Invitational. I haven't mentioned him on the blog the last couple of years because he's been retired since I hosed him at the 2007 Invitational, but I thought I'd throw up a picture of him at headquarters, standing guard. He's stone deaf and falls down a lot, but you still can't keep that tail from wagging.
10:30 PM Pacific Time:
Back at the hotel after the appetizer cook off, which was great. My favorite was the strawberries with pepper as a major ingredient - sounds not good, but it was absolutely superb. But first to the test update. Six more dogs dropped tonight after the upland, so a total of 32 dogs are being carried to water. John Johnson and Smokey were the major surprise drop, as they had pretty good runs today, but apparently they just ran out of points (a phrase i absolutely hate btw). A source with intimate knowledge of the thinking of at least one of the judges anticipates half of those 35 are weak and not getting through the water. Not encouraging, but it is what it is. I am going into tomorrow assuming we are in the weak group and needing a clean set of marks and solid blind. If I get that I'll be satisfied, no matter what the eventual outcome.
But on to the upland picture. A very nice, realistic hunting scenario. A brace of dogs started out at the base of a small hill, and they immediately split, one hunting to the left and one to the right. You never saw your brace mate again until you came together again on the other side of the hill after each dog got a flush that the other dog could also see. The judges directed you where to hunt, and you were expected to stay in the more likely bird cover, not putz around in the short stuff. A nice scenario, clear instructions and good mechanics. Other than John, there were pretty clearly visible reasons for the other dogs being dropped. A break or two, one dog got to the flush box a good 75 yards ahead of his handler, etc. Not any complaints that I heard. If you look closely in the yellow circle, you'll see Judge Bill Whiteford in the Captain Kirk chair overlooking the entire scenario. He was the only person that had a view of both dogs, but he had to dismount and run for cover before each flush. Since he did all the walking for the judges for the morning scenario, they got to walk for the upland. Seemed fair to me.
John Johnson and Smokey running their upland, while Judge Greg Monroe takes a private moment.
My bracemate was Larry White from Arizona. We each had at least a passable run, as we're both back tomorrow. I think in this picture we're sharing a laugh as we try to figure out exactly what note I hit when I started my Shirley Temple imitation at the sight of the snake.
Tonight's activity was an appetizer cook off between Dan Hosford and Paul Pommerening, with a surprise entry by Ron Adlington. My only value judgment for the blog is that every one of these guys is great, and I enjoyed everything set in front of me.
This first picture is the wine table, manned by my long suffering wife, Victoria, and Harry Williams' sainted wife, Nora.
Here we have team Pommerening, ably assisted by Sandy Boeh
Final picture of the night is SBDA resident engineer, John Gilbert, attempting to get an additional allocation of strawberries with sour cream, pepper and other secret ingedients prepared by professional Ron Adlington. Both Ron and John are still playing tomorrow.
Well, that's it for tonight. Water tomorrow, projected to be a very busy triple and blind with honor and diversion bird. We certainly are showcasing something, that's for sure. My schedule is tight tomorrow, so I may not be back on line to finish up the blog until the first of the week. We run dead last, then have a five hour drive to Seattle to spend the night at Laura's new place. I'm sure Rick or someone will post the qualifiers list tomorrow on the nahra site, and i'll finish up mine as soon as i can.
Saturday, June 19th::
Well, its all over. A big dog water series to end a major league big dog test. Don't have call backs, but I'm estimating that about 20 of the 32 starters today made it through. Here's the test:
You started your test by walking from the holding blind to sit on a bucket about 10-15' to the left of the working dog, whose handler was blowing a duck call and urging you to get in place. When you got close to where you were supposed to be, a diversion bird was hand thrown from right to left (red line). The working dog picked that up, not scored as a mark, and then left the scene. The honor dog then moved over to the right and got on the bucket. The real test then started. A flyer first from the left hand station (yellow line) that generally landed in a fairly open pocket of water. If it fell short though, you were in a jungle. Then you got your middle bird, which always fell in a jungle. Final bird on the right, thrown over a channel and always landing in heavy cover, although closer to open water than bird #2. There was absolutely no way to handle on #'s 2 & 3 unless you called them back out of the cover to try and line them up again. The right hand bird was often troublesome, the middle bird a nightmare. The flyer generally landed pretty consistently in open water, so wasn't a problem for too many of the dogs. After you picked up your marks, some dogs were invited to run the blind, which was a channel blind under the arc of the right hand bird. After the blind you then called to get the next dog down, and picked up the diversion bird and were excused.
The middle bird was the key. Tons of dogs had gorilla hunts, handles back to the high stuff from out behind the pond and general mayhem. You simply couldn't see your dog on either right hand mark, so it was a pretty helpless feeling. Most folks went outside, outside, middle, but quite a few picked up that middle bird second.
The blind was pretty cool, and I felt that it was very appropriate to the scenario, which was a duck hunt on a small pothole. Your standard channel blind, under the arc with plenty of opportunities to disappear completely out of sight in a heartbeat. Danger lurked the whole way down, but it was clear to all what was going on, so you either did it or you didn't. Quite a few dogs had very nice blinds. If you dog does channels well, you were gold. I only saw two dogs that completely hosed it, but since I only watched about a third of them there may have been more. As the test wore on, the scent cone coming off the blind got pretty big, so you had a pretty big sweet spot at the end if you were a later dog.
As I said, I don't have call backs, but of my guys I would say most of the Four Points guys made it through. Harry got one through I think, and my new buddy Larry White ran first this morning and absolutely smacked it. Basically, if you were asked to do the blind, didn't hose it up too much, and weren't asked to be on lead for the diversion bird you had a reasonable belief that you passed. I guess we'll know in a couple hours for sure.
For the east coast guys, here's my rundown of The Goon. He was steady on honor dog, and I sat him on the working dog spot with not problems. I somewhat screened him from the flyer, as I kinda figured it would fall for me the same spot it had fallen for everyone else, and I really wanted him to see those last two birds as I thought they'd be the problem. I was wrong.
The flyer fell very short, landing in the worst of the high cover, and the worst part was that since it didn't make it out past my knee, The Goon never even looked over. Major mistake on my part, and assurances that one bird into the test I had a blind. He got real good looks at the other two, and we got a pretty good fall on the right hand bird, as it was really on the edge of the cover and not as deep in as most dogs got. He picked it right up, and then I sent him for the nightmare middle bird. God love the little felon, he picked it up like it was laying in the middle of a putting green. Then I lined him up for the flyer into the deep stuff, sent him on a back, and he lined his first blind ever in competition. I can honestly say that some other dog may have had marks just as good, but it would have been impossible to do any better.
Then we walked back to the judges to screen The Goon from the blind planter, and Ken Ernst asked me why I screened my dog off from the left hand bird. I replied, without hesitation, that it was because I was a moron. That got a good laugh (the truth hurts) and then we set off on the blind. The Goon was solid, not great, but solid. An initial line a little to the left, but two whistles had him back in the corridor and then I had maybe 4-6 getting him up the slot to the bird. He was a bit too far to the right, but never out of sight, and got the advantage of the scent cone at the end. I was one happy guy, and probably was a bit to exuberent in my celebration, but I figured since I was last dog who cares. Now at this point I didn't know whether we had passed or not, but I was absolutely satisfied with how we did, and pass or fail I was happy. When Goon got back I thought I heard the phrase "Should we give it to him" uttered amongst the judges, and I have no idea if I misheard them, or if they were serious, or if it was Bill just screwing with me. I suspect it was #2, but I'll be incredibly impressed if it were #3. If we don't get a ribbon it was clearly #2 with the wrong answer at the end.
We then had to call for the bye dog to come up to honor, picked up the diversion, and I floated back up to the gallery. So we'll see tonight how we really did.
As I stated before, this may be my last post until after the weekend. Check back mid-week and I'll have wrap up stuff from the banquet and a lot more pictures. It just takes so long to compress them and get them posted that I don't have time.
Monday, June 21st::
A few final thoughts and pictures:
This is me chatting with the judges after my water blind but before I picked up the final diversion bird- we were waiting for the bye dog to be rounded up. The Goon decided to go shopping to fill in the time.
While waiting for the ribbon ceremony, I got a tour of Harry & Nora Williams' "Love Shack."
Trying to get an early jump on next year, Bob Riggs and Dick Ofstedal shill for the 2011 Invitational in Iowa.
As part of their hospitality package, Dick and his lovely wife Kathy make up samples of BL, the official drink of NAHRA, to pass out to the crowd.
The next three pictures are of Larry White, Bob Boeh and me getting our ribbons from Judges Ken Ernst, Bill Whiteford and Greg Monroe.
Here are the Northwest Region qualifiers. Mike Hughes (and Chloe, far right), as always, was particularly helpful and encouraging all week - thanks buddy.
Here are the ribbons from my little training group - Dan Tongen, Bob Riggs, Dick O and me. I guess they finally were okay with me butting in all week, and I truly appreciated all the help and support.
Summing up the week, I would have to characterize it as great, as every Invitational I've attended since 2006 has been. The feeling standing on the line for your first bird of the opening land series is just miles away from what you feel during a weekend test. Especially when you are 2000 miles from home - its a hell of a rush and that's ultimately why I keep coming back. The effort to qualify and attend is well worth it.
As for the test itself, at this point in time I have to characterize it as the toughest since NAHRA resumed the Invitationals in 2006. Of the six marks, three were impossible to handle on in or near the area of the fall, and two others were very difficult to do so. Only one mark consistently fell in either open cover or open water, and since that mark was the water flyer, even that was no guarantee. The test just kept hammering you and hammering you all the way through. Not complaining or whining, just stating a fact.
The 50% pass rate sounds like it was a pretty normal test, but to put that figure in perspective I think it helps to look at the quality of dogs that DIDN'T qualify: 2 GMHRCH's, 8 GMHR's, 6 MH's, 1 FC, 1 QAA and three dogs with a total of six previous Invitational qualifications. This was undoubtedly the best group of dogs that has ever attended this event, and if this group was at a normal weekend test you'd have had a 90% pass rate at worst - no doubt in my mind. So it was a ball buster, and if you qualified, you damn well earned it.
I want to give a special thank you to Bill Whiteford, who spent the week being a very calming influence at the line at the same time he (and his two happy cohorts) were beating my brains out. But the real reason I want to thank him is that he took the time to pause the awards ceremony and ask us all to take a moment to appreciate everyone in the armed forces for allowing us to play our games - a classy move that we all should be cognizant of more often.
Thanks for reading - hope you enjoyed it. Think good thoughts for Rod Adlington and Ink Spot as they compete in the Canadian National Amateur next month. See you next year, although I may take a page from this year's offical photographer and charge a modest fee to view the blog - trust me, it will be worth it! :)
Thanks for the use of the hall.