A season of 'Sporting Classics'

The fall hunting and trial season is over and it was a fun one, we could almost say a classic. Whenver we were able to get out the birds always seemed to be there and by most accounts from others it was a good overall year for birds. Hopefully the winter does not bring a lot of foul weather, we all can still get out to find more birds, and they go into the spring healthy.

The trial season ended well. We ran in the Region 2 walking CH in Petersburg, DE on what are some terrific grounds to work a walking dog. It was a very nice trial and Peacedale Duke showed his stuff for Richie Frisella with 8 great finds and a stop-to-flush in his hour to take home the championship in a very nice stake. The ideal cover of this venue is well suited for a sensible bird dog and made for a lot of fun watching Duke perform. The attached picture is from one of his finds during the trial.





The following weekend we attended the Delaware horseback event on the same grounds. On Saturday it was for the Open Horseback stake with Keystone's Red Rage and we ended up doing a little more training than trialing as it sometimes goes. But Ernie Saniga ran him in the Sunday Amateur Horseback stake and took 3rd. An interesting placement in a horseback stake for 'Mickey' with an amateur handling him for the first time.

The season ended with a phone call from a stranger asking about the dogs and referrencing an article in the Nov/Dec 2008 issue of 'Sporting Classics'. After digging up the issue we found writer Tom Davis was waxing a bit about his new female pup out of Chip's Torquato and Keystone's Red Ryder. Tom has been sending us some fantastic reports of the bird finding abilities of his pup 'Tina' throughout the fall! Attached is picture of her from the magazine article. Tina has successfully pointed and has had shot over her points sharptails, wild pheasants and even was nailing covies of wild huns for the gun in North and South Dakota at 9 months of age and less. Sounds like a true winner! Sig Degitz also has been reporting great grouse handling prowess with his littermate female 'Marley' in WI as she has been pointing and handling grouse all through the fall. With the female we still have from the litter it sounds like the females were the hit from this repeated cross.

Another Good Trip to WI in 2008

As always we had another good trip to WI. The grouse numbers seem to be holding steady. Not getting cooperative hatching seasons has kept a lid on the expected cyclic peak. We found plenty of grouse to keep us busy but not the bumper crops we are waiting to see. The woodcock did let us down as it appeared local birds had moved and the flight birds had yet to arrive during our visit and the birds may have taken a good hit this spring with foul nesting weather. Overall, Mother Nature was a little strange this year. Irregardless the people and the place never seem to let us down.

The brightest point of the trip was of course adding another champion and two more National Championship placements to the kennel operation. Keystone’s Red Rage (‘Mickey’) was named Champion in the National Amateur Grouse Championship held in Wisconsin, while his half brother Montera’s Rock (‘Rock’) was named RU-Champion for Bill Henke. It was a great entry including many champions and quite a few dogs (at least 11) finishing with clean work on grouse or woodcock. Both ‘Mickey’ and ‘Rock’ had big, forward, driving races. ‘Mickey’ finished with one sharply executed find working and pinning a running grouse to go with two forward limb finds on woodcock in one of the best performances we have witnessed on these WI grounds. ‘Rock’ had one excellent dug up grouse find with a big, mature and determined forward run as professional Joe McCarl had him ready to go after a summer on the prairies. These were two great wins that were thrilling to be a part of! And it was a clean sweep for Keystone’s Red Ryder as she is the dam of both males out of different sires (Chip’s Torquato and High Definition). It would be hard to name a setter female alive today that could top her combined win and production record. She is a three time champion, two time national champion, producing two champion setter males and one runner-up champion setter male with five championship placements that include two national championship placements. There is no doubt we would be nowhere without her.

The attached picture is RU-CH Monter's Rock being posed by reporter Mary Beth Esser and judge Rich Boumeister after being named RU in the 2008 National Amateur Grouse Championship in Wisconsin.

It's a New Season!

Fall into early winter is the time that most field trial puppy litters are planned! See 'Puppy News' to the left for information on puppies or give us a call.

So far this season it is the same as last. Dennis Vescuso continues to win with his 'Jake' puppy out of Keystone's Red Rage with 3 derby placements in September. Steve Chiappini placed his female 'Spotty' (Keystone's Red Rage ex Chip's DD) in the derby stake and John Shields placed his male in the puppy stake (Keystone's Red Rage ex Elektra) at the fall DuBois trial. Richie Frisella continues to place his Peacedale Duke puppies with his ugly dog 'Edgar' leading the way.

And the new season sure sounds like it is going to be a great one for birds! The New York Grouse CH showed an abundance of grouse. Keystone's Red Rage finished a strong hour with two grouse finds but a little rough around the edges race kept him from pressing for consideration. Attached below are pictures from Jon Fricke and Dave Terhaar on their recent trip to North Dakota and the UP of Michigan. The orange/wht female is Keystone's Red Reign (Ott), littermate to Keystone's Red Rage and Peacedale Duke, and the tri-color is Dave's pup out of 'Ott' and Terhaar's Elvis with a bucket of North Dakota sharptails.

September is about to end so we are looking forward to heading out to WI in early October for some hunting and a few trials and see old friends. Good luck in your season ahead!