3 in a row

Coco was in the winners circle again this weekend at the  inaugural Bear's Head Trial in PA, getting 2nd place in the open shooting dog. This makes them 3 for 3 in placements this season so far, having a total of 8 finds in an hour and a half on the ground in trials. Thanks to Robert for running her and having her ready for the fall, hoping they can continue the success into the fall championships.

Some Summer Wins

So far this summer has been super busy, I have not had time to do much of anything. Robert Ecker ran Coco in 2 trials last spring and offered to run her this fall since I was quite busy, and while I hesitated as I love going up and doing all the work myself, I have just not had any free time this summer, so I took him up on the offer.  She went there early july and he has been getting her ready for the fall championships, along with hitting some early trials. So far she has placed in both trials she has been in, getting 2nd in the Freeland trials, and 3rd in the Dubois Trial with a strong field of 43 shooting dogs. Both trials were in PA. Robert has taken a liking to her, and I am pretty sure she is his new house dog. Hopefully we the success continues. I will try and do a better job at keeping this updated.  Good luck to all this coming fall.

Catching up from last spring

Ok here is attempt to catch back up a little on this blog. Last spring I hardly had time to run in any trials as we were expecting twins and time was limited as well as saving up some money for our new expenses. I did run Coco in 2 trials in Gladwin, she took 2nd in the 1 hour Amateur Classic in a very strong field of dogs which ended up having I think they said 15 dogs finish with clean bird work and nearly 30 dogs entered. It was a great win for her and she was beat by a strong performance by Terhaar's Elvis who is aging but still put down a bird finding clinic. I only ran her in one other half hour stake and it snowed the night before and had bad conditions of ice in the morning brace. I then decided to send her with Rober Ecker as he was in Michigan for the Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational, and was heading to the Empire Championship and coming back in a couple weeks for Jimmy Cipp's Championship at Highland so it worked out well as I was busy with the new coming family. He ran her at Flannigan's Farm and said she put down a hell of a race and had a gorgeous grouse find, but also picked up a couple of non productive's which can happen in the spring, but still ended up being named closest to the winners of the Empire Championship. 

Amateur Classic winners Terhaar's Elvis and Runner Up Fricke N Coco

Coco in a spring workout at Ionia

And this is what has slowed my updates down. New twins with Luke, our new baby boy Liam Grant, and baby girl Reese Emerson. They are wonderful and keep me over the top busy. 

Back in action

Headed up to the Lake States summer trial this weekend. We were actually camping in Cadillac for the weekend and I got up early and headed over to Meredith for the day Saturday. I walked a few braces and the courses all looked good after the volunteers cut new courses and cleaned things up. I only entered in the Open Shooting Dog on Saturday since we were on a mini getaway camping. Coco did a nice job and had a woodcock in the last five of her brace earning her second place, her first action back since having her pups at the end of May. Dave ran Rogue and she also did a nice job racking up a few birds. I have to work next weekend so am not planning on going up for the Amateur Club. Just counting down until our trip to the U.P. for opening weekend. Also liking Mustache, the lil Elvis x Coco female that I kept, put a pigeon out for her and she pointed it for a lil bit before curiosity got the best of her.

Lil fellers

Pups at 6 weeks old

Pups are all pretty much ready for their new homes, probably next week for most, and a few are sticking around for transportation reasons. Coco is ready to get back in the woods, just needs to have some loose skin tighten up a little bit, and ready to rock and roll. Pups are all doing well on hard food and terrorizing the yard. Below the pups had reached the point of exhaustion and actually let me get a picture of them holding still.

Pups at 4 weeks

All the pups are doing great, got a round of wormer this week, and are all mowing down the food, and have been leaving momma out of there more and more. They are starting to explore life outside of their pen, and can get a little vocal in the process :)

Above: Male on left,female in front, male yawning, male with back to us, female with mark on lip, and male facing the right.

Above: Female on left, rest are all males. They say, "we are being good boss!)

Above: Male in way back left, female in front left with black tail, male next to her, female in back behind him, male in front right, male behind him, female all the way to right in front.

Above: Male on left female on right

Chow time

Male on left front facing left, female behind him with black ears, male next to her facing right, female behind him with black tail, female in front right wondering what its all about in her venture outside the box!