1st “Spring” trial for 2023 is in the books. It being Oklahoma and all, spring is a relative term. 28 degrees at 8 am.? Huh. After the sun comes up it will warm up surely. Nope. That wind did kick up though, to a steady 10-15 mph. What does that do to the wind chill? It makes it damn cold is what it makes it.

Well, if you are a bird dog and are covering that field with your nose in the air, or the handler trying to keep up, you stay warm. Your nose still runs but you are staying warm, the judges, not so much.

As you can see by the scores turned in throughout the day the scenting conditions were pretty good. Later in the afternoon when the wind really picked up it got kind of tough, how those dogs can smell anything in 20 mph winds much less where it is coming from is amazing to watch.

You saw this dog as last year’s Puppy of the Year and he picked up right where he left off with a impressive 5 fulls, (5 finds, 5 kills, 5 retrieves) and 215 points. He did it with style, some good gun work helped, and brought everything back to hand. And yes, Larry puts in a lot of time with this young guy and it really shows.

Tom didn’t stick around for his hero shot on Saturday, he was in the second brace after all, but I pulled this one from the archives of him and Boomer, who was also the puppy of the year back in the day. Well Saturday he went out and also got 5 fulls in that 2nd brace. Time to the first bird 43 seconds. Larry and Gunner made it to their first bird in 23 seconds. Yup the race was on, and it went as it usually does to the young dog. But only by 20 seconds. Wow. And oh, by the way, Tom puts in the hours and birds with Boomer as well.

The puppy field was busy with Mick and Phoenix throwing down a 172 with four fulls early. Sloane, a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon, who works hard for Brian Wilson, posted five finds late in the day. The difference, Sloane was able to only work out two full retrieves along with a partial, while Phoenix brought all four of his back to hand. If you know these guys then you know they also put in the time with their pups so they are all business when they hit the field.

I just had to include this shot I got from the 3rd brace. At first glance this appears to be a great looking Vizsla, West owned by Brian Lacinski, locked up on point with Gene Gray’s Joe in the classic honoring position. But there is a story. Joe runs big and is the Dog of the Year 2022, so he holds like a statue for Gene Gray to catch up. The birds were walking with the lack of cover at the grounds and that ole bird walked off on Joe but he never moved. West, fresh off a hunt trip to Arizona wheeled around and scented a bird far enough away from Joe that she assumed it was hers. She is a female after all and what is hers is hers. Once Gene and Brian made it to the party and worked the bird, with Gene and Joe getting the points as West interfered with Joe’s point, we were off after more birds. Although, Joe, who never moved a muscle through the whole deal, was heard doing some muttering as he left about it was not hers, IT WAS NOT HERS! Ha.

It was a great turn out for our first SPRING trial and as you can see by the dark pictures it was a long one with 14-gun dog braces and 8 puppies. A big thank you to Purina for again sponsoring our club with big bags of Pro Plan for the winners. No small thing as if you know your prices that’s a $50 + award. Thanks to Mick Gill, our President, and his board members, Larry Naas, Doug Cross, and Gene Gray for getting it all done. A special thank you to Kelly Sample for judging, his first effort on the big field and it came off without a question or complaint. Great Job! Bob Dorn managed a half day as the other judge before some GI issues chased him to the house and a closer relationship to indoor plumbing. Ha. As always, our deepest appreciation to the Oler Family for allowing us to play our games in this little piece of prairie.

Next trial in two weeks on 3-4-23, registration is open so put it on your calendar and hope to see you there.