While yesterday's land blind was a "put your right hand in your pocket" sort of blind because it required numerous left casts to complete, today's water blind through a serpentine pond is requiring handlers to cast in both directions. A dog that is on line will enter water three times on this blind, and visibility is a recurring challenge because the lowered water level puts a dog out of sight for several yards after each water entry. A handler with good powers of dog prediction can be rewarded in a blind like this. The converse can be the case as well.
A few yards
after leaving the mat the line enters a point of cover. Most dogs go into this
cover without needing a cast but often tend to take too much of it, which
pushes them to the left and causes them to want to "square" when
crossing the first piece of water instead of carrying it at the angle. An angle
across this first water will best position a dog when he gets onto the next
piece of land, which is the large - and scented - point. Once the dog is on
this point, the handler needs a healthy amount of right-hand influence to put
the dog in the next water in a place where the handler will be able to see him
again in time to pilot him back out of the water again. Most dogs are getting
off this second point cleanly, after which they angle cross the final piece of
water and exit to take a longish run through tall cover before arriving at the
blind. A dog that is on line will show his bouncing head and tail to his
handler, who is straining to keep him in view in case more casts are needed -
as they sometimes have been - to get a dog to scale the side of the large mound
where the blind is planted. (Since the tall cover is yellowish-brown it's easy
to guess which color of bouncing dog shows up best!) As a final hazard in this
blind the blind planter is on the back side of the mound. Quick whistles are in
order to keep a dog from going over or around the mound and finding a blind
planter before finding a blind.
Although it's a
tough blind with plenty of places for a team to stumble, many who compete at
the level of the 7th Series of a National Open are able to complete it with
polish.
