VGP in Austria 26th and 27th September 1997
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My turn came in the sugarbeets,Windy made good ground, searched well and covered much more field than the other two Weimaraners who had their turn before her. The nice thing was our head judge, Richterobmann, was the same judge we had on the bloodtrack. He was familiar with the way Windy worked in the forest. And seeing her do fieldwork, he told me he now understood why we had difficulties with the tracking. At lunchtime, Tony Gorgl came to pick up the points and asked this judge how things were going. Mr. Spannagl answered, "Well it goes all right, we have two Weimaraners and a pointer at work today".

During Windy's first run, she pointed a pheasant and when it was flushed, the pheasant flew away quite low over the field Windy with the pheasant. Windy's passion was just too much so she chased it, but came back when I whistled her. At a championship field trial in Holland and England, you might be disqualified for such a chase. But fortunately, it only cost us points for obedience on feather game(2 points) and we lost one point on obedience in the field. The other dogs had their second run and then it was our turn again. Windy already had her points for searching, pointing and obedience on feathered game but as i pointed out, in Austria you also are tested on obedience on hare.

We began to search for hare. We walked in the sugarbeets with the wind in our back and the judges saw the hare in thefield, about thirty meters in front of them. I walked with windy along the edge of the field with her about 50 meters ahead.I brought her back again so she could use the wind. On the spot where the judges saw the hare, the hare was already gone, but Windy made such a beautiful point.

The judges saw there had been game moments befo re and graded this point. We did not want to keep the other dogs waiting too long, so we continued with the lost retrieve of the pheasant with full score on searching and retrieve. Windy and walked to the field for the tracking of the pheasant. Just when we came close to this field, a hare jumped up and ran close to the place where the judge wanted to drag the pheasant.

Windy in the shed with the days catch.

The judge advised me to walk away with Windy and she might get the hare out of her mind. I told hem this would not work because she has the memory of an elephant! One of the judges dragged the pheasant and hid himself in the maize. She picked the pheasant up and brought it to me. The result was four points on the retrieve, but sadly only one point for the tracking.

Although the judge did tell me if she would have followed the track of the pheasant, she could not have been back any sooner with the pheasant than she was! We still had to search for the hare. So, we continued on with the wind. Windy again made two more beautiful points on pheasants, but no hare in sight. After she search for about thirty minutes, she was getting tired, but her passion made her go fast and wide. Right next to us a hare jumped up and ran away. I shouted STAY and .........she did!!! So. more points on obedience on the hare. This was the final subject for our VGP and the result was a third prize with 364 points.