Day 8 – Flight C – Test 5 – Mallard Pond-Water – Saturday, October 24

Flight C: Carol Hynes and Tellus Calhoun

Mallard Pond-Water – Water Triple, Water Blind, 

Diversion Shot

Flight C moved to their fifth test with 64 dogs having lost 17 dogs from their fourth series. 

Mallard Pond, a Water Triple with a water blind and a diversion shot. The handler stood on the line looking across a narrow stick pond. Bird number one is directly across the pond, thrown to the right, up the hill, landing 91 yards from the line. The second bird is across the pond right of bird number one. This bird is thrown to the left, down a hill, landing close to the shore at 54 yards. Bird three is on the same side of the pond as the line. This bird is thrown to the right in the water landing at 30 yards. The water blind is under the arc of bird number three located 85 yards from the line. The dogs have a 40 yard entry, then must be kept parallel to the shore for the next 45 yards. When the handler comes to the line, he must blow a duck call to start the test. Dogs retrieved bird number three, the water bird, first. On the way back with the waterbird, a diversion is shot. The handler must then retrieve the water blind. When that is complete, he is free to pick-up the next two birds in any order he chooses.
As we arrived at this fifth test for Flight C, the Test Dogs were just finishing up and the first few running dogs were lining up in the holding blinds. Of the group of dogs that we watched they appeared to have difficulty marking the middle bird, but the wind aided them in finding the bird.