The 5th series is a water test. Triple and a water blind with an honor.
Marks are thrown around the horn, far right mark, middle island mark, and a longer go bird on land to the left side of the test. The judges did tweak the test slightly from the below diagram and moved the first mark closer to the line. The first mark is thrown over the channel but lands roughly in the same general area as shown in the drone test diagram below.
Once you complete all the marks a water blind is needed to finish this series. This is a land-water-land-water type blind. The line to the blind is through a patch of lily-pads in the upfront piece of water. Dogs must get up and out on land before re-entry into the water to a point of cover to finish the blind.
Mark #1 is a dead bird thrown from right to left angled back across a small channel of water and lands along a side hill with various cover and this mark is around 64 yards from the line.
Mark #2 is sitting on an island and is thrown from right to left angled back into heavy cover on the island and is 68 yards from the line. Dogs must navigate through lily pads in the near water from the line, up and out over a small piece of land, back into the water for a short swim, and up and out onto the island to retriever this bird.
Mark #3 is the longest mark in this test and is around 90 yards from the line. This is a dead bird thrown from right to left and is a fairly flat throw and lands in tall grass.
After all the marks have been retrieved a single water blind is required to finish this test. The water blind is one of the more difficult blinds of this invitational. The true line to this blind is an angled entry from the line along a sloping bank into the water. Once in the water dogs must push through semi thick lily pads to the end of the pond. The next obstacle is to get up and out onto a small piece of land and re-enter into the water. There are hazards on right and left if the dogs choose to the wrong path. The left side would cut a small piece of water and back up onto land. The right side was full of very tall grass and you would loose sight of the dog. The true line was right down the middle of the water and swim a fair distance to the far bank.
The last requirement of this test was to honor the next next dog.
Short livestream recording of the 5th series.
