A&D Pairs Test

On the 29th April 2008 a group of intrepid Spanielers from LWSC (Louie Adshead, John Luke, Jane Jones-Warner, Jules Morgan, Terri Hellicar, Sarah Miles and Robert McLaren) all ventured into Labradorland to attend the Arun & Downland Pairs Test at Court Hill Slindon.

The format for the day was AV Spaniels working in (not on) tandem with AV Retrievers in both spaniel and retriever type tasks.

The morning involved a standard spaniel test with decorative retriever. The spaniels hunted the ground interrupted by retrieves for the partners (seen and blind) and for the spaniels themselves. The ground in the morning was very challenging for cockers, springers and clumbers alike being very flinty with little cover and fairly low scent. Despite this there were a number of excellent performances from both spaniels and retrievers.

After a very enjoyable lunch the afternoon session saw the spaniel in each pair hunting a small area of cover for “rabbits”, dropping to shot and then retrieving an unseen “rabbit” out of the cover. The retrieving partner then had a seen retrieve over a fence with the hope (not always realised) that it would return over the same point!

The overall first prize was taken by the very impressive pairing of Terri Hellicar and Sue Chapman with Sarah Miles taking the award for Best Spaniel.

In all an excellent day’s sport and something which LWSC should, perhaps, consider for one of its Tests in the future.

THINKING OF GETTING YOUR FIRST SPANIEL?

Not sure of what to buy or what to do?

BEFORE YOU BUY A PUPPY

Come along and get the advice of people who have a knowledge of working spaniels and see first hand how to train at one of our monthly training sessions.

Forewarned is forearmed, in as much as a little knowledge gained, before a puppy is acquired can pay dividends later on

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