# 2019 National (Open) Retriever Championship



## FTGoldens (Dec 20, 2012)

The island bird, a hen pheasant, is proving to be nearly impossible at this point ... 25% of the dogs have picked it up cleanly.


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## gdgli (Aug 24, 2011)

FTGoldens said:


> The island bird, a hen pheasant, is proving to be nearly impossible at this point ... 25% of the dogs have picked it up cleanly.



I looked at that yesterday. Would love to hear your analysis on this.


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

It is interesting there will be no commentary or videos this year. I guess the powers that be decided it gave too much advantage to dogs running later than sooner. Any thoughts? 

I was surprised how many dogs made it through the first 4 series. It definitely shows how great the dogs are these days.

I think that Crush might be back in future years, since he is so young.


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## FTGoldens (Dec 20, 2012)

gdgli said:


> I looked at that yesterday. Would love to hear your analysis on this.


This test, carried over from yesterday, continues to be exceedingly difficult for these super-dogs to complete cleanly.

While the island bird is proving to be the toughest, as anticipated, the long mark is also finding victims.

Regarding the island bird, there are multitudinous factors contributing to its difficulty, some of which are: 
* hen pheasant (very little scent).
* island (dogs simply have a difficult time with island birds ... possibly due to depth perception or because the gunners are typically on the "mainland" thrown across a strip of water (gunner-memory is a detriment in this situation)).
* island bird is in front of a flyer. 
* island bird is in front of the only stay-out gunners.
* island bird is thrown second, so primacy-recency effect is in play.
* order of the falls forces the dogs to do wide swings with their heads twice.
* there are three angled water entries and exits en route to that bird.

The long mark has 5 water entries, but overall has fewer factors ... for these dogs, 250 yards is not considered a long mark; plus, it's thrown first, so its primacy is beneficial to the dogs.

What did I miss?

FTGoldens


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Thanks FT!


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## MillionsofPeaches (Oct 30, 2012)

sucks a lot of good dogs went out.


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