A full day travelling and competing with Sam in the Rotherwick Working Test, where the rain had cleared and he came 6th out of 29 dogs which was really quite good. He came third in the scurry and got "Very Good" for his conformation.
The journey home to arrive at 8.30pm but this still gave me a chance to do the rest of the packing and loading before dark
An early start in order to get away for 7.00am for the journey across London to Hampshire for Sam's working test. The journey started with heavy rain and I thought that this would spoil the day but it got better the further I went until I arrived in fine weather.
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Sam still has the habit of growling at other dogs and so I gave him the chance of running with some of the other competitors before the contest proper got under way. I was staggered to see just how many of them there were with no less than twenty-eight in Sam's Novice Class! I therefore did not harbour too many hopes of him winning but just used it as a training exercise. There were four tests and I was directed to Test 2 first.
This was a split retrieve; both seen memory ones in the right order. You had to walk over to the edge of a field, throw a dummy and then come back with the dog at heel to the starting position. Then a gun was fired from the hedge and another dummy thrown into some cover but the dog had to retrieve the first one before being sent to the other. I had the additional hazard of a walker passing by with a boxer dog on a lead in the middle of it which led to a delay and an even more difficult memory retrieve!
I thought that Sam had performed this test well and also moved with style and speed but I only got a mark from Cliff Simmons that was better than average at about 8th when I came to hear them later. Then there was a long wait for the exercise that was to make up tests 1 and 2 so I walked back to take advantage of the shorter queue for Test 4, the water test. This proved to be a bit of a disaster and I regretted not preparing him better beforehand.
The water judge was testing dogs from all of classes and so, despite our Novice Tests being performed with canvas dummies, there was an unseen pile of wood pigeons behind me. Unseen that was to me, but Sam had obviously seen them because after our dummy was thrown in the water and I had commanded him to fetch it, he went forward to check out the water entry, did not like it and so wheeled round and ran over to the pigeons!
I stopped him from touching them and got him back but then he needed a lot of encouragement to get in. The swim to the dummy went well and he turned on the recall whistle without reaching the far bank and made to come in. Then the water exit was deeper than his body so he was scrabbling around to get out and looked like not making it. Then a shake and dropped dummy before I could make him pick it up again and present it to me! A mark for this that was something like 12th best left me struggling.
Over to the combined Test 1/2 where my turn eventually arrived and we had to quarter across the same field as all of the others had been using until, upon reaching the other side, I had to sit Sam whilst a gun was fired, a dummy thrown for him to retrieve. Unfortunately, he looked at me at the sound of the shot and missed seeing the dummy which made it unseen and I was struggling with trying to direct him for some time until I succeeded.
Then to finish this test by completing another blind retrieve against the clock which he did well. The judge, Trevor Rigby, judged Sam about 5th on the quartering and even better at 3rd on the retrieves which seemed generous but then I had not seen the others. I was relieved to see his quartering was quite reasonable as well. There then followed an extremely long wait until all of the other dogs had finished their tests and it was early evening before the comparative results were known.
Sam got 82 out of 115 to get 6th position out of 29 dogs which was really quite good. The 5th dog had 88 but the 7th and below were no higher than the early 70's. Given that there were several areas in which his handling could have been improved, this was not bad. In between all of this, an entry in the Scurry and the conformation class to fill in the time.
He came third in the scurry where the object was to run out, fetch the dummy and return as soon as possible but a real speed merchant won there. He got "Very Good" in his conformation. He was judged the right size and just lost marks for his coat which was badly faded and out of condition but then I had hardly brushed it lately and he had that illness a couple of months ago.
The journey home to arrive at 8.30pm but this still gave me a chance to do the rest of the packing and loading before dark. The rain had cleared and we were all set for the morning.