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French National EB Spring Field Trials - Gurcy le Chatel aka Vimpelles.
Friday night we had met up with Anne and Andeas Eissing - who had run this trial before so knew the form a bit.

They like us had not had any indication of the rendezvous however Anne said previously it was the Salle Polyvalante -
so that is where we headed. There had been a suggestion that the start time was about 8am, so we arrived a bit after
- to allow for any delay. The day didn't in the event start until about 10am.

There were 12 fields of 9 0r 10 dogs and an 'amateur' field of 9 dogs - we were running in amateur. Our judge was M
Gaudin. Topaz has been under him before in the ring and been dismissed summarily so my heart sank a bit.
Things got worse when he asked us to present our 'carnet de travail' a document we of course don't have in England
so we therefore don't have. He intimated we would not be able to compete. A brief word with another committee member
came to the conclusion it was OK for foreign dogs to run without 'carnets'.

We opted to watch Anne and Andreas run their dog in 'open' first. The four of us would then move on to the 'amateur'
field. Although a map is given out, the scale is so small and the loss of detail so great that navigation is
difficult, almost impossible; the trick is to check which car the judge drives and make sure you follow that. We followed Anne and Andreas who in turn followed a friend who followed 'the' car. The problem was the friend had followed the right sort
of car but with the wrong occupant. We had to resort to navigation by photocopy. With only one wrong turn we
arrived behind the correct group. (bearing in mind the map numbers bore no relation to the group numbers) only to
find the judge had disappeared with the beat keeper to survey the ground). On his return we had to move to a new spot -
something that required a drive along grass tracks between fields of winter wheat. Not really ideal ground for a
family estate car but in the event not a great problem.

The trial is apparently run on the same block of ground each year, this year the crop is quite 'behind' and the leaves were
not more than about 75mm / 3" high - giving no cover for the wild partridge population we were expected to find. The
ground was pretty moist and the soil a high clay content aluvial loam. The surface was a fine tilth and this clung
to the dog's paws and between the pads. You could see that they laboured hard when running.

Several dogs chose to bore into the wind and displayed poor ground treatment, reworking ground already covered and
turning downwind. All dogs without exception were very fast. Those who know Topaz would be surprised (as I was)
that he was nothing out of the ordinary when it came to speed.

The dog, handler and judge walked from the gallery and the dog was let off. The judge and handler 'following the
dog' rather than the dog working a specific beat. Points are apparently knocked of for handling, lack of response
by the dog etc. To achieve anything the dog had to work the ground, come on point, hold the point, walk forward with
the handler and produce the birds; at this point the handler had to fire a shot with a blank pistol for any marks
to be awarded. There were birds around - I saw some disturbed by our activity fly past and others were bumped by one or more
of the dogs (instant elimination) At the end of the day I don't think any of that group were graded.

Andreas's dog Bolko (who some will have seen at the club show last year - produced one of the better pieces of work
(IMHO) he did work some of his ground a couple of times but he ran the plough well and stopped when told on the hare
he put up - much to the appreciation of my gallery neighbours. Every point or hesitation was greeted by expectation
by the onlookers.

We moved on to the 'amateur' field. Had a bit of difficulty finding it eventualy arriving down a grass track in the
middle of nowhere to find our judge eating his lunch.

As soon as lunch was finished Topaz was to run - a run in two halves. The first part was in some set aside - which
I was very hopeful for and the second on winter wheat. Now remember we are in an area where there are no
fences from horizon to horizon and I have a dog that is used to working a field to the fence before turning. I have
a dog who the judge has already been disparaging of in the ring, who does not have a 'carnet' and is an 'English'
bred dog. (we had already seen the polite raised eyebrows when asked about Topaz's lineage). To cut a long story short - he
ran beautifully. I used the whistle no more than four times - and one of those was to come back as we had finished. The
judges comments were that his run was of two halves - in the grass he had run well and wide with a good pattern and
in the crop he had become tired as his head carriage lowered below the line of his back and his pace became a bit laboured.
He commented how the dog took note of his handler and responded well to his whistle. His final comment - which I will
cherish was 'you have a good dog there'. But no grading as no bird. I have to say never have I had such a run with that dog.
He worked the ground without any input from me, ran wide and flat and moved up a reasonable 10 or so metres at a time. He
changed his pace and direction as the wind changed, worked the edges as he should and the down wind bit - ran down wind on an
edge and then broke across the wind and back to me in a couple of 'laces' without any input from me at all. Even without a
grading I was extremely satisfied, his lack of condition I had already expected, the ground was undulating and sloping about 15 degrees. So each quartering required a climb the equvalent to the height of a house. I think Julia was fed up with me reliving the moments by the end of the day.
Now time to go back for lunch, via a local supermarket. The ' foreigners' ate their lunch as a picnic at the edge of the
carpark. And very convivial it was to. Food was shared and wine was shared between all. There cannot be many places where
an English person can be speaking French to a Dutchman - such is the power of the little EB to break down barriers. Where
else can you meet and talk with English, German,French, Spanish, Swiss, Dutch, and Danish in one place with a common interest.

Two final thoughts - there were over 120 dogs running in 13 or 14 areas - my hat off to the organisers for the smoothness of
the day. I don't think we could have achieved that in the UK.
Secondly - I would encourage all to go and see these dogs in action at this level - suddenly your Brittany will not be an errant dog running miles away but the obvious relation to a scintillating field worker.

_________________
Guy; Ellie Topaz Catja. http://www.epagneulbreton.org.uk