National Amateur Retriever Championships 2009

The 2009 National Amateur Retriever Championships are in full swing. They last from June 14-20. This year they are located around Virginia, Minnesota.

I have enjoyed following the coverage at:
http://www.working-retriever.com/report/report.html

There are two retriever championships held per year. The National Open Retriever Championships held in November and the National Amateur Retriever Championships held in June. The site of the National championships is changed to a different location in each of the four time zones every four years. (Amateur means that the dog is being handled by their owner as opposed to a professional)

To qualify for either of the two National Championships is a difficult thing to do. Qualifying requires the dog to have a 5-point win plus two other points during the year preceding the annual championship stakes. Points earned toward qualifying for the National Open Championships must be earned in the Open All-Age Stake. Points earned toward qualifying for the National Amateur Championships may be earned in the Amateur All-Age stake or the Open All-Age stake if the dog is handled by an Amateur handler.

Retriever field trials are very competitive and earning points requires winning. A 5-point win means the dog won first place, for the two additional points which are needed, the dog could have won a third place (which is worth 2 points). Alternatively a fourth place is worth 0.5 points, so 4, fourth place finishes would also make up the additional 2 points needed. Just to put this into perspective, to attain a Field Champion title a dog must have earned ten points in Open All-Age stake, five points of which must be from a first place. So qualifying for the National Championships is nearly as hard as earning a Field Champion Title!

This event brings together 122 of the top retrievers in the nation. It is an amazing thing to witness (even if it is only on-line). Amateur handlers (in the case of this event) handle their dogs in land and water retrieving tests over an entire week. Dogs that pass the day's tests are "called back" for another day of tests, slowly the field of amazing dogs shrinks till in the end only one dog wins -- can't wait to see who it will be this year. . .