Braque du Bourbonnais

NSTRA, Gorman (California), derby, 17th of February 2008

Version française


For our 3rd NSTRA (National Shoot to Retrieve Association) outing, Rufnit Fletcherpedigree and I have obtained the third place in two contests of the Derby dog category. This category "Derby dog" is for the dogs which don't have yet obtained a 1st, 2nd or 3rd place against dogs which have scored in the championship or are champion.
Those contests happened on Sunday the 17th of February near the city of Gorman in California, near what we call the "Grape wine" at about 4.000 feet high (you can see the snow between the hills).
The format is: two dogs, two drivers, two judges, 30 minutes, 5 birds. You compete against each other and the whole field. There were 30 dogs in each field (field A and field B).
The difficulty is very high because there are many variables. For example the other team could be several times champion, the teams before you could have let many birds or have taken them all so there could be more than 5 birds or only 5, the points are given for pointing (which must be perfect), for the retrieval (at less than a meter from the driver), for the obedience and for the quartering of the field.
Fletcher had incredible notes but we found only 3 birds each time, the other team found the remaining. So we took the 3rd place, Derby dog, on the 2 fields.
We didn't get yet championship points (you need 18 to be champion) but it is a good start.

Claude Trincale