Gun Dog Forum

Just rolled in from completing a very busy week of trialing. First we rambled around over at the NGSPA Reg. 9 Ch. then raced home to host the Reg. 9 Amateur Shooting Dog Championship and Everton Derby Classic. Wow, what a busy few days. Thanks to the likes of Brad Smoot (Silver Sage Kennels) and Sharptailhunter as well as others it went off without a hitch and I can finally take a deep breath and relax (maybe savor Stitch's win earlier this week a little now! ) Here's a few highlights:

The Derby Classic ran Friday. Miller's Mighty Chester was a repeat winner from last year taking home another $500 for his efforts. Pretty sure he won't win again next year! :


The big event was the Reg. 9 Am. Shooting Dog. Judges Tim Fullerton and Eldon Hongo did a great job:


The grounds are probably the best shooting dog grounds around IMO. We had finds on sharptails, pheasants, and liberated chukars. We moved a few pairs of huns as well.

Breakaway of course 2:


Watering up at the road crossing on course 2:


2007 Reg. 9 Amateur Shooting Dog RU Champion, Lone Mountain Reliant, owned and handled by John Mandel, pictured with scout Pat Lockhart at the breakaway:


2007 Region 9 Amateur Shooting Dog Champion, Idaho's Lucky Strike, pictured with the judges, owner/handler Rich Heaton with his new SxS 20ga. DeHaan shotgun and posed up by myself as I was fortunate to tag along as the scout. I gotta say that "Ben" had one of the coolest sharptail finds I've ever seen in my life. Huge limb find, nose to the sky in a trance as Eldon called it. I'll never forget it and glad to be a part of it:

Congrats to all those that had placements this week and this season good luck with those nice dogs in the future. I would like to second Doug's comment on what great ground we were able to run on and thank all who helped out. Especially the judges for all the hours they put in the saddle and the landowners that make it all possible. I for one am ready to sit back and take it easy for a while. Its time to start the honey do's and break a dog so I can start all over again this fall. Thanks to all that have worked so hard this spring to put on the trials and have a great summer.

Doug

You do us all a Favor by submitting the real good pictures and stuff. Thanks for all that you do.

Pepper

DGFavor wrote:it went off without a hitch and I can finally take a deep breath and relax

You deserve a big fat break. I know a ton of people came up and told me how well they liked the trial. I think you did a stellar job putting it all together! Not too shabby of a job scouting either, Rich has gotta be happy to have a friend like you.

Well done all Again it was a real pleasure to meet all you guys and watch you handle and scout dogs. I learned allot but still havent learned enough.

See y'all in the fall

Thanks Robbi! Yah, it's fun to be in a winning effort. Rich did a super job scouting for me over at Milepost 9 so I was glad to be able to contribute a little to their winning effort. Not much bigger thrill for a scout than to find that dog standing out on a limb like that. He had another cool, deep in the country find on a pheasant that the bracemates scout found him and hollered for us. That scout was the owner/handler of the dog that ended up being RU. Great sportsmanship - hope we can repay the favor someday!