My dogs are out of shape with a the recent snows and the even more recent blisteringly hot temps. I haven't run them much and they can tend to 'Go a little deaf" when they are all fired up. To top it off, Saturday morning dawned and the wind was blowing about 20 mph.
Cut my first dog(Star) loose in the Open All Age and she faded out of sight to the north(course went west), so I figured that was that. Anyway, i asked permission to check. Rode out and found her standing on an edge near the north end of the grounds. Rode back, called point and when the judge came, the bird was still there so I flushed and shot. Had two more nice finds as we worked our way back onto the course and When we finally got back on course she had one last find n front of both judges and finished going away.
Needless to say..I was thrilled.
Then, two braces later I cut her son(Blue) loose and darned if he didn't head north pretty myd along the same path as his momma. I went to look for him and couldn't find him, so i was heading back toward the field trial party when one of the judges called out to me that they had him on point, up front. His ground application was a little more ragged than his mommas, a bit lateral at times, but he responded(which for him can be an issue) and handled well. He finished strong, with trhee finds and a UP.
Once again, i was quite pleased. I knew his ground application was no tthe best it could have been, but I was having fun pushing him out and pulling him around, so I figured the training value far exceeded any potential award. Anytime I can get a dog to handle when they are running at a trial, under all that stress and excitement, I will take advantage of the opportunity to showboat a little but mostly to show the dog that I am happy with the way it is responding.
Found out last night after I got home, tht Star took first and Blue took fourth. Icing on the cake, but very sweet icing. It would have been a major , but they had some scratches so it was only a 2 pointer, but that is the way it goes, especially with Star it seems. This is her fourth OAA blue ribbon and she is still one point shy of her FC.
RayG
