Bruce Mitchell's Decks has now produced two proven FC/AFC dogs. Also several other dogs that have placed in ALL breed trials. When Canvass got his letters I felt sure that if you wanted to play this very hard game you better get a puppy that has parents with the best letters you can get!!! My hat is off to Tiger and Canvass sons of Decks.

I was going to get a pup out of Tiger x Canvas, but they are too closely related.

Still wondering how you can get pups from the "best letters", when there are no bitches living who have the "best letters".

Lisa - wonders if this one will make the Team Chesapeake Brawl of Fame.

YER BAAAAAD!

-But don't it feel good!

PB

There are several QAA bitches that are very nice. A handful even have all age points. I'm pretty sure and hopeful a couple of them will be titled and they aren't out of Decks and are trained by amateurs. You get a puppy out of one of them and hope they title. Anyone who has a bitch with points and finishes trials is a hero in my book.

Are there more QAA Peake bitches or Males running today?

CH Caroway's Sergeant Pepper JH WDQ (Decks X Binkie) is the first chessie female that got an field trial title in the EU. Just some weeks ago she won an open in France and is on the way for this championship too. European trials are very different, distances aren`t as big as in the States but steadyness level required is incredibly high. Honoring is very prolonged in face of birds (most times relased, sometime natural and raised by springers or pointing dogs), gunfires, whistles, and the work of others dogs. A very hard work for a chessie... but she made it!

Congratulations with her. My bitch is a sister to your Pepper and she is wonderful.

Sedgegrass,
Congratulations! How old is Pepper? I had two out of this breeding; one I liked alot,but came up with a bad pin, the other, I was in need of more experience before our paths crossed! Both were bitches, both went into great homes where their duck-hunting prowess has been much appreciated.

I would appreciate you giving me some more information on these European Retriever Trials as I have a friend who recently took a job in Paris. He has a nice dog and is looking to train-for/compete-in some of these trials; he is need of some contacts,advise, and of course, he'll need a rule book(preferredly in English) even though he'll state that he knows all the rules! Any help would be great.

Best of Luck in ALL your K-9 endeavors!

Bruce

P.S.- Great picture of Pepper!

Bruce, Night Train,
allthought a bit late thank you for the congrats! Pepper will be on aug. 6 yrs old. She is littermate of Angel, I'm sure Mary is younger.

Bruce, I'm trying to get a copy of the FCI rules for FT in english and I will send it privatly. We live in Germany but in the trial saison (sept-jan.) I go regulary to France to start with the dogs, so I have contacts there too. France has in my opinion the best calender for trials and wonderful lands. You can give our tel. number or our e-mail adress to your friend, will be a pleasure to help ihm. Paris isn`t so far, 4 hours to us.

Moira

Moira,
Congratulations on Pepper's accomplishments. She is a beautiful Chessie and that is a lovely picture.

Hello CBRS,
-Rene Valenzuela in Chile;
-Schloegell and Moira in Germany;
-Janet Morris et al. in the UK;
-B.Jorgensen et al. in Scandinavia;
-T& J.Avort,Marit v.Dongen et al.in the Netherlands;
-Switzerland is always having good dogs;
-Austria too;
-Italy is starting;(I think)
These are all "crazy"CBR owners in South-America and Europe on Fieldtrials and YES
we are going to get the whole WORLD!!!(on FT's of course!!!)
And this all by promoting and a lot of help from responsible owners and breeders in the USA.
BRAVO!!!!
DD

DD,
please dont get me wrong but thats not correct. Actually in EU are unfort. just 3 chessies owners starting in FT:
- Moira & Matthias Frank (Italy/Germany)
- Ursula Moilliet (Switzerland)
- Christine & Gerard Fontana (France)

Many chessies people start in other competions, just not in FT.

Moira Frank

Hello Sedgegrass,
no not at all,I'm always glad that if I'm wrong somebody is coming and say what he or she thinks about it,that's part of helping eachother.
The best thing that you can do for me,if I may say so,is to get in contact with all these guys on regular base and to go on on FT's.
\At this moment I'm preparing my young for FT's.
And I have to learn a lot and some help is needed,to get into the FT trials.
Thanks Sedgegrass in advance(and thanks too for your beautifull website!!!)
DD

HI!

I am a complete newcomer to the retriever world but I think it would be correct to say that some dogs from Denmark are trialled in field trials.

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Linda,
I talked about EU, not generally about Europa. I dont know exactly how many chessies in Denmark or Sweden start regulary in FT. Sorry, I was just one time up in north, but I'm informed from some labs friends up in north that some cbrs in DK did well in Markprove B (winner class), and some others got prizes in markprove A (open class).
That's a complicated matter, I know, so is easy to make confusion. Each state have different tests so is pretty difficult to understand the differences.
Markprove B in DK and B-prov in S (as in Switzerland Apportierspruefung C and B, for example) are cold game tests. Markprove A (in Sweden A-prov) is similar at a FT, but just winner and elite class are competitive classes and give certificates. Winner class in both markproven (A & B) are competitive, classes beginner and open arent.

A FT isnt a cold game test, is a trial with live games, is competitive, is awarded with CACT/CACIT and is judging according to official FCI-rules.
At discrection of the judge, the winner - with the judgement of exellent - can be awarded with the CACT (Certificate). That means: you can won a FT with exellent without certificate; no certificate = nothing for the championship.
In all the states members of the FCI a FT isnt definitively a cold game test or a standardisated test. Some fundamental and necessary FT's complements, as the concepts of 'eye wipe' and 'first dog down', dont appear in cold games or in standardisated tests, like a 'runner' is obliviously impossible to work in a cold game.
A FT (again, FCI rules) is called in DK 'international Markprobe' (with CACIT), and 'Markprobe A winner class' (with Certificate), in S 'internationella prov' (CACIT), and 'A-prov elite class' (Certificate).
In some EU's states (France, Italy, Belgium) we had 2 FT classes: à la francaise (novice, called amateur in Belgium) and à l'anglaise (open). Both are judged according to FCI rules. Again: not cold games, not standardisated tests. In other states (Germany - just one field trial a year, close number of dogs -, Austria, Slovakia too I think) we had juste one class à l'anglaise.
Pepper won 3 times à l'anglaise in national (CACT) and international (CACIT) all breeds field trials and placed in some other all breeds FTs this season. She finished her championship à l'anglaise in jan., so she is FT Ch à l'anglaise. The past year she got an amateur title (or à la francaise). This year other 3 females got a title à la francaise (or amateur): Nema des Hauts de la Salle, aka "Nema" (Gerard); Harle Globetrotter Brown Sugar, "Brownie" (Ursula); and my young girl SedgeGrass Acid Test, "Cider". In order to be able to homologate the amat. title, dogs are required to qualified (and all 3 girls made it!) in a CACT/CACIT FT à l'anglaise. Cider and Brownie did very well and qualified in some others FT à l'anglaise at the end of the saison. For Nema was the last FT saison.

Hi!

Thanks for the explaination! It is a complete mystery all these different classes and rules etc.

The results of Your work and Your dogs are wonderful I think. Also very interesting that there are people in other countries that have that amount of success, wonderful!

I think the Chesapeake is such a great breed and it is painful that the reputation of the breed in Europe is not so good in hunting circles. People are missing a great breed and the dogs that are out are perhaps not being seen for what they are.

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Hi again!

Now I have dug up what merits the title Field Trial Champion demands here, these are:

3 1st prices in eliteclass Retrievertest B (cold game) here by at a minimum 2 different judges PLUS accepted results at practical/actual hunttest OR minimum 2nd price eliteclass Retrievertest A (living birds) OR minimum 2nd price/very good at an international hunttest OR 1st place in openclass OR placing in winnerclass in Danish A-test.

Also there now is a new field trial championship title based on merits from the A-test with live game.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Linda,