Monday May 21 – Flight A – Test 2 – "Snake in the Grass"

"Snake in the Grass" is Land Triple with a Walk-Up, Flyer and Land Blind. When the handler leaves the holding blind, he or she and their dog rounds the tent towards the mat. The walk-up bird is thrown from in front and just right of the handler up a hill landing 33 yards from the line. The handler turns back to his right where the flyer gunners are in front of the mat shooting the flyer to the left. This bird lands 65 yards from the line. Duck calls pull the dog to the far right where the holding blind is behind a cedar tree. The massive throw comes from the cedar tree, crosses the gravel road into the test. This bird lands 92 yards from the line.

After the three ducks are picked up, the handler lines the dog up for the blind. The large throw of bird number three has most dogs running under its arc, across the road and onto the planted bird in tall cover.

The credit for the test diagrams goes to Terry Elliot – Thank you, Terry!

We arrived to catch the end of the first Test Dog and hearty applause. Test Dog #2 came to the line and also did an excellent dog. The test averages 4-5 minutes per dog. The full body Avery geese decoys in the field of tall cover and heavy seeds seemed to have no effect on the dogs. We watched the next nine dogs run and while there were some hunts, there were no handles. The dogs seemed to make quick work of this test.