After having run about 65 dogs on the 5th Series, we are looking at a total of 14 handles and 4 pick-ups, 28% of the dogs run so far. It appears that the most common reason for a handle being called for is over-running and hunting too deep. There is a lot of field beyond these four birds! We have also seen handles needed to prevent a switch.
The preferred retrieval order has shifted since we reported yesterday morning after 30 dogs had run. By the end of yesterday's testing we were seeing a majority of the teams sending for the left hand retired flyer as their next bird after recovering the left retired bird, rather than picking up the two tight converging birds as a pair and sending for the long flyer on the left after retrieving everything else. One reason for this could be that as the first bird down, the retired flyer is watched well by the dogs and hence remembered well, whereas the throw of the second bird of the converging pair can be nearly overlooked by dogs who expect the right-hand flyer to be the final bird of a triple. It's also close and ... a flyer!
We have also seen a few dogs retrieve the right retired bird, despite it being the longer bird of the converging pair, before they retrieve the shorter converging bird. It is possible this was not the handler's plan and just the result you can get when there are two birds in close proximity to each other.
