Wanbli, a Britt, Wins Championship

[Neil Mace]

Against 41 Pointers and Setters, Wanbli (KDel's Duncan's Soaring Eagle
(AKC)/K-DeL's Wanbli Owankiye (Am. Field)), the only Brittany entered, WON
the Michigan Woodcock Championship in the Grousewoods of Gladwin, Michigan.
Wanbli has been right there the past 3 years, pretty much the 3rd place dog
in this Championship and finally she put it all together and took home the
blue.

This championship started I'm told in 1990 and has never before been won by
a Brittany - always a "long-tail".

The Championship ran Wednesday through the last brace this morning, which
produced the Runner Up, a Pointer male. The judge told Kenny that Wanbli
"set the standard" when she ran late on Thursday, laying down a near perfect
intelligent, far reaching, forward driving race requiring an absolute
minimum of handling---and that when that same course was run again late
Friday afternoon, Wanbli's "scorch marks" were still visible. : ) Wanbli
scored a beautiful find on her Timberdoodle at about 45 minutes, looking
rigid and intense as judge and handler approached. She remained firm and
resolute as her bracemate blew in from the opposite direction and hit the
brakes as a woodcock took flight. Motionless, Wanbli watched, bug- eyed, as
the big hen went straight up and then speedily exited the aspen cutting. She
finished as strong as she started, far forward and diligently driving for
more birds. Judges were in complete agreement that they had witnessed a
performance that would be hard indeed to beat.

This capped a heck of a week for Wanbli, who in the National Brittany Open
Grouse Championship last Saturday ran a powerful race and had nine (yes,
NINE: 5 grouse and 4 woodcock!!!) finds in her hour, to take the
Championship title for the second year in a row.

Congratulations Ken and Wanbli!!"


The woods, cover dog trials have always been dominated by English setters, until rather recently not even a pointer could win. To my knowledge no other breed has ever won; not Irish, Gordon, V's, GSP, etc.

This win is significant, on par with Pacolet Cheyenne Sam's win of the Open International Shooting Dog Championship and Tigar's Jocko's win of the National Amateur Pheasant Championship, and those were over 35 years ago against much smaller fields.

I think it appropriate that for the most part Brittanys compete against Brittanys, that we close our stakes to other breeds, but every now and then it is good to see our little dogs step up with the other breeds in their areas of expertise, showing true versatility. It showcased the skill of the dog and handler with the fairness of the judges.

We all should be very proud of Ken and Wanbli, and of course the breeder, Cheryl Orange.

Neil

[ezzy333]

Great to hear that she finally won it. I'm not sure that the consistancy she has shown is just as impressive as this win.

Well written report Neil, and good commentary.

Ezzy

[kninebirddog]

It is AWESOME when a dog can go out and compete against other breeds and win

CONGRATULATIONS

[DGFavor]

Sounds like a very cool deal. Would love to go watch one of those sometime - real birds, real country, great test of bird dogs!!!

[Neil Mace]

From an e-mail, I stand corrected:

"In the 80's we won the Northeast Woodcock Championship with our Brittany
FC/AFC J.P II (Ch Hollings Pat)which is a 1 hour wild bird stake in Arcadia
RI. He also later on in his career won the Brittany Woodcock championship.
Then DC/AFC Triumphant War-Boy CD won the Maine Wild Bird Classic and was
R/U in a shooting dog championship the same year.

It takes special dogs to compete in these kind of venues and win. My hat is
off to any Brittany who can come out on top in long tail competition.

Congrats go out to all involved & keep up the good work

Linda Mc"