Night and Day

Posted on February 13, 2004 by Steve Bowman 

The difference would appear to be as drastic as night and day.

The season for the Super Retriever Series presented by Natural Life Pet Products is two-thirds over and looming on the horizon is Stuttgart, Arkansas, which is kind of ironic considering the horizon around Stuttgart stretches for miles with flat rice field after flat rice field.

That's where the difference comes in. In a few months, this flat ground will decide a lot of things in the Super Retriever Series world. The final two positions in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games will come from this competition. And for 19 retriever/handler teams the first SportDog Team of the Year title will be awarded.

The stakes are high and there's a lot of promise sitting on the flat ground of Stuttgart. These were the same grounds that Chris Akin and Boomer mastered on their way to winning the gold medal in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games.

That fact is not lost on any one, especially for the teams that have already run the gamut in the Super Retriever Series.

It started in Middleburg, Virginia, where extreme winds and rolling terrain with a few tricks thrown in like forcing dogs over obstacles usually reserved for horses in a steeplechase. From there it was the pock-marked, legendary field trial grounds of Bonnet Carre Spillway near New Orleans. There were no tricks needed there. Those grounds are renowned for chewing up and spitting out retrievers.

With those competitions over, these retrievers have seen everything. With the seemingly easy flat ground that stretches forever in Stuttgart it would seem that the next competition would be a test to ace. But is it?

"Rice fields seem easy, but anyone who has hunted with a retriever in one knows they can get hairy,'' said Justin Tackett, Super Retriever Series organizer.

"When a retriever has spent thousands of hours marking falls they learn little tricks, just like we do to make them better. The retrievers on this level understand straight lines very well, they understand this side of the bush, just on the other side of the water, or just on this side of the water. They see a splash_ they know it's in the water.

"But when a retriever looks at 20 land, water, land scenarios on one mark, like in a rice field and over a series of levees, with absolutely nothing to mark off of _ no trees, no bush, no nothing _ things can get a little hairy.

"Until we can teach retrievers to count levees as they crest them, rice fields will always pose a marking problem.''

The rice fields at Mack's Prairie Wings are no exception. They have hosted an event for the past two years, but that doesn't mean the competitors know what they'll face in April.

It was just two years ago that Chris Akin sent Boomer on a line and the dog never checked up. With nothing to add depth perception, Boomer just kept going and going, like the Energizer Bunny. A year later, Boomer was on his way to winning the gold, but not before Stuttgart had taken its toll.

And Jerry Day, who is currently in the lead of the SportDog Team of the Year Race, has faltered here. He won at New Orleans and finished fifth in Virginia. In essence he and Nike are hot, but even he has to be wondering what surprises may lay ahead of him in the Duck Capital of the World.

Like in Northfield, Minn. a year ago, when Super Retriever Series introduced the diving Dead Fowl Trainer, Stuttgart has introduced some not-so-typical scenarios for a competition, but like the diving duck they certainly are typical of a day on the hunt.

Last season it was coffin blinds, in years past it's been boats, little things that serve to distract a retriever/handler team that needs to be focused on the task at hand.

Day was overheard muttering these words, while he crawled into the coffin blind in 2003: "Tackett if the nerves don't kill me, this damn blind will.''

The Super Retriever Series has brought to life some of hunting's most exciting concepts, with regards to retrievers. Diving ducks, drag birds, handlers in coffin blinds, and the world's tightest nastiest breaking birds.

"Hunting scenarios played out in the field can challenge retrievers beyond anything humans can set up,'' Tackett said "But, we are going to yank on that mental Rolodex, and devise something very special for the teams that get into Saturday's semis.

What surprises will Stuttgart serve up next? Organizers of the Super Retriever Series aren't talking.

"All of that will come in due time,'' Tackett said. "There may be some surprises. But even without them, the drama of this make-it or break-it event will be like nothing we've ever seen."