cover dogs

[springpoint]

Living in grouse and woodcock country i've started reading about coverdog or grouse trials. They sound very interesting to me and maybe something i would like to do some day. I have a couple of questions though?

It seems like setters do alot of the winning in these trials, are they just that much better grouse dog, or am i missing something?

also the setters in these trials seem small, i always thought setters were big dogs like 60 to 80lbs. But alot of the setter in these trials don't look much bigger than 30lbs. what size are these setter normaly?

Also i see pointers are run in these trials, what blood lines are generaly successful?

thanks

[solon]

The cover dog message board is a good place to read about cover dogs and grouse and woodcock trials. The trading post link at the cover dog message board is a good source of dogs and other things connected to the cover dog world that are for sale. I think those that have done the analysis have found that pointers and setters win in proportion to their entry levels. English setters are the predominant breed in the cover dog trials and pointers may run at about 20%, with an occasional Britt and maybe a Red Setter. Grouse trials are generally in northern climates, so that might be one factor for the higher level of setters being entered. Field trial setters in general are mostly in the range of 35-45 lbs for females and 40-55 for males. There are exceptions of dogs that are as big as 60 lbs, but beyond that would be rare. It is thought that the smaller dogs have greater endurance than a larger one. Cover dogs tend to be on the small size because they run in the woods were agility is a big factor and they don't have to bust cover that much. There are setters called dual dogs because they more closely resemble AKC type show setters and they run larger in size. Those strains of setter can be good grouse dogs, but they are not competitive in field trials.

There are quite a few cover dog trial winning pointers that trace to Beaver Meadow Benjamin. Ed Morgan had a web site that had a lot of resources for cover dog trialing and grouse hunting that was posted on his university server. It has recently had to move and the final details of that are being worked out. The Foster Award web site is another online resource and Ed Morgan's setter program is being relocated there.

I don't know where you live, but if near an area that has cover dog trials, your best bet would be to attend a trial or two and meet some people and see what it is all about.
SLR

[Grange]

I have attended a coverdog trial for a day and walked several braces. Although I didn't know much about them at the time and probably asked to many basic questions the people were very friendly. I hope to get second dog sometime this summer or fall and am strongly leaning toward the coverdog setters. As an avid grouse hunter I just liked the way they hunted. Range was a little farther than I'm used to, but a trialer told me that what I was watching was on the extreme side the typical range.

Ever since I've attended that trial I've been interested in those trials and have done some basic calculations on placements per breed. I went to the Foster Award site and counted the number of placed dogs per breed and compared those numbers to the number of dogs entered per breed. Now the calculations I did weren't scientific at all and I only looked at trials that had both the placements listed and the running order with the breed listed. The total number of placements strongly favored the setters, but that was because they out numbered all other breeds with pointers bringing up a distant second. When comparing placements per number of dogs in a particular breed, setters and pointers were about even with a very slight advantage to the pointers. There were also a couple placements by GSP's and Brittanies, but setters and pointers definitely dominate this venue.

I tried to attend another trial this fall, but hunting got in the way so now I hope I'll get to go to one in the spring.

[Yawallac]

Here's a Pointer pup of mine that beat a whole bunch of the furry setter types this season in MI.

He's out of Ch. Strut (All Age) on top and my Sarah (Shooting Dog) on the bottom.

Great Lake States Grouse Trial
Open Derby - 1st
Owner by Dale Herndon
Handled by Scott Chaffee