Saturday, June 14, 2008

For your reading pleasure...

...stay tuned for some inspirational sidebars...beginning tomorrow :)

Recapping National meeting highlights


Specifics from today's meetings can be found on Jean Wu's recap of today's activities; included are the particulars for running order/rotation, handler instructions, how no birds would be handled and the like.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the first test dog will run at 7:30 a.m. It was also announced that the caravans would leave Shaw's Grocery on north 100 for the grounds which are only about ten minutes from that location; the first caravan (workers) would leave at 5:30 a.m. Signs will be posted from this grocery en route and to the grounds.

In the meeting, five scratches were announced, those being #44--Vicki Worthington's Petey; #94--Helen and Don Graves' Flyway's Ruby B. Gonia; #97--Ted Shih's Buffy; #105--Jack Vollstedt's Angel; and #116--Robert Hanssen and Terry Rotschafer's FC-AFC Meba's Ms Chief. Therefore, 121 dogs will start series one.

The expected test is a double with a blind.

Shortly after the meetings ended, a brewing storm let out its force on the community of Stowe and National goers. Additional storms are forecast through the evening with an 80% chance overnight.

And as I write this, thunder is booming and lightning is flashing everywhere, threatening for more rain in the coming minutes. As a matter of fact--Here it comes!

And back to this morning's training...


Daylight comes early this far north and it dawned with a cool yet humid touch and the promise of a pretty morning. Training groups migrated to their designated areas rather quickly and began their setups for the day; some groups that I dropped in on were able to get in two training tests while others did just one. Was this due to group size? Perhaps, but in some cases, small groups elected to do just one test and wind things down for the day.

The large training group of Patopea, Arthur, Attar, Pleasant, Koonce, and Harp merged this morning after having been split up into two smaller groups (back in New York state) for the earlier part of the week, and they efficiently managed their dogs with a makeshift judge, marshall, and a series of holding blinds as they did a wide open double followed by a blind off the left hand gun and deep.



I also found and/or talked to the training groups of Danny Farmer and of Dave Rorem, and the amateur groups of Talley/Dorobek/Darnell/Goettl/Stonesifer and also the Jack Vollstedt group...tests consisted of straight-up wide open doubles, double with a blind to the side, double with a blind through the middle and/or run first, and three singles. Hen pheasants were the popular bird of choice for training--no big surprise there.

Cover is extremely high in many of the available fields in this area, although there are some fields of reasonable cover depth and height as well...and of course those fields were coveted by all groups.

One thing that I not only noticed but also heard comments of revolved around the tendency to really emphasize line manners in pre-National training, whereas that is not always the case with a number of trainers throughout the bulk of the year. The question and the thought was/is then raised as to how much this preoccupation or focus on line manners may or may not affect the overall performance and attitude of certain dogs.

Food for thought.

All groups operated smoothly as I saw it and were in the groove of dog work.

By noon or before everyone began heading to headquarters to pick up handler's packets and get ready for the meetings--one would center around rules (Retriever Advisory Committee), one around the RFT Entry service, and finally the meeting regarding National business. In the lobby of the hotel during this time, the Merchandise Committee had their clothing and gift items spread out and this, as always, was a high traffic area as people bought new shirts, hats, jackets, and the like. Friendly banter was shared by one and all prior to the meetings.

And now for the real draw...

Today has been an incredibly hectic day...yours truly still doesn't have missing luggage, and was out very early dropping in on various training groups...more on that later...and then I was off to the meetings. This sort of news will be updated as soon as possible. I've got to try to find some clothes before the cocktail party begins or show up in the same borrowed t-shirt (not)...

...BUT, at the meeting today, 126 Vermont maple syrup bottles were arranged on a table near the front of the room and each bottle bore a tag with a number inscribed on it. NARC President Don Driggers summoned yours truly up to the front of the room to choose one of the bottles and thus reveal the starting number for tomorrow's first test. I looked, reached and picked one...and the tag revealed Number 93, FC-AFC Tartan Prime Time and co-owner/handler Barb Howard. (On a lighter note, all handlers will be given their bottles of maple syrup.)

Prior to Prime's appearance, the first of two test dogs will be called to the line at 7:30 a.m. Right now, as I type, we've got managed chaos as folks are swarming from the meetings and committees are grouping together to discuss strategies and schedules for tomorrow. In addition, the bitch check is being held in just a few minutes (commencing at 4:30 p.m.) behind the Town & Country by the official stake veterinarians.

I'll be back asap with ramblings about training groups from this morning and additional comments on National goings-on...Thanks for reading.