Flat Coated Retriever Trial

Larsen and I made our way to the Starrsville Plantation in Covington, Ga where the Flat Coated Retriever National Specialty was having its hunt test, where friends Tim P., Bill, T., Frank M. and Al, and possibly Roger H were shooting (I never ran into Roger).

Flat-coated retrievers are smaller and less bulky than Labs.  Some at Starrsville Plantation think that the breed may have some Irish/Red setter genes, and that is a reasonable guess, given the lither frame of the flat coat.  The dogs generally have glossy black coats, although I saw one or two liver (brown) dogs, and one owner said that yellow seems to be a rare, but occasional recessive.

The retriever test is different than the Spaniel (upland) test.  I watched the action in the Junior test.  The dog had to retrieve two ducks.  The first was sprung from a hideout 60 or so yards away and a blank shot was fired.  For the second, the (live) duck was launched off the dog and handler's left shoulder (launcher and gunners were maybe 20 yards to the side) and the bird shot as it flapped up in the sky.

Both retrieves essentially were hunt deads and your dog was asked to be steady at the line with you standing over the dog.  I did not notice whether the junior dogs were gently restrained, but I think not.  I believe they were steady.  The dogs were then released.  They were not given oral, semiphoric, or whistle commands.  I am not sure if there were words of encouragement, as I stood a bit behind the action.  I had been closer with the gallery, but moved off when Larsen made a little whine of envy.

I believe that our well-trained spaniels could do those hunt deads, although there would be some adjustment with what I perceived to be the disallowance of whistling and the like.

Larsen and I visited the Master Hunter water work, but there was a lunch break in the action so we made our way home.

Starrsville Plantation looked like a homey farm.  There was a small cemetary with stones dated as late as 1902.  The little bit of the property that Larsen and I toured looked promising for a spaniel test.  Starrsville itself appears to be a defunct one-time railroad station.  Now it is just an exurb of Atlanta.

Larsen at an orchard gate at the Starrsville Plantation in Covington, Ga.

The souls of the faithful rest easily among the pines.

Barn from a bygone day near the one-time Starrsville train depot.

Spring lilacs drape the rusted tracks near the shuttered Starrsville train depot.