Purina Workers Party Wednesday August 20

The early end to the day on Wednesday with a number of handlers relieved that the water blind had been scrapped led to a festive air at the campground that afternoon and evening. The bar opened early, many non-participant Club workers showed up and the party was on.  Bidding was fast and furious in the Silent Auction, and groups congregated under the big tent outdoors.  Table raffle tickets were distributed in a contest where dogs paid $5 to run a blind and then got 10 raffle tickets if their dog brought back an orange bumper, 5 for bringing back a black bumper and 2 for a white bumper from the pile.  This provided considerable entertainment.

Dinner was catered – an excellent beef dinner with numerous salads and fresh vegetables.  For dessert there was Saskatoon berry crisp – a true crowd pleaser.  At the conclusion of dinner event Chairman John McDonald thanked everyone for coming and he and Fred Benjaminson (Secretary of the Master National Club) handed out workers pins to all the workers.  Each worker also got a National hat donated by Tritronics.  Sue and Garry Taylor, acting Purina representatives for the event thanked Purina for sponsoring the event and informed the crowd that each worker should also visit the equipment shed to get a Purina knapsack filled with goodies as well as a 40lb bag of Purina Pro Plan Performance.  This was a considerable contribution, as there were 54 workers recognized at this event.

Jim Couch and Jeff Morari handled the Silent Auction, and many of the items were very popular. A draw was done from the list of workers (won by Sue Taylor) for a pair of hunting boots from Traxx. A card raffle was done for a Tritronics collar – won by 16 year old Brayden McDonald (son of chairman John) – everyone’s favorite hired thrower.  The Club raffle (organized by Don Lardner) was then drawn – first prize was a Ducks unlimited leather chair, second prize was a Garmin Street Pilot GPS and third prize was cash.  A good time was had by all, and the event was a great success.

After the workers party, with dusk turning to nightfall club members John and Brayden McDonald, marshal Doug Hildebrand, Sue and Garry Taylor and Tim Fahl went to set out the snow goose decoys. It was getting dark and there was a light rain and a chill in the air – much like setting up for a daybreak shoot in the Fall.

Thursday August 21, 2008

Series 4: Land triple and Blind with Poison Bird

At 8am the caravan led by Jim Couch drove approximately 700 yards North on the Club trails to the site of a snow goose hunt. You could see the decoys – white shells, rags and socks from quite a distance. You could also hear the unmistakable din of snow geese screaming – actually it was an electronic call positioned by a bale close to line.  The test was an inline triple followed by a poison bird blind.  As dogs moved from holding blind to holding blind and as they came to line the electronic call would blare, falling silent when the handler arrived at line and knelt beside their dog. The judge then called to each set of guns, the guns returned the call, threw the bird (all mallards) and then shot.  The first bird down (56 yards) was thrown from right to left to land in cover that was waist to shoulder high, making depth perception a challenge.  The second bird down (79 yards) was also thrown right to left, with the winger located close to the line of the short first bird thrown and the bird landing just at the edge of some heavy onion weed cover. The third bird was thrown from left to right (106 yards), landing nearly in line with the second bird down. This bird variably landed in a pocket of heavy cover or to the left of that pocket and caused considerable difficulty for some dogs even once they got to the area of the fall.  Once the dogs picked up the triple the judge would call again and a thrower from behind a bale would call and throw a poison bird from right to left (89 yards).  The dog was then required to retrieve the blind which was hot during the triple and located between the bale hiding the poison bird thrower and the holding blind hiding the thrower and gunner for the third bird of the triple. After they picked up the bind they retrieved the poison bird and then honored for the shooting of the triple.  The test was run from North to South, and the wind was variable from the Southwest for most of the dogs.

The first test dog, called to line at 8:20am was Byron Crabb with GMH Kab’s Black Raven.  Raven self selected the short right hand bird (1st bird thrown) but after a short hunt worked her way back to the middle bird and picked it up (switched).  She was then sent for the long bird, but faded a little left and was in danger of getting into the area of the hot blind, so had to be handled to the long bird. She was then sent for the short bird and over-ran it but returned on her own.  Her blind was good, as was her pickup of the poison bird.

The second test dog was OTCH CH BigSky’s Sun Runner WCX, SH handled by Louise Thorpe.  Runner was sent for the go bird first, but faded with the wind and away from the heavy cover and found himself in the area of the hot blind and had to be handled to the long left bird. He then selected the short right hand bird and got it easily.  Louise then sent him for the middle bird and he passed only a few feet upwind of this bird, ending up in the old fall of the long bird and was handled back to the center bird with considerable difficulty. On the blind, he could not be convinced to leave the poison bird alone so required multiple casts to get out of the area and finally got the blind.  By this point the handlers (and presumably the judges) were a little nervous, so the judges had the throwers come out and re-scent the areas of the fall.

There were only a few clean jobs on the triple.  Fourteen dogs handled on one or two of the birds, and one handled on all three. Some dogs winded the middle bird on the way to the go bird and then had trouble getting the line back to the long left bird.  Any dog getting left of the long gunners found themselves very close to the hot blind, so had to be handled. One dog picked up the blind when hunting for the long mark. Many dogs over-ran the short mark, and handlers had the run up the mound behind the line to see their dog to handle before they disappeared into the heavy cover between the throwers of the middle bird and the middle bird.  The blind did not present a problem for any of the dogs, and most dogs got the poison bird single without handling.

Dogs called back to the next series (a water blind) were: Dogs 5, 8,12,13,17,19,20,21,24,25,26,28,29,30,31 and 32.

Series 5: Double water blind

The judges and participants took a short break for lunch at the Clubhouse and then travelled North on the property again to the SouthWest edge of pond 4B, a long narrow channel running west to east.  There were two gunners on the far (north) side of the channel, separated by approximately 100 yards. The left gunner planted the left (short) blind and the right gunner planted the longer blind on the right.  As well, the right gunner stood up when the dog was on line and shot two shots, one towards each of the two blinds. 

The left blind was a very slight angle entry into the water, crossing the main channel and tickling the tip of a sparse grassy point on the right before proceeding a short distance down a small side channel to the bird at the waters edge, marked by an orange painted bush.

The correct line to the right blind was a very narrow corridor between two willow bushes, providing a very long slicing entry to the water. Once in the water, dogs had to continue angling slightly across the long channel to exit at the blind on their left, 112 yards from line.

The first test dog was GMH Kab’s Black Raven, handled by Byron Crabb. During the short blind she got right up on the grass point but handled off easily and got the blind with no problem.  When running the long blind she wanted to get into the channel early, but once in the water handled down the channel well.

The second test dog was CH Cedarbrae’s Esoteric Dream, CD, MH, WCX run by Tracey Griffin.  Hershel also got on the point enroute to the short blind and had a few casts to launch into the small channel.  Once in the channel he got the blind easily.  On the long blind this dog, similar to the first test dog, wanted to get in the water too early (fat) and Tracey handled him down the shore and then needed a couple of casts to convince him to enter the water. Once he was in the channel he handled well to the blind.

The short left blind resented some minor challenges for a few of the dogs once they got their feet up on the grass point but most dogs did very well.  The long right blind was more difficult to get a good initial line and a few dogs had trouble either getting into the channel too early or too late.  A few dogs squared the channel once they did get in the water, requiring multiple casts before the dogs “got the picture” and angled down the channel.  Most of the work was good to excellent on both blinds.
Dogs called back to the next series (water marks) were: Dogs 5, 8, 13,17,19, 21,24,25,26,28,29,30 and 32. Dog 29 will start, and the caravan will leave at 8am.

Photos from Day 4
(click on thumbnail to view full image)

Day 4 - Series 4 - Diagram	Day 4 - Series 5 - Diagram

Day 4 - Series 4 - Left	Day 4 - Series 4 - Mid	Day 4 - Series 4 - Right

Day 4 - Series 5 - Left	Day 4 - Series 5 - Right