The last few days the weather has been less than nice. Last weekend finished up the fall trial season for me, at the Grand Valley Field Trial Club's fall trial at Ionia. On Saturday Casper got first in the open horseback derby, and on Sunday Freddy got 2nd in the walking derby, while his dad, Elvis, got 1st in the walking shooting dog. I got out during the week and got Freddy and Coco into what I think were some of the last woodcock coming through, and also a few grouse. That pretty much wrapped up my grind time on the dogs, as I switched over to deer hunting for the next few weeks. I do hope to get out this week a couple of times yet with the dogs for one last hurrah. Last Friday, November the 7th, I shot this nice seven point with my bow at about 5:45 pm. I heard a bunch of deer coming so I got ready, and about seven does went behind me, as I was about fifteen yards inside the woods in a tree, which was facing a field with a ditch on the edge of the woods. A few seconds later, three does came in front of me with this guy following them. As he was going to pass in front of me coming from about nine o'clock, I drew back and waited, and when he got to about ten o'clock, he stopped broadside, rite behind a group of trees. So there I stood, with him looking around and sniffing, and me waiting. Eventually about five minutes later, he took a couple more steps which didn't allow for a good shot. Then a few minutes later he walked out in front of me providing a nice quartering away shot, which I double lunged him, as he took off out of the woods and across the alfalfa field, were he managed to make it a couple hundred yards. It was a great hunt and nice bow harvest.

North Dakota/UP Hunt 2008

Please Click Picture For Slideshow

3300 miles. The trip from west Michigan to North Dakota, back through the U.P. and home. What a time, good bird numbers, great dog work, and even some good shooting. Dave TerHaar and I left last Friday, the 12 of September at 2:30 in the morning and drove pretty much straight through until late Friday night, allowing us to hunt the sharptail/hun opener out west, my first time there hunting, and what a blast. Scott Berg was also out there training with one of his friends. Opening morning was great with just a little wind and some ice in the bowls. We hit some spots and also scouted for the rest of the week, while tallying a few birds along the way. The next morning we worked a shift, before eventually hitting about a 5 mile long two track while almost burying Dave's truck, eventually stumbling upon a nice looking pasture. This day belonged to Otty and Dave's 7 month old pup Sally, as we moved hundreds of birds, getting lots of good dog work and birds in the bag. The next day we were going to try for some huns, and what a blast they were. We found a nice cooley, surounded by wheat stuble on the sides, and we put Dave's Thunder dog down with my pup, Coco. Thunder broke away strong and we found him about 400 yards ahead standing out from a bush, which eventually exploded with huns. The only problem with this spot was some cows eventually tried to stampede us, and the pup. Otty and Sally also managed to have another good shift after this, landing three nice coveys of huns, where I learned the hard way, that these art tuff little damn birds. On the last covey when I shot one, and Otty retreived it, I rung its neck a few times, threw it in my pouch, and started heading towards the truck as we had our limit. About three hundred yards later my game pouch started flopping around, and a bird jumped out of the bag onto the ground. I just sort of stood there like wow, as I was heeling the dog and she tried to grab it, while it eventually stumbled to its feet and took off flying over about a 400 yard valley, while I stumbled to get my gun, and fire both triggers, hitting it once, I though darnit, now I have to walk about a quarter mile, as I marked it landing. I headed with the dog, she pointed, and the sucker was still running, so I moved her on and eventually recovered this little bugger, what a bird. Back to the house we went. The next days performance went to Ivy, as she is an 8 month old tricolor setter, and she was moving through the wayside on this 80+ degree day. She eventually swapped ends out in the open about three hundred yards in front of us and just hammered this covey of sharptails. Dave and I shot a couple of birds for her and she retreived as proud as a peacock. We fried some birds up for dinner tonight. The next morning we took Rocko out to some PLOTS land, which is walk in hunting land, and he dug up sharpies for the morning. Later that night we found a spot that looked fair, and we put Freddy down, where he pointed a couple of pheasants, which are not huntable until later in the fall. Eventully we got him into some sharptails. We also had about a three hundred acre pasture out behind the house we rented, which I took Coco, my 7 month old pup out to, and got her to point some sharptails, getting her first taste of wild bird, as Dave and I dumped a couple of birds for her. She was geeked. I also had some good hunts with Gus, my hunting dog, where he pointed many different birds. The days were all filled with a lot of dog talk and b.s. as we never ate dinner before it got dark, and saw tons of beautiful country. We also got to meet some all-age horseback trainers, which was great. It was very intriguing to hear their emphasis on handling and wild bird dogs. The week eventually drew to an end. as temps were getting up over 80 most afternoons, and the U.P. weather looked more promising. The dogs also needed a day off as well, as every dog was double shifted for 6-7 days in a row with warm temps, and long hunts. Therefore, we headed for Michigan's Upper Peninsula. We drove again pretty much straight through, and were able to get a good weekend of hunting in. The first day we went to our opening day spot, which was a week late for us this year, but still had to axe our way in as trees were blown over. Once there, we threw old-faithful down, Rocko. Last year at this spot he went on a bird finding tear, ripping off 10 grouse finds in an hour. This year was similar, with 4-5 grouse finds, and 4 woodcock finds in the first shift. What a fun dog to hunt over. It eventually warmed up to the mid 80's, so we took the afternoon off to check in, as we just sort of dumped our stuff out in the lawn at our cabin, and also made our way to town to get more groceries and eat. Later that night we went to another nice spot near the autumn olives, where Gus had 4 grouse finds, with some less than impressive shooting by yours truly; it must have been the sun that time. In the last shift before dark, I ran Freddy were he came up with a grouse, which didn't allow for a shot. The next day Thunder had numerous finds, which we were able to harvest a couple of. Scott Borgeson also had found his way up for todays hunt, with one of his friends and his friends' son. We all sort of hunted in nearby covers and had a good day, getting a nice bird harvest to accompany the dog work. The last shift of the night I took Scott's friend Damion, and his ten year old son out with Freddy, where he had 4 solid woodcock finds, with Damion's ten year old son Blake shooting one of them with his single shot .410. That night we fried up some more birds and sat around the dinner table. The next morning we hunted a little, and eventually headed home, as the dogs were pretty tired, some injured, some sore, and some relishing the beginning of a hopeful life as a bird dog.

Summer

Just a mid-summer jotting. Not much new, just trying to enjoy this beautiful summer. It hasn't been overly hot, and the rain has created quite the thick cover in the woods. Have been getting the dogs into some birds in the woods, as well as working on some planted bird work. I was at Ionia today running dogs off of the horses, which is always a fun time; I love going to Ionia, it takes you back to a different time when you get out away from everything. Also getting excited for the big trip to North Dakota next month. Casper and Freddy are my two hopeful derbies for the fall, as I have found a nice home for Woody with a family in Pennsylvania. They have fallen in love with him. Hope everyone is having a good summer, I will give more updates and pictures in the fall when hunting and trials pick up a little more.

Life has found me busy the last few weeks. Erin has been studying rediculously for her first set of boards for med-school, which she took two weeks ago, and in the meantime I packed up all of our stuff in a 24' UHAUL plus another pick-up truck load and 12' trailer. I wonder where in the hell all of this stuff comes from, but we have way more belongings than I thought, especially when you are carrying it all day in 85 degree weather. After her test we went camping in Grand Haven and Ludington for a week, which was a nice change of pace. Now we are living in Grand Rapids, and trying to get settled in. Below is a picture of Coco going nuts over the birds in the quail pen. She has been coming along nicely, and I hope to get a picture of her pointing sometime soon.
Casper has also been doing well. This is at one of the places I train during the summer.
This picture of Freddy is from earlier in the spring, but I haven't posted any of him and have not been on the computer very much since earlier in the spring so I figured I would throw this one up here.
Last week when I brought my last load of stuff to Grand Rapids, I took a break and headed over to Dave TerHaar's. I brought the puppies along and took a few pictures. I really liked this one. This is Jr., who is Freddy's brother. These are both really fun puppies to train and watch. They are both fancy and love birds. Hopefully they will have a good fall. Shep, another 1 year old dog pointing a quail.
Erin and Otty kicking back at the Grand Haven State Park. It wasn't overly warm, especially being rite on the lake, but it was nice to just relax. Otty made herself right at home.

Some grass on the beach at the Ludington State Park.

Erin, Otty, and I on the beach at the Ludington State Park. It was nice and cool with a great sunset later on. Also some neat driftwood, and last, but not least, a gorgeous sunset on the beautiful lakefront of Lake Michigan.

Early Summer 2008

It's been a while since the last post, but that's what happens when the weather gets nice. No time for indoor stuff when there is work to be done! The baby pups Coco and Daisy are having a blast. I get them out every chance I can for walks, and they both have some really nice qualities so far, with little to dislike at this point. Both are fancy, love to hunt, point, and are bird crazy. The other day Daisy pointed two quail, while Coco helped her with a divided find on the second one. They also seem to be able to handle the heat well for little ones. I have also been breaking Woody and Casper, as they both showed readiness, and have taken the process well. Woody also got third in the walking open puppy at the Kalamazoo Field Trial Club at Ionia, while Casper got second in the open walking derby with a nice race and a broke find. I plan to just keep working them on liberated birds and breaking until July 15th, when I can get back into the woods and work on wild birds and get them both ready for the fall derby season, as well as hunting season. We are tentatively planning on going to North Dakota for a little over a week in early September hunting, and then coming back through the U.P. to hunt grouse for a week or so. I have also acquired a nice little female shooting dog, Keystone's Red Rein (Otty), which is Daisy's mom. She is ball of fire to watch, and is a nice bird finder. She also has some nice trial wins on her with her previous owner, one of them being the one hour National Grouse Derby Classic with a grouse find. Freddy has also been coming along very nice showing class, drive, and is doing very well on his birds so far. My wife Erin and I are going camping next week, and we just moved to the Grand Rapids area, and are not all the way settled in yet. I have pictures to post but they are on my desktop computer which is not set up yet. Check back for them in a week or so.

Grand National Invitational Trip

Last weekend we made the trip out to Rhode Island to the Arcadia Game area for the Grand National Invitational. I went mainly to watch the trial, but hauled a pup along for the puppy classic. All in all it was a good time with quite a bit of nice dog work seen. The trial is a 3 day format in which 14 of last years top coverdogs nationally compete for the honor of being named Champion. All dogs run one hour braces the first two days, and the judges can call back however many dogs they want the third day to be named winners, in this trials case, four were callled back. It was about a 14 hour drive one way, which endured safe travels there and back. The trial was run mainly on woodcock, but one grouse was pointed one the first day. It was great to meet many new people, especially some of the people from out east who don't make it to Michigan very frequently. Dave TerHaar, whom I rode out there with had Elvis and Rocko in the trial, and both did a nice job, especially Elvis. He was superb on the ground and had a nice woodcock find on the first day, while pushing the course to the limits, yet showing up when called upon. Rocko also did a nice job, but was lost to judgement on the first day putting him out of contention to be called back. Rod Lein, a gentleman from Wisconsin also rode with us. He had a nice pointer female named Belle who was a great little bird finder. She made the callback on the third day but ran into a little bad luck. She did however find THE grouse in Rhode Island. Rod was a great guy to get to know, and we all had fun. He does a lot of hunting and only trials a few times a year, so it was quite a feat to get qualified for this event with the limited number of competitions he runs her in. The puppy classic was also a good time, even though we didn't end up placing, the dogs did a nice job against some very stiff competition. Dave ran Scott Borgeson's pup Jack, who is a littermate to my pup Woody. Both dogs were competitive, making nice forward casts with adequate races. We look forward to the rest of the spring with all of the dogs. Here is a link to the pictures I took while out there. http://s230.photobucket.com/albums/ee240/jgf_gratiot/?action=view&current=c4db72de.pbwaction=view&current=c4db72de.pbww&current=c4db72de.pbw The dog named Champion ended up being Sunkhaze Fast Break, a pointer owned and handled by Mike Flewelling from Maine. The runner up was named Quail Trap Tom, a english setter owned by Dave Hawk from Ohio and handled by Vance Butler from Michigan. The picture of my truck is how much snow we got the night we drove home, as I left it at Dave's house, and the ground was bare when we left. No fun.

The very top picture is of John Stolgitis with Bud and Dave TerHaar with Elvis. This was breaking away on day 1 after the rain had somewhat cleared. The next picture is of Dave TerHaar with Rocko on a nice woodcock find on day 2. Rocko put together a nice performance on day 2, showing the class he has always exhibited for a larger dog. The 3rd picture is Dave and Elvis getting ready to breakaway on day 2 with Ryan Frame, the videographer of the event. The next picture is Rod Lein with Electric Belle, whom I spoke of earlier, and John again with Bud. This brace was on the cemetary course, which produced quite a few birds early on. I beleive each dog had 2 clean finds and a back. The headstones shown in the picture below are of the cemetary, which had headstones dating back to the 1820's. This was quite a course to walk with this historical marker, as well as winding hills and a nice walk down along a winding creek. The next picture with the dogs running down the trail is Elvis and Bud at the breakaway. This was a fun place to watch them cut the dogs loose, as there was a grass field before the cut, so you could watch the dogs stretch out 300-400 yards in the open and dive straight into the cover. The next picture is on day three in the callback series with Mike Flewelling's female pointer Sunkhaze Maggie Mae and Rod's dog Belle. Belle is in the foreground while Maggie Mae is in the background. Judge Tom Fruchey is shown in the orange hat while Mike is off to the side. I am not sure if they considered this a divided find or not as both handlers appeared to be flushing. Both dogs eventually ran into some bad luck and were not able to finish their brace. Still an honor to have made it that far.

Up next is the Michigan trial season. I am hoping to go to Allegan this weekend for a US Complete Trial, and then the amateur classic at Gladwin. We are hoping for continued melting and for the woodcock to keep moving in. There is also still one puppy available from Scott Borgeson's litter from Kara (TerHaar's Rocko x Grouse Ridge Meg) who was bred to CH Berg Brother's Jack earlier this winter and whelped 10 pups. Kara is a very classy first year shooting dog who got 3rd in the Grand National Grouse Futurity as a derby, and also has shooting dog placements. They are now about 6 weeks old I beleive. She had 7 females and 3 males. Leave a comment or email me at frickensetters@gmail.com for contact info.

Thanks for reading, check back soon as I will post updates from all the trials attended throughout the spring.

Finally the weather has broke some, losing most of the snow around here. I have been running the dogs in the Lansing area, where the temps reached 50+ for a couple of days, and the ground is mostly bare now. When I was up home last week (Carson City area), there was still quite a bit of snow, mainly in the woods, but the fields were starting to get bare. Yesterday I found my first woodcock of the season with one of the pups, and today I found another one. Hopefully by next week we will start to see them in numbers. Thanks for checking in!

Early March training trip to Kentucky

Freddy retrieving a chukar after a nice workout and bird find. He was very happy to see bare ground, and boy does he love birds! (Pictured both above and below retreiving)
The picture below is Elvis, Freddy and Daisy's dad. Elvis is very exciting to watch. He is extremely strong and classy on the ground. Oh yeah, he looks great on birds too!

Below, Woody being worked on a bird. He is coming along quite nice. The hills gave him a good workout after watching it snow for the last couple of weeks.

Since the winter weather has continued to hold strong through the first of March, Dave TerHaar and I decided to pack up the dogs and head south. Last weekend (March 1st, 2nd, and 3rd) we headed down near Lexington, Kentucky. We were very grateful to be able to get the dogs on the ground, as they needed to get worked before our trip to Rhode Island towards the end of March for the Grand National Grouse Invitational. We left Friday during the middle of the night and were working dogs early Saturday morning. What a releif to get out of Michigan, as we saw bluebird skies the entire time, with temperatures in the 60's, reaching 73 when we left Monday afternoon. We took quail and chukar with us not expecting to find many wild birds, but to our surprise, we got into very workable numbers of grouse and woodcock. During the entire trip, I think we only went birdless on two braces, and one of them just had pups down. The terrain was very hilly with good grouse habitat throughout. This ended up working out quite well for conditioning the dogs burning up and down hills all weekend. I also felt the burn by the last day. The best part of the trip was sitting on the tailgate the last evening as it was still probably about 60 out, and watching the woodcock do their dance in the skylight, listening to them zip through the air. It almost seemed like spring, only to have reality hit the next night when we arrived home to 23 and snowbanks. We ended up using the liberated birds for the puppies. They did a nice job, and we shot them after the flush, as they looked proud as a peacock retreiving to hand. All in all it was a fun trip that was very productive for only being a long weekend. I also picked up my new pup. Her name is Daisy. She is a little tank with tons of energy. We are very excited about her.

Puppies are cute and have a mind of their own with an attention span of approximately 0.5 seconds. Daisy goes from a sock, to a backpack, to a rug, to a shoe in a matter of 30 seconds. She is just full of it, but is very loving so far. Thanks for reading!

Mid February - Burr

This winter has not been friendly to training the dogs. It has produced more snowfall than any recent winter, probably even more than the last three combined making any productive field work near impossible. This has not stopped the process of yard work. Like one man says, it's gonna take boot leather and horseshoes. Freddy, the 7 month old tricolor male here is one of my favorites rite now. He just has something about him, has a very affectionate demeanor, and is crazy for birds. He is by 2x RU/CH TerHaar's Elvis x TerHaar's Jen. From what I hear, all of the puppies in this litter are doing extremely well. This is in my backyard working on whoa.

We have had a couple of days where the snow melted some, and I was able to get some bird work in. Here is Casper on a quail, he has been doing very well on standing his birds.

Please check back frequently for updates and new pictures. I hope to do quite a bit of photgraphing this spring, along with keeping this up to date with trial results and outing reports amist anything else bird dog related. Also check back for puppy info as I am in contact with some great litters on the ground as well as planned litters.

Season Round-up 2007

While we don't typically do a lot of pheasant hunting in Michigan, Gus and Zoey did a great job handling these two young ringnecks (This picture was in the fall of 2005). I love pheasant hunting, but there are just not enough covers around to make it worth our while, so we might get out a couple times a year, but we mainly stay in the woods, as cover is abound. We are planning a North Dakota trip for the fall of 2008 before the grouse opener, so that will be a great training/hunting trip to get the pups and the rest of the gang into numerous species of wild birds while learning to handle different terrain and cover.


Field trialing is fun and requires high power dogs to do well. Many question whether people can/do hunt over their field trial dogs. This tailgate of ruffs is a reflection of these animals ability to compete on a high level, yet be gunned over any day of the week.

January 2007 Dave TerHaar had a nice repeat litter from 3x CH TerHaar's Rocko x TerHaar's Briar. Over the last few years I have become good friends with Dave, and have been privelaged to hunt over all of his dogs. I was very interested in this litter and brought home two pups.
The pups have not disappointed. Woody is the white and orange puppy in the photo to the left. He has showed a lot of motor since the get go, yet handles very well for a puppy. He placed 1st in his first ever trial, along with tallying up a total of 5 placements in the fall of 2007 - including an open derby placement and a horseback placement. He also pointed quite a few woodcock and shows great demeanor and style.

While attending the coverdogs at Gladwin over the last couple of years, I have met many great people. It is a fun venue to go to, and there is always good conversation and dog work. Scott Borgeson, another setter guy, has become a good friend and a recent neighbor. We have had many outings both hunting and training dogs, as well as socially. I am planning on getting a pup from him this spring from his Kara dog, who he is breeding to CH Berg Brothers Jack. Here is Scott on our annual Grouse Camp trip, which takes place in the northwestern part of the U.P. over the opener of grouse season. He is holding two ruffs, probably a double I had that I let him pose with to boost his esteem.

After a hot summer and lots of time spent training, the grouse season finally arrived. It was filled with many memories. We have now made it an annual trip to go to the western U.P. of Michigan, which is a dream world for the grouse enthusiast. Through the last couple of seasons I have been involved in some great relationships and seen some phenomenal dog work. My favorite was opening day 2007 at the first spot, when Dave turned Rocko loose, and he went on a ten find tear in the matter of about 50 minutes. Needless to say, that left some big shoes to fill for the rest of the trip. Dave has been a great friend and mentor to me in the field trial world; he has also placed some exceptional pups in my kennel along the way. The top picture - A U.P. ruffed grouse double with the side by side. The bottom picture - opening morning in the beautiful U.P.


Through other friendships I have formed with the likes of Ed Hart, I also became interested in the horseback game. I was able to learn a lot while training with Ed, and even made a trip down to visit at Lick Skillet Plantation in February of 2007, where he resides in the winter months. While Ed is mainly a pointer guy, he did have some nice young setters on hand. He kept insisting that I try a Hytest Setter. I was lucky enough to buy this mainly white pup from Jack Elliot of Hytest Kennels, whom my wife named Casper. Casper has shown exceptional manners on birds for a puppy, and also has good range and style. He has been to South Dakota and found plenty of birds. He has only been in a couple of trials, but placed 3rd in his first ever stake in a horseback puppy, and also 2nd in a horseback derby, standing a bird for quite some time with great intensity, a good feat for a 8 month old puppy in my book. We are looking forward to trialing him more next season. He is by the 2007 top Open All-Age setter derby Hytest Paladin bred to Hytest Star Chaser

This is Toby, the littermate to Woody. Toby is all bird dog. He shows a lot of style and intensity on game. He pointed numerous grouse for me as a puppy, allowing me to walk out in front of him for the shot, which sometimes could leave something to be desired from my end of the deal. He also did great with woodcock. Toby shows more of a hunting dog range but handles very well and is driven to find birds.

In the beginning

2007 Was my first real fall field trialing, and it started with a pretty solid group of puppies that were born that previous spring. My goal was to start with a few pups, and see which ones would make the cut, with the end goal being a dog that can compete in the Shooting Dog Circuit. Through the year I spent many hours developing each dog, getting them into the woods as often as possible on wild birds. Our target species - the ruffed grouse. In the end the gang and I were rewarded with 8 placements. This included a 2nd place in an Open Walking Shooting Dog stake, a couple of derby stakes; one being in a horseback venue, and 5 puppy placements in walking and horseback venues. The puppies all pointed many wild birds, and have made great strides in learning both cover and bird manners.