A Thousand Words

I like this picture. One of those thousand word shots but is a good representation of the infatuation that draws us to bird dogs. Man’s infatuation with nature and awe struck admiration for a pointing dog’s senses and abilities, abilities that we can never experience, to conquer nature with that mesmerizing control over a pinned bird. OR...... Mike could just be looking at Ted thinking, “Man what the hell is the matter with you today!” 1,000 words you can fill in!

Runners!

Short on details at the moment, more updates later. But just returned from a few weeks in WI, MN and PA and the name of the game was runners! I don’t remember so many grouse on the run as we saw in front of the dogs, mine and others. Even had woodcock on the run, one in particular I saw running before chasing it up. The dogs did an excellent job even with the running birds handling and pointing birds all the way through in each state. I think the record runner was a grouse that ran on Lacey what seemed like a 100 yards even in thick WI cover (she ended up bumping it but it was my fault, I didn’t believe her after about the 5th relocation!). And I had a brood of grouse in one cover I worked for two days that ran like rats, they were unbelievable. Not sure if this is a sign of older birds (and a bad sign indicating a low hatch) or what but it was interesting. The PA birds were awfully touchy and had to be pointed from a distance, but not sure they were quite classable as runners. So far this year in working dogs in PA, NY, WI and MN it looks like we are averaging about 4-5 birds/hr over the dogs with both grouse and woodcock counted and they have been handling the birds flawlessly. It's been a great year. I'll look at numbers later.

Also, congrats to Mike Reeves in GA and ‘Chip’ Chiappini on winning the Wolverine Derby Classic with their Torq-Lacey male pup called Charlie with three broke finds on grouse and woodcock!

Last of the George's

Not much going on this summer and much too busy doing the wrong things. Here are some pictures of latest pups out of CH Long Gone George ex CH Keystone's Red Ryder that kept us busy doing the right things. About the only significance to these pups at the moment is due to an unexpected passing these are the last pups out of George.

Keystone's Red Recession

Keystone's Red Recession

Some Good Spring News

It seems like we weren’t the only ones beset by offbeat injuries and such lately. But with the jinx going around there was still good news to be had from the field. It is getting tough to keep track of all the puppies that are spreading out across the country but here are some highlights.



For the most part a National Championship is just like any other except for the name. Even so, for some reason they seem to keep coming for the dogs. CH Peacedale Duke and Richie Frisella added a RU-CH to his laundry list by being named RU-CH at the US Complete National Amateur Shooting Dog Championship in RI in April over 33 entrants (see pic above). This makes Duke the third male setter out of Lacey to place in a National Championship stake and the 5th National Championship placement for all of them on wild and planted birds. Pretty neat stat! Bill Henke came back the week after his puppy stake accident in Marienville and got a third in the Venango derby stake with his female Keystone’s Best Bette out of Keystone’s Red Rage and Keystone’s Pale Rider. And Sig Degitz in Superior, WI continues to develop his latest Keystone’s Red Ryder – Chip’s Torquato pups around wild birds. Sig says his female Marley is an unbelievable grouse dog and she got to show it by placing 3rd in the MN derby stake with 2 nice grouse finds (as a puppy). Attached is a picture of Marley with her placement and also her brother Will pointing a woodcock (although he is not as masterful at wild birds as his sister).

The Best of Times and Worst of Times

Not sure what it is but this winter-spring has been a roller coaster. Keystone's Red Rage had a good winter in SW Georgia with Jim Tande. The highlight of which was an hour and a half hunt off horseback on purely wild quail in which he had 10 great covey finds and out birded his two pointer bracemates 10 covies to their combined 3. He came back north running and hunting as good as he ever had. Then I have never had as great a spring season working dogs in our upland covers as this one. My reliable covers were full of grouse. Every pine stand or barberry patch was full of tracks, feathers, and droppings. The dogs performed exceptional work pinning very spooky grouse in the sparse spring cover. In a month of weekends they scored about 20 grouse finds and half a dozen woodcock and very few mistakes. The plan was to judge the Ontario Grouse CH in mid March then be in good shape for the Armstrong Classic, Reg 1 Walking CH, and maybe catch one or two more. But things have imploded. Bill Henke lost what was a promising young female, Keystone's Red Rum (not Red Run as listed but an ironic name switch that did not need corrected), that was high on our future plans out of our last Torqe and Lacey litter while running in the Grand National Puppy Classic. Mickey broke his tail somehow while I was judging the Ontario CH. And now Lacey is battling an old recurring shoulder injury. The highs and lows of bird dogs are like the wind. Take each find one at a time and enjoy all you can when it is there. One thing I have learned over the years; no matter how bad it seams at times if you keep going forward the good is always around the next corner.

The Buzz at Ames

Every February it seems the bird dog world lights up with interest from pointer and setter folks as it nears time for the National Championship (All Age) at the Ames Plantation. Since the inception of the internet and message boards the fervor from setter enthustiast over the prospect of a setter winning this event goes out of control. It has been almost 40 years since a setter won this championship and I guess the tension is too much for some. In recent times there are only a few setters that annually qualify (a tough feat in itself) and have run. This year there were two. And one, Jetsetter, perhaps came closer than anyone has since 1970 to winning the title. Jetsetter is co-owned by his breeder Jim and Sheri Michaletz with Dr. Berry Win. Jet finished his three hours with a great ground effort and 3 good finds but fell short of the eventual winner pointer Lester’s Snowatch who had 4 finds. Jetsetter was sired by High Definition who is also the sire of our Montera’s Rock. So we felt a little connection to his efforts and would have been happeir than most to see him succeed. But with all this hoopla and our own little connection to the dog we also received the timely photo attached here from Tom Davis. Tom’s year old setter pup out of Chips’ Torquato and Keystone’s Red Ryder has been a terrific wild bird dog for him already and he reports she is a pretty, fluid moving animal as well. Tom travels a great deal and this past February he was in TX bird hunting and doing some research. While there Tom snapped this picture of W.C. Kirk on the tailgate with Tina. W.C. Kirk is of course the last man to walk the steps of the Ames Plantation at the conclusion of the National Championship with a setter, that being Johnny Crockett.

RU-CH Montera's Rock moves to the Box P Ranch

Bill Henke made the tough decision and sold RU-CH Montera's Rock to Bill Prestage of the Bar P Ranch in Texas. Rock will still be following the ciruit in the Keystone state each spring, on the prairies each summer, and off to the northwoods each fall on the wings of trainer Joe McCarl's truck. And Bill Henke may even be running him in amateur stakes from time to time. Not much change for Rock. And he will be assured of spending his winters each year hunting the wild quail of the Bar P Ranch in Texas with Mr. Prestage and Mr. McCarl. Good luck to them in gaining more championship placements and chasing many of the best wild birds North America has to offer each year - ruffed grouse, woodcock, sharptail grouse, and wild Texas quail! Lucky dogs!