Dakotazeb
Well-known member
My new Brittany, Bree, has suddenly turned into quite the little retrieving machine. I've run her in 4 NSTRA trials this spring and she has done fairly well for a young dog. She has been very steady on point (with a couple of exceptions), has now started to back but it's her retrieving that has been quite amazing. At yesterday's trial they were using Chukars so they were flying much better than the Bobwhites we usually have. During Bree's last brace I had to call a safety on her first bird as it flew toward the other handler. The bird flew up over the gallery and vehicles and into the other field. She gave chase, found he bird and brought it back. The second bird I missed and it flew quite some distance before going down. Bree ran it down and brought it to hand. For that long retrieve she got a score of 90 (100 is the max). Now the third bird, again I missed and the Chukar flew towards a cattail slough, over the cattails and landed some 200-300 yards on the other side in the cattails. First she ran into the cattails but soon came out, ran around the edge of the slough to the far side. My judge was standing on his 4-wheeler for a better view. He said he thought she was in the area where it went down. So we waited to see what would happen. I little later here she comes around the edge of the slough with that Chukar in her mouth. Brought it live right to hand. I couldn't believe it. For that retrieve she received a 97. In my 9 years of NSTRA I have never seen anyone get a score that high on a retrieve. I've seen 94-95 but never a 97. Most really good retrieve scores are in the 80's. Needless to say I was one pretty proud papa!
FYI, when you call a safety the judge doesn't give you a score for that bird even if the dog brings it back. What they do is that your other retrieve scores for that brace and average them and that's your score for that retrieve. So (90+97)/2= 93.5. Not bad retrieve scores, 90, 93.5 and 97.
FYI, when you call a safety the judge doesn't give you a score for that bird even if the dog brings it back. What they do is that your other retrieve scores for that brace and average them and that's your score for that retrieve. So (90+97)/2= 93.5. Not bad retrieve scores, 90, 93.5 and 97.
