Pat’s Perspective – Third Series
First of all, I would like to applaud the judges for their test design here in the Third Series. They were faced with many challenges. The first was the sheer number of dogs to look at and judge. The second was designing a test that was going to be effective with dramatic wind changes. And the third is what all national judges face when setting up the first set of water marks in a National. That is time management. I had an interesting discussion with Ted Shih. Ted judged the National Amateur here in Mondovi eight years ago. Ted said that he fretted about setting up the Third Series water marks. He studied past issues of Retriever News and specifically Third Series water marks. He commented that it is one of the toughest series to get right. You can’t afford to take the time for large swims. However, you need to get answers. And you want to get them for the right reasons. These Third Series types of water marks are never the test that you first see when you look at the pond. It takes a lot of thought to envision just the right situation. You need to use less water due to time constraints. However, you don’t want to reward the dog that cheats. These judges used a nice angle on the right hand retired gun. The dogs that squared out early on the left were faced with a challenging recovery. Especially with today’s wind. The longer middle retired gun also required the dogs to angle. This angle was after the dog exited the pond and started up the hill. The bird was well placed up next to the wood line and was difficult to wind. This test is going take more than two full days to complete. But without a doubt will play a huge roll in rewarding this year’s National Amateur Champion. Good work Judges!
~ Pat
