Sport: An Old Dog’s Day

Old Shed was the grand old dog of all retrievers and this was perhaps his last big year. A jet-black, brown-eyed Labrador, he weighed 85 pounds and was an old-timer at seven. Against him in the national championship last week at Herrin, Ill. were the 19 best retrievers—Labradors, Goldens and Chesapeake Bays—in the U.S.

Old Shed seemed content to loll on the slew grass and be petted by his owner, Paul Bakewell III, a wealthy St. Louis sportsman. There was no fear in Shed’s demeanor as he took his place on the line, as there was in some of the younger dogs, and that was a good sign; but he no longer trembled with excitement either.

His hardiest rivals were Little Pierre, a sleek Labrador also owned by Bakewell, an Eastern dog named Scoronine, and a picturesque Golden retriever with a storybook name—Stilrovin Nitro Express. Some of the others had lost out by committing sins of youth and inexperience: 1) breaking ahead of the signal, 2) going after a decoy instead of a duck, 3) biting the birds too hard. On the water tests, excitable Little Pierre, who was not yet four, hit the water like an outboard motor, bore down on the floating ducks and hustled back. But when the chips were down, Pierre handled badly. So did the Golden. Scoronine led the field until the last day, then refused to plunge into the 45° water. (Shed had won his first U.S. championship on a day that was 16° below. ) Now it was Shed’s turn.

In the toughest test, he had to find two dead ducks which had been planted among the rushes across a 150-foot-wide bay. Shed waited calmly at the water’s edge until he got the signal from Bakewell. Then he plunged bravely into chilly Crab Orchard Lake, but not with his old zip.

One onlooker mumbled: “Hell, he used to clear the decoys, and plunk 16 feet from shore.” One-third of the way across, Shed’s black head turned at a whistle from Bakewell to get directions. He entered the cattails just six feet from where the mallard was hidden, sniffed for a second, found his bird. A few minutes later, Shed did it again, and won his third U.S. championship. His owner, who once turned down $10,000 for him, will collect almost that much next year from Shed’s stud fees. Said an admiring voice in the gallery: ”Handling that dog is like driving a car.”