We're in the short rows now...

...with eight dogs left to run on this blind. Callbacks will be given later tonight at the Headquarters. 

It has been announced that the Workers Caravan will leave Shaw's Grocery at 5:30 a.m. and the Contestants Caravan will leave the same location at 6:15 a.m. Also, maps to the test site will be available in the lobby of Town & Country. 

Test dogs will begin at 7:30 a.m. with the first running dog, #17 or the first dog on the callback list thereafter, is scheduled to come to the line at 8:00 a.m. 

(Eloy Garcia from Alaska is pictured with his wonderful female, Molly, as they wait in the third holding blind.)

I'm powering down for now, having been on accessory power the past hour anyway. :)

Thanks for reading!

Potential Internet Problems Tomorrow

Mike Coutu, Co-Chair of the Traffic Committee, has just informed me that we may have internet access trouble at the test site tomorrow. If so, we'll just have to see what or whether anything can be done to overcome such difficulties. 

Worst case scenario is that you'll be deluged with quite a number of posts tomorrow night.

We'll do the best we can.

Thanks for reading. 

Just a few statistics...

...There were 30 dogs that handled in the first series. One dog also picked up. Three dogs were dropped as mentioned in an earlier post, and an additional dog, #104--Candlewoods Power Surge, owned/handled by Bob Larsen, scratched due to an injury following the first batch of five scratches. 

So, that leaves 117 dogs in contention with the onset of the third series. Currently, we have run 97 dogs on this water blind.  

Update and drawing

At the present time it looks like we'll be able to finish this test today. It's warm and steamy but storms are going around and below this area so Lady Luck is still bestowing good weather upon us. Pam Ingham has just finished her drawing of this series so I'm attaching it; you can view it in larger detail on Jean Wu's page when scanning becomes available.

Triple Threats

This National began with what could be a record number of handlers with three dogs entered. Although circumstances have skewed those statistics somewhat due to a few scratches, this is worthy of mention in my book. 

This "category" was comprised of Judy Rasmusson, Jack Vollstedt, Ted Shih, Clint Joyner, Charlie Hines, and Tommy Parrish (one owned by Tommy and two owned by Kip Kemp) when the entries closed. 

Since then, although Jack and Ted have three dogs in the catalogue, they're each only running two dogs and for different reasons. 

Jack was only able to fly two dogs and had to make a tough decision on who to leave behind. Angel drew the short straw. 

Ted's dog, Buffy, tore her ACL in pre-National training, this soon after recovering from injury, repair and rehabilitation to her other ACL.   

Judy's dogs include #43--FC-AFC Hardscrabble Carbunnation "Fizz"; #54--FC-AFC Emberain Beau Geste "Beau"; and #80--AFC Topbrass Band on the Run "Band"...Jack's dogs include #28--Volwood's Big Old Rex "Rex"; #39--FC-AFC Volwood's Peaches and Cream "Peaches"; and #105--FC-AFC Volwood's Angel "Angel"...Ted's dogs include #62--Freeridin Maserati "Mozzy"; #79--FC-AFC Freeridin Smooth Operator "Mootsie"; and #97--FC-AFC Freeridin Vampire Slayer "Buffy"...Clint's dogs include #61--FC-AFC Carolina's Smoke on the Water "Little Man"; #92--FC-AFC Carolina's Electrik Gypsy "Girlie"; and #109--Carolina's Acoustic Storm "Sister"...Charlie's dogs include #72--FC-AFC Nick of Time Wild Wind Dusty "Dusty"; #89--FC-AFC Nick of Time Lone Ranger "Ranger"; and #102--FC-AFC Windy City's Secret Signal "Cody"...and Tommy's dogs include #37--Wild Chase for Blue "Chase"; #81--FC-AFC It's all over Now Baby Blue "Blue" (owner Kip Kemp); and #118--AFC Alpha Minnie Pearl "Minnie" (owner Kip Kemp). 

Of honorary mention in the Triple Threat category are Mac and Lynne DuBose as Mac has two dogs and Lynne has one as mentioned in the Cape Fear Crew post.  

Quite an accomplishment, folks! Good luck!

Put a little light on the subject...

...currently, the sun is now out more than in and as you might surmise, while it's out the temperature is up. Here is a photo of the water blind, courtesy of Pam Ingham. She's doing some terrific drawings of the setups as well. However, they've not yet been added to the WRC pages because they've got to be scanned...you guessed it, there is no such capability out here. As soon as that dilemma is solved you'll be able to enjoy her renditions of the tests.    

As we speak...

...we have run 23 dogs on the third series water blind, which started at 10:45 with dog #118, AFC Alpha Minnie Pearl. Work is varied with many similar middle-of-the-road jobs, as well as a few good jobs and poor jobs. Sounds like a field trial!  

Tech Talk...

For your viewing pleasure, we are closing in on closing out the technical difficulties in posting pictures, thanks in huge part to Ben from Retriever News website land. The first success we've had can be found in the post titled "And back to this morning's training" from June 14. Check it out, and as time and battery life permit I'll be adding more photos to previous blog posts and soon, to new ones.   

And we're moving on...

...callbacks have been announced and three dogs have been dropped after the first and second series. They are #67--FC-AFC Drakes Bay Kate's Choice and Richard Wilke; #90--FC Keith's Reedy Fork Kate with Nancy Thomas; and also #125--FC-AFC Hightest Black Ty Affair with Chris Hatch. 

We've moved in pretty quick fashion and test dogs for this water blind are running now...

When it rains, it pours...

...two no-birds in a row, that is. But the third time's a charm...

Question: What will be...Test Three?

Answer: A water blind on this same property. Series three will require a short move once the dogs and handlers have completed this first setup. 

Did I say "We've got rain"...

You know the popular saying "You've got mail"....well, on a similar vein, "We've got rain" but, thus far we've been extremely fortunate...because it's been raining at night. Plenty of it, but all at night. How long that luck will hold remains to be seen but the weatherman promised to break our good pattern on this day. We'll see.

Rains hammered us again last night--but it's good sleeping weather! If you can sleep at all with the National going on, that is.

The morning dawned overcast and in the mid-50's, but with no precipitation. You can smell it in the air, however. 

Since the test has carried over into today, many folks have the opportunity to sleep in or to go and get a hearty breakfast at one of the excellent eateries in town, and those folks with no dogs left to run on this test may also, of course, be out training for the next test. 

Fewer folks are on the grounds this morning but the line area was still crowded as test dog was run by Don Driggers at 6:58 a.m. this morning and his dog did an exemplary job on the test. The first running dog for today, #74, FC-AFC Fat City Pacer with DeWitt Boice, came to the line at 7:25 a.m. 

Visibility is not ideal this morning.

As of this moment, six dogs have run and two of them have handled on the retired bird of the marks.