HGS working test

HGS working test - went well. The weather held for me with only one shower mid afternoon, when most competitors were in the shelter of the woods.
A bit of a prickly start - a few errors in my transcriptions of dogs' names into the running order and an earlier computer crash that had misplaced a couple of entrants - so they did not appear on the lists. Crying or Very sad As the whole of the event was managed out of a database this proved a bit of a problem - the lists were alphabetical by handler so any new one changed the numbering system and many numbers had already been issued. - I will have to revise that for next time also a better method of handling competitors living at the same address. The up side of using technology - and a village hall as the venue - was the ability to crunch the results in ten minutes and give ordered results sheets to all.

So what of the day? We had 39 runners in three classes in the end. A very pleasing turn out allowing a good test of the ground without the pressure of numbers. Much appreciated was the availability of fresh ground for each dog and also the chance to run in open fields.

The open dogs had a split retrieve of a seen and blind near one of the release pens to add interest followed by a blind retrieve of a cold pigeon. The novice dogs a split on a woodland ride requiring the dog to be stopped and directed and a seen down into a dell and over/under a fallen tree. Whilst the puppies had a seen and a memory placed by the handler. All dogs had a water retrieve. The pond was quite thick with elodea so the tests reflected this added difficulty. However as the pond is a flight pond for duck no one could really complain that their gundog shouldn't use it.

Julia provided catering all day - hot home made soup, sandwiches, tea coffee and cakes (60 plus cupcakes of many varieties). The sponsors provided over £150 worth of prize vouchers for the competitors and judges and the club gave certificates and rosettes to sixth place. I will be able to report back to the committee with a profit that will pay for all my field trial licenses this winter.