Nearly Perfect

Posted on April 07, 2005 by Kevin Frecking 

LOUDOUN COUNTY, Va. - It did not take long for the competitors in the Mack's Super Retriever Series that began here Thursday to learn that they better be at the top of their game.

Two dogs were close to perfect in Thursday morning's, "poison bird" qualifying round. Abbie, trained by Stacey West of North Carolina, and Dutch, trained by Theresa Kucan, of Indiana, both scored only two faults during their run. Abbie and Dutch needed one hand signal to lead them to the prize bird. It was the first time either dog had competed in an SRS event. About five hours later, Windy, and her trainer, Dave Opseth, of Virginia, joined the front-runners with a score of two faults.

Windy made it look so easy, one spectator remarked, "that's no dog. It's a robot."

The "poison bird scenario" works like this: If a dog ignores the poison bird and runs straight to the prize bird with no guidance whatsoever from the trainer, it gets a perfect score of zero. However, such a score in the four years of the Super Retriever Series has never occurred. Usually, a dog needs help from the trainer, which cost points, or it makes some mistakes on its own, such as excess vocalization, or takes a poor line when pursuing a bird. So, the trio's talent certainly put competitors on notice as 75 teams compete for a 1st place prize of $3,500 as well as a finish in the top three so that they qualify for next months' Super Retriever Series Crown Championship in Hot Springs, Ark.

Thursday's competition consisted of two qualifying rounds. In the morning, the dogs did battle with evolution in what is called the poison bird scenario. Nearly 400 yards away from the dog and its trainer, a shot is fired and a "poison bird" is thrown into the air - two events that gain the dog's immediate attention. Everything that nature has instilled in the dog tells it to go fetch the poison bird, but that's not the true sign of a great retriever. A great retriever not only marks the bird, but bends its will to find what its trainer wants it to find.

So the dog must forget what he has just seen _ and listen and watch for its trainer instead. Ideally, with just one or two toots of the whistle and a hand signal, the dog will sprint more than a quarter of a mile and find the prize bird that has been placed in the same vicinity as the poison bird. The prize bird results in points. The poison bird results in disqualification.

Both Abbie and Dutch were among the first dogs to line up. Since, the dogs favored in the competition tend to go last, it was a surprise to see such low scores so early in the event.

"I knew she was capable, but you don't expect the dog to do that kind of work," West said.

Kucan said she had never participated in the Super Retriever Series before, but with two dogs both performing well, she showed she is a handler to be reckoned with this week.

"When you're in sync with the dog, it's awesome," she said.

While Abbie and Dutch were putting the other competitors on notice of their talent, scores of other dogs struggled in the morning qualifying round. By noon, 14 dogs had been disqualified for either picking up the poison bird or for straying out of bounds. Scores of other dogs needed so many calls from their trainer, that their fault totals soared into the 40's - or more. Most trainers considered a score of 20 or below a success. In the end, 13 dogs scored in the single digits. The DQ's included some outstanding dogs, such as Achilles, who won last year's Great Outdoor Games.

A particular challenge for the handlers, not so much the dogs, was a slight hill about halfway between the trainer and the prize dummy. Before the dog reached the hill, the trainer needed to make sure the dog was headed in the right direction before the team members lost sight of each other. Several dogs veered off course once they bounded over the hill, but could not be shown the error of their way before it was too late. A stiff crosswind enticed several dogs to fade to the right, leading to numerous fault points as trainers intervened to right their course.

In the afternoon, the teams faced another challenge altogether. This time, marking became critical to success. The dogs' challenge was to track three birds - thrown one after another upon the firing of a shot. The first retrieve is a relative gimme, and the one the dogs usually went to first. The bird comes out of a blind about 50 yards to the dog's left. But then the hard work starts. The dog has to retain his bearings to find a dummy thrown from a blind about 150 yards away. Upon retrieving that dummy, then the retriever has to locate and return the final dummy, which comes from a blind about 300 yards away.

Most of the teams struggled somewhere between the retrieve of the second and third dummy. After so much sprinting to and fro, they often needed some guidance from their handler to complete the mission.

Only about two-thirds of the 61 teams eligible to start the second round were able to get through their second runs before the event was continued until Friday morning because of darkness and rain. The top combined score so far belongs to Jessie and his trainer Scott Baldwin, who combined for 25 faults.