Other Things

A Suggestion for Field Trial Clubs

April 20, 2025 | Announcement, Other Things | Comments

The field trial sport (please do not call it a “pastime”) is under stress like never before. First run in the US in 1874, trials have survived recessions, depressions, world wars, pandemics. But in these prosperous times they show the undeniable signs of stress and decline: shrinking entries, especially in the All-Age category, and retirement of pro trainer-handlers. Read more

A New Grouse Hunter

December 9, 2024 | Grouse Hunting, Short Stories | Comments

Sam Scales had just sold his AI Startup to a consortium of Private Equity firms for $1 Billion (his share) and embraced a new-to-him sport: Ruffed Grouse Hunting. He brought to it the same intensity he had to the Startup. He was a math genius with a photographic memory and a control freak, traits that did not equip him for easy companionship. But one trip into Maine abandoned-farm country, where he saw one grouse rise and fall to the shot of his host, hooked him. Read more

I Wish

October 24, 2023 | Bird Dogs, Poetry | Comments

I wish I could ride again One more time Ole Leonard Over course two On Chinquapin See Silverwood Read more

What if?

September 28, 2023 | Bird Dogs, Poetry | Comments

What if there were no more field trials? Soon there would be only ankle warmers For only competition’s testing leads to better breeding It’s not a way-out theory It’s the truth Read more

The National Finals by Donald McCaig

May 24, 2023 | Donald McCaig, Herding Trials | Comments

June’s qualifying run was third from last in the late afternoon, hottest part of the day. When I went to the post she really wanted to go left (fixing on the road traffic) but she’s a shallower outrunner than Luke and although she’d take a redirect and go toward the sheep, I feared that once she got over that first ridge and out of sight, she’d come to the center Read more

Corrections

April 17, 2023 | Field Trial Hall of Fame, Field Trial Reports, Other Things | Comments

In the report of the 2023 National Championship appearing in the April 2023 issue of the UKC Field at page 11 (left column) the Reporter, Tessa Hughes, states: “Everyone was excited to recognize our other honoree, the well-known and extremely talented dog man, David Johnson of Lake City, Fla. Johnson is the unfailingly polite gentleman on whom Robin Gates relied for many years. He scouted champions such as Shadow Oak Bo and over 130 others to championships. He is an absolute canine genius and well-regarded by all who know him.” Read more

The Dog To Do It…continued

March 29, 2023 | Field Trials, Poetry | Comments

And you ride to his call And there stands your dog high and tight Will it stay when you flush After three usually no Your scout knows that well Was why he called point But nothing to do But flush Read more

The Dog To Do It

March 27, 2023 | Field Trials, Poetry | Comments

Where the dog goes Only where it should Deep forward and using the wind To find game at the end of a half-mile cast at the top of a hill Read more

Andy

March 17, 2023 | Great All-Age Dogs, Joe Hicks, Joe Hicks | Comments

It is not hard to find joy and sorrow joined close together in our game. In fact, they are a recurring theme in the human-canine dramas that tie together men and women and great field trial bird dogs. As I reflect on the dramas surrounding the Florida Open All-Age Championship over the twenty-seven years I reported it, none is so poignant as that of Chinquapin Andy, Florida Champion in 2009 and 2010, his trainer-handler, Joe Hicks, and his owners, Ted Baker and T. Jack Robinson. Read more

A Derby

March 10, 2023 | Bird Dogs, Short Stories | Comments

In the hearts of true all-age pointing dog devotees, nothing is so important as a talented derby. A derby is a two-year-old. What defined a talented derby: potential for greatness as an all-age, or adult, competitor. And greatness in pointing dogs involved many talents. But the one always recognized: excitement, the ability to produce it. Read more