Day One Report and Highlights 

2025 Canadian National Master Hunt Test

Day 1, August 18th Report 

Threatening skies and early morning rain did nothing to dampen eager anticipation and excitement experienced by all – Day 1 of the 2025 Canadian National Master Hunt Test finally arrived! 

Months of planning and work by a multitude of volunteers from Pacific Rim Hunting Retriever Club and Upper Island Hunting Retriever Club, along with months of focused training by teams from British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Washington were at long last being put to the test! 

The day’s sponsor is Hillpoint Estate Farm, located in Duncan B.C. and owned by Braden and Nicole Gierc.

A caravan was not needed to arrive at the test site, as it is immediately south of the Swamp Dog barn and parking lot.  The morning started with overcast skies, a light breeze from the south, and 14 C; visibility was excellent.  Around noon the wind was forecast to switch to the south east and be around 10 km/hr; the day’s high was forecast to be 18 C.

Day 1’s test is a land duck hunt – a triple with a diversion and a blind – located in the Swim By Pond and Field, T 2, at Swamp Dog Farm.  The 7-acre field offers numerous terrain changes, including a winding berm, a few smaller mounds, and lower hay meadows.  Vegetation in the hay meadows is bright green pasture grass ranging from 1 to 2 feet high; vegetation on the mounds is dried hay and white flowered weeds about knee high.

Thirty teams would run the test; 2 dogs - # 2 and # 29 - scratched as they came into season.  Dog # 20 is the first competing dog to run.

The gallery is located in the barn parking lot, on a slight rise above the test field. 

The running line is south of the barn; the test faces south.  Numerus goose and duck decoys were strategically placed and the gun stations were well brushed up with branches and vegetation.

When settled at the running line, handlers had the choice to start with a duck call or to indicate to the judges they were ready.  Each throw was initiated by the judge’s duck call from behind the running team.  Each gunner in turn responded to the judge’s duck call with loud duck calls.  All marks were ducks and were thrown around the clock from left to right, gunners stayed retired behind their holding blinds, all throws were from wingers, and gunners fired a pistol shot when the duck was at the top of the arc. 

The first mark was on the left of the field; a drake mallard was thrown left to right, slightly angle back with a big arc, and landed 78 yards from the running line on a small dried grass covered mound, deep of scattered geese decoys.

The second mark was in the middle of the field; a hen mallard was thrown right to left, slightly angle back with a high arc, and landed 91 yards from the running line in the area of a couple of small patches of tall canary grass.

The final mark was on the right of the field; a drake mallard was thrown left to right, steep angle back with a moderate arc; and landed 30 yards from the running line, behind a slight mound with taller dried grass.  

After the dog picked up the final mark thrown and started back to the running line, a diversion bird was thrown from a winger located to the north and west of the running line.  A judge fired a shot from the line as the diversion bird was at the top of the arc. 

After all 4 birds were retrieved, the team left the running line to wait in a holding blind as the blind was planted.  Once the blind planter was back to his gun station, a judge fired a shot from the line.  The team was then invited to run the 95-yard blind.  The blind was partway between the middle (second) mark and the right hand (final) mark, but slightly deeper than the middle mark.  The initial line to the blind crossed the berm slope, then ran diagonally across a low hay meadow and across a slope to a small orange blind ribbon.  

At 8:15 the 2025 Cadian National Master Hunt Test chair, Tracey Griffin, welcomed everyone and wished best of luck to all participants.

Honourary female test dog – 15-year-old Lucy – GMH NMH Cedarbrae’s Party Girl, handled by co-owner and co-breeder Jim Girvan, enjoyed her mark immensely!

Honourary male test dog – 13 ½-year-old Action - HRCH UHCH GMH NMH Master’s GNG Marshland Man of Action QAA QFTR CGN WCX, handled by co-owner Rick Roberts, loped out to his bird, sauntered back, then paraded in the gallery – job well done!  

Judge Alan Davies welcomed everyone and introduced the judging team – himself, his co-judges Susan Bell and Catherine Veysey.  He described the duck hunt scenario – ducks arrived from the north east, circled, and flew across the field.  He reminded handlers to carry and shoulder the gun. 

After a dry run-through, Linda Page and female test dog black lab Flicker - FTCH AFTCH GMH OTCH Tsolumside Shine the Light – came to the line.  Flicker ran straight to the final mark, ignored the diversion bird, proceeded to pin the left and middle marks, and then she stepped on the diversion bird.  She ran a very nice 2 whistle blind.

Sylvia Lawson and male test dog Cinder – NMH GMH HRCH UHCH Goldnguns to the Core WCX CD – came to the line.  Cider seemed full of excitement and wanted to retrieve the middle mark first, however Sylvia pulled him over to retrieve the right mark.  The diversion was thrown; he then retrieved it.  His second mark was the left-hand mark; he banannaed a bit to the right, and had a slight hunt.  His route to the middle mark was along the top of the meandering berm, but he left the berm and pinned the mark.  Cinder gave a quick bark of joy as he left on his blind.  His route was a bit to the right so required 3 whistles to keep him on line.  As Cider came close to the blind, he obviously winded the bird – the weatherman was correct – the slight breeze was from the southeast.

The first team – dog # 20 – was called to the line at 9:00. 

Overall, the teams gave excellent performances; some dogs picked up the diversion immediately after the go-bird, others left it to the end.  On the blind several dogs were a bit to the right of the exact line to the blind, most likely a combination of falling off / squaring the berm slope, suction to the diversion and go-birds and fading with the south east wind.  Generally, the test took 7 minutes from the time a team walked to the line to when they left.

Atmosphere in the gallery and on the test grounds was overwhelmingly cheerful, supportive, and laid back - - a relaxed Vancouver Island vibe!

For the first couple of hours the wind was light and variable – seemed to come from the south, southwest, or west.  Around 11:00 the sun peaked out between the clouds and around 11:30 the wind sifted and blew steadily from the south east 10 km/hr with gusts to 20 km/hr. 

The final dog completed the test at 2:30

• Number of Dogs Running Day 1 - 30

• Number of dogs dropped 2 

• Number of dogs Running Day 2 test - 28

• Series 2 starts with dog #26

• Caravan to series 2 leaves the Swamp Dog Barn at 7:30