Gun Dog Forum

The #1 field trial dog & handler team in the US is a Smartwork team!

FC-AFC Teal Creek Patton's Saber, owned, trained & handled by Chris Hatch.



Have you wondered if an amateur can beat the pros at the highest level? Take a look!

SABER:
Top All Age Dog (of 554 dogs with all age pts. this year). Saber has 10 all age wins, 15 placements for a total of 58.5 pts. this year. He is trained and handled 100% by his breeder-owner Chris Hatch who is an amateur and is still a working man. Rain or shine, weekends or evenings, he is working with Saber.

Top Amateur Dog (of 351 dogs with amateur pts. this year). Saber has 6 Am wins and 9 placements for a total of 35 Am. pts. this year.

THREE DOUBLE HEADERS (2 of them this year)! This matches Creek Robber's record of 3 double headers. Retriever Results did not say what other dogs in the past earned 3 double headers so there could be more.

CHRIS HATCH:
Top All Age handler. Think about it -- an Amateur is right now the top all age handler. Chris is winning and placing with ONE DOG.
Top Amateur handler. Think about it -- this is ONE HANDLER handling ONE DOG, not a handler winning or placing with a bunch of dogs.

Keep it up Chris and Saber ... this is YOUR year. Keep bringing home the ribbons. Only 3 more months in 2013. We want to see you get the award for Top Amateur Dog for 2013. How sweet that would be.

A super nice guy with a great dog.

EvanG

That is a great team.

Very nice. Someday I have to go to a retriever trial just to watch. Dogs doing what they were bred to do is a real turn on for me. Doesn't matter if it's pointing dog, flushing dogs, retrieving dogs or even working dogs.

DonF wrote:Very nice. Someday I have to go to a retriever trial just to watch. Dogs doing what they were bred to do is a real turn on for me. Doesn't matter if it's pointing dog, flushing dogs, retrieving dogs or even working dogs.

When you go, take your camera!

EvanG

What does all age mean for retriever trials? Are the birds or whatever they retrieve just way further out than a normal trial?

bb560m wrote:What does all age mean for retriever trials? Are the birds or whatever they retrieve just way further out than a normal trial?

There are 4 stakes (classes) in retriever field trials.

Derby: for dogs under 2 years old. No blind retrieves; only marks.
Qualifying: This stake offers no championship points, but does allow a dog to become "Qualified all-age" by winning a Qualifying or placing 2nd. There is a long explanation about the stakes this allows the dog to enter that he could not otherwise.

THE 2 ALL-AGE STAKES
Open All-age
Amateur All-age

These are the top two stakes. They are open to dogs of 'all ages' (6 months and older), and they require fieldwork involving all retriever skills. They are tested at the highest, most extreme levels of difficulty against a field of 50-100 dogs, normally. This is the best of the best.

EvanG

Congrats Evan, this is a true testament to your methods.

EvanG wrote:There are 4 stakes (classes) in retriever field trials.

Derby: for dogs under 2 years old. No blind retrieves; only marks.
Qualifying: This stake offers no championship points, but does allow a dog to become "Qualified all-age" by winning a Qualifying or placing 2nd. There is a long explanation about the stakes this allows the dog to enter that he could not otherwise.

THE 2 ALL-AGE STAKES
Open All-age
Amateur All-age

These are the top two stakes. They are open to dogs of 'all ages' (6 months and older), and they require fieldwork involving all retriever skills. They are tested at the highest, most extreme levels of difficulty against a field of 50-100 dogs, normally. This is the best of the best.

EvanG

Thanks for clarifying - it literally means any age dog - much different than in the pointing field trials. Congrats!

topher40 wrote:Congrats Evan, this is a true testament to your methods.

x2 Wow. Top dog in the USA. That is really saying something.

bb560m wrote:

Thanks for clarifying - it literally means any age dog - much different than in the pointing field trials. Congrats!

Actually until the advent of the Shooting Dog trials in the 60's , that is what it meant in pointing dogs. There are still some walking grouse/woodcock cover dog trials that are advertised as "All-Age".

A similar split happened with retrievers with the Hunting Tests - Field Trials seperation.

Back on topic, we have had some Amateurs win the NC at Ames, but I can't think of one winning the Dog or Handler of the Year. We have had several win the Brittany DoY.

But this is a singular accomplishment!!!!!