Category: Other Things

Last Brace – A Memorial Day Tribute

May 25, 2025 | Henry Caruso Jr., Jim Heckert, Remembrances | Comments
Once Upon A Time, at the storied field trial grounds at Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, daylight was running out. There were two more braces to run, but only time for one. No one wanted to stay another day. What to do? The four handlers with dogs in the last two braces: Dave Grubb, George Tracy, Henry Caruso, Jim Heckert. By agreement, all four dogs were run together in a last brace. Laughter flowed throughout from handlers, judges, gallery.  Read more

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

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