Friday was an exciting day. Luther was dog #4 and ran close to that order. Luther was the youngest dog in the group. I was a little concerned at first because as spectators and dogs, we were looking straight into the bright morning sun. The later dogs would have the advantage but it turned out not to be a problem, thank goodness. The one thing I have learned in watching these events so far, is that there is an element of luck (good and bad) beyond your control that can affect the performance.
For the land marks, Jim Elam brought Luther to the line and he was perfect! He walked right up there like he owned the place! It was a triple--two birds and a flyer. Jim sat him on his left and said he got a good look at the left and center stations and when he turned his leg to right, his head followed along perfectly and he saw the right flyer station. He nailed all 3 marks, no hunts! He had great lines and did his usual quick grab of the bird on his pivot back! The 3 land marks were followed by a 205 yard land blind. When he was running back from his 3rd retrieve, Jim and the Judges walked over to a holding blind about 25 yards to the right and called Luther there to hand the 3rd bird over. Meanwhile, a fellow in the woods placed the blind at the back of the field near a small tree or bush. Luther took the line and Jim tooted the whistle a total of 3 times. He took each cast perfectly. The last toot he was almost on the blind. He did his land series very well and probably was in the top 3 or 4 dogs at that point. At the end of the land series and blind the field was reduced from 21 to 17 dogs.
The water turned out to be his downfall. The water blind was set up with lots of different surfaces. There were all sorts of grasses and rush in the water. The blind was over 200 yards through a marshy condition and the dogs needed to leave the line, go through some running water and a little swim, then onto a piece of land about
20 yards wide, then swim for a ways and past a very sharp, pronounced point of land with a small cypress tree on the tip and maneuver through a combination of swimming and running water with various grasses to the side shoreline. We knew immediately that Luther's training was not advanced enough for this series at this time. Well Luther made it to the first island and spotted that point with the Cypress and fell apart. He was resistant to go any further. Jim called him in. At the end of the water blind, the field was reduced to 8 dogs. (Luther wasn't the only dog with a problem!)
The last series of water marks were fairly straight forward. I think Luther would not have had any problem with those. So it's back to water work. Jim said he was going to return to basics with him and give him some simple water marks and restore his confidence. Then add to those and get him going again.
We brought Luther home with us after the event. Yesterday Luther had the day off. Today, we took him to three places and primarily worked blinds. He did great. Several were water blinds but much more simple than the one at the Q. We just got back from a long walk. (Walk a hound, lose a pound!)
It's a joy to have him home.
He's been my constant companion.
First and foremost, he's my buddy!
