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The final Sixth Series for Flight A was at John and Mary Stracka’s property, "Tired Bottom Farm." We are overlooking the technical pond which is full of sticks, points, islands and cover variation. The test begins as the handler walks up to the line with a dry shot, after which the judges ask the team to go pick up the bird from the 105 yard land blind on the far left of the test. The lines to the land/water blind runs down the road, takes a sliver of the pond to the other shore, where the dog needs to run up a gentle hill to get his bird. After the dog returns with the bird, the marking portion of the test begins. The first bird is the middle duck flyer at 109 yards shot to the right. The second bird is the left-hand dead duck at 60 yards thrown to the right the line to this bird is across the corner of the pond a small corner of the pond. The third duck to go down is also a dead duck thrown to the left onto the peninsula at 61 yards. The final part of the test is the water blind on the right side of the marks at 85 yards. This is a challenging test and the handlers are allowed to complete each portion of it at the judge’s discretion. The test took between 10-12 minutes per dog. When we were there in the mid-afternoon the wind was at the handler’s back at 15 mph with gusts up to 20 mph from time to time.
The first portion of this test to negotiate is a cold blind run mostly on land. But the dog must cut the corner of the pond and run up the hillside to take the direct line to the bird. As far as the marks, the dogs we watched picked up the right-hand dead duck first. The dog must navigate the widest portion of the pond to get to this bird on the direct line, going to the left of the island. The left-hand bird was the second bird the dogs went for, crossing the corner of the right-hand pond going across the road to get the bird. For the middle flyer, the line was going through a larger corner of the pond, up onto the shore and across the road. There was a small pothole on the other side and the direct line to the bird took in a sliver of this small pond. The final retrieve of the 2017 MAI was a water blind. The dog entered the pond on a slight angle, cut the right side corner of the island, swam diagonally to the opposite shore, finally running on land to get the last retrieve of the day.
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| Test 6 - Flight A |
FLIGHT B: Thurs April 27 – Day 5 – Test 6 – Water Triple with a Double Blind
The Sixth Series for Flight B was back at Ken and Brenda Neil's Whoa Nelli Farm overlooking a very large piece of water with a few peninsulas, islands and points. This land/water triple with a double blind was taking approximately 9 minutes per dog to complete. This was a very wide test at more than 180°. The handler must make a wide swing to the right for the first bird of this test. The flyer was shot to the left, landing on a gently sloping hillside in medium cover at 100 yards. The second middle bird was a dead duck thrown to the left at 60 yards landing on the point of the peninsula in the pond. The last bird is the left-hand dead duck thrown to the right, landing on the point in short cover at 61 yards. After the dog retrieves the marks, he must run the 75 yard water blind the line of which goes under the arc of the second middle bird. The 90 yard land blind is to the right up in the field where the flyer was shot.
The dogs went to retrieve the left hand peninsula bird first, swimming across a corner of this large pond. Next they had a large swing round to the right where they were sent to get their land bird – the flyer. The third bird to be picked up was the middle peninsula bird. This involved a swim across the pond onto land to get the bird. The water blind was to the right of this bird and the on the far shore of the peninsula. The direct line to it was under the arc of the middle bird. The final retrieve for the 2017 MAI was the land blind, to the far right of the line on very gently sloping hillside with short to medium cover.
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| Test 6 - Flight B |
FLIGHT C: Thurs April 27 – Day 5 – Water Triple with a Double Blind
(to go to the original test post Click Here)
The final Sixth Series for Flight C was at John and Mary Stracka’s property, “Union Hill.” This was to be the site of all three of the flights coming together for the final and six series. A last-minute decision was made on a Thursday morning by the Hunt Test committee that the flights would continue to run at the sites that they have been located all week, with the exception of Flight C which was going to stay at Union Hill instead of returning to Glen and Laurie Williams “Dog Pond Kennels.” This series consisted of a triple with a double the first bird was a dead duck thrown to the right across from the shore across the water landing on a peninsula at 65 yards. The middle second bird was thrown to the left from the far shore onto a peninsula at 55 yards from the line. The final bird was the duck flyer at 65 yards shot to the left landing in tall cover. The water blind appeared to be a channel blind from the line with what looked to be an island on the left and the peninsula on the right where the middle bird had just landed. The direct line to the water blind on the far shore of this technical pond was between those two pieces of land at 95 yards. The line for the land blind was to the far right of the test. The bird was located at 100 yards at the base of a very large brush pile.
The dogs began the series by retrieving the shot flyer to the far right of the test. The direct line to the mark took a sliver of the corner of the pond but was mostly run on land. Next was the left-hand dead duck which consisted of 35 yards of running on land before an angle entry into the pond onto the shore of the peninsula. The final middle bird was the longest swim across the pond into the middle of the peninsula. For the water blind, as the dog swam through the channel, they bounced off the left end shore of the peninsula where the second bird landed. The final retrieve of the 2017 MAI is the land blind at 100 yards off to the right. This test took about eight minutes to complete and was expected to be the first test to be completed today because it was set up long before the other two flights.
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| Test 6 - Flight C |
