Another busy doggy weekend. A Reader’s digest report: what were supposed to be showers yesterday turned into one long (9 AM-ish till later afternoon) shower – one might even, if one were not feeling charitable, call it a steady light rain. Luckily for those of us doing the Natural Ability test, the rain held off until after we’d finished the bird field segment. I had visions of soaking wet quail and young dogs realizing they couldn’t fly, zipping down the field and taking the quail out without a point. This time at least, no nightmare scenario. Dinah did me proud – excellent pointing, some trouble with the track  but once she solved the problem the best tracking performance I’ve seen from her yet, and big gusto in the water (I overheard one of the judges say something like “Now that’s what I want to see.”) She ended up with a Prize I – we’re going to spend the next couple weeks working on staunchness, then it’s off to find the real thing – paatridge and woodcock.

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No probem with fear of the outdoors here. A little later a plastic kiddie pool was found. These three miscreants filled it (using paper coffee cups and hands) with café au lait colored water (what my family calls ‘dog coffee’) and proceded to have a splashing contest. It was quickly discovered that sitting down hard produced a better splash than just jumping – luckily smart parents had dry clothes with them. I believe at one point – after the mud olympics were over – a couple trucks had piles of older bird dogs and children in them, snoring and steaming up the windows.