New York Times talks bird dogs

The New York Times seems to have had a reporter at the National Championship in Grand Junction, Tennessee this year... and did a pretty good article introducing field trials to its readers.

New blog watching HSUS. Good, they need watching

A new blog, Humanewatch is keeping tabs on the Humane Society of the United States.  Worth a look to keep track of what the HSUS cretins are doing now. Click the link, and make up your own mind.

Thought for the day

A friend recently forwarded me the following quote from the ABC sitcom, Better off Ted. I'm not sure whether to rejoice that mainstream television has heard of birddogs or be peeved that they clearly misunderstand their sunny dispositions...

"Don't be the guy that points fingers. Nobody likes a pointer.
Even in the dog world they are seen as insufferable."

New on the blog

You may notice that there are two new contributor's names here - Will Pennington and Jared Tappero. 

Will Pennington has shown up in a couple of my posts with his two nice pointers. Will is a career naval officer and currently lives in Virginia. 

Jared Tappero is a hunter and field trailer, and professional forester who lives in Northern California. Jared hunts and trials a couple of very nice pointers. 

Welcome, Will and Jared!

The National is upon us

With the 111th running of the National Championship for All-Age dogs due to start on Monday, February 8th, at the famed Ames Plantation I wanted to let folks know about Brad Harter's series of DVDs of the event.

While I largely field-trial vizslas and exclusively, for now, in AKC trials, I did get out to the American Field's Northeastern Open Shooting Dog Championship this past October and while only able to watch a single day did get to see the brace that produced both the winner and runner-up. In short, I like watching birddogs of all shapes and sizes run hard and find birds. Even if some of them are largely white and have long tails. And while it might be a while before I can get to Ames, I wanted to get a sense of both the location and the action.

While nothing can substitute for watching a performance in person, Brad has been documenting the Nationals on film for over 20yrs. (He has also served as the trial's official reporter for several of those years, too.) And between carrying his own camera and having others strategically positioned on the course, he misses very little of the birdwork and captures a whole heck of a lot of the excitement. While editing with the benefit of hindsight can certainly help frame a great performance, it was pretty easy to see that Gary Lester's Bud (Lester's Snowatch) had put down a heck of a race -- and therefore why, in judges' minds, Bud's total performance had eclipsed that of 2006 winner, Shell Creek Coin, despite one fewer find. The interview with Gary Lester at the end is a nice tribute to both man and dog.

With many of the contenders from 2009 -- Bud, Coin, Game Maker, and Strut -- nominated to run again next week, this year's National should be an exciting one. Unless you're lucky to get there yourself, in the meantime treat yourself to 90mins on the couch and not 9 days in the saddle.

Belated congratulations

Will and Lizzie in Montana in October

A note of congratulations is due to my friend, Will Pennington, who ran his two pointers, Liz and Riley, at the Chicahominy Field Trial Assn.  US Complete trial in November. And won with both dogs, beating Aubrey Morgan's National Amateur CH Pinekone Spade in the process. Results as reported below:

Chicahominy Field Trial Assoc. 
November 22, 2009

Amateur Shooting Dog-18
1st Tailhook Lizzie               W. Pennington  W. Pennington
2nd Quinton Oak Budlight   J. Lewis            J. Lewis
3rd Pinekone Spade         A. Morgan           A. Morgan

Amateur Derby-5
1st Tailhook Riley               W. Pennington  W. Pennington
2nd Wright’s Precious Jodie  A. Wright     A. Wright

Times have changed

I doubt that you could find a gun powder company operating in downtown San Francisco today.  This ad from the Western Field - August 1903 issue. There is also a fine article about hunting quail in Alameda County by H. L Betten of Alameda, California in this issue. Courtesy of Google Books, who undoubtedly scanned it without permission of the publisher.