Gun Dog Forum

We will be holding our Walking Field Trial on April 11-13 at Kelley Farms in Marine on St. Croix, MN. That's in the proximately of Stillwater.

This will be a AKC Licensed trial also licensed by the NGSPA.

We will be offering the following stakes.

Open Ltd Gun Dog
Amateur Ltd Gun Dog
Open Puppy
Open gun Dog (RET)
Amateur Derby
Open Derby
Amateur Gun Dog
Amateur Puppy.

Details of the entry fees, prizes, directions, lodging etc can be found in the Premium that can be found on our club's website at this link http://www.netkennel.com/Files/115/9820 ... remium.pdf

I might have to come on up to kelly farms,alot of stakes to run a few of my dogs in,looks like a good time.

Dennis

We would be glad to have you come on over and run some dogs and have some good times.

Went through Stillwater for the first time this October. It's an incredibly charming place. Wish I had a dog home to run in the trial, I'd take the trip up there.

Best, Greg J.

Greg

Stillwater is a pretty neat place. Always kind of surprises me that some country that looks so good can actually be pretty close to an urban area.

It's one of the places that I'm keeping in the back of my mind for a summer retirement place. Of course, I'd have to live on the east side of the river...

Best, Greg J.

Greg

you want to see some neat area. Just go north of Stillwater to around Osceola and further north into the Upper St. Croix area. Really gets nice looking up that way.

Hi Chris,

Can I set up my camper on the trial grounds? The GSPC of MN walking trial will both me and Greta's first gun dog stake. I'm looking forward to it. I'm also planning on bring Noah along with me.

Terry

Terry

Not a problem, I will have my camper there also and be spending the whole weekend starting thursday night. I should be able to have my boy Tom come out for a night and day to hang with Noah.

I have only one question chris,if I run eva will you have a lap counter?
seriously,it looks like a good trial for her,lots of non retrieveing stakes,now all you need is an am walking all age stake

Dennis

I'll have to clean the dust off the lap counter we used when you ran her in the walking derby a couple of years ago....thats if she didnt wear it out.

I was at a trial once that had a walking all-age stake. Unfortunately, or fortunately I didn't stay around to watch it. Still kinda wonder how it turned out?

original mngsp wrote:Greg

you want to see some neat area. Just go north of Stillwater to around Osceola and further north into the Upper St. Croix area. Really gets nice looking up that way.

I will do that! Ideally, I'm looking for some place where I can pick up a couple of hundred acres to train on.

Best, Greg J.

Greg,
1 1/2 years ago, we moved to Houlton--3 miles east of Stillwater in Western Wisconsin. It really is an idyllic place to live. Osceola is beautiful, as is St. Croix Falls--just a few miles further north.
Are you familiar with the new St. Croix River bridge project? It had been stalled for years, but I understand the bridge design and environmental impact study were finally approved. When completed (projected 2012-2014), land values in Houlton and all areas north will skyrocket, as it will make the commute to the cities much more convenient. Just keep that in the back of your brain, if you really are serious...

Chris,
We've never attended a field trial before, but would love to see some finished dogs do their thing. Is this the sort of event spectators could attend and enjoy? Or does all of the action happen so quickly and at such great distances that it wouldn't be worthwhile?
Pardon my ignorance--and thanks!

Prairiefire

Unless you have a horse to ride in the gallery most horseback trials are tough to spectate. A walking field trial is a great place to come out and watch dogs. We are having four broke dogs stakes that would give you a nice oppurtunity to see some dogs at work, the dogs are usually hunting hard and moving pretty well but they are all expected to hold point on birds until the handler arrives and works the bird, the dog should then be STW&S.

Bring a good pair of shows and you can walk a brace or two, take a couple off and go out again. There might even be an extra horse around that you could ride in the gallery some.

prairiefire wrote:Greg,
1 1/2 years ago, we moved to Houlton--3 miles east of Stillwater in Western Wisconsin. It really is an idyllic place to live. Osceola is beautiful, as is St. Croix Falls--just a few miles further north.
Are you familiar with the new St. Croix River bridge project? It had been stalled for years, but I understand the bridge design and environmental impact study were finally approved. When completed (projected 2012-2014), land values in Houlton and all areas north will skyrocket, as it will make the commute to the cities much more convenient. Just keep that in the back of your brain, if you really are serious...
!

Bummer! I won't be looking till 2017. Oh, well.

Best, Greg J.

Thanks for the information, Chris. We'll definitely have to plan a trip over to Kelly Farms this spring.

And sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Greg. I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

Hi Chris,

I just put in my entry form for the walking trial and also sent you my GSPC of MN membership dues for the 2008 year, a little late.

I entered the Am. Gun Dog, this will be my first broke dog stake so it should be interesting to see if Greta embarrass me or if I embarrass her.

Terry

If it's anything like my world, the handler is usually the dog's biggest hindrence to success. You guys will be fine, you have done your work, you have had her around trials before, have fun, everytime down is a learning experience both for dog and handler.

Here is a couple photos of a couple of the prizes given away at the trial.

The first is just a simple old 19.2 volt cordless drill for the winner of the Amateur Limited Gun Dog.

The next is the holster for the winner of the Amatuer Gun Dog Stake. I just got this in the mail today and was really impressed. It was donated by The Bird Dog Posse and made by Kent Forbush of Snow Canyon Outfitters, http://www.snowcanyonoutfitters.com/about_us.htm I had heard what nice work he does but when I saw the holster I was sold.

Just an update. Two weeks until closing and entries are coming in nicely. I would say that 3 of the 4 broke dog stakes will be 3+ pointers, and all the juvenille stakes should be at least 2 pointers.

The closing date is Tuesday 4/8.

If you have sent in entries and havent heard from me confirming that thye made it here, they probably havent. I always confirm with a person when I recieve thier entries.

Chris,

Have you finished with the drawing for the trial?

Terry

Terry

We closed tonite and draw tommorrow at 7PM. I'll try to get out running orders tommorrow nite, but no later than Thursday AM.

Wow, tonite we drew 102 dogs for our 3-day walking field trial. Incredible numbers considering that the North Country Gordon Setter Club has 100 entries for this weekend in Forest City, IA(About 200 miles away)

The GSPCA has the NAGDC in Cameron, MO and have 40-50 entries. Plus Ft Dearborn GSPC has thier trial this weekend.

I think we just have to survive through the weather on Friday and we should be OK.

Did anyone bother to tell Loftin that this was a walking trial? I see that he has 14 dogs entered.

Yup he knew it was, when I called him after the draw he had some "kind" words about Kirk putting so darn many dogs in.

How was the weather on the 1st day of the trial? Did the grounds get much snow and or rain? We got hit hard out in Central MN.

Terry

Chris,
Any chance you might be able to tell me when you'll run Amateur Gun Dog? And how long that stake might run for? I'd love to try and catch that with the family, if I can.
I hope all is going well in spite of the weather!
Sarah

We Survived!!! I will post results within the next couple of days.

Chris, you did a fantastic job running the GSPC of Mn walking trial. I'm looking forward to next year already.

Thanks again
Terry

also do you have Larry Loftin's contact info?

Terry,

Thanks but I didn't do it by myself. We had a handful of people that worked darn hard in some terrible conditions to pull this trial off. Thanks to all the handlers that tolerated the awful conditions and made the best of a bad situation.

I didn't get to talk with you as much as I would have liked to but congrats for getting that first broke dog run under your belt as a handler.

I will PM you with Loftin's phone number.

Chris,
When will the final results from the Ionia trial which ended on 5/12/08 be posted?
Thanks,
Bill L.