Grouse Champion Blue Streak (1995 – 2006)
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
• 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.
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
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.
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