Better than Perfect

Posted on April 09, 2005 by Kevin Frecking 

LOUDOUN COUNTY, VA. - Some familiar faces on the circuit of the Mack's Super Retriever Series made way for some new ones in Saturday's championship.

Graycee, and her handler, Donna Freeman of North Carolina, won the first SRS competition they had ever entered with a score of 30 faults, just edging the team that had been so perfect the day before with the first zero fault score in an SRS event - Abbie and her handler, Stacey West, also of North Carolina The second place team finished with a score of 32 faults.

"You got to hand it to Donna," West said. "She learned what she needed to do. She was very consistent all week... She won it because she was the only one who hit the mark clean. Today, everybody handled on the bird that was thrown first. Nobody got it clean. But Donna got the long bird clean, the last bird that was thrown, she got clean. Everybody else handled on it, and that was the difference."

Freeman began in the sport in 2000 and Graycee was her first retriever. She did not expect to do so well.

"This is just different from what we'd ever trained on," she said.

Don't get the idea that Freeman and Graycee were just lucky amateurs, though. They have competed in numerous field trials before - where real ducks are retrieved.

The day began with 12 competitors, who had survived from an original field of 75. The morning qualifier whittled that number down to five. The scores in the qualifier were higher than expected, and they never really did drop to the level that many competitors had anticipated.

The teams of Nike and Jerry Day along with Boomer and Chris Akin were picked by several handlers the previous day as teams to watch on Saturday. As Akin watched the high scores occurring in front of him, he sensed an opportunity.

"It's fixin' to be fun," he said, rubbing his hands together.

But in the end, Boomer scored 104 faults and Nike scored 58 faults.

The key in the semi-finals was a dog's ability to follow his handler's gun barrel and to mark the birds as they were thrown. Finally, they were asked to go to a blind some 300 yards away and find what is referred to as the blind - or a bird that is planted.

The cut off to the championship was 42 points, which was scored by Bosco and his handler Al Davis. The other two teams who made it to the finals were Jazz and her handler Rody Best, and Jessie and handler, Scott Baldwin.

Jazz ended up in third overall with 80 faults. Bosco took fourth with 96 faults. Jessie was fifth with 113 faults.

The handlers said that the long distances involved in some of the championship round retrieves and the wind blowing in the handler's face combined for some tough conditions. The wind in the face of the handler makes it hard for a dog to hear his handler's whistle and to learn which direction to take to get to their bird.

In the finals, the dogs went to the blind bumper first. They had to run about 200 yards, and then swim about 50 yards across a pond and back. Then they were asked to retrieve three other birds ranging in distance from about 50 yards to more than 250 yards from the starting line. One bird was thrown before the blind retrieve. The other two came afterward, which made it exceedingly important for the dogs to remember the vicinity of where the first bird went down.

What set Graycee apart was her remarkable memory.

"She's always been able to mark well for me. Today she not only marked, but she handled. At any point, she could have turned this into a solitaire game and say, "I'm playing by myself.' But this time it all clicked."

And for that, Freeman came away with the $3,500 prize for first place as well as a trip to the championships in Hot Springs in June. The top three competitors all get to move on to Hot Springs.