Dakotazeb
Well-known member
Well guys, here's the report from my first NSTRA Field Trial in Williston, ND. Overall it was an excellent experience and a very fun event. Everyone was super nice and more than willing to help a "Rookie" out. It was a Double-Double. 16 braces (32 dogs) on 2 fields for 2 days. So you could run your dog 4 times over the weekend. Once on each field on both Saturday and Sunday. But since they had more dogs that openings I did not get drawn for field A for today's run. I was the first "bye" dog but their were no cancellations so I only got to run 3 times for the 2 days.
Lot's of nice dogs. Dogs of all ability levels. There were Brittanys, English Pointers, English Setters, Gordon Setters, GSP's and GWP's. There were some really big runners that within 30 seconds of leaving the gate they were several hunderd yards out. I saw some really good dog work and learned a lot.
Now, for the details on Elle's runs. She ran the 3 times and only had one find in each run. So I was a little disappointed in that as I had hoped for 2-3 finds per run. She worked very nice in the field on all but the last half of the second run. Our brace got stopped about half way through because a dog from the other field got out of control and came into our field. For whatever reason I just couldn't get her going again after that interruption. Her retrieving was the weakest link as she dropped one bird about 10 feet from me and just would not bring it the rest of the way. She received good scores for her ground coverage and very good scores for obedience in the field and backing. In fact she received a backing score in all three runs and may have been the only dog there to do that. She also had the highest backing scores of the trial. All 3 of her scored backs were at distances of 80-100 yards and impressed everyone there. Backing scores are from 0-75. Her's were 68, 71 & 74. The judge that gave her the 74 said he had been judging for 14 years and this was only the second time he had given a score that high. So I did have something to feel good about.
I still need to firm up the retrieve and get her steadier while on point. And then she just needs more experience at the trials. Being a young dog (17 months) and her first trial she was so easily distracted by everything during her runs. Everytime someone would yell, blow a whistle or shoot she would stop to look. And the judges were on 4-wheelers and that seems to distract her at times. I think all the distractions were part of the reason for her lack of finds. We'll be running another Double-Double next weekend.
Lot's of nice dogs. Dogs of all ability levels. There were Brittanys, English Pointers, English Setters, Gordon Setters, GSP's and GWP's. There were some really big runners that within 30 seconds of leaving the gate they were several hunderd yards out. I saw some really good dog work and learned a lot.
Now, for the details on Elle's runs. She ran the 3 times and only had one find in each run. So I was a little disappointed in that as I had hoped for 2-3 finds per run. She worked very nice in the field on all but the last half of the second run. Our brace got stopped about half way through because a dog from the other field got out of control and came into our field. For whatever reason I just couldn't get her going again after that interruption. Her retrieving was the weakest link as she dropped one bird about 10 feet from me and just would not bring it the rest of the way. She received good scores for her ground coverage and very good scores for obedience in the field and backing. In fact she received a backing score in all three runs and may have been the only dog there to do that. She also had the highest backing scores of the trial. All 3 of her scored backs were at distances of 80-100 yards and impressed everyone there. Backing scores are from 0-75. Her's were 68, 71 & 74. The judge that gave her the 74 said he had been judging for 14 years and this was only the second time he had given a score that high. So I did have something to feel good about.
I still need to firm up the retrieve and get her steadier while on point. And then she just needs more experience at the trials. Being a young dog (17 months) and her first trial she was so easily distracted by everything during her runs. Everytime someone would yell, blow a whistle or shoot she would stop to look. And the judges were on 4-wheelers and that seems to distract her at times. I think all the distractions were part of the reason for her lack of finds. We'll be running another Double-Double next weekend.
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