Worker's Appreciation Dinner

Everyone gathered once again at Coker College for the traditional mid-week break that is the Worker's Appreciation Dinner. The conversation was lively as people from all the different flights were able to share their experiences from the first few days of the 2015 Master National testing.

An old friend, Woody Thurman, was in our midst and was introduced by Chairperson, Michelle Love.  He spoke to the crowd and sang a song while strumming his guitar much to the delight of the crowd. After that, he said grace before everyone filed into the buffet line in the back room. A dinner of savory chicken and pork tenderloin accompanied by roasted vegetables and wild rice was a welcome repast.

Everyone was given ten raffle tickets to put in the prize buckets with many Sponsor-donated gifts varying from Yeti mugs to dog mats … from Wet-Mutt jackets to Avery dog training bags … from Sport Dog electric fences to commemorative bottles of Master National wine and Retriever News subscription gifts. The video for Chase Away K-9 Cancer played as we saw many of our past titled dogs had been taken by cancer. A sobering statistic that 1 in 3 dogs competing in this event would get the deadly disease.

AKC Rep Russ Reavis, Woody Thurman and AKC Rep Jerry Mann

Day 4 – Flight D – Test 2 – Goose Pond-Land/Water – Tuesday, October 20

Flight D: Martin Bell and Bruce Bachert

Goose Pond-Land/Water – Land/Water Triple, Double Blind, Walk-up

Flight D moved to their second test having  lost 47 dogs from the first series. 

When we arrived first thing this morning, it was 41 degrees and sunny with a light breeze. The wind was not a factor early. This test is a Land/Water Triple with a land blind, water blind and walk-up. The handler stands on a mat on the right shore of Goose Pond. They look across a road and up a hill with checkered cover. The pond on the handler's left has heavy, dead-grass colored cover and is thick around the edge and extends way out into the water. The walk-up comes from behind a tree on the right, thrown to the left, landing 36 yards from the line. Bird number two is a flyer with the gun station up the hill in front of the line, shot to the left, landing in heavy cover 130 yards from the line. Bird three comes out of a blind on the shore of the pond. It is thrown to the left, landing out in the water in the cover at 54 yards. The water blind is under the arc of bird number three on the shore at 78 yards. The land blind is across the road and up the hill, between birds one and two at the base of a bush 127 yards from the line. This is an interrupted test.

The handler sends for bird three, the water mark, first. Next they are required to run the water blind. They must pick-up the remaining two birds and then run the land blind. This is a 7-8 minute test.

We watched eight dogs this morning complete the test. Some dogs doing a very nice job and some with very extensive hunts.

Russ Reavis, AKC Rep, with the Judges

"Aerial" shot of Flight D's second test Goose Pond-Land/Water