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For the WC the dogs had to work two single land retrieves over a distance of 40 m. In preparation the grass where the ducks were supposed to hit the ground was cut so as to ease the dogsī marking. The dogs remained on leash until they were released. If a dog didnīt mark well it had to search by itself, there was no helping from the handler. All dogs showed an excellent delivery. After these two retrieves the WC dogs were already done. The WCX started with a double land mark, distances again about 40 – 50 m, on a huge meadow with no further difficulties. The angle was 90°.
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The dogs had to walk unleashed to their starting point, an honor dog was sitting next to them. Again there was no helping from the handler if a dog didnīt mark properly. Thereafter they went for a full blind (40 m) without shot. The duck was hidden behind a fallen trunk. What I saw surprised me. There was no tolerance for any deviation from the straight line. Even if the dog left the line only for one meter, it was stopped by whistle and redirected again. Some handlers had to stop their dogs almost 10 times until they finally reached the duck. As opposed to German rules this rather intense handling does not lead to loss of points. The judges want to see the dogs follow the straightest path, irrespective of how often they need to be corrected. Dogs also donīt get a special whistling for “Search!” when they are in close proximity to the duck, they are supposed to advance until they will meet it. Dogs are not required to work autonomously.
I also asked why distances for the retrieves were so short. The answer was that this could vary from test to test, but in general these were considered the realistic distances in which ducks and geese are normally shot during hunts.
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The test continued with a double water mark for WCI and WCX dogs. Angle 90°, distances 40 – 50 m. The pond was covered with numerous islands and reed. This caused many dogs to fail in marking. In addition, the second duck was slowly driven away by the wind. Again I noticed two differences to our regulations: The person who threw and shot was allowed to help the dog by throwing stones and making noise if the dog got lost. Quite a few dogs screamed incredibly when they were released. This did not cause their disqualification while in Germany the smallest noise would already have been the end. After that the WCX dogs had to work a water blind (40 m). This was really challenging. They first had to cross several bushes in the water which caused quite a few dogs to loose orientation right away. The duck was then hidden behind a big slippery log which the dogs had to climb. There was no easy way to step up onto the log or to swim around it. Dramatic scenes could be witnessed from ashore, but finally each dog managed to return with the duck.
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Two more general remarks: In North America Tollers are neither used for high lost searches nor for tracking. In Retriever contests also Poodles, Irish Water Spaniels and Airedale Terriers compete from time to time. Unfortunately we saw none during this day.
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Saturday was agility and obedience day! We saw fast, slow, loud, quiet dogs with talented or less talented dog handlers, exactly the same as in Germany J. A few exercises in obedience were a little different compared to ours. It was amazing to see how much fun some really cool dog handlers and their partners from the field tests the day before had in the agility parcours.
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In some regions of North America winter is so hard that itīs not possible to train outside for months. For this reason dog handlers go to big halls and train agility, obedience or flyball.
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One breeder told me that she lives so far up north in such a remote place that sheīs unable to go hunting together with others. But she is so much aware of the fact that she is breeding gun dogs that she is giving her dogs to a professional trainer during the whole summer season. This trainer is working these dogs and putting field titles on them.
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On Sunday every one had to look pretty :-)! All dogs were judged in one ring by one judge, so it took the whole day until the BOB was honoured. There were similar classes to ours but some different ones as well. For example “Bred by exhibitor”, where all dogs were handled by their breeders, or Stud dog with two examples of the offspring.
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Most dogs were presented free stacked. We met a lot of very relaxed and friendly dogs and there appeared to be no single moment of stress during the whole day. In general we felt that North American Tollers are less distant. A lot of them were extremely cuddly right from the start, even with strangers like us.
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Compared to our country much more effort is put into the show business! All dogs were bathed, washed with different shampoos and conditioners, dried by hair dryer, brushed, trimmed, brushed, trimmed, … over and over again. It is common to wash dogs regularly – even without pending conformations. For this reason you can find professional dog hairdressers even in the smallest village.
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Another interesting aspect: Despite huge distances between stud dog and bitch artificial insemination is not very common in North America (Canada included). Bitches fly on planes to stud dogs or stud dogs to bitches as cargo. Progesterone tests are not used very often. Breeders allow dogs to mate as often as they want and send them back when theyīre “done”.
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Conclusion: It was just great! Thanks Mo :-)! Weīve learned a lot. Some things are quite similar, some are really different, but the North Americans are exactly as crazy and dedicated to their dogs as we are.
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