lost some of his confidence. I was glad he had gone to Jess as he dealt with the situation well. Talbot visited Jess after he had Scout for six months or so. On Talbot's return, his report on Scout was excellent. Talbot thought that Jess would be very successful with Scout. Bill Llewellin's Dinas Dewi bitches Talbot and I thought it would be a good idea for me to attend the 1983 Nationals. The Amateur and Open Nationals were being held back to back in New York. Scout had already become a Champion, as I recall. He had been with Jess since the spring of 1981, but had not had any luck in either the '81 or '82 Nationals. Besides meeting up with the many trialers I knew, I was very excited to see Scout for the first time since I left him in his shipping crate. I was also looking forward to seeing Janet and Scud. I had not seen Scud since he left Presaddfed some four and a half years ago. We bred Scout to a few bitches before we sent him to Jess. One litter out of Bill Llewellyn's bitch, Dinas Dewi Silver Lady, turned out particularly well. Two of the dogs from that litter were Samson of Saighton and Solomon of Saighton, which went to Andy Shoaf and Wayne Kilpatrick respectively. These two dogs were coming to the end of their first trial season so I was very interested in seeing how they were progressing. By the beginning of the 5th series of the Amateur it was pretty much agreed amongst the gallery that if Scout had a good run, he would win. Things went well until the last bird. The pheasant flushed wild as Scout was working it. He never saw it. When Jess tried to handle him to the retrieve, Scout wanted to continue working the scent. It was all getting a bit messy. Eventually Scout did make the retrieve - so at least he was still in the trial. Whether he was still going to win, I didn't know. I hadn't seen the whole trial and figured it was the judge's call. I was thrilled when Scout was announced as the winner. After the announcement, I congratulated Jess and expressed my pleasure that Scout had a National title to his name, as he was such a special dog to me. I also said that I was a bit surprised Scout hadn't handled the situation with the last bird better than he had, as he was such a quick learner he normally only needs to be shown something once. I guess he had never been in that sort of a situation before. I was very pleased with the way Samson and Solomon were performing. I thought that one day either one of them would be capable of winning a National. Unfortunately, 1983 was not Scud's national. I can't remember what happened, but was glad that I had a chance to see Janet and Scud perform while Scud was still in his physical prime. Scout was running another great trial in the Open. By the 5th series, most people thought he was in serious contention to win - along with some other dogs. On the day the 5th series was run, the conditions were treacherous. The cover was coated in a film of ice. As the dogs ran through the cover, you could hear the clatter of ice breaking from the grass and weeds. The scent was sitting in the air - making it very difficult for the dogs to actually locate the birds once they scented them. Page 7 | Spaniel Journal | Previous Page | Next Page |