This park near Richland could soon be a dog’s watery paradise

A weed-filled ditch at Horn Rapids Park could become a top-flight training spot for hunting dogs if a local nonprofit has its way.

Sand & Sage Hunting Retriever Club has asked Benton County to consider filling a stretch of a mostly dry creek to provide a spot where they can train dogs to compete on the hunting circuit.

Mark Claypatch, vice president, presented the concept to the county’s parks commission this week. There is no formal proposal, but parks staff plan to investigate the potential during the winter.

Adam Fyall, the county’s sustainable development manager, said officials are interested in helping the club. Employees will spend some time this winter researching locations, including the ditch.

Sage & Sand is an American Kennel Club affiliate that provides basic retriever training and camaraderie to hunting dog enthusiasts throughout the Mid-Columbia.

Claypatch called the stretch at Horn Rapids Park a natural spot for a dog-friendly water feature.

The 800-acre park on the Yakima River near Benton City is a popular destination for the club’s 50 -60 members. Its open fields provide a picturesque setting to train dogs on finer arts of retrieving decoys, obeying signals and perfecting real life hunting scenarios for competition.

The club uses a private spot at Othello for water training. The owners are moving and the land is for sale, which sent the club in search of a back-up spot.

At Horn Rapids, the set up could offer a low-cost replacement.

The ditch is part of Cold Creek, which drains water from Rattlesnake Mountain to the Yakima River during wet months.

It’s dry most of the year, and overgrown with invasive weeds and other vegetation.

Claypatch said the space could be cleared and adapted into a pool, with islands and other obstacles for dogs to navigate. It would only need about 3 feet of water — enough for a large dog like a retriever to swim.

In competition, hunting dogs must navigate a straight line through the water to their target. If there’s a dry spot of land in the way, the dog has to scramble across it, not swim around it.

The straight line requirements makes it hard to train dogs in the river, Claypatch said.

A training pond would give Sand & Sage members and the public a place to train their hunting companions.

Horn Rapids Park would be just for training, not competitions. County rules prohibit the shooting featured in matches.

Claypatch said about half the club’s members rely on their dogs to fetch birds during hunting season, and the other half focus on the training and competition aspects.

A self-employed electrician, Claypatch said he trained his first few dogs on his own. When he got Colby, a black lab, he decided to get serious about training the large, energetic dog.

Colby, 4, has earned his “senior” dog stripes, the second of the three rungs of competition. Dogs that have earned the top rung of “master” are eligible for national competitions, like the national championships held in Roseburg, Ore., in fall.

Claypatch grew up hunting and fishng with his father in Minnesota. He still hunts, though not as frequently as he once did.

“Now, I’d rather train dogs than hunt,” he said.

This story was originally published December 14, 2018 at 6:53 PM.