Running a bit behind schedule with this weeks post, but better late than never!
Despite my now rather apparent competitive streak, I’ve recently been harping on about how placings aren’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to gundog trialling.
I’m pretty sure to test me, to make sure that what I’ve been spouting wasn’t total bullshit, Hail then pulled out her best performance yet during our most recent trials.
It’s funny, because before the results were in, I couldn’t have been prouder of her. Her field work in both the Novice and Novice Walk-up events was outstanding. For the first time, we had all the elements of our thousands of hours of training come together.
She was steady, she was calm in her mind, she marked her birds precisely, and her deliveries were direct with no signs of munching in sight. What’s more, her attitude was flawless! She was the happiest and most focused I’ve ever seen her. She raced out for her retrieves with ‘gusto’ (to quote the Gun on the day), even on her water mark!
See, I knew all of this before the results had been posted. And even if she hadn’t won, or placed, I couldn’t help but be proud as punch of the effort she put in and the connection that I felt with her in the field that weekend.
Her results simply reinforced something that I’ve been learning this year…
Does It Hold True?
While placings are a nice to have, they shouldn’t be a must have if you’re engaged in dog sports like field trialling. There are so many factors that come into play when you’re out in the field. Most are beyond your control, and all can have an influence on the end result.
Factors, like the strength and direction of the wind at the moment when it’s your turn to run, can play a huge part on how easy or difficult it is for your dog to scent a bird. Not to mention how wind can affect the trajectory and final landing spot for those birds once they leave the thrower.
We often talk about luck in field trialling. I will totally admit that Hail and I got ‘lucky’ with our blind bird in the Novice Walk-up. The wind was blowing in the right direction, and I was lucky that Hail decided to drive deep enough to wind the bird when and how she did.
The opposite could be said for our second Novice Land bird. It came out of the thrower hard, with a strong tail-wind, and ended up bouncing into a bush. Hail went straight to the fall zone, where the bird first hit the ground, but struggled to find the scent of where it had ended up because of the bounce. If it had rolled, it might have been a different story. But luck wasn’t on our side, and she took some time to locate it.
And that’s how it goes sometimes. Just the luck of the draw… and nothing worth getting cross about in my view. All these things give our dogs new experiences, and all we can hope for is that if they happen again, the dog will have experience to help them handle it better next time.
And that, right there, is the heart of it.
Yes, the ribbons were lovely. Yes, I’m incredibly proud of what Hail and I achieved. But the thing that’s stayed with me wasn’t the placings, it was the work! That feeling of being truly in-tune with one another, of seeing her happy in her work.
Placings will come and go. Our luck will change with the wind. But that experience of that strength of connection, that’s the real reward… and I had that long before the results were posted.
Field Notes & Follies 
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