It appears to be a tough year for the birds in southwestern Idaho. This trial is usually a wild bird fest but this year things were much tougher. The winners did each have work on native birds with finds on pheasant, huns, and quail as well as planted chukar but native bird finds were few and far between. I don't have any pictures of the winners so just offer congratulations to Alex Mauck for his win with setter female Mauck's Lewitt, "Lew", for an outstanding job that everyone knew would be tough to beat - very, very nice in an effort any bird hunter would be proud to be part of. RU champion went to my hunting/training/trialing partner Rich Heaton, Jr. with his pointer female Idaho's Lucky Lady. Very good effort from her as well! Proud of 'em and I thank 'em for letting me tag along in their hunting, training, and trialing efforts! Huge thanks to the Robertson family for once again inviting the trialing community to their beautiful ranch and being such gracious and energetic hosts - good, good Idaho folk that bunch!
I entered a coupla dogs but was mainly there in support for my buddies that had real competitive dogs this year. When they weren't runnin', I was goofin' off driving the dog truck and taking some pictures in the downtime:
Robertson Ranch bits and pieces:
"The Morning Brace" - not a bad way to start the day:
The Dogwagon, formerly known as the Chukarmobile:
Rich Heaton, Jr. and Zane, clicking off a fast running walk through the sage:
Driving the dogtruck is a stressful job but I managed to find some time to lounge around and enjoy the views:
They are still goin' at it over there with the Pacific Northwest SD Championship followed by the Reg. 10 Amateur All Age but I had to get back home and do my real job - hope they continue to have a good trial and see some great dog work!
