Shooting Gazette – September 2019

92 SEPTEMBER 2019 WWW.SHOOTINGGAZETTE.CO.UK

GUNDOGS Gundog update

Club:UnitedRetrieverClub– EssexArea

Event:OpenQualifierWorking Test

Venue:TheAuberies

Judges:KevinDoughtyandTomLowe

Sponsors:Masters Dog Food and Sporting Saint

REPORTBY:JACKIESMITH

Wereturnedtothewonderful

settingofTheAuberiesatBulmer

nearSudburyandarealso

extremelygratefultoourhosts,

theBurkefamily,andDominick

whojoinedusformostoftheday

andkindlypresentedtheawards.

Asusualwewereluckywith

theweather,almosttoohotat

times,withlimitedshadeforthe

exercises,butwitha coupleof

gazeboscompetitorsanddogs

seemedtocope, as didour

twojudges.

Kevinwasshadowedbyone

ofourmemberswhowanted

togainsomeexperienceand

understandwhatisinvolved

withjudging.Kevinsuggested

thiswasa goodideafor

anyoneinterestedinjudging

andthankedthecommittee

forgivingsomeone this

opportunity.

Therewerefourexercises

beforelunch.Testoneandtwo

werealmostmirrorimages,

consistingofa longhighthrown

singlemarkedretrieve.Thedogs

hada longrundownhilltoward

theareaoftheretrieve.

TestonewithKevinsawthe

dummylandjustoutofsight

overthebrowofthehill;allthe

dogssucceededthisinexercise

witha lotof dogs getting full

marks.

Testtwo,withTom,wasagain

a highthrowndummybutthe

backgroundwasalltrees,and

several of the dogs pulled to the

rightandlosttheirmarkbut the

majorityhadsuccess.

Testthreewasa markwhich

becamea memory,thedummy

landingbehinda tree,which

meantthehandlersbrieflylost

sightoftheirdogwhilethey

picked.Thedogshada longrun

downhill,anda fencetojumpto

therightthenthehandlershad

topushtheirdogsfora blind

retrieveinthewoods.Again,

youhadtotrustyourdogto

hunt.Someofthemmanaged

tofindtheirwayroundthe

fencebutthemajorityofdogs

completedtheexercise with

onlya fewfailing.

Testfourwasa rundownhill

fora blindretrieveinthewater,

whichalsohada marked

memoryasa distraction.Sadly,

a lot of dogs failed on this

exerciseandmanywouldn’t

eithergointhewateroroncein

thewatercouldn’tbehandledto

swimbackfortheretrieve.

Acutwasmadeatlunch

andanydogsthathadscored

zerodidnotgoforwardtothe

finaltest.However,therewas

theopportunitytogobackto

thelakeanddosometraining

onthewater,whichwas

appreciatedandgavehandlers

a chancetohave another go at

theexercise.

Thefinaltestwasa walk-up,

witha slightdifference:the

judges,competitorsanddummy

throwerswereata longdistance

fromeachotherandtherewas

no-onewalkingupinthe middle

toforma longline.

Twodummieswerethrown

fromoneendof“theline,”one

infrontandonebehindand

thedogsattheoppositeend

ofthelineeachhada retrieve.

Allthedogsinlinealternated

inpairstohavea markbehind

anda markinfront.Allthe

dogssucceededalthoughsome

madea betterjobthanothers,

inpartdowntothehandler

havinga good mark on the

dummy.

Thedayconcludedwitha

clearwinnerandnorun-offs

wererequired for any of the

places.

Weendeda gooddaywith

theusualteaandcakesfollowed

bya raffleandthenourhost

Dominickpresented the awards

tothewinners.

Thanksonceagaintoour

hosts,ourhard-workingjudges

andallourhelpers,particularly

thenon-committeehelpers,

withoutwhomwecouldn’t

enjoyoursport.Thankyou

tooursponsorsfortheir

continued support.

Awardwinnersandjudges,fromleft:JimCollins,Sharon Dingle,

Andrew Wright, Kevin Doughty and Tom Lowe.

A fruitful day in Essex for the URC

Results

1 (andwinneroftheSpainesHallCup,

BestEssexEntryandwinnerofthe

FlightlineTrophy)AndrewWrightwith

gr.d.WadesmillKit

2 (andwinneroftheBrettonsfield

Trophy) Sharron Dingle with lab.d.

BellspaddleJock

3 (andwinneroftheHassenbrookCup)

JimCollinswithlab.dBrockaghsForba

4 AndrewWrightwithlab.dOverthwarts

BerwickGoldfinch of Haventrent