Kelmarsh Country Fair proved to be a popular event over the bank holiday weekend, the weather was overcast, hail storms on the Sunday made the ground soft under foot and the rain stayed away on the Monday, some traders appeared disapointed with the sales, their were lots of people not willing to spend a great deal, I managed to get a large discount on everything purchased, which was quickly spent by the children and friends, the food halls were great a place for a sandwich, the bison and wild boar was really nice.
After a browse, I decided to have a go, on the gundog events something I have been telling students to avoid for years "never race your gundog against the clock and never send it past game to pick game", but the lure of a brand new car was too much to avoid for many hundreds of gundog enthusiast and me!
The organisers of the gundog events had created a competition between the traditional scurry events and a proper working gundog event. Despite my own poor performance, I felt the working gundog event could have been more challenging without it being against the clock!
Both me and my friend entered our dogs in both events and decided to try and pick two dummies on an event called "Partridge Pens" 2 dummies were thrown into 2 separate pens surrounded by brashings of laylandii. My friend Bill went first and much to his surprise Monty refused to enter the pen! The retrieve appeared to very simple! thats the first mistake of the day! Bill eventually walked the dog out and asked it to jump the fence, which, the penny eventually dropped?
I also had the same problem with Poppy, I eventually got her in the pen, but not before picking a dummy lying on the ground near the thrower which disqualified me! To be fair I was in shock that such a simple retrieve had caught me out! I think this is something to be played out in the training field " I had never asked my dog to jump into a box on a grass field?
Well after a disastrous start, we decided to go onto the working gundog event, I had been warned that a fellow competitors field trial champion had failed this event the day before?
This test required your gundog to pick a blind after seeing a distraction thrown into a pen, the blind was an acute angle past the mark and there was a hidden bunker of a dip which you could lose your dog!
Well let's just say, all my gundogs weakness were exposed in this one event, and I failed miserably, she did not listen to the stop whistle, she was head strong, she did not follow commands on directions, she pulled to cover on open ground and this was after winning a novice event 10 days earlier!
It just goes to show the training is never complete and you never rest on your laurels in the gundog world if you want to work your gundog.
Not wishing to walk away a total failure, I did eventually get the dog to the area to pick the blind.
Having bought 2 tickets for this event, I had a second attempt, well lets say I should not have bothered, its definitetly back to the drawing board before her next working test.
Like most gundog enthusiasts we always carry on in the hope something will get better, and it did on the long mark retrieve Poppy managed it in 15 seconds, which was brilliant! Albeit not good enough to win but a very respectable time, I think the winner was around 13 seconds. I think my time would have only improved if I was lucky enough to have had a strong head wind, as some retrieves were a lot shorter than others.
I then went and had go on the up and over, which was a series of straw bails, I think 5 in all with 2 simultaneous marks at the end of a closed corridor, well this just spooked Poppy out, she actually froze in a closed space, drop the first dummy and ran back. I think the occasion of the day had just been too much for such a young dog, I eventually walked forward and encourage her to jump the bails, her confidence recovered very quickly.
Finally we arrived at the Pot Black event, this is where you pick a mark earning a red, then proceed to pick a blind yellow, then a mark red and then a blind green etc...
Well Poppy excelled at this until I needed to pick the pink, which was behind the black and her nose was to good for the job!! she ignored the whistle and picked the wrong color. Much to my surprise the steward asked me to stop her and get her to drop the dummy, then go back and picked the pink and I would have remained in the competition. Sadly I declined to teach my dog to drop retrieves, I have been working too hard to produce a proper gundog not an circus machine!
Its worth mentioning that spectators found these events very entertaining, the tradition field trialing world would be having a rye smile and avoiding some of these events like the plague.
But that said having a gundog for most owners is about having a companion to enjoy, whatever its faults, I am sure these events go a long way to achieving this..
Enjoy....
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