At 3:00 pm, Bob Swift called the Mai Handler’s Meeting to
order and introduced the three representatives from the AKC: Doug Ljungren,
Russ Reavis and Caroline Murphy. He then introduced the Chairman of the 2019
MAI, Laura Judd. He asked the officers to stand up and identify themselves to
the audience. Next there was a special thank you given to Tina Styan and the
other support staff at Retriever News and Entry Express: Tara King, Sara
Sommerfeld and Regina Vandenlangenberg. They all received a crystal MARC plate
with a specially engraved plaque.
It was announced that there would be a bitch check every
morning except the first morning. The vet’s office will be open from 6:30 am to
7:30 am for a “drive-thru” bitch check. The bitch check starts on Monday morning and every morning thereafter. It was requested that the
parking volunteers help direct traffic at the bitch check.
There will be three volunteer worker shifts per day. Please
check with your Flight Marshal to work on your schedule. The goal for this
event will be to complete one series per day or further along if possible since
the weather will be an issue later in the week.
The callbacks will be given at the test site, posted at the
hotel, available on the Blog and as a text form the MARC. If you have a
question for the judges, you are requested to ask it through your marshal.
Ted de Looze, the West Coast Director, gave a safety talk.
He stated that the altitude is 6,500 feet at the test site. At that altitude,
you loose 20% of your oxygen and your hemoglobin does not release properly.
Both the dogs and handlers may face difficulties. Handlers with heart problems
or pulmonary issues may be severely affected. They need to slow down, stop and
sit and the first sign of trouble as opposed to trying to work their way
through it.
This year, we will have two AED units at each Flight and one
extra. The folks who have training in the use of the AED’s are: Flight A Ted de
Looze and Dave Coffey and Flight B Dede Patterson and Larry Hill. Of particular
interest is the fact that Doug Ljungren and Russ Reavis donated an AED to this
organization.
Mike Heard who is a local weatherman will tell us when lightening
comes within seven miles of the test sites. If that happens, everyone will be
requested to stay in the shelter of their vehicles until 30 minutes after the
last lightning strike.
Food service will be available all week on the Bob Sparks
property. Elk chili will be the Sunday special and there will be a different
menu every day.
The four judges were then brought to the front of the room.
The judges received their gifts from the club and then Duwayne Bickle gave the
handlers their instructions.
1.
Shoulder and point the gun
2.
Walk to the ribbon where indicated
3.
Re-heel on a creep
4.
Honor off lead unless specifically instructed
5.
First no-bird, go back three, second no-bird, go
back seven and third no-bird, go to the end
6.
The rotation is as follows:
1st Series: 40
2nd Series: 52
3rd Series: 64
4th Series: 2
5th Series: 14
6th Series: 26
Their advice to the handlers was to let the judges judge and
keep plugging until requested to do otherwise. The first handlers in Flight A
& B were introduced and given their special gift of a hand-crafted wooden
handler’s gun signed by all four judges. The dogs would run as close to in
order as they could.
The test dogs will run at 7:45 am and the handlers are
requested to be there at 7:20 am.
The scratches were read by Hunting Test Secretary Macy
Swift:
Flight A: 1, 23, 37 and 42
Flight B: 8, 21, 23, 28, 32, 34, 44, 56, 58, 59, 67, 68 and
72
This was a total of 17 scratches.
Tina Styan from
Retriever News addressed the crowd explaining how the blog works and where they
could find the callbacks.
A “housekeeping” announcement was made regarding the fact
that the Handler hats would be available mid-week. Directions were given to the
test sites. Flight A would start on Nez Pierce property and Flight B would
begin on the Bob Sparks grounds. The tests were to be very similar, but can’t
be identical and it was planned that the Flights would move back and forth
between the two properties.
The Treasure State Retriever Club is our host club. They are
holding a BBQ on Monday night and it was hoped that everyone would attend and
they would have a great turn-out.
