If you stopped by my blog yesterday and saw Gamblers lip curl and was wondering where he was and why he was curling his lip. If you missed it you can see it here. The answer to where he is is the American Chesapeake Club National Field Trial held in Ronan, Montana this past September. He is curling his lip because this is the big guns for field trials and he is running the open for the first time. He has never run any stakes in field trials, he has only trained a handful of times for the events he entered. We were basically running on good luck.

A field trial is a competitive event at which hunting dogs compete against one another. There are field trials for retrievers, pointing dogs and flushing dogs. Field trials are usually organized by kennel clubs or other gun dog organizations. Field trials are generally considered more competitive than hunt tests in that success at a field trial requires a higher level of training than success at a hunt test requires. For example, in Retriever Field Trials, dogs retrieve over longer distances with a more complex path than a Retriever Hunt Test would generally provide. Field trial dogs must be “finished” in order to enter. Their purpose is also different, as they exist mainly for breeders, while hunting tests are made for users. Field trials come in various grades including Open, Amateur, Sanctioned and non-sanctioned. An Open field trial permits entry from any handler or trainer while an Amateur trial only permits non-professional handlers/trainers. Sanctioned trials are ones that are held under the control of a national kennel club or organization, while the non-sanctioned can be organized by a local club. ~Wikipedia

The Open: Started Tuesday September 20, 2016. The first series was a land water series with the first bird down was a dead bird (duck) thrown behind some cattails, the second bird down was a dead bird thrown over some water into a clump of grasses and the third bird down was a live flyer on land.

First series, land and water marks:

Here is my version of the panoramic view of the test.

My chicken scratching.

From the line the dog had to go as straight as possible up and down some valleys cut the corner of the water and then go into another small pond across to the duck that was behind the cattails. Very deceiving how far away that bird landed with the valleys and the big mountain in the background as well as this mark was the memory bird so the dogs had to make two retrieves first and then remember where this long mark was.

This mark was deceiving as well as the dogs had to run down a hill cross a road go into the water and locate the bird behind the grasses.

 This bird if any was the easiest so to speak to get as it was a shot flyer as the third bird so the dogs got to go get this bird first, there were valleys the dog had to go through but for the most part the bird was in the open and if your dog was lucky like Gambler it was just wounded so it flopped around until he got it making it the money bird.

The last holding blind, getting ready to run.

Heading to the line.

And he’s off.

The money bird.

The delivery.

Yeah, first series out of 4 completed!

All I wanted from Gambler is to be able to complete the first series out of four of the open. John and Gambler showed me it could be done. I was on cloud 9! Gambler got called back to run the second series which was a land blind. It was run right through the first series test. So there was a ton of scent and the dogs had to block out that they had already ran a similar test and had to trust their handler to guide them to the right spot.

The second series, the land blind:

Second Series Land Blind Diagram.

My chicken scratching.

Second series land blind

The delivery.

If I couldn’t be any happier than Gambler completing the first series, he got called back to run the second series and did it well enough to get called back to run the third series! He was on a roll and I was still on cloud nine. Many dogs have gotten dropped by this time and Gambler was still in. The one thing I will always remember after the second series call backs is a online field trial friend of mine Mike M came up to me after he found out his dogs both didn’t get called back and said to me “congrats on making it to the third series”. That meant a lot to me for a guy to say something like that to little ole me who’s dog doesn’t compete in field trials. This remarks came from the heart and I will always remember them. Thank you Mike for making a difference.

The third series, the monster water blind:

Original picture of the 3rd series, water blind.

My Diagram of the water blind.

This was a monster water blind and was going to see who the great dogs were. It was starting at the top of a hill, having to run down the side of the hill cut the corner of a piece of water, go in and out of several pieces of water ignoring a poison bird that was thrown on the other hill towards the water (a bird that is thrown but the dogs can not pick it up, they have to ignore it) going into more water to the end of the blind, pick up the bird and then head back.

Lining up for the water blind.

Gambler completed the water blind.

Gambler completed the water blind but it wasn’t pretty. A Chesapeake is known for thinking they know the best and fastest route and can ignore a handler which is what Gambler did. Near the poison bird there was much land and Gambler thought he could get to the blind faster by using the land and not going in a straight line by using the water is was the correct way. John hacked him off the land and back into the water. In the end he got the bird but it meant he wasn’t called back to run the fourth series.

Proud of these two guys.

Over all this was a great experience and a very tough test. I couldn’t be more proud of John and Gambler for how they ran during these series. You take a dog from WI that is used to hunting and running hunt tests, put him in a new place with such different cover, stretch out the marks by a long ways and let them go. Most dogs will shut down because they aren’t trained to run long and will stop short and start to hunt. Gambler at least has running long down and enjoys it so that I didn’t think would be the problem and he proved that. He lacks experience is what he lacks and the mindset that you need to listen to your handler. We had a great run at the open and will be trying it again next year.