Belle’s runner-up win at the 2007 Minnesota Grouse Dog Championship
CH Houston’s Belle was whelped in April 2001 by Paul Hauge of Centuria, Wisconsin. Paul used frozen semen from Houston, his favorite gundog, on a line-bred Tekoa Mountain Sunrise female he owned, Forest Ridge Jewel. Of that litter, only Belle had an opportunity in field trials. Belle epitomized the qualities of the Houston dogs—smooth, easy gait, lofty style on point, strong bird-finding ability and natural backing.
I first saw Belle at Paul’s farm when she was a one-year-old. We were working some of his young dogs and as he took Belle out, he smiled and said, “You’ll like this one.” He was right.
That summer I took Belle to our prairie camp in North Dakota. She looked beautiful running in the pastures and alfalfa fields and found more than her share of birds. Out there, I learned of Belle’s uncanny ability to know which direction I was headed and to always show to the front. She took in a lot of ground on the prairie but always wanted to hunt for me.
She adapted easily to the grouse woods and even though she had more speed and range than was really necessary, she used it to her advantage.
Belle spent the winter of 2002-2003 with trainer Roger Buddin of Big Country Kennel in Texas. With Roger’s skill and patience, she learned to handle bobwhites and also matured considerably. That spring, she placed in every derby stake and won the 2003 MN/WI Cover Dog Derby of the Year Award.
On her final derby placement, I accepted the purse and officially became a professional handler.
Belle as a field trial champion
A young Belle in North Dakota (Chris Mathan photo)
Belle came of age in the fall of 2005 and for the ensuing three years, was among the top point-earning grouse trial dogs in the country. She placed first in back-to-back Wisconsin Cover Dog and Minnesota Grouse Dog Championships. The following spring, she won runner-up in the Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational Championship and won the MN/WI Cover Shooting Dog of the Year Award. In 2006, she was runner-up in both the Minnesota Grouse Dog and the Lake States Grouse Dog Championships. Her final win was in the fall of 2007 when, again, she was runner-up at the Minnesota Grouse Dog Championship.
No other dog has placed in the Minnesota Grouse Dog Championship three times. She finished her career with two championships and four runner-up championships.
Belle: Highlights and lowlights
• Veteran Minnesota grouse trialers still mention Belle’s win of an open derby stake. She had a blistering, mature race and a scouted, stone-cold-broke grouse find on a part of the course that hasn’t seen a grouse since.
• I only lost Belle once at a field trial. During a raging thunderstorm and downpour at the Lake State Grouse Championship, she became lost. We found her 20 minutes later, running the road and looking for me.
• Belle won the Namekagon Sharptail Classic run from horseback in 2005 and placed in it for the following three years.
• I ran her two times in the National Open Prairie Chicken Shooting Dog Championship held near Buena Vista, Wisconsin. After her performances in 2005, one of the judges, Hall-of-Fame-handler Freddie Epp, rode up to me and drawled, “Your dog ran an ideal shooting dog race and, with a bird, she could have been a champion.”
• In 2007, Belle was invited to the Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational Championship due to her runner-up placement in the trial the previous year. She began her first brace with a beautiful woodcock find and, true to her style, was tearing up the course in search of birds. A bit later, we found her on point, to the front and right of the course and in full view of judges, marshalls and gallery. She looked magnificent—strong, confident and lofty. As a judge and I walked in to flush, the grouse blew out low over Belle’s head and, to my disbelief and chagrin, she broke. Like a puppy, she chased that bird through the gallery and right past wide-eyed, speechless Paul. It was heart wrenching at the time, but today, it brings a smile and a tear.
Belle as a dam
Belle and her 2008 litter
Belle was bred five times and all to different sires as Paul and I planned the best matches. Most of her puppies were sold to bird hunters, where they have done extremely well, but several are campaigned and with much success.
2005: Gusty Blue
Paul kept a tri-color female, Houston’s Belle’s Choice, that I trained and competed with until about four years-of-age. Choice placed fourth in the Grand National Puppy Classic and was named first reserve dog in the Grand National Grouse Futurity, both held in Marienville, Pennsylvania. Choice won a good-sized shooting dog stake as a derby and had several grouse trial placements before being sold to another client for his hunting string.
2007: Blue Shaquille
Two of these puppies were trialed and both garnered placements in horseback AKC and grouse trials.
2008: CH Can’t Go Wrong
This breeding produced two outstanding field trial dogs. Ridge Creek Cody placed in the Quail Futurity and was the recipient of the 2010 Bill Conlin Setter Shooting Dog Derby. Houston’s Blackjack placed in horseback derby stakes and all-age competition. Two other litter brothers competed and won placements in grouse and walking field trials.
2009: CH Magic’s Rocky Belleboa
Four puppies went on to be field trial winners—three in grouse trials and one in horseback stakes.
2010: Northwoods Blue Ox
Her final litter produced only three puppies. While these are still quite young, Houston’s Miss Liddy, placed in a puppy stake and another, Merimac’s Blu Monday, shows great promise.
While her passing leaves a void that will never be filled, we have many of her progeny in our kennel, as does Paul. Her daughter, Houston’s Belle’s Choice, is an outstanding producer herself. Three of Choice’s progeny dominated the grouse trial derby stakes this past spring and one of them, Northwoods Chardonnay, won the 2011 MN/WI Cover Dog Derby of the Year Award. Every breeding female we have in the kennel traces back to Belle and we are especially excited about our breeding of Chardonnay to Houston’s Blackjack. This litter will have three crosses to Houston and two are through Belle.
Finally…
Limit of grouse for client courtesy of Belle!
Hall-of-Fame handler and co-developer of the famous Smith setters Harold Ray judged the 2006 Grand National Grouse Championship in Marienville where Belle and 73 others competed. When interviewed after the trial he named Belle as one of the select dogs he would love to have in his horseback shooting dog string. He said, “These dogs could go anywhere I run…The good ones will do good anywhere they run.”
Harold Ray was right. Belle won on the prairies of the Midwest and in the grouse woods of the Lake States and over the hills of Pennsylvania. She pointed grouse after grouse after grouse for our guiding clients. And better than all of that, she continued a legacy that will be enjoyed for many, many years.
Thank you, Paul, for giving me the opportunity to work with Belle.
Thank you, Belle. May the wind always be in your face and the birds plentiful.
Jerry and I are very sad to report that Paul Hauge had to make a heart-wrenching decision about Belle last week. She was diagnosed with painful and fast-spreading bone cancer in her rear legs. Paul laid her to rest on Thursday, April 28. She was 10 years old.
Belle was a 2x CH/4x RU-CH, all on grouse and woodcock and in championship venues in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In addition, she was Minnesota/Wisconsin Derby of the Year in 2003 and Minnesota/Wisconsin Shooting Dog of the Year in 2005.
2007 RU-CH Minnesota Grouse Championship
2006 RU-CH Minnesota Grouse Championship
RU-CH Lakes State Grouse Championship
RU-CH Grand National Grouse & Woodcock Invitational
2005 CH Minnesota Grouse Championship
CH Wisconsin Cover Dog Championship
Belle was bred and owned by Paul but Jerry and I first got her as a one-year-old to begin her training and development. Fortunately, Jerry and Paul had a mutual commitment to her success because, essentially, we shared her. Paul let us have her with us almost as much as she lived with him.
Belle leaves a huge hole in our kennel…..but also what a legacy. As we look up and down our runs, Belle’s blood is everywhere. And we’re grateful for that.
We share Paul’s sorrow and loss…..but we will never forget her…..CH Houston’s Belle.
Most of the time, Jerry and I called him Dasher. Sometimes it was Dash or Our Dash or, if he did something particularly annoying or naughty, Jerry called him Your Dash.
Physically, Dasher was a specimen. He was liver-and-white with a gorgeous, square muzzle and an even mask. Dasher weighed a solid 58 pounds—the biggest of our bird dogs. He was beautiful in motion. He moved with the strength and power of a thoroughbred but was graceful and light on his feet. Dasher was enjoyable to watch run—not only for his style but because he always seemed to be having so much fun.
Dasher was intelligent, too, and intuitive and his large, expressive eyes seemed all-knowing. He had his quirks and oddities, like all dogs. We’ll always remember his jerky motion when he noisily lapped water from the water bucket.
Dasher was almost 14 years old and had lived a happy and productive life. For almost two months, he’d been ill with a failing kidney and a fist-sized tumor on his spleen. Like so many proud, strong and stoic dogs we’ve owned before, Dasher would rally from a couple of bad days to eat well, grab a chew toy and trot happily outside for his short walks.
An uncanny Christmas evening
Dasher had endured a tough Christmas day. Food didn’t appeal to him and I couldn’t tempt him with canned dog food, cooked meat or even holiday dog treats. It was difficult for him to get up and go outside, notwithstanding the cold weather. We stoked up the fire and left him to sleep on his thick bed in front of our wood-burning stove.
Not two hours later, Dasher had shuffled to our bedroom door—something he had never done—made enough noise to wake us up and then, because he was so weak, lay down in the hall.
Jerry and I leapt out of bed and carried him back to his bed in front of the fireplace. We brought blankets and pillows. I curled up with Dasher on his bed and Jerry slept beside us on the couch.
Dasher died peacefully the next day.
Dasher’s pedigree
Dasher was out of our first-ever grouse champion, Dance Smartly (Dancer), and a dog campaigned by Jim Tande, CH Brook’s Elhew Ranger. Among his littermates were CH Sidelock’s Rogue Trader, owned by Mitch Stapley from Michigan and RU-CH Dancing Queen, a female that produced Frank LaNasa’s CH Centerpiece, a six-time champion/two-time runner-up champion.
We kept Dasher because he was evenly marked like his dam and seemed most like her in temperament and ability. Just for fun, we continued the reindeer-naming theme.
My Memories
• When he was a puppy and being worked with the check cord, he’d pick up the end of it and run around with it in his mouth. It was “so cute” but was he really “so smart” because he knew that if he had the end I couldn’t grab it?
• Dasher had a superior nose. Jerry lost a glove one day while we were working dogs. The next day, just by chance, we worked eight-month-old Dasher on the same trail. He found that glove and proudly bounded by us with it in his mouth.
• He loved heat. On a hot summer day, he would lie in front of our south-facing glass door…utterly content.
• Dasher could leap. The fence around our pasture was 5’ high. Instead of waiting for me to open the gate, he raced around the corner of the garage and took that fence in full stride—gracefully launching himself off the ground and clearing the top by several inches.
• He was a morning dog and earned the name Mr. Perky. We never had to wake him up or prod him to go out. He was always sitting up straight with ears pricked and an eager expression in his eyes.
• Dasher chewed his way through hundreds of dollars of dog beds. I bought beds from L.L. Bean, Orvis, Cabela’s and Fleet Farm. Finally, last fall, I succumbed to the grandest of beds, a Mud River Homebase. This thing is gorgeous! It is made from 6”-high memory foam and is extremely comfortable. Plus, it’s a whopping 43” long x 30” wide. Dasher loved his bed, guarded it and rarely shared it. Forever it will be known as “Dasher’s bed.”
Jerry’s memories
• Dasher had an outstanding nose and was a natural at finding and pointing ruffed grouse, even at a young age. One day I was working him with two other year-old puppies. One by one, the other two came out to the logging trail and hunted on ahead of me. Dash was the last one to catch up. When he was about 75 yards ahead of me, on the same trail the other pups had just gone down, he stopped, turned his head slightly and pointed. I walked up and a grouse flushed noisily and Dash was off in hot pursuit!
• I remember well (so does Betsy) the day he beat his kennelmate, CH Blue Streak, in a spring grouse trial when he was three years old and Streak was in her prime.
• Dash had endless stamina and, amazingly, kept himself in excellent shape without any real conditioning.
• Dash was a member of the guiding team on the day I clocked the highest flush count of my life. I ran him in the middle of the day and he found as many grouse as those that were down during the prime morning and evening hours. When Dash pinned a grouse, we’d follow the beeper. The hunters likened him to a hound—follow the dog to the treed game!
Dasher’s legacy
Dasher was bred just handful of times but left outstanding progeny. Jason Gooding at Goodgoing Kennels bred his female, Moxie, to Dasher twice. Out of that came Goodgoing Hannah Montana, a field trial dog handled by Brett Edstrom, and fabulous hunting dogs owned by Todd Gatz of Ely and Wayne Grayson of Mississippi. Jerry and I have an attractive orange-and-white female, Prancer (remember the reindeer thing?), from a breeding to Fate, Mark Fouts’ extremely talented grouse dog. We plan to breed Prancer to CH Westfall’s Black Ice this year so we’ll have grand-Dashers. (How about a Vixen or a Blitzen?)
Finally…
Jane, my sister-in-law, sent a kind note with the perfect sentiment: kindred spirit. To some it might seem odd that a dog and a woman could be kindred spirits but that, in a nutshell, is how I feel about Dasher.
Experienced field-trial people have said, “Give a dog a name to live up to.” Betsy and I can certainly vouch for its truth. We named a spirited, feisty, black-and-white setter female Blue Streak.
Streak was a 35-lb. bird dog that lived for the hunt. She had endless stamina and an uncommon level of focus when hunting. She was sure and intense on point and no cover, from Minnesota and the Dakotas to Pennsylvania and Texas, ever deterred her. She was calm in the house but a whirlwind in the field. She was a fierce trial competitor and an outstanding grouse hunting dog.
Streak’s breeding
Blue Streak was whelped in our first litter in June 1995 out of Spring Garden Tollway (Charlie) and Finder’s Keeper (Sparks). The litter contained five males and three females including future grouse champion Blue Smoke and the outstanding Oklahoma quail dog, Colonel. Five developed parvovirus at five weeks but all survived without ill effects. Streak was the smallest in the litter and, early on, we nick-named her “Little.” We tried several times to change it but nothing else seemed to stick. Little it was.
We were neophytes in dog breeding but felt we had a unique nick with Charlie and Sparks—both out of Jack LeClair’s Spring Garden Kennel. Charlie was beautifully conformed and it clearly showed in his stamina and strength. He was fast, also, and could run like the wind. In fact, to this day, he was as much dog as I have owned and it took me several years to get him under control. While hunting grouse in northern Minnesota one fall, a friend asked if I’d ever hunted grouse in Canada. I said, “No, but I think Charlie has!”
Sparks was a medium-sized, chestnut-and-white female that was an outstanding wild bird dog with excellent instincts around game.
Early Years Streak never acted like a carefree puppy. When Betsy and I took the litter out for romps in the woods, she was serious and hunted with focus and determination. This continued as she matured and, ultimately, she pursued anything—birds, rabbits and deer. Deer became her bane. Streak chased so much, so far and for so long that she became lost, occasionally even, overnight. Her record was three days and three nights in Michigan when I lost her at the Lakes States Grouse Championship.
Due to this deer-chasing proclivity, there was a three-year gap between Streak’s last derby placement and her first win as a shooting dog. She and I worked hard and, finally, in the spring of 2000, it started to pay off and Streak began the first of her two “streaks.”
2000
CH Blue Streak and Jerry, 2000
• Won the Region 19 Walking Shooting Dog Championship (30 entries)
• Placed in the next five shooting dog stakes
Streak’s second “streak” was even more impressive. We entered her in six championships and she placed in five—an incredible series of wins. Consequently, she earned several prestigious awards.
2001
Streak earned an invitation to the 2001 Grand National Grouse & Woodcock Invitational Championship. Betsy and I traveled to Marienville, Pennsylvania, where, over the course of three exciting days, she went head-to-head with the best grouse dogs in the country, including three-time-Invitational winner, CH Centerfold Rose. Streak and Rose were the only two dogs in the call-back on the final day. When the dust settled, Rose was named champion and the runner-up was Streak.
• Runner-up Grand National Grouse & Woodcock Invitational
• Runner-up in the National Amateur Grouse Championship
• Won the Minnesota Grouse Dog Championship
• Won the Wisconsin Cover Dog Championship
• Won the Pennsylvania Grouse Championship (80-dog entry)
2002
• Won Michael Seminatore English Setter Award
• Won William Harnden Foster Award
• Minnesota/Wisconsin Cover Shooting Dog of the Year
• Won Minnesota Grouse Dog Championship
2003
• Several local field trials
• Minnesota/Wisconsin Cover Shooting Dog of the Year
Streak was then eight years-of-age and instead of a heavy field-trial schedule, I hunted with her and used her in our guide string. At the hunting lodge, she is now famous for leading me and their guests on some spectacular hunts into heretofore unknown territory.
Blue Streak and Jerry, 2006
Her final competition
Something happened during the summer of 2005 when I was, as usual, out on the prairie working dogs and training them for the fall field trial and hunting season. Streak had been in semi-retirement but, out on those alfalfa fields and in those pastures, she ran and hunted at a high level, beating most of her younger brace mates. I thought, “She could still win the Grand National Grouse Championship!”
The 2005 running was held at the Gladwin grounds near Prudenville, Michigan, and Streak and I made the trip. The judges were David Grub, veteran trainer and Bird Dog Hall of Fame member, and Rob Frame, a competitor and judge of many grouse championships.
Streak ran in the first brace on the first day of the running. She put down a savvy, hard-hunting, forward race and had two grouse finds and one woodcock find. At the age of 10, Streak was named Runner-up Champion over a field of 81 younger entries.
2005
• Runner-up Grand National Grouse Championship
Less than a month later, I took Streak to Texas. She hunted but with little enthusiasm and didn’t eat well. A diagnosis revealed an inoperable tumor located in her chest cavity between the heart and lungs. She died in March 2006.
Streak’s record
Streak was a 4X CH/4X R-U CH and finished her field trial career with 22 placements, all on grouse and woodcock.
• four championships
• four runner-up championships
• two classic wins
• three 1st, two 2nd and three 3rd place shooting dog placements
• one 1st, two 2nd and one 3rd place derby placements
Streak’s legacy
CH Blue Streak
We only bred Streak twice but she left us a legacy. She produced CH Bobby Blue (owned and handled by Bob Saari), winner of the Minnesota Grouse Dog Championship and a powerful competitor, when bred to CH First Rate. We have her daughter, Blue Silk, Bobby’s littermate, and through Silk we have sons, Blue Shaquille and Northwoods Blue Ox. In addition, Blue Blossom (Tina) was whelped from Streak’s breeding to CH Grouse Hollow Gus. Tina was an excellent grouse dog and, in turn, whelped many talented grouse dogs.
Betsy and I are now whelping litters that have Streak as a great-great-grand-dam. We will always be on the lookout for a competitive, fearless, black-and-white puppy…..that just might also be small in size.
I’m Houston’s Image, call name Jake, was a 45-pound, tri-color English setter with a beautiful blocky head and square build. He naturally backed and retrieved and was an outstanding wild bird dog. Jake was stylish in motion and would take your breath away on point with his lofty pose.
Jake was bred by Paul Hauge out of his stud, Houston, and a double-granddaughter of CH Destinaire.
Jake
spent his early years as a guide dog on a hunting preserve in
Wisconsin. The first time I saw Jake, he was being worked with two young
dogs. Jake went on point and, for a brief time, the young dogs backed
him. Eventually they went in and busted his birds and, through it all,
Jake stood like a brick! During his tenure at the preserve he had
hundreds of birds killed over him.
Paul bought Jake and
sent him to us as a field-trial prospect. Jake could definitely find and
point wilds birds but one major issue became apparent. At the game
farm, he was basically followed as he went from bird to bird. In a field
trial, however, he had to handle to the course. He never overcame the
problem and it eventually eliminated him from competition.
In
the meantime, though, I had started using Jake on guided grouse hunts
and Texas quail hunts. He was a bit difficult in the grouse woods—he
could find grouse and stay on point for a long time, but the challenge
was to find Jake on point! He was awesome on Texas quail. He went from
covey to covey and pointed like a bull. One memorable evening hunt, Jake
pointed 12 wild coveys!
Jake was bred sparingly—probably
to fewer than five dams—and produced very nice dogs. We bred Blue Silk
to him early in 2006 and that litter of eight puppies turned out to be
exceptional. We worked six of them, including three females, Satin From
Silk, Blue Spirit and I’m Blue Gert. All three have been successfully
field trialed and have garnered placements in puppy, derby and shooting
dog stakes. In fact, I’m Blue Gert won the Region 19 Amateur Walking
Shooting Dog Championship at 29 months of age.
Even
though not widely known, Jake possessed extremely valuable genetic
traits to pass on to future generations. We are grateful for his
contribution to our bloodlines.
I had always dreamed of owning a classic grouse dog—like the ones in the old paintings. It would be an even-masked, tri-color setter male with a blocky build. He would be big and powerful with a square head and deep brown eyes. He would be a strong bird finder and would naturally back and retrieve.
My dream came true with Blue Chief.
Chief was whelped on a fitting day in September 1996—the grouse hunting opener. Since his dam, Finder’s Keeper, seemed a little more distressed than usual before I went to bed, I got up and checked every two hours. At 4 a.m., Annie, a pointer who was kenneled next to Keeper, was barking at a tiny, even-marked male puppy that had wriggled into her run. I quickly placed him in the heated whelping nest and Keeper promptly took over.
From that auspicious beginning, Chief matured into one of the finest grouse dogs I’ve ever owned. He had uncanny, raw, bird-finding talent. He was one of those dogs that made finding and pointing grouse look so easy that you wonder why other dogs struggle with it. Chief always hunted with a strong, smooth stride and a high head.
Chief was never a field trial champion—perhaps due in part that he was always competing against other outstanding dogs from our kennel—his litter sister, CH A Rolling Stone and his two half-siblings, CH Blue Smoke and CH Blue Streak. He was named closest to the winner in several championships, including the Grand National Grouse Championship. As befitted his natural talent, Chief found birds in almost every trial, whether in Minnesota, Michigan or Pennsylvania. Perhaps his finest shows included two nine-find performances at the Wisconsin Cover Dog Championship.
Chief also had the amazing and uncommon knack to pass his natural abilities to his progeny. Litter after litter of “Chief Puppies” produced excellent hunting dogs, and given the opportunity, field trial competitors. Some of his offspring include CH Regal Blue, RU-CH Neil’s First Rate, RU-CH Governor Sam Houston that, along with Slate Brook Ford, won the prestigious Pennsylvania One-Hour Derby Classic. Most puppies matured into exceptional hunting dogs, though, and not a fall goes by that I don’t hear from several happy owners about hunts over their “Chief Puppies.”
I have many fabulous memories of Chief, such as the day a client apparently missed a nicely pointed woodcock. Ten minutes later, as Chief was crossing the path, I noticed something different about his muzzle and called him in. He had tucked that woodcock into his mouth while continuing to hunt. When he gave the bird to me it was in perfect condition, although a little soggy.
Another occasion he was running in the National Amateur Grouse Championship in Marienville, Pennsylvania. Birds were hard to find and near the end of his hour he pointed in a good looking location. As the judge and I walked in to flush, the gallery started yelling, “Bear, bear!” I never did see or hear the bear, but apparently Chief and the judge did as both took off in opposite directions as fast as they could.
Chief made everything easy for me. Almost without effort, he found and pointed grouse. He naturally backed and retrieved with a soft mouth. He hunted hard and wide, yet handled kindly. He had a sweet disposition and almost never barked. He easily bred many dams and sired almost 50 litters.
Near the end, he was happily running around the kennel yard until about a week before his death. But his health declined rapidly due to a fast-growing tumor and, once again, Chief made the final decision easy.
Houston was an extraordinary gun dog owned by Dr. Paul Hauge of Centuria, Wisconsin. He possessed all the trademarks of a Hauge dog: strong bird finder, extreme loftiness on point and a smooth, effortless gait.
Houston was an English setter with a solid white body and a tri-color patch on the right side of his head. He weighed about 48 pounds and was physically strong with a solid build, medium leg, medium coupling and a blocky head. He naturally backed and retrieved.
Leroy Peterson had a nice female called Summer and Smoke. She was a
daughter of CH Northern Zephyr Smoke and a dam that was a mix of
Crockett, Sam L and Wonsover bloodlines. Spring Garden Streak was a
male owned by Jack LeClair of Spring Garden Kennel. Streak’s mother was
a double-granddaughter of Wonsover Smokey Rebel, an Illinois shooting
dog and son of the famous Grouse Ridge Smokey. Streak’s sire was bred
back to National Champion Mississippi Zev. Leroy chose Spring Garden
Streak to sire a litter to Summer And Smoke. Of that litter of five
puppies came Houston.
The first setter we owned, Spring
Garden Tollway, was by Spring Garden Carrie, a litter sister to Houston
and owned by Jack LeClair. I had the pleasure of hunting Texas
bobwhites with Jack and Carrie in the late 1980s. We were also
fortunate enough to hunt wild birds over other Houston littermates,
including Jay Johnson’s BB, Dave Lunn’s Spot and Bob Glaser’s Holly.
They were all hard-hunting, tough, independent bird finders with that
characteristic easy gait and lofty pointing posture. All were setters
with which you could be firm. They could take training and just get
better and better.
Houston was bred sparingly and mostly
to local hunting dogs. Not until many years after his death did his
true producing capabilities become apparent.
Before
Houston’s death, Dr. Hauge had the foresight to freeze Houston’s semen.
Thus far, every litter by his frozen semen has produced field trial
winners. One of his first litters with Forest Ridge Jewel produced 2x
CH/4x RU-CH Houston’s Belle. A 2006 recent repeat breeding with Forest
Ridge Jewel produced derby winners Fireside Blue Zephyr and Fireside
Fleetwood. Another breeding to I’m Jet Setter produced I’m Houston’s
Image, both a winner and producer of field trial winners.
Another frozen semen litter out of Blue Silk, produced Blue Shaquille and Houston Blues, both field trial winners.
There
is a theory that bird dogs are improving over time and that using
frozen semen from dogs long gone is counterproductive. That today’s
dogs are different, possibly, but to say we can’t gain something from
the past, I disagree. At the 2005 Grand National Grouse Championship in
Pennsylvania, Blue Shaquille, then two years old, delivered a sterling
effort. Judge Harold Ray approached me after the brace to ask about
Shaq’s breeding and added this efficacious comment, “Shaquille runs and
points like dogs I saw in Pennsylvania 40 years ago.”
While October is usually our favorite month, it was bittersweet this year as Blue Smoke was laid to rest. He was diagnosed with several lung tumors in late August and hung on like a true champion until the pain was too great to bear.
JR, to those who knew him, was whelped in our very first litter out
of two dogs we owned, Spring Garden Tollway and Finder’s Keeper. At six
weeks of age, he didn’t look well and had a slightly bloody diarrhea.
We took him to the vet where he was diagnosed with parvovirus…..we were
shocked! He had an extended stay at the vet with intravenous fluids and
other treatments, while the rest of the litter was quarantined and
given medications. (We are grateful that we didn’t lose a single
puppy.) When JR arrived home, he recuperated in the house with us for
several days and Betsy grew very fond of him.
JR had his
work cut out for him in field trials as his main competition was his
sister, CH. Blue Streak, who lived in the next kennel. However, compete
he did. In 2000 he won the Minnesota Grouse Dog Championship with
Sherry Ebert judging. The following spring he won the Pennsylvania All
Age with 50 entries and later that week was named reserve dog at the
2001 Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational. He was also
runner-up for the 2001 Minnesota-Wisconsin Shooting Dog of the year,
being slightly edged out by his half-sister, CH. A Rolling Stone.
In
summer 2001 he started to limp on his right front leg and his ankle
swelled. The veterinary diagnosis indicated calcium buildup and
arthritis of his ankle caused by wear and tear. Even with this injury
he was named day dog on the first day of the 2002 Grand National Grouse
and Woodcock Invitational and went on to compete the final day.
After
the 2002 season we ran him sparingly in field trials and hunted over
him only for short periods of time. He became our camp dog on the North
Dakota prairie and enjoyed his time protecting our camp from strangers.
He
was bred selectively, but one of his first litters produced Milk Run
Jessi who won the 200x Minnesota Wisconsin Derby of the year. We bred
our dog, Blue Chief, to Jessi and to her sister. Several nice dogs from
those bloodlines are still in our kennel today.
JR was a
bull on his birds and was as lofty and intense as they come with a poker
straight tail and elevated head. He never went around anything if he
thought there was a bird straight through it. He always gave 110% in
whatever he did and was forever trying to anticipate what I wanted him
to do. Sometimes he was right and others, well, he was close most of
the time!
We have a family photo of JR, his sister Streak
and dam Keeper, all three backing Tollway. Now they are all hunting
together again in a place where the temperature is always in the 40s,
the sky is slightly overcast and all the birds sit tight to be
pointed—only this time the others might be backing JR!
