Luke
Tur Bo
Blaze honoring the backing dog
The pictures were just some I liked, they don’t have anything to do with field trials. These are some of my experiences with the different types of field trials. It will be different for everyone.
Gailen Cooper gave me a young pointer female by the name of Angel. She was solid white with just a few small orange ticks on her ears. I was running her in a walking trial, in Kansas, the day that they named her sire, Snowatch, the National Champion on the steps of Ames Plantation. She was a derby in the walking trial and didn’t do well but I continued to work her. Gailen has horses and we ran her from horse back a couple of times.
After I got her steady to wing and shot Gailen wanted to run her in a horseback field trial at Groves Springs, Missouri. He picked the Missouri Shooting Dog Derby. There were about 20 dogs in the derby. Angel drew an afternoon brace so Gailen and I rode all of the early braces. This was the first horseback trial I had ever been to. Not a single dog found a quail in their 30 minute brace.
Then it was Angel’s turn. She was running real good and hunting the objectives. Several people who knew she was my dog said how good she looked on the ground. About 20 minutes into her 30 minute run she went on point. Gailen went to her and when he started in front a covey of quail flushed. Angel never moved. When he turned her loose she went about 75 yards and pointed again. Gailen went to her and when he walked in front another covey of quail lifted. She never moved even when he shot. When she was turned loose she ran out of sight down the course. When the judges said the time was up Gailen called her in. The gallery were congratulating Gailen and me both saying Angel had just won this trial.
We continued to ride until all of the dogs had run. One other dog found a single bird, probably from one of the coveys that Angel had pointed. It too was steady to wing and shot. After all of the dogs had run we went in to wait on the judges decision. Finally, someone said come on down to the clubhouse for the decision.
When we got to the clubhouse several people were there to hear the decision. Before the judges started a couple of people told me Angel had probably won. Then the judges decision. The dog that pointed the single quail was third. Everyone clapped for the third place dog. Then they named Angel second and a dog that hadn’t even seen a bird was the winner.
Several people told me the judges were wrong. Angel should have won the trial. You know what, I was happy for a second place. First would have been better but most of the dogs there had been run by pros. Angel looked really good, no matter what the judges said. In all fairness to the judges the dog they placed first has gone on to win several championships.
I went to a Shoot To Retrieve trial in Northeast Missouri and ran Lucky and Dolly. Dolly ran in the second brace that morning and I was late getting there. It was farther than I thought. Just as I got my dogs out of the truck they said you are up next. They put us in a blind while they hid birds. As we waited someone came by and started talking to the guy running against me. He said is that old Showboy or whatever his dogs name was. He said”yep”. The guy said, “what is he a 24 time Champion”. “Naw, he’s a 26 time Champion now,” he replied. Come to find out nearly all of the dogs were on their way to Illinois to run in the Dog Of The Year Trial. Probably not a good trial to start some dogs in. Needless to say we didn’t do well at all.
I ran Luke in a walking derby trial in eastern Kansas a few years ago. We ran in the 3rd or 4th brace. Luke pointed 2 quail and honored his brace mate when he had a non-productive. The guy we were running with looked over at me and said, “you know you are winning this trial”. To me Luke looked better than the dog I was running against but I knew I might be just a little prejudice. Luke had been steady to wing and shot on the first bird but had taken one step on the second but this was in the fall. Derbies don’t have to be steady in the fall. By the next spring they should be.
They finished the derby class and ran some shooting dogs before giving the placements on the derby so I stayed, expecting a trophy. They named the winners and Luke was not one of them. After naming the winners the judge named some dogs that he thought were really good. Luke wasn’t in this bunch either. I was telling Gailen Cooper about this trial and he knew the judge so he called him. The judge remembered Luke and said he checked back in too much. As a walking bird hunter, my dogs have to check in.
I decided I wouldn’t run any more field trials but the other day I heard about an AKC hunt test that was near my home and they always have a field across the road that you can run your dogs on quail for $25. They give out ribbons to some of the dogs. I’m not sure how they score these runs but I thought it would be good for Tur Bo. There were not many people around when I got there but I paid my money. They said if you’re ready we can go right now. Another man had come up with a good looking English setter that was about 10 months older than Tur Bo.
We turned our dogs loose and they hunted to the back then turned into the bird field. The wind was pretty strong out of the west and Tur Bo pointed looking straight into the wind. The only cover was about 10 or 15 yards in front of him. He was standing with his head up and his tail straight. I went to him and held his collar. The shooter went in front and kicked and kicked with no luck. I tapped Tur Bo’s head and he moved a few feet and went back on point. The shooter came in and kicked while I held Tur Bo. (I knew Tur Bo would move when the bird flushed and I didn’t know the shooter. I wasn’t going to take a chance on getting him shot.) Again the bird didn’t flush. Tur Bo’s brace mate honored Tur Bo both times. I released Tur Bo and his brace mate pointed with Tur Bo honoring. Again they couldn’t get a bird to flush. We released the dogs and Tur Bo pointed again. Finally, the quail was flushed but it only flew about 15 feet and landed in some tall grass. When the shooter got close the quail flew back over our head. The shooter couldn’t shoot.
We released the dogs and went about 150 yards where Tur Bo pointed again. He was pointing with high head and tail directly into the wind. When the shooter got about 15 yards in front of Tur Bo the quail flushed. He shot but missed the quail. The bird only flew about 20 yards. Tur Bo wanted the quail really bad. He was about to drag me to it when I said fetch that bird and released him. When he got near the quail it jumped about 4 feet high then went back down and Tur Bo had it. He brought it to me in a dead run and dropped it in my hand.
One of the judges came to me and asked me to leash my dog so we could see if the other dog would point. I had him repeat it but that is what he said, so I did. The other dog pointed the last bird that was put out for us. When the shooter went in front of the dog the quail flushed. The shooter was able to hit the quail and the dog retrieved. They had only released 3 quail so I released Tur Bo and we hunted back to the finish.
Each time a brace of dogs went out they added 3 quail to the field. A friend ran later in the afternoon and he said there were 7 to 10 quail flushed by his dog and it’s brace mate. If they give points for dog work Tur Bo and his brace mate were really handicapped. They had only 3 quail to work. If a dog had 5 points and then was leashed I know he would score more than Tur Bo.
The next day I went back to check on the results. When I asked one of the judges if all of the dogs had been leashed after they had pointed twice, after some thought, he said sure if there was only three birds in the field. The only time there were only 3 birds in the field was the first brace, in my opinion. Tur Bo got a third place ribbon.
I went because I could work my dog on quail not caring about a ribbon but I don’t like playing on an uneven playing field. The judges may have only judged the dogs on their first 2 birds but I doubt it. I think the 2 dogs placed ahead of him had more bird chances.
The silly thing is, if I get the chance to run again I probably will. Any time spent with the bird dogs is good time and Tur Bo didn’t know it wasn’t fair. If you see any ads on here that interest you at all please click on them. I make a few cents each click.
Tur Bo in front on point Dolly behind honoring
Luke