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.