The Dansk Pointer Klub held it’s 90th Anniversary Vinderclasse Prove (Trial) near Broby in Denmark, on Sunday 30th March 2008, with the afternoon session held at Nordskov – Vantinge. The judges for the day were Christian Johansen (Chief Judge), Anders Warming, Soren Lassen, Svende Aage Vad, and Allan Nissen. There were approximately fifty entries. Each judge went with about five brace of dogs to different areas and ran the dogs in the pairs dictated by their position in the programme. They would then run dogs that were still clean and decide on which of their dogs they would wish to take through to the afternoon. After each couple of brace the judge would give a critique on what he had seen. Each competitor would remove his headgear and listen to what the judge had to say. There was no hiding place for bad work, or, bad judging.
The trial was run in Rape that came to about mid calf, and winter cereals. There was a dry easterly wind, strong at times, and this made scenting conditions poor. Most of the birds found were found in the rape with a few, very few , pheasants found in other rough ground. I was talking to N.P Olesen and he said that some dogs, his own included, had had very good opportunities to point birds but had just not seemed to know they were there. The birds were grey partridge, mainly in pairs.
In theory all dogs could go through from a group or no dogs might make the grade but the average is about two per group. This band of judges (5 in number) brought through eleven dogs to the afternoon session to be judged in their performance by the entire judging panel.
The eleven dogs that were brought through were graded 1a through to 2b so nobody was in any doubt to what the position of each dog was. I understand that no dog made it through to the afternoon on running alone. All the survivors had had a find.
What I witnessed in the afternoon was dog work of breathtaking quality. I was able to estimate by use of a sat nav system that some dogs were doing a beat of 600 meters, each side! That said the quartering was of the highest order although with a limit on time a dog will do fewer casts if it has a beat of 1200 meters. My favourite colour of dog is orange and white but I do have a soft spot for black pointers. I was mesmerised by the second placed dog even though it consistently back cast on the left side in it’s first run in the afternoon. Other than as mentioned it was an amazing performance. The way the trial is brought to a conclusion meant that this dog was run more than any other and it exhibited stamina the like of which I have only once before seen required in a trial in the British Isles.
Although only the top three places count towards a dog’s title places are awarded down to sixth. The dogs are braced up starting with the lowest placed. Six is run against five and in this event five was declared the winner of the brace and six confirmed as sixth in the event. The new fifth placed dog was run against the fourth placed again but it lost the brace so was confirmed as fifth in the event. The dog that ended up second was fourth placed as the run off started but it won each of it’s runs until it was beaten in the final slip and thus was confirmed as second in the event. The first placed dog was a very convincing winner. It had had a faultless display in the morning and an almost perfect afternoon.
The sixth placed dog is a big strong self coloured dog that had been the second placed dog in the group I had been with in the morning. Unfortunately it fell away in the afternoon but was put in a great performance in the morning when paired with Bertil Martensson’s dog, Ulindys Mr Reda. Their quartering of a relatively small field had been perfection, in my book.
What pleased me was that even though this was a system new to me I was able to call the top three places correctly. It is a long time since I saw such a convincing winner in a trial.
Results ;- (all pointers)
1st Boelsgaards Paw Jorgen Gordon Andersen’s dog.
2nd Fugledes Dirch Flemming Fuglede’s bitch.
3rd Riddarsporens Haerska Anders Eriksen’s dog.
4th Idimun Rona Aage Christiansen’s bitch.
5th Stormosens Oliver handler Anna Marie Skov. dog.
6th Fugledes Black Joker Jes Kragh’s dog.
The Winner.
Second Place.
Sixth Place.
