Chock Full of Character

The chosen site for this first test is--at first glance--a rolling grassy field dotted with bushes and shrubs and rimmed on three sides by trees. It is a land double with a flyer hen pheasant on the left at 115 yards shot to the right and a swing deeper and to the right for the second station at 168 yards, thrown right. The line is located on a "flat" that "plays out" and once it does, the dog drops dramatically toward a marshland with a ribbon of channel on the near side (closer to the running line) in the field...the ribbon of water winds throughout the entire test and affects all three birds, while the marshy area plays into the retired bird and also the blind. With both the flyer and the right-hand retired bird thrown to the right, this means that the flyer is high and dry while the retired mark is thrown into the middle of the marsh...and many dogs will be thrown off course by the terrain they encounter once they drop off the flat. 

Deep to the left of the right hand bird at 230 yards, the blind is planted in front of the tree line. It is planted as soon as the dog picks up the marks and is coming back with his/her second bird...and the dog is sent for the blind from the same mat as the marks. Once the dog reaches the lip of the flat and is about to descend into the marsh, the handler may move up to handle on this blind.