Dog Numbers and Call-backs Last Updated Friday,
August 9, 2013 - these are the final qualifiers
| NUMBER |
NAME |
OWNER (HANDLER) |
LAND
SERIES |
UPLAND |
TRAIL |
WATER
SERIES |
| 1 |
Onyx |
Vicki & Bruce Butler (Vicki) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
| 2 |
Mist |
Jim Hundemer |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
| 3 |
Brewer |
Kim Smith |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 4 |
Mandy |
Maggie Rathje |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
| 5 |
Boo |
Larry Dusanek |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 6 |
Carbon |
Valerie & Frank Plewa (Valerie) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 7 |
Magic |
Diane Sheppard |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 8 |
Hoot |
Duane Mayberry |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 10 |
Belle |
Bruce Jenkins (Frank Plewa) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 11 |
Ruby |
Ted Eggertson |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 12 |
Lizzie |
Joan & Dave Hilts (Joan) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 13 |
Juice |
Jackie Lutskus |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 14 |
Riley |
Jim Langa |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 15 |
Teddy |
Tony Carlo |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 16 |
Target |
Frank & Valerie Plewa (Frank) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 17 |
Lacey |
Keith & Dawn Hass (Keith) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 18 |
Trucker |
Bruce & Vicki Butler (Bruce) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
| 19 |
Abby |
Dave Koslosky |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 20 |
Rain |
Chris Giardina |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 21 |
Bumper |
Jim Tracy (Dan Hosford) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 22 |
Smoke |
Dave Mellender |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 23 |
Blade |
Dick Ofstedal |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 24 |
Jaspar |
Michelle Rappl |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 25 |
Kali |
Jeff Riebling |
N |
| 26 |
Chip |
Mark Norbert |
N |
| 27 |
Gee |
Sue Snow |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 28 |
Radar |
Frank & Valerie Plewa (Frank) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 30 |
Grace |
Keith & Dawn Hass (Keith) |
Scratch |
| 31 |
Hawkins |
Don Morgan |
N |
| 32 |
Chase |
Dick Ofstedal |
N |
>
| 33 |
Tank |
Jeff Riebling |
Y |
N |
| 34 |
Rachy |
Jim Karr |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 35 |
Deuce |
Mike Tome |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 36 |
Jock |
Jim Bennett |
N |
| 37 |
Meto |
Tom Johnson |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 38 |
Brynn |
Bruce Jenkins (Frank Plewa) |
Scratch |
| 39 |
Maggie |
Bill Everly |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
| 40 |
Bry |
Victoria Pepper & Larry Housman (Larry) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 41 |
K |
Ray May |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y |
| 42 |
Ty |
Wayne Goodrich |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
| 43 |
Gunner |
Bill Everly |
Y |
Y |
Y |
N |
| 44 |
Tom |
Howell Simmons (Frank Plewa) |
Y |
Y |
Y |
Y | |
Final meal counts go in tomorrow and we've already finalized the first wave of merchandise orders. At this point we're just trying to cross the t's and dot the i's. As we get closer I'll keep everyone updated on this site so check back here from time to time to see what's new. I will keep the running order chart above in the same place, so you can check back easily once the event starts to see how your guys are doing. I will do my best to update it as quickly as possible each evening, but I'm not going to have internet access until I get back to my hotel so it might not be until 10-11PM EDT.
Thursday, July 25 - And then there were 41: In just 13 days the first bird will go down for Vicki Butler and Onyx. I've been first dog before and it's not something I'd sign up for on purpose, but assuming all goes well, which I expect it will, by 8:30 AM she's gonna be the most relaxed handler around and truly loving life. That part I will truly envy - it will be well after 1:00 before Bry and I get our turn.
We lost our first dog to female issues today - Bruce Jenkins' Brynn came into season and is out. It's really a shame, as she was about our youngest dog and I really wanted to see her run with the big dogs. Luckily her mom Belle will still be able to represent as she goes for #4.
We had a new addition to the schedule today that was a pleasant surprise to me. On Thursday after testing we've arranged for one of the local restaurants to reserve a room for us so anyone that wishes can show up, order off (most of) the menu and pay for their own meal(s). It looks like a very nice restaurant - The Rustic Tavern - nice enough that even if you are as inherently anti-social as am I, you can still show up, disavow any knowledge of some dog group, and sit with the proper folks in the main dining room and enjoy a good meal on your own. For more information click here .
We're still working on getting information together for training areas and should have a map up sometime next week.
Monday, July 29 - And then sometime next week: has arrived, and we've had some actual progress on training areas. First of all, for those of you that ordered birds, they will be available on-site beginning Sunday. Call Tom Johnston at 717-576 3877 to arrange pick up and to secure a gunner for live flyers if necessary. Make sure you bring your own bird crate or something in which you can put your birds. Also, regardless of whether you are using birds or bumpers to train, if you are training before Monday please contact Tom to go over a few Game Commission rules that you'll need to be aware of. Things will be a little looser beginning Monday when our event permit goes into effect, but prior to that time we need to make sure you don't run afoul of the local law enforcement folks. Even if you are bringing in your own dead birds, please call Tom in advance.
The map below will show you our primary test and training areas. Areas 1, 8 and 11 will be open for training, and areas 2, 4, 9 & 10 are absolutely closed to training as we expect those will be used for the test itself. Some of those areas will open up Monday afternoon and Tuesday once the judges finalize their grounds choice. Areas 5,6 & 7 will be open, but vehicle entry may be restricted (see the signs once you are on site) so you'll have a bit of a hike to get in if that is the case.
In other news, we finalized our agreement with Pay Pal to take credit cards at the banquet and auction Tuesday night. Normally I would not even mention such a mundane issue, but the actual process has been horrifying to me. To take cards we needed an IPad, and the most available one was owned by test chair Mike Tome, who graciously offered it up. And although I am the holder of record and control the Pay Pal account, he had to download the software since he had the IPad and obviously I didn't. So I gave him the account information and passwords and left him to his own devices. Little did I know that even though he had all the information, Pay Pal still required him to prove he was me. This is where it gets majorly disturbing. Pay Pal asked him 4 questions to prove he was me, and he actually answered them all correctly without having to call me to get the answers. There are only two ways that would be possible, and both options are more than troubling: 1 - the Pay Pal questions are worthless as a true test of identity and I'm going to be the victim of identity theft at any moment, or 2- he is stalking me. Sad, very sad.
The early weather reports for next week are encouraging. The weekend through Wednesday call for temps in the low 80's, which is as good as it gets for this time of year. Chance of some thunderstorms in the afternoon, but no steady rain.
Thursday, August 1 - Things seem to be coming together nicely: We had our (hopefully) final committee conference call tonight and appear to have no real issues to deal with. The judges are arriving on site by Sunday afternoon and will meet with the committee Monday morning before going out and setting up their tests. We've reserved two nice water and two nice land locations for them, and in a couple of cases I've never run on those particular locations so i'm hoping those get chosen so it's new ground for the home team as well. We've also got an upland area selected that has a small pond where the test will finish up, so the dogs can take a quick dip after they finish their run.
Before i forget, a couple of people have emailed me that they had trouble seeing the training map above. If you are having similar problems let me know and i'll send you the file directly.
Jackie, with the help of Dan Johnston, has put together a pretty sweet catalog which came back from the printers today and looks fantastic. In a departure from previous events, I'll post a pdf of the catalog, but not until after opening day so the handlers get first crack at it.
Other news from the meeting is that we will be having a defined lunch break each day, likely around noonish. Once we get close we'll designate the last dog to run before the break so everyone will know what's going on and nobody gets pulled out of a holding blind. We'll also have a bye dog available if there is an honor so the last working dog to run doesn't have to come back after a long break and honor.
The schedule for the Tuesday morning handlers meeting is still as posted on the Invitational website but I do want to mention that since it doesn't start until 9:00 AM we're figuring everyone will have already had breakfast so we won't be feeding you. Stop by the Sheetz gas station on the way in for coffee if you have an addiction.
Friday, August 2 - So where's the beer dude? The New York contingent, who really have no choice but to be heavy drinkers, what with their winters, lack of firearms and lefty elected representatives, contacted me to determine how best to continue a free flow of liquid refreshments. I thought it best to provide the answer here, in case other of you out-of-towners want to avoid a late night panic.
So basically, the state of Pennsylvania makes it more troublesome to get liquored up than most other states east of Utah. Unlike more civilized locales, you can't just walk into any grocery store and buy beer and wine. You need to find a "distributor," which is basically a glorified liquor store and tax collection agency. There are also odd other places tucked in here and there, such as pizza parlors that will sell you a 6-pack, as well as smaller liqour emporiums. But the holy grail of carlisle happy beverages is the Silver Spring Beverage Company. Go to http://www.silverspringbeverage.com/ for the details. Hundreds of square feet of joy for you, and a 12 minute drive from the Motel 6. Enjoy!
Saturday, August 3- I used to think herding cats was tough, but poor, downtrodden Invitational Chair Tome has to herd them in a bag. Please be nice to him when you arrive on site - he's having a tough run-up to the event.
Dick O, Chase, Blade, Sushi, Bry and I had a nice little training session this afternoon. Because I was driving up from Baltimore and then driving back home afterwards, Dick was nice enough to meet me at a game lands other than the test site, that was an hour closer for me so that was very helpful. We found a nice little pond and did a few marks and a couple of blinds and got the dogs a bit of exercise. I'll be driving back tomorrow and staying for the rest of the week so we'll do some water work on the test game lands tomorrow. Most of the rest of our no-longer-so-little training group will be in town by Monday morning and we'll do something a little more extensive then, when we can pick up the live birds from the bird guys.
For those of you arriving on site the next couple of days, I want to give you a bit of info about our host city, the lovely and peaceful Newville, PA. Newville has a less than diverse economy, and over the years they have been extremely grateful for the influx of dollars to the local economy provided by the participants in the many NPRC/NAHRA tests we have held. And while a modest percentage of that influx has come from funds expended in the various local commercial establishments, the majority of the transfer payments have originated along the side of the local roads, whilst discussing the rules of said roads with officials of the Newville public safety agency. Most differences of opinion have centered around the adherence, or lack thereof, to the posted speed limits. To avoid one of those unpleasant discussions yourself, it would be prudent to make sure you obey the 25 mph in town limit. They aren't making as much in property taxes as they used to, so don't let them make up the difference on your back!
Sunday, August 4- A tale of two hotels. So I'm staying at a comfort inn for free for tonight and tomorrow night, and then moving to a sleep inn across the street beginning when Vik comes on Tuesday cuz they have suites. I stopped by the sleep inn this afternoon to make sure they take dogs in their suites, since the website was a bit nebulous. The first response was no, but after a bit of whining on my part, the seas parted and they will take dogs in the big boy rooms. So if any of you are looking to upgrade to a very reasonably priced suite at the sleep inn near chambersburg give them a call and tell them you are with the hunt test and they'll bend the rules a bit for you. Very nice folks and excellent airing areas for the pups. Phone: (717) 263-0596
Now the comfort inn has been a bit of a challenge, as i'm on my second room since i checked in around 5PM. Sink backed up, which i could live with, but the only one tv channel was a deal breaker. they were good about it, and i only missed a bit of the hall of fame game, but i was distressed to have the departure of Faith HIll for that skinny little wanna be carrie underwood thrown in my face . Didn't she date tony romo for chrissakes? what a downgrade. oh well, such is life.
dicko and i had another little training session with ourselves, which could have gone better, and we're both glad that it was today and not next week. we did an admitedly testy little over/under water triple and none of our boys distinguished themselves. We'd like to think the judges wouldn't put up a test like we did, what with some poor bird visibility and extreme angle entries, but we still hoped for better. we'll probably set up something similar tomorrow and get more out of it.
Seems like more folks are trickling in and we expect a full training group in the morning. The Sheppards called in around 5 and are at the motel 6. Our token foreign entry, sue snow and gee, arrived too late for dinner but are ensconced at the HQ hotel and will be a training tomorrow. The Mellenders are meeting me at test HQ in the morning where we'll pick up the training birds and get them to the training area where hopefully the other kids will have set up a couple scenarios already. The Ofstedals and I did the Outback for dinner tonight, and I expect we'll do the same tomorrow since they make a decent steak and nobody is really into the foodie thing this week.
I'll try to post a little earlier tomorrow night, and maybe get in a picture or two.
Had a little time to put up just a quick shot of our training pond on Saturday to give you out of town guys an idea of what topography is like. Red are marks, thrown left to right with the longest on the left at about 60 yards, and the blind about 150 between the center and right hand marks.
Monday, August 5 - The never ending saga of my bad hotel rooms Well, I thought after changing rooms at the Comfort Inn that it would be smooth sailing until I checked out tomorrow morning. Not so much. It started when I didn't get my 5:45 wake up call this morning, but since I was already up I didn't much care. I figure the empty room I vacated the night before got my wake up call, because god forbid the front desk staff could make that little connection. Bry and I went over to the Gander Mountain next door so he could do his business without me feeling guilty about not picking it up and then I was first one at the lovely breakfast buffet. It looked lovely, but pretty much everything I picked out still had ice crystals in it. Not a great problem with the orange juice, but it really took the edge off the creamed chipped beef. At least the biscuits were at room temperature, so perhaps I'm being overly critical. And we are next door to a McDonald's so I was able to find sustenance before I passed out. Then off to the game lands to pick up some dead birds with the pups.
But before I leave my hotel rant, I want to mention that the maid staff here are excessively anal retentive. Now I, like every other person I know, takes the unused little shampoos and soaps and throws them in my luggage to take home. This under the unwritten social contract that the housekeeping staff will give me new ones each day that I stay at their establishment. But apparently not these miserly little robots. And after I only used one bed, tipped well, and dutifully hung my towels over the rack for reuse. Bummer. So I can't wait for the survey I'm going to get next week!
Dave (and I think Ann, although I haven't actually set eyes on her) arrived this morning. Dave and I spent a lovely early morning scouring the game lands for bird steward Tom Johnston. Little did we know that our seasoned veteran was delayed while engaging in a frank exchange of information with one of the local LEO's referenced in my earlier missive. It started when our plucky bird boy cruised through a red light, even as he knew the man was behind him, and the subsequent discussion took an ugly turn when our little scoff law was unable to immediately produce the required registration tag for the trailer that followed him through the stop signal. Eventually he was able to work it out with a minimum of wealth redistribution, and we received our ducks sometime after 9.
We had a pretty productive training session, with one land and one water set up, the latter pretty much the same one Dick and I hosed up Sunday. And the dogs pretty much hosed it up again today, although we shortened up the long memory bird and added a flyer go bird and that seemed to make it more doable. Only Dave and I are on the test permit, so one of us had to shoot flyers for everyone else. Dave was apparently into a catch and release phase, with the result that Bry had a delayed triple measured with a sun dial. But he did okay with it and I was very impressed that he didn't actually nap as Dave was reloading the winger for another go at it.
To demonstrate that I am not the only one with issues with the local hospitality industry, the judges' breakfast this morning appears to have been a quite lengthy affair due to the kitchen staff's need to pace the production of orders for such a large group. Now seeing as how the restaurant was a Cracker Barrel, all of which I believe have a seating capacity in three figures, and our little judges group was only 9, it was a bit irritating for our group. Sadly for the restaurant staff, the Johnston's are very good friends with the franchise owners, and i believe some unpleasant moments are in store for them.
Dick O sends Blade off for the water blind as Maggie Rathje, Jim Hundemer and Mark Norbert look on.
Dick O sets up the flyer winger for another try as Dave Mellender follows the flight of his most recent rapidly receding target.
Bry chilling at the Comfort Inn.
Tuesday, August 6 - Welcome to opening day at the San Paulo bodega I'm writing this as the banquet is well under way, and Chairman Tome has just accused me of having a twinkle in my eye. That basically tells me that the Pay Pal security is just fine, and he really is stalking me.
The banquet venue has been interesting at best. Their business model appears to be straight out of a 1970's text book at a Moscow university on how to run a hotel behind the iron curtain, and they graduated with honors. I really don't have time right now to go into details, but my first issue was the fact that the banquet room had one main entrance, and three clearly marked emergency exits. And each and every one of those emergency exits was padlocked shut - clearly the management was worried that someone might get out alive in case of fire and sue them. Without going into great detail, it took several tense discussion with the hotel intelligentsia, the final one of which went pretty much like this:
me: you really need to cut the locks off if you can't find the key.
them: i don't think we have anything to cut them off with.
me: go to the lowe's down the street and buy a set of bolt cutters
them: I'm not sure we can do that.
me: i understand, let me call the fire department and ask them if they can come over and help you out.
them: we'll take care of that right away.
The door that almost killed us all.
The prime rib was not quite up to my standards, but only because my standards don't include slices the thickness of proscuitto, with a grayish tinge, usually associated with gyro meat. other than that it was an outstandingly mediocre meal.
But the real point of the banquet is to gather together and celebrate our dogs. And that is going just fine, thank you very much. Right now our Marketing Manager, Bill Everly is thanking our sponsors and introducing our biggest sponsors individually. But he also thanked his wife, Jennifer, who has done a tremendous amount of work to make this a special event. She did placecards with the invitational logo for each handler, helped set up the silent auction tables, but what was most impressive is the very lovely centerpieces she put together for each table. I'll throw up a picture later but they are really neat. And while I'm singing her praises as my favorite NAHRA spouse or spousal equivalent, I have to tell you the best story ever for a dog bride. One day at training Bill gets a call from Jennifer. Now this was one of those once in a lifetime calls - it was her telling Bill that it was time to get to the hospital because she was going into labor with their first child. But this is what makes her a mortal lock for wife of the millennium - she actually told him to finish up the series he was running and then come get her - to the day I die I will be in awe of her!
congratulations to dave mellender for winning the big raffle. First prize was a Benneli SBE or $1,000 cash. I hope he takes the cash cuz the gun would just be a waste.
Tony with the 2014 Invitational entry that he outbid DickO and me for in the live auction. I don't think Tony expected to outbid me - I'm sure he thought it was a mortal lock that I was going to do one more bid to get it up to $325. He was wrong. Congratulations big guy, the NAHRA family thanks you!
Faith Thoman showing the hand carved by Jeff Riebling goose decoy won by Chris Giardina.
Well, I'm about done for tonight. In a surprising development to me, I'm apparently going to start off gunning first thing tomorrow morning so I'm actually going to have to be responsible and show up on time. Boo. I'll try to get the callbacks up as soon as i can tomorrow, but it depends on when I can get internet access.
Wednesday, August 6 - Mellender makes a comeback! But first the test.
A very straight-forward triple and blind, eminently fair but by no means a gimme. Your standard indented triple, with a dead bird thrown first from the left of the dog pretty much straight out and landing just adjacent to a few dozen goose decoys at 35 yards. Next mark was also a dead bird thrown left to right from a tree line at the bottom of a hill at 86 yards. Third bird was a flyer from the opposite tree line on the right, thrown right to left at a bit under 90 yards, depending on where your bird fell. All the birds landed in 6-8" grass, so the dogs really had to dig them out and be right on top of them. A light wind blew right to left, but swirled at the bottom of the hill for the left bird, and overall the wind was not much of a factor.
This shows the left side of the test. The first bird down into the edge of the decoys right out front, and the second on the left at the bottom of the hill. The blind is shown with the yellow line, right down the hill. The blind was more of a tester than I thought it would be, and while Bry crushed the marks, his blind was a bit worrisome, as he got too far left with his initial line. We got back on track tho and while it took a couple more whistles than I would have liked, he worked well with me and we should be okay going into tomorrow. This picture shows the final bye dog, Greg Gable and Tar, with judge Kent Bull looking on and wondering to where the rest of the judges disappeared.
This picture shows Bry taking off for the flyer on the right. While every other dog picked up the flyer first, Bry decided he'd pick up the short bird first, and as a result the picture shows me giving the middle bird to judge Bull after sending Bry for the flyer. Most handlers were going outside, outside inside, but since I had planned on taking the short bird second anyway, I wasn't going to pull him off it.
We lost 5 dogs today, and for the most part they ran into trouble on the left side of the test, either the long memory bird or blind. At least a half-dozen dogs ran back into the tree line and spend a bit of time getting back out. You could survive that on the mark, but on the blind it was a capital offense. I actually worked that winger with Rodger Parkhurst from Navesink, and it appeared to us that an obnoxious little rabbit may have sucked in the dogs, and while I can't confirm this, he mentioned a girl in a blue dress running along the back as an additional attractant.
Thursday, August 7 – Still waiting for the Mellender makes a comeback story But more about the test yesterday and today’s upland.
I’m writing this as the 6th dog is running their upland.
Okay, now I’m writing this as dog 44 is getting ready to run. Clearly I continue to have the attention span of a newt, but you people are getting what you are paying for so I don’t feel a bit guilty regarding my ineptitude.
This shows the upland field from on top of the hill where the cars are parked and the gallery is sitting. The dogs walk about half-way down the left side of the field to meet the judges and gunners, and then take off across the field to the right about half-way to the tree line where they turn left towards the back of the field. About 40 yards later they turn back to the left and get the flush about 50 yards beyond that.
The cover in the field is pretty high, so it’s a bit tough to keep a good eye on where your dog is at times. I can only assume the judges are having the same problem (only one of the judges follows you around; the other two stay at the staging point and wait the detailed report from the mobile judge – they rotate out, and judge Tongen drew the short straw and was forced to follow Bry and me around and listen to my mindless babbling during the duration of our run.) By the time I ran, probably 30th or so, there were quite a few trails cut in the cover which played against the handlers because if your dog was on one of those trails it wasn’t moving the vegetation like the voliceraptors in Jurrasic Park, which was pretty much the only way to keep track of your dog.
The actual flush came from a zinger winger uplander, which for those of you with experience with them know they launch a chucker like a patriot missle – it gets up to the low stratosphere in a milli-second, and that was causing some erratic shooting. The dogs were getting pretty close to the box before the launch. In Bry’s case I couldn’t see him when the box went off and I just trusted that he’d sit on the launch, which he did with nary a whistle nor verbal to help. But when I walked up to release him, he was no more than 4’ from the box so thank goodness he kept his little butt on the ground. Other handlers had similar tales, so clearly the flushes are on the high end of the standard, but this is the big dance so as long as the dogs are safe I’m okay with it. But it was a close flush to be sure!
This is a picture of part of the gallery early this morning. The view of the action would have been spectacular if the cover had been a bit more open, but it is what it is. We had everyone in the front row of vehicles pull them back a few feet so there was plenty of room to spread out the chairs and relax.
And now back to my story regarding Mr. Mellender. If you remember back to early in the week, I brought to your attention his epic futility as a wingshooter, and what a waste him winning a high-end smoothbore was. While I did not so state, the clear lesson to take away from the story was that his hand-eye coordination ranked slighty below that of Helen Keller, and there was nothing to be done about it.
And yet with that said, he somehow managed to win the bumper toss at the Workers’ Dinner last night, an inprobably victory I can compare only to that of the French Army as they bravely repelled the invading Nazis as they poured in from Belgium in 1939. Oh wait, that didn’t actually happen, but Dave did win the bumper toss, so that must rank as the greatest upset in the annals of man. Congratulations on the victory, my friend. Perhaps you can devote some of the prize money to shooting lessons.
And Chris Giardina won the distance event with a hurl of approximately 70 yards. I got there late (although I was nominally in charge of the events) and missed many of the attempts, but from what I saw the clear loser was Bill Everly with a toss of several inches in terms of forward progress. As a former pitcher in the Dodgers' organization, I would have expected more but clearly the intervening years have not been as kind as we would have hoped.
It's getting a little late and I have to pack to move out of the hotel in the morning in time to get to the water series in time to see the test dog run at (hopefully) 7:30. Bry is 5th dog, so I expect we'll know our fate by 8:30ish, depending on how close we come to starting on time. In the meantime, I'll just finish up my rant about the Hotel Carlisle and the lamest management team this side of the Costa Concordia. First off, this picture shows the Hotel signage that greeted us as we arrived at our banquet Tuesday night. (sorry about the angle, for some reason i can't get it to display correctly even tho the original is the correct orientation.) Now, I was a bit perturbed, but assumed that perhaps the Arabs had a larger group and room that did we, and therefore got priority - I would have accepted that. But no, such was not the case, as I went to explore the other event rooms to compare theirs to ours. I did find the clearly labeled room in which their event took place, but it appeared that the event had taken place over the weekend, and all that greeted me as I pushed through the door was a trash-strewn darkened room with no sign of life. Particularly galling was the fact that their emergency exits were padlock free!
BTW, please forgive the skipping all over the place - I really don't have the time or energy to organize my thoughts in any sort of logical or chronological order, so just do your best to hang in there - look at it as reading a creative writing contest entry at the local insane asylum and you'll be in the proper frame of mind.
My boy Dave with his richly deserved bumper toss trophy.
The trail was interesting to say the least. Looked like about 50-60 yards if run properly. All the dogs that made it to the trail made it from the trail and will be running water in the morning. But the performances were erratic to say the least, apparently controlled, in part, by the presence or lack thereof of direct sun beating down on the area. When the cloud cover was present the dogs seemed to do better than when the trail was bathed in sunlight. The picture shows Judge Tongen on a redrag. The dog was kicked off from the left side of the photo, and after about 10-15 yards the trail took a sharp left-hand turn and then two rights to run along the back tree line, up the berm and to the bird pile. The actual trail is shown by the blue and red lines. The red line represents the little "U" on the left side and the blue line that goes straight across represents the path most of the dogs took. To my mind, once a fair number of dogs cut straight across and made a path that way, the following dogs just piled in right after them. That was pretty much Bry's trail, except where he followed the trail made by the dog before him, but for pretty much the first time in over 50 senior tests he got the bird on the first try so I was pretty happy with his performance. I know we'll get dinged a couple of points for not picking up the left hand piece but I think we have one or two to spare after decent land and upland series'. Guess we'll find out tomorrow morning.
I will do my best to get the results up as soon as possible Friday, but I may not have internet access until early evening when we stop home on the way to the farm. There won't be much more posted until next week, as I don't have internet at the farm, and I'll need time to sort through all my pictures and notes to get them ready to post up here. So check back the middle of next week for a final wrap up.
Friday, August 9 – Qualifiers are up, more details to come over the weekend - driving most of the night and won't have time to do more for awhile. But since I am here at the awards dinner and they haven't passed out the ribbons yet I'll take a few minutes to describe the test. I don't want to release the qualifiers until the ribbons are passed out.
The test was a straight-up, open triple and blind - not easy by any means, but no tricks whatsoever. The first bird came out on the right side of a busy little pond with lots of cover and hummocks, button bush and other little confusing water flora. It came out right to left and landed at about 45 yards, sometimes in open water, sometimes in some light cover. Depending on the wind direction and speed, it sometimes drifted out to open water as much as 15-20 yards from it's original landing point.
The second bird was right up the middle, thrown left to right at 65 yards, landing behind a fairly thick stand of button bush (or similar, I'm not big on names) which was behind another fairly thick stand of button bush.
The third bird was thrown left to right at about 75 yards, also landing behind a thick chunk of cover. This bird, like all of them, gave you a big splash which was clearly visible through the cover so the dogs seemed to do pretty well marking them. All the birds were dead - no flyer due to the safety issues of the gallery, workers and a basically small pond.
The weather was incredibly variable - it alternated bright sun, cloudy, cloudy with light rain and cloudy with major league heavy rain. Poor Michelle Rappl got absolutely hammered with rain which just opened up as she was coming to the line. The gun station workers told me later that they literally couldn't see her at the line for part of the time, but she and Jasper smacked the test and qualified. The wind turned around almost 180 degrees and back again during the course of the day, and at times really pushed the memory birds around, but the judges seemed to take that into account.
okay, we're passing out ribbons so I'm punching save and will be back at you soon.
Sunday, August 11 – A few pictures The water series first.
First bird down was a hand throw right to left at 45 yards. The throw was preceeded by an extremely lengthy duck call, to the exent that one wondered if the bird boy thought he was getting paid by the note. This bird sometimes drifted significantly to the left.
The second bird was up the middle, thrown left to right and landed behind some light cover, at around 65 yards. Some of the birds went farther to the right, out past the cover, but for the most part they drifted back behind or into the cover before the dogs were sent for that bird, as most people were still going outside, outside, inside.
The third bird was also left to right and fell behind some light cover at about 75 yards. Since it was the go bird the dogs didn’t seem to have much trouble with it. To the far left, you can see official photographer Eric well hidden.
The blind was run by invitation only, and had a clearly defined corridor, with influences from the two marks on either side as well as a pretty thick stand of lilly pads that were a bit of an obstacle for some of the dogs. Initial lines were somewhat erratic, since the dogs were set off either from the top of the dock or in the water. The predominate path was initially to the left but most handlers got their dogs back on line pretty quick. The larger tree on the left was more dangerous than it looks, because if your dog got back there it was hard to get him back since your options to change your angle at the line were limited by the water and thick cover on either side. Once past the lily pads it was clear sailing until you got to the close. The birds were placed out of the water on a log, and you really needed to stay on your dog until you saw that mouth open up, because the difference between your dog on the bird and your dog out of sight in very thick cover was less than two feet – it was very possible to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in the last 10 feet of what was otherwise a nice 80 yard blind.
Here we have Dave Mellender taking delivery from Smoke at the conclusion of his successful blind. Clearly visible is the dock built especially for the test by master carpenter Tom Johnston and his staff of talented elves. At the conclusion of the test it was donated to a local trailer park for use as a front porch.
Dick Ofstedal watching Blade carry an excellent initial line.
Dan Hosford waits for Jim Tracy’s Bumper to return with the go bird. Dan and Bumper were a solid team all weekend, held back only by the circumspect accomodations and questionable decision to fly coach foisted on them by an overly thrifty owner. The picture is a bit foggy due to the high humidity condensing on the lens. The whole weekend was run in sauna like conditions, although the actual temperatures were below the normal high 80’s for this time of year.
Marcie Carlo is a far more talented photographer than am I, and I hope she’ll give me some of her stuff to post as time permits.
Skipping back to the trail from Thursday, this is Jim Langa and Riley starting their’s.
As all of the east coast handlers know, the trail is our Achilles heel, and I’m never comfortable at even a weekend test until we’ve got that behind us. This is Bry and me waiting to run back in the bullpen. Fritz, if you look carefully on the lower left of the picture, you will see that bottle of water you gave me that helped get us through the trail in Minnesota in 2011 and has become our lucky bottle ever since (not that I’m superstitious or anything!)
And coming back from finishing the trail, with considerably less stress in evidence.
Most of the qualifiers after the ribbon ceremony. I don’t think I have everyone in the picture, and if I missed you I apologize.
That’s it for now, more will follow later in the week.
Tuesday, August 20 – Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to posting but the administrative clean up has lingered like a rash.
Q: What is the difference between the Hotel Carlisle and Chlamydia?
A: Penicillin will make the latter go away.
I went back and downloaded some more pictures, so in basically chronological order, starting back on Tuesday at the handlers morning meeting:
Judges Tongen, Hass and Bull, as well as NAHRA president Plewa look on as Mike Tome sends Deuce for his flyer. In addition to the 1000 point dogs in attendance, we had one of the younger dogs pick up a flyer in honor of dog 45, Tony Carlo’s Ike, who passed away shortly before the event started.
At our last training session before we packed it in on Tuesday, Dicko and Jannette Hosford took in a group of wayward yutes and showed them what our pups can do.
This is perhaps a more remarkable photo that one of Big Foot or the Loch Ness Monster – it catches New Jersey’s own Ted Eggerston actually working, as he assists Tony Carlo carry a bird crate. And I want to assure all of Ted’s friends that this photo was not photo-shopped; that really is him with his hand on the crate!
One last picture from the banquet. Dicko is coming back to check on the table while Janette and Dan Hosford wonder what they’ve gotten themselves into. Note the rear end of a very impressive centerpiece that was on every table. Thank you to Jennifer Everly for making them all up, and in general putting a nice sheen of lipstick on the pig that was the Hotel Carlisle.
And now on to the land series:
Dicko looking like he’s posing for the Cabela’s catalog on the land series.
Marcie Carlo was our own Vanna White, introducing each team as they came to the line.
Our token Canadian entry, Sue Snow, turns over custody of one of Gee’s birds.
Jeff Riebling and Kali going to the line for the last time. Kali was a great dog, and we all hope she has a long and happy retirement.
Our own little army of workers cleaning up the land series. I really didn’t realize how many workers we had until most of us were in one place at about the same time. One thing I took from this picture is that Harry Williams carries off the Cabela’s wide-brimmed hat way better than do I.
After the last bird was retrieved, the judges decided our fate.
NAHRA’s first lady, and qualifying handler I might add, Valerie Plewa , poses for a Monet.
One more from the trail:
Tony Carlo and Teddy finish up their trail while Judges Bull and Tongen discuss the performance and Judge Hass waits to take final delivery. Apparently the outcome was favorable as Teddy was called back to water.
Tomorrow I’ll try to finish up water and the awards dinner.
Thursday, August 22 – Almost the final wrap-up but the Ravens are playing tonight so I know I’ll be distracted and not finish.
But before I get back to pictures, I thought I’d mention a few things about financing the Invitational. Over the years, the entry fees have been in the $200-$250 range, with some events giving a discount for multiple dogs and others not. We charged $225 and knocked off $50 for subsequent dogs, but also added $50 for late entries. So in the end we were pretty much in the same ballpark as all the other events. I always assumed that the entry fee covered the basic costs of the event, and that the outside fund raising was more to generate a profit than as a subsidy for handler costs. But in reality, not so much.
The actual cost per dog was just over $300, which included direct test costs, meals, handler’s gift and pro-rated judges and workers expenses (which were fairly significant since we flew in two of our judges). So without the generous donations from our sponsors, fellow NAHRA clubs and raffle ticket buyers and sellers we’d have had to scale back the event just to break even. And we weren’t going to do that; if you are coming, you are going to get a first class affair, all the way through, and having been to a bunch of these over the last 8 years, in my opinion each and every one of them has met that mark. And Alaska next year will do the same; our committee is already working with theirs to provide lessons learned as well as the transfer of some test materials that can be used again.
So what is my point in rambling on about the money? It is that the most valuable committee member we had was Marketing Director Bill Everly. He was simply amazing in his ability to not only garner a large number of event sponsors, but also to negotiate significant donations from each. Series Sponsors Gun Dog Supply and Avery Sporting Dog were clearly the big guns, but our Silver Sponsors, doTERRA and Labs to Leashes, Decoyflocker.com, Dri Duck and Tri-Tronics as well as our Bronze Sponsors, Gunners Up and Tim Grounds made the high quality of the event possible. Please remember their commitment to NAHRA when you are making your next purchase.
And I don’t want to forget the clubs that donated to the event. Midnight Sun, Copperstate, Lake Champlain, Navesink, Northern Piedmont and Leatherstocking all stepped up to the plate and all are very much appreciated.
And now back to some pictures:
Dan Hosford sends Bumper out for the blind.
Jim Langa is thankfully oblivious to the very earnest discussion going on behind him between Judges Bull and Tongen. It’s been my experience than whenever you give the judges something to talk about, it generally isn’t a good thing. But in this case I can only assume they were making fun of Judge Hass because Jim and Riley got their ribbon later that evening!
This gives you a much better look at how thick the stand of lily pads was that the dogs had to negotiate on the way to the blind. If you went around it you were out of the corridor and I assume dinged pretty severely, but every dog I saw made it through pretty well. I’m not sure, but I believe that is Dave Mellender’s Smoke putting up a rooster tail as he chugs on through.
It was at times a hot, stressful experience, as Mr. Tome evidences in this shot from back in the bullpen.
Apropos of nothing, but this is a picture from the night that Vik and The Goon joined Bry and me up in PA, and you can tell the boys missed each other.
Also apropos of nothing, this is just one of those pictures that defies comment. You’ll have to ask Lake Champlain’s own Wayne Goodrich what the deal is. I just hope to God that it’s not some sort of precursor to him pulling a Bradley Manning on us!
And on to the ribbon ceremony!
Our judges gave a brief run-down of their thoughts about the test and dogs prior to the passing out of the ribbons.
Michele Rappl and Valerie Plewa tied for the Emmy for most energetic hug fest upon receiving a ribbon; unfortunately I was otherwise occupied and did not get a picture of Val’s performance, but here is Michele in all her glory!
This shows the Fowl Weather gang with their well deserved collection of ribbons. Although he doesn’t actually look happy, NPRC’s Bruce Jenkins (second from the left)is really fairly animated by his standards. Whenever his picture is taken he immediately adopts the pose and expression he first learned from his fellow teammates on the 1972 Clemson football team, when he was rounded-up by the local police after his first team bar fight. In place of his ribbon, picture a small black board with his name emblazoned on it in moveable white letters and it will all make sense to you. Next to Bruce is Ray May, who handled K to a pass and will also be transporting a bunch of dogs up to Alaska next year.
Oh yeah, here is the catalog I promised earlier. It's a big file (7 mg) so don't click on it if you are on dial up!
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