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Sam's Wins |
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The day Sam won "C"
I booked Jamie into his Novice and "A" and then worked Jamie's Novice running order. He was terrible and I'd had to turn it into a training round. I took him back to the car afterwards and I was doing some heelwork training with him in front of the car. Sam was tied up and was getting very excited watching me working Jamie. He was leaping about on the end of his lead and screaming at me. I looked at my watch. The first hour wasn't up so I still had time to book him in. I said "OK sunshine, let's give you a twirl". I tied Jamie up, and untied Sam and went straight over to Sam's "C" ring. About 6 dogs had already worked, so I booked Sam in and elected to work in the first available slot which was the 2nd dog after the running order. I gave Sam a little workout, just reminding him of his DC and ASSD which he hadn't done for 6 weeks and then sat by the ring watching the rest of the dogs before me. Some of them were doing really nice rounds but the judge (Fred Jones) was slaughtering them. I think the leader was on something like 12. I was beginning to think it wasn't a good idea to work Sam. Anyway, my turn came and I went into the ring. I was really pleased with the way Sam worked, and at least he didn't cock anything up. When I came out of the ring, several people commented on what a nice round it had been. I looked at the scoreboard, thinking that we'd probably been slaughtered like the rest of the dogs, and I was stunned to see that we'd lost 2½ on heelwork, ½ on retrieve, clear sendaway and clear DC. We were miles in the lead on 3. We led the class for the morning, but during the afternoon two dogs went ahead of us. Beryl Kelly and "On a Promise" went into the lead, with Bill Burns and "Moorlink Magic Maker" in 2nd place. Stays were ok for all 3 of us and then came scent. I went in first. Sam air-scented and went straight to the right cloth, and brought it straight back, all in about 2 seconds flat! He went clear. I was just celebrating getting Sam's second qualifier. It hadn't crossed my mind at that point that we might win because there were two good dogs ahead of us. Bill Burns was leading the special "C" for handlers over 60, and he went into the ring to do that scent and did it beautifully, winning the class. But he came straight from that scent into my "C" ring to do our scent. I knew he was an experienced handler so he must know what he's doing but I didn't think it was a good idea to do two different "C" scents that close together. Anyway, he sent his dog out to find the cloth, but the dog wasn't confident and dropped the cloth on his way back and decided to check the blanks and decoy again. That put him behind me and I was delighted to have gone up into 2nd place. Ron Mills was standing with me at that time and he asked me who was leading. I told him it was Beryl Kelly and he told me that her dog had failed scent in Open "C" and Pro Dogs the previous weekend. "Well she will have been practicing all week" I said. "The dog won't fail today". "Don't be so sure," said Ron. "Scent problems aren't that easy to get over."
"You've got it" said Ron. "No I haven't," I said. "That was the right cloth." "She called him in," said Ron. I didn't believe him and had to check the scoreboard. Sure enough Beryl had lost 50. Apparently she'd given the dog a hand signal to call him in because he was unsure. So thanks to Jamie doing a terrible Novice round, Sam won "C". Three weeks later Sam became ill and was ill on and off for the next 4 years (when I retired him) so he didn't do many shows. Whenever he did work, inbetween illnesses, he was usually placed, and he did manage to gain another qualifier, but the last qualifier always eluded him. Here is a list of the wins Sam had during his short career: 1987 8th August 1987 –
Billingshurst DTC Open Show
6th September 1987 – Central Essex DTS Open Show 26th September 1987 – Bognor Regis & District DTC Open Show 1988 30th July 1988 - Potters Bar DTS Championship Show |
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24th September 1988 – Bognor Regis & District DTC Open Show 9th October 1988 – Thurrock DTS Open Show 1989
30th April 1989 – St Edwards DTC Open Show
28th May 1989 – Stour Valley DTC Open Show 14th June 1989 – South London DTS Championship Show |
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13th August 1989 – Cippenham DTC Open Show 1990 19th May 1990 - Brixton & District DTC Open Show
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It was May 1990. Sam had done a couple of shows at the beginning of the season but he'd gone very lame and the vet had put him on a course of steroids and told me to rest him for 6 weeks.
Beryl eventually came over and sent her dog out to find the cloth. I was so nervous I could hardly watch. The dog kept going over and over the cloths, but not touching any, so not losing points.
15th August 1987 – Dunmow & District DTC Open Show
8th April 1989 – SWGSD Club Open Show
