The National Championship…..and we watched the winner

Steve Hurdle handles 2012 National Champion Connor’s E Z Button.

A fun aspect of living for a time in another part of the country is to take advantage of what that area offers. Here in western Tennessee, Jerry and I are close to Grand Junction, which is home to the Ames Plantation and the site of the National Championship.

This year marked the 113th running of this celebrated competition, which is one of few in the country with three-hour braces. Thirty-four dogs competed in 17 braces over nine days. Last year’s champion, Touch’s Whiteout, scratched.

Randy Downs steadies Gamemaker at the morning breakaway while Fred Corder waits on his horse.

It was thrilling to be around big-name handlers like Sean Derrig, Luke Eisenhart, Colvin Davis, Robin Gates, Randy Downs, Steve Hurdle and Gary Lester. Another big draw was to see—firsthand—famous dogs like Gamemaker, In The Shadow, the setter Shadow Oak Bo and all the Erin pointers. Plus it was cool to see all the gear and the big horse trailers necessary for competition at this level.

Jerry and I chose to go on the first Friday so we could watch Gamemaker (Rock Acre Buckwheat x Therapy’s Little Bess), a handsome liver-and-white pointer owned and handled by Fred Corder, scouted by Randy Downs.

Gamemaker was braced with Connor’s E Z Button, owned by David O’Connor and handled by Steve Hurdle.

Gamemaker, Fred Corder, Steve Hurdle and Button pause at a crossing.

What an exciting brace. Button had six finds; Gamemaker had five. In the waning minutes of the brace, Gamemaker was hit by a truck when he ran across a road. But he got up, shook himself off and finished with just a slight limp.

The three judges (in orange) and the gallery cross a road on the Ames Plantation.

And, several days later on the white front porch of the Ames Plantation, Connor’s E Z Button was named this year’s National Champion.  

Chris Mathan of The Sportsman’s Cabinet and Strideaway was with us. Jerry and Ben McKean, a friend from Minnesota, rode the following Tuesday to see In The Shadow and Erin’s Whiskey River.

Busman’s holiday to Georgia

The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only one page.

–St. Augustine

Earlier this winter, Jerry and I took some time off and traveled to Georgia. The warm climate was one draw, as was the opportunity to see historic quail plantations set in piney woods. Several days in a cottage on an island off the coast near Savannah was also on the itinerary.

Here are the highlights of our trip.

Best puppy/exercise pens

Dog trainers in Georgia are serious about their puppy raising. At most of the plantations and training facilities, it was clear that much time, money and energy is spent on giving puppies a good start in life.

What struck us most were the really big, really nice puppy pens. There was ample space for a dozen or more puppies to exercise, play, rest and find shade. One plantation had fenced an area about the size of a football field.

For the record, all the litters we saw were pointers.

Chance to see old friends

Jim Tande and Chuck Wingard have been friends of ours for a long time—going back to the late 1980s/early 1990s when we were all field trialing in the grouse woods. We’ve gotten puppies from their litters and they’ve bought from us. We’ve bred dams to their sires and vice-verse. An auspicious start to our pointer line was when Jim’s extraordinary CH Northern Dancer (call name War) was bred to a 6X grouse champion from Maine, Vanidestine’s Rail Lady, and produced our CH Dance Smartly.

Jim and Chuck have moved on to horseback shooting dog and all age competition and, since both are now retired from careers with the U.S. Forest Service, they spend winters near Arlington, Georgia.

Jerry and I spent a fun day with Jim and his wife, Kathy. They gave us a fabulous tour of southwestern Georgia and many of its plantations.

Venerable quail plantations

The main quail plantation area stretches from Americus in the north, through Albany and south to Tallahassee, Florida. The heart is Thomasville, Georgia.

We saw fancy gates, long driveways lined with live oaks, beautiful plantation homes complete with tall columns and wrap-around porches. We saw original dog wagons, vast stretches of piney woods and even a dog cemetery.

We toured the famous Pinebloom, a 20,000-acre plantation that was the setting for Tom Wolfe’s excellent book, A Man in Full.

The history of quail plantations is equally fascinating. As far back as the 1880s, newly rich, northern business owners discovered the area.

Finding plentiful game birds–particularly turkey, dove, and quail–they first leased then began purchasing small parcels of farm land and forests, consolidating them into thousands of acres of hunting plantations–larger than any of the antebellum cotton plantations…

Because the area remained somewhat isolated after the Civil War, it retained many vestiges of antebellum plantation life, a life that the new plantation owners sought to emulate and the old ones wished to preserve. The region today contains more than a hundred working quail hunting plantations, proving more durable than the cotton kingdom they replaced.

~ Susan Hamburger, Ph.D., from a paper presented at the North American Society for Sport History Annual Conference, May 27, 1996

Tybee Island and Savannah

We squeezed in some days at the beginning of our trip to spend time on Tybee Island and tour the area.

Tybee Island is a small island connected to Savannah and the mainland by 18 miles of bridges over marshes, the Intracoastal Waterway and various channels and rivers.

Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia. It was founded in 1733 by a group of English colonists who traveled under the auspices of King George II, after whom the state is named. The city plan was agreed upon before the ship left England and was based on London’s squares. Twenty-two of the original 24 squares remain.

Savannah had block after block of beautifully maintained townhomes. I could live in any one of them, although preferably one with a curving staircase and plenty of intricate wrought iron.

What I’m reading: Terrierman

I follow a great blog called Terrierman’s Daily Dose. The blogger, Patrick Burns, owns terriers and actively hunts them on various varmints. I don’t always agree with him but his depth of research and well-thought-out opinions are worth the read.

A recent post about the term “‘dog man” is excellent.

Tennessee 2012: February photo album and training report

Training has been going very well here in the mid South. Our put-out coveys are surviving nicely and there are more wild coveys than last year. Plus, the weather has been perfect for working dogs.

Of the 15 setters in this group, 14 are of the Houston line and one is by Hytest Skyhawk. Even though there are only a few pointers, the quality is high.

I have taken a few photos when possible, but sometimes things happen too fast to get the camera out.  Enjoy!

Bicolor lespedeza strip along pine row.

Creek edge and corn stubble.

Northwoods Carly Simon points quail in bicolor.

Chuck (Bill and Ryan Westfall, owners) points on field edge.

Chuck hunts the bicolor strip.

Hannah Montana (Bill Heig, owner) on point.

Joe Montana (Bill Heig, owner) on point.

Harmon (Ben McKean, owner) on point.

Kit (Austin Figgins, owner) on point.

Northwoods Kiss backs Northwoods Aerosmith.

Northwoods Aerosmith points covey.

What I’m reading: How to Afford Veterinary Care

How to Afford Veterinary Care Without Mortgaging the Kids, by Dr. James L. Busby, is a refreshing view on modern veterinary care for dogs. Busby is a retired vet from Bemidji, Minnesota, and bases his opinion on more than 40 years of practice. He covers major topics including monthly medication, teeth cleaning, annual examinations, vaccinations, elective surgery, and much more.

The book also provides low-cost alternatives for routine preventative care—some that we’ve been using for years. For that reason alone, the book is worth the price.

For more information about Dr. Busby and his book, visit: http://www.oldcountryvet.com/index.html.

What I’m reading: lots of dog books

The stack of books on my bedside chest is full of new books about dogs. I bought the three books on dog behavior and the other two are thoughtful Christmas presents.

Dog Sense, by John Bradshaw, is a very well-done book by an Englishman who specializes in animal welfare and behavior. He debunks some common perceptions and attempts to put dogs in their proper place. I like this sentence from the dust jacket:

…we too often treat dogs like wolves or, just as hazardously, like furry humans. The truth is:  dogs are neither.

The Fragrance of Grass, by Guy de la Valdene, is the third book of his I own now. His two previous—Making Game:  An Essay on Woodcock and For a Handful of Feathers—are among my favorites. In his beautiful prose, de la Valdene reminisces about his early hunting in France, trips to the western U.S. and his 800-acre “farm” outside Tallahassee, Florida. The title of the book comes from Jim Harrison:

Between the four pads of a dog’s foot, the fragrance of grass.

On Talking Terms with Dogs:  Calming Signals, by Turid Rugaas. Rugaas is a famous Norwegian dog trainer and behaviorist who seems, on the surface at least, a bit like our Cesar Milan.

Dogs, being flock animals, have a language for communication with each other…Canine language in general consists of a large variety of signals using body, face, ears, tail, sounds, movement, and expression.

Dog Language, An Encyclopedia of Canine Behavior, by Roger Abrantes, was a popular book when first published in 1986 in Denmark. I have an English version, which was first published in the U.S. in 1996. It is organized dictionary-style—an alphabetical listing of 293 expressions and postures. Very nice black-and-white drawings are included.

Everything in the way you or I, or our dogs, appear to one another is behavior.

Among these champions of compromise, we find wolves, geese, chimpanzees, humans and their best friends, dogs.

 
Canine Body Language, Interpreting the Native Language of the Domestic Dog, by Brenda Aloff, is a fascinating examination of how dogs communicate through expressions and body language. Hundreds of photographs are included to clearly show each pose. Among the entries are Curiosity, Rolling, Fear, Look Away, Tongue Flick, Yawning, Paw Lifts, Butt Sniff, Pass By, Guarding, Warning, Prey Bow and an entire section on Play.

Grouse guiding report: 2011

The 2011 grouse hunting and guiding season is over but not forgotten. For everyone at Bowen Lodge on Lake Winnibigoshish northwest of Grand Rapids, Minn., it was a stellar fall. The majority of days were sunny and warm and the woods were very dry. The guides definitely needed to know the location of beaver ponds so the dogs could drink and cool off.

There were fewer grouse than last year but plenty to make for good hunting. The dogs did a tremendous job of finding and pointing them–but some were more difficult because there were more old grouse than young. A high note was the good numbers of woodcock we found–more than most years.

All-in-all, we had a wonderful fall with beautiful days, good friends and fine bird dogs.

Sam and a friend hunt over Northwoods Camembert and Daisy (Blue Chief x Blue Blossom, ).

 

Wayne Grayson poses with Abby (Gusty Blue x CH Houston’s Belle) while Mike Powers has Northwoods Blue Ox.

 

Blue Ghost/call name Cotton (2006 – 2011)

Cotton was special from the beginning. She was whelped on Easter Day in 2006 out of Blue Silk bred to the talented I’m Houston’s Image, call name Jake, owned by Paul Hauge. Jerry and I were renting a pole shed that housed both our living quarters and the dog kennels while our own buildings were being constructed.

The facilities were perfect and we loved living there but something strange happened in the kennel area when the litter was about four weeks old. A slight gas leak was ignited by a spark from the water pump and caused a ball of fire to roar down the kennel aisle, past the astonished adult dogs and the temporary kennel we’d created for Silk and her puppies, before it finally died.

Luckily Jerry and I were in the kennel when it happened. We quickly threw dog water buckets on the remaining flames and then calmed all the dogs. Everything turned out fine with the exception of Silk’s eyebrows and whiskers. They were singed.  

The litter was auspicious in other ways. Among Silk’s puppies were two future grouse champions—I’m Blue Gert owned by Dave and Rochelle Moore and Satin From Silk owned by Greg and Diane Gress. Jerry and I kept three outstanding puppies:  two females and a male. The male we named Boomer (in honor of the explosion) and the females became Moxie and Cotton. Moxie was a black-and-white spitfire—aptly named—and the other was Cotton. She was orange and white with almost no ticking and beautiful dark eyes and nose.

We had such fun with Moxie, Cotton and Boomer throughout that summer and fall. We took them for long walks with our Labrador, May. We played with them on the soft green grass of our rental place and we developed them on pigeons and quail. Eventually, all three ended up with great families.

With Cotton, though, Jerry and I wanted rights to one breeding. We valued her talent and temperament and felt she carried characteristics that we wanted passed on. In 2010, Cotton was bred to Blue Riptide, a big, handsome male (Blue Chief x Blue Blossom) owned by Rodney Klimek from Alexandria.  

Among that amazing litter were three females that were bought by three friends who spend their autumns and at a hunting camp in north central Wisconsin. Cotton’s bird-finding ability and sweet disposition are clearly evident in Piper, Sage and Rosie.

Cotton’s family let us know that she died in December.

She will be missed…..but will never be forgotten.

Erin Kennels 2012: training report

Houston’s Blackjack and CH Erin’s Kentucky Gambler.

Frank LaNasa and I spent a few days in late December with Sean Derrig of Erin Kennels. Sean is a serious, very successful amateur all-age field trialer who also holds his own in open competition. Last year, he qualified and ran four dogs in the National Championship.

Sean breeds, trains and develops his pointers at his farm near Tiskilwa, Illinois. He has 500 acres of land with about 220 acres groomed for running dogs.  These are the most beautifully and intensely managed grounds I’ve ever seen. We worked dogs all day long and every brace had multiple finds on large coveys of good flying bobwhite quail.

It was exciting to see Sean’s string in action including CH Erin’s Stony River, CH Erin’s Whisky River, CH Erin’s Bad River, CH Erin’s Kentucky Gambler and Erin’s Braveheart. Frank worked his champion females, CH Homemade and CH Lil Miss Sunshine, as well as Houston’s Blackjack and True Confidence.

The trip was fun and a learning experience, too!

CH Homemade and CH Erin’s Whiskey River.

Frank flushes for CH Homemade.

CH Lil Miss Sunshine and Erin’s Braveheart.

Bill Gibbons: a expert’s training style

Dog training—whether as passion or profession—is a continual learning experience. One of the best ways to learn is to hang around experts. I was fortunate enough to spend some time recently in Arizona with Bill Gibbons.

Bill Gibbons

Bill has been training dogs for more than 39 years and is widely renowned and admired. He first trained and handled vizslas on the field trial circuit for 15 years and then worked with pointers and setters for another 10 years. He now trains dogs for bird hunters and field trial competitors.

Over the years, I’ve researched many different training techniques and styles. Even though Bill’s philosophy is quite different from the way most bird dogs are trained, it definitely resonates with me.

Central to Bill’s philosophy is the belief that a bird dog learns best from the birds themselves. He trains using dog psychology and creates situations that allow the dog to make its own decisions about how to act around birds. Bill uses a short check line, pinch collar and an ecollar to communicate to the dog.

Bill flushing a carded pigeon while two dogs honor

Following are some quick observations.

•    All of Bill’s training takes place on the ground in areas where birds are present. He never does traditional yard training.

•    Bill doesn’t have mechanical bird releasers.  He uses wild-caught pigeons that are attached by a short piece of yarn to a cardboard square. The pigeon can fly at will but not very far because of the cardboard.  In the desert, the pigeons are spooky and take flight as soon as a dog gets near.

•    Bill trains daily with an ad-hoc group of amateur trainers and dog owners. At any time, there might be three or more dogs working in the field at the same time.

•    He never talks to the dog and instead lets it learn from the birds. (I never heard him say “Whoa.”) A soft stroke and a pat on the side shows the dog it did well.

Training group

You can read more about Bill in Karoleigh Nitchman’s interviews.   The Magic Man and The Magic Man, Bill Gibbons