Spring Trials

[Joe]

Anyone heading up to Four Brooks WMA for the spring trials? I've got my young setter running in the puppy class. She just made the cut, so she may be the oldest one running.  Should be alot of fun.

[Mayfly]

What are the dates and times? It may be fun to head up for the day and watch.

[Spinach]

I'd love to come up and watch for the day, let us know the schedule.

[Mayfly]

I'd love to come up and watch for the day, let us know the schedule.

We'll go together and bring 30 media kits....

[Joe]

They ran the puppies and open shooting dog today and tomorrow there will be 2 more trials. I don't think I'll be heading up tomorrow. I was glad I went. I learned a lot and I got to find out what trials were all about.

One good thing I found out is I have a great foot hunting dog, which doesn't make for a great trial dog, at least not these types of trials. They were really looking for dogs that would run big, and I mean big. They were so far out of range you would need to be on horse back to hunt with them, in fact all the judges were on horse back. My pup is a much more close working dog(30 to 50 yards)and that suits me just fine. In the grouse woods I don't want my dog hell and gone. I want her in range so I can hear the tinkle of that bell.

I stuck around to walk along for the open shooting dog and that was also a learning experience. All in all a fun day.? ?

[Spinach]

I'll take a great foot hunting dog over a great trial dog any day.

My dog is the same as yours, she has a range 0f about 20-50 yards, she works hard, retrieves, finds birds and gets along with other dogs while hunting. Thats all I ever wanted when I trained her.

My only complaint is she allows all other dogs to retrieve a downed bird before she will, she is dominant when hunting (quatering, pointing etc...) but when a bird goes down and there are 2 or more dogs, she backs off of the retrieve, even if she is the first one to the bird.