The Retriever Game

Well before dawn on a mid-November morning, a caravan of customized pick-up trucks begins filing out of Duncan, Oklahoma. At that dark hour they appear to be nothing more than campers, but they are dog trucks. On straw and cedar shavings inside these mobile kennels are a half dozen Golden Retrievers, possibly a Chesapeake on vacation, and many, many Labradors. They are going to compete for six days in the most demanding trail of working retrievers—the National Championship Stake.
This destina…