Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Tuesday May 22 – Flight A – Test 3 – "Square in the Middle"

"Square in the Middle" is a Land/Water Triple with a Water Blind and an Honor. From the mat, the handler and dog are facing a beautiful pond. Upon the Judge's signal, the handler heals the dog emerging from the holding blind and sits the dog in front of the holding blind and then the handler retreats back into the blind – a "remote sit." The Judges signal for the first middle bird, a dead drake, located beyond the edge of the far side of the pond down a slight slope. This bird station throws to the right with the bird landing 45 yards from the line. Dead bird #2 has the thrower across the other side of the pond to the right of the first station. This angle back throw goes across the road and up a slight slope 85 yards from the line. There is a 180 degree swing for the last bird, the station is located on the far shore of the left-hand piece of water behind a bush. This station throws right down the shore, landing on a point at 90 yards.

When the handler completes the three marks, the team will then run the water blind. The line to the blind is straight out from the mat into the water. The dog must stay in the water and swim close to the shore to retriever the blind planted approximately 85 yards from the line on the edge of the right-hand pond. At the end of the test, there is an honor to the right of the working dog.

The credit for the test diagrams goes to Terry Elliot – Thank you, Terry!
We spoke to Jerry Mann, Field Director of Sporting Breeds from the AKC, and he felt that this third series test for Flight A was a challenging test. The "remote sit" is in keeping with the theme of natural hunting conditions and that's a good start, plus the bird stations are well-concealed with natural cover. The 180 degree swing to the left the dogs must make results from a duck call blown to get their attention so they can turn and locate it. This last third bird down takes their attention away from the first two birds they saw and they must remember them. Having the final water blind retrieve in the opposite direction where they just had success adds difficulty since they have not seen a bird go down that bank where the blind is located.