BLOWN Away

Posted on November 13, 2003 by Steve Bowman 

MIDDLEBURG, Va. _ When John Terraciano arrived Thursday morning for the opening round of the Super Retriever Series presented by Natural Life Pet Products the only thing missing from a standard day at home was a vista that included snow capped mountains.

Despite the fact that Terraciano was more than 2,100 miles from his home in Billings, Mont. it appeared as if he and black Labrador Sundown had the home field advantage. The retriever/handler team walked through the competition on the hillsides of Virginia's Loudon County that were strikingly similar to the hillsides the team trains on in Montana. To complete the picture abnormally high winds, the type usually reserved for places like Montana, literally wiped out much of the field.

The wind, by any accounting, was THE major factor on day one of the Super Retriever Series being held in the hallowed Steeple Chase arena of Glenwood Park. Blowing at a sustained 41 miles per hour, with gusts reaching into the 50 and 60 mile per hour range, the wind racked up points on every dog, as handlers consistently had to fight the affects of suction on lines to marks. And to make matters worse gusts were so loud that whistles couldn't be heard and so strong that many of the retrievers failed to smell downed birds when they were close to them.

"My dog stepped all over the initial mark," said Keith Allison of Pea Ridge, Ark. who was competing with two dogs in the field. "I guarantee you she was trying to nose it out, and the wind wouldn't let her smell it."

While the wind played havoc on most of the field, Terraciano and Sundown never checked up. The team posted a score of 11 to lead the first cut of 28 dogs into Friday's quarterfinal round. Following Terraciano in second is Derek Randle and Stella of Prairie Grove, Ark. in second with 17 points. Jimmy McMahan and Ice of Convington, Tenn. are third with 24 points, followed by the real hometown favorite, Alex Washburn, who grew up in Loudon County. Washburn and Honda are in fifth with 25 points.

"We're used to this," Terraciano said of his top finish. "We train on hills and with wind all the time. It was like being at home. As a matter of fact, when I left home three days ago, this wind was blowing there.

"I didn't really help me. But it didn't hurt me like it did some of the others."

To punctuate how well Terraciano and his retrievers work in the conditions. His second retriever, Titan, finished the day in 5th place with 26 points.

The test included four retrieves that played out like this. The first bird let go was a mark that was thrown from right to left and landed approximately 120 yards from the line, but took the dog down a hill into a valley and required the dog carry the hill straight up, rather than take one of two drainages running on either side.

The line ran north to south, while the wind was out of the west and pushing the dogs toward the left drain or valley. The initial mark was a memory bird. It was followed by a shorter mark (80 yards) thrown left to right and landing in heavy mats of grass.

That bird was the "Go" bird and despite it's apparent ease, many of the dogs had to be handled into the stiff wind, racking up points in the process. Once that bird was picked up and the retriever was on the way back to the line, a diversion or "Bulldog" bird was thrown over it's head from right to left and on the side of a hillside that sent it tumbling down the hill and into thick matted grass.

"That bird really caused a lot of problems," said Jack Jagoda, who helped design the test. "It wiped out the memory of the initial mark and it really the dog a total different look, because it was thrown off their left shoulder as they were coming in and then when they were turned around and headed toward the mark, they were being sent left again."

That bird was the next mark to be picked up. Followed by the initial mark and ending with a 120 yard blind retrieve, that took the dog down a hill, across the line of the second fall, up the side of another hillside and through a break of a fallen tree.

"Most of the dogs didn't have much trouble with the blind retrieve," Jagoda said. "It was the diversion bird and the initial mark that racked up the most points."

Retriever trials are described as team sports, where handlers and retrievers work in unison to pick up marks and blind retrieves. Typically handlers will often leave the marks for the dogs to remember, while taking over the reins on a blind retrieve.

In this test, though, both handler and retriever were forced to remember marks. All of them landed in the open, but none of them could be seen from the line, or for that matter close to the fall, because they consistently dropped into thick tufts of matted grass.

"The teams that did well in this test were the ones where the handler marked the birds and tried to keep their dogs on line," Jagoda said. "A lot of the guys didn't see the exact spot where the marks landed and they paid for it with whistles."

The competition resumes on Friday at 8 a.m. at Glenwood Park, where the 28 dogs will be pared down for Saturday's semi-final round of 12 retriever/handler teams.