Test 1 – A & B

A – "Two Cedars" is a Land Triple with a Flyer and an Honor. The test site is located in a beautiful green field full of Avery full body goose decoys. Looking out from the mat, there are two cedar trees at an almost equal distance from the line. Dead bird #1 is thrown from the right tree towards the left tree landing 82 yards from the line. Dead bird #2 is thrown from the right to left. The throwers are behind the left cedar tree throwing towards a tree line with the bird landing in an open field 127 yards from the line. The handler and the dog will then need to swing to their far left. The flyer gunners will throw, then shoot bird #3 from left to right with the flyer landing approximately 85 yards from the line. There is an honor to the right of the mat.

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

The rain delay has stopped with the clouds giving way to patches of sun. It is currently very humid, but the temperature is only 70 degrees. There is a light breeze blowing down the test from left to right. The test's only problem seems to occur with the right hand mark. The wind is very favorable to the flyer and the middle bird. Some dogs are going right of the right cedar tree and getting deep into the row crop before turning back towards the cedars and their bird. If this wind would die or change directions, the middle bird would give this test fits. The winger is tossing this bird and incredibly long distance. The test is taking approximately 4 minutes a dog …

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B – "Slippery Slope" is a Land Triple with a Flyer and an Honor. The test is situated in a green field dotted with Avery full body goose decoys. The mat is sitting at the top of a long sloping hill. Dead bird #1 is thrown to the right from a tree line located at the handlers left. The bird lands 140 yards from the mat in an open field in knee-high cover. Dead bird #2 is thrown from a row of shrubs and trees in front of the line. The bird is thrown to the left landing 71 yards from the line tight to the line to bird #1. Both the birds land downhill from the mat giving the dogs plenty of room to build up speed and miss their marks. The flyer is bird #3. The guns are to the right of the line. These gunners stand on the near end of the shrub and tree line hiding the gunners for bird #2. The flyer gunners throw and shoot from left to right with the flyer landing 67 yards from the line. There is an honor in this test to the left of the mat.

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

The handler comes to the mat with a breeze crossing the mat from right to left. The flyer seemed to be both quick and easy for all of the dogs that we watched run this test. The middle bird was picked up second by most with a few tight hunts, but very little difficulty. Handling on the left-hand bird was necessary for quite a few dogs. The dogs would go down the hill for the left-hand bird and start hunting short or left forcing a handle.