Result: Region 14 Amateur Shooting Dog Championship and Big Country Field Trial Club

Location: Kirkpatrick Lake, Alberta

Post Date: Oct 15, 2024

Submitted By: Sig Guggenmoos

Region 14 Amateur Shooting Dog Championship (front row): Lou Qualtiere with Ch. Ten Oaks Cassandra and Austin Turley with R-U Ch. Carbonado's Silver Sage. (Second row): Ron Bender, Jeanette Heise, Michelle Turley, Georgia Jones, Milena Jones, Emma Jones. (Back row): Darrell Curtis, Sig Guggenmoos (judge), Sheldon Rogers (judge), Gar Beacom, Ryan Jones, and Nadejda Tzvetkova.

It was the 60th anniversary of running the Big Country trial. The area was the greenest I have ever seen through August and September. I think they will be inviting trialers back as rainmakers. This area averages about 8 inches of precipitation per year. A group of us came to the area to do some training in August. It rained 2 inches. The night before the trial and through the morning of September 13, the scheduled start date, we got 2 inches of rain, bringing the total for the year to 15 inches. We started at 1 p.m. on the 13th and had no more delays.

Running a successful trial is a team effort. First, we want to thank our landowners: Glen Randle, who provides our camp area, and the Conrad Scoville, Mark Crowle, and Todd Nelson families. Thanks to our judges, Ron Bender, Sheldon Rogers, Sergio Velez, Austin Turley, and me, who judged the club stakes. Milena Jones and her parents, Gino and Nadia, stepped it up this year by providing us with a meal to accompany the championship drawing on Friday evening, the roast pig dinner for the Saturday banquet, and two days of lunches. Thank you to Ryan Jones for hauling and setting up the tables for our Friday night dinner and the lunches. A thank you to Gerry Caswell, who set up, cleaned up, took down, and generally secured the Hemaruka Community Hall.
Thanks to Darrell Curtis for providing the dog truck, accommodating both dogs and horses, and to our dog truck drivers Jeanette Heise, Sean Kelly, and Gar Beacom.

BIG COUNTRY FIELD TRIAL CLUB
Kirkpatrick Lake, Alta., September 13
Judges: Ron Bender and Sig Guggenmoos
OPEN SHOOTING DOG - 12 Entries
1st-BK LOCKED N' LOADED, F1699229, pointer female, by B K Bonafide Stallion-B K Hirollins Wild. Sergio Velez, owner and handler.
2d-MANTEO'S PLAN B, F1672678, pointer female, by Manteo's Duke-Manteo's English China. Ryan Jones, owner and handler.
3d-KINWASHKLY SUPER NOVA, F1696833, Brittany female, by Spanish Corral's Sonny Patch-Kinwashkly Instant Replay. Dawn Feist, owner; Sheldon Rogers, handler.

Judges: Ron Bender and Sheldon Rogers
OPEN DERBY - 7 Entries
1st-EM RAWHIDE, F1717449, pointer male, by The Alberta Clipper-Manteo's Plan B. Ryan Jones, owner and handler.
2d-PRAIRIE FIRE WALKER, F1706822, setter male, by Long Hollow's Second Chance-Long Hollow's Lottie Beck. Prairie Fire Bird Dogs, owner; Sig Guggenmoos, handler.
3d-WINNIE, unreg., pointer female, by The Alberta Clipper-Manteo's Plan B. Darrell Curtis, owner and handler.

Judges: Ron Bender and Sergio Velez
HAUK MEMORIAL AMATEUR SHOOTING DOG - 8 Entries
1st-TEN OAKS ANNIE A, F1658799, pointer female, by Erin's Brave Heart-Nathan's Sis. Louis & Jeanette Heise, owners; Jeanette Heise, handler.
2d-THE ALBERTA CLIPPER, F1673818, pointer male, by Autumn Echo-Grouse Trails Sharptail. Sean Kelly, owner; Ryan Jones handler.
3d-BELLS YELLOWSTONE PRIDE, F1687338, pointer female, by Touch's Diamante-Bellita, Keith Anderson, owner and handler.

Judges: Sergio Velez and Austin Turley
AMATEUR DERBY - 5 Entries
1st-F40 IVY LEAGUE, F1714416, pointer female, LBF Up In Smoke-West Mountain Speed Wave. Darrell Curtis, owner and handler.
2d-EM RAWHIDE, F1717449, pointer male, by The Alberta Clipper-Manteo's Plan B. Ryan Jones, owner and handler.

REGION 14 AMATEUR SHOOTING DOG CHAMPIONSHIP
It was a small entry for the Championship, but there were some very good performances.
Judges for the Region 14 Amateur Shooting Dog Championship were Sheldon Rogers and Sig Guggenmoos.

The Winners
Winning the Region 14 Amateur Shooting Dog Championship was 9-year-old Pointer female Ten Oaks Cassandra, owned and handled by Lou Qualtiere. She delivered a huge race and a four-find performance. Runner-up emerged in Carbonado's Silver Sage, a 4-year-old Pointer female, owned and handled by Austin Turley. The performances will be described under the running.

The Running
Carbonado's Country Spectre (Turley) and Ten Oaks Cassandra (Qualtiere) were cast off after a slight fog delay at 8:30 a.m. east of the yard site with the temperature at 5 C and the wind out the west barely detectable. Not too far into the old Anhorn pasture, Cassie pointed at 7. As Lou was dismounting, Cassie's tail flicked, indicating running birds. She took two stealthy steps forward and locked up tight. Lou read it right; the birds had run from the open to a patch of buckbrush straight ahead, which Lou kicked to raise about half a dozen sharptails. As we entered the Crowle pasture heading south, Cassie's race was huge, while Spec ran a more moderate but decent shooting dog race. The course swung east and then south, at which point at 27, point was called for Cassie notching another stylish and solid find on sharptails. Working through the northeast dog leg, Spec scored a stop to flush at 37. As we headed west along the fenceline back toward the Anhorn pasture, Cassie scored her third chicken find at 49. At 58, Cassie was on point again. Lou raised a large covey of chickens, with Cassie's manners again impeccable.

Affinity (Turley) and B K Spot On (Curtis). These two started at the road crossing in the Anhorn pasture just south of camp. Both dogs ran very large shooting races, though at times lateral, through the west pasture. Unfortunately, neither had birds, though we rode up two large coveys in the northwest section of the west pasture.

Carbonado's Silver Sage (Turley) and Manteo's Plan B (Jones). Casting off from the corner of Scoville's lane heading west to make a large U, Plan B only made it to the railroad grade from which Jones could not extract her. Frustrated with her lack of cooperation, he chose to pick up. Sage was running a nice shooting race and pointed at 28. Turley raised a chicken with more rising at the shot. As his scout Keith Anderson led Sage out front for Turley, sharptails kept rising. Rather than turn loose into a minefield, Turley asked Anderson to lead the dog about 30 yards up to a fence. As Sage went downwind of the first bluff in sight at 32, a chicken flushed. Sage was found standing on the other side of Austin, firing over his dog. Sage was credited with a stop to flush. As we made our way south along the railroad grade, Sage pointed at 49. This, however, proved unproductive.

Touch's Amazing Greyce (Turley) and Bells Yellowstone Pride (Anderson). These two were cast off east of the Scoville lane going south. Greyce, motivated by the big open space, made the fenceline a half mile south and was seen going south, hunting the cover along the next road. Anderson's dog Maggie ran a very consistent shooting dog race. At about the half-hour mark, just after Turley asked for the tracker, Greyce showed up. She wasn't ready to quit, and it took some effort to catch her. With Greyce in the harness, Maggie continued to deliver a smooth shooting dog race but finished without birds.

Kirkpatrick Lake, Alberta, September 15, 2024
Judges: Sheldon Rogers and Sig Guggenmoos
REGION 14 AMATEUR SHOOTING DOG CHAMPIONSHIP [One-Hour Heats] - 8 Pointers
Winner-TEN OAKS CASSANDRA, F1666568, pointer female, by Distant Shadow-Touch's Valedictorian. Lou Qualtiere, owner & handler.
Runner-Up-CARBONADO'S SILVER SAGE, F1691433, pointer female, by Touch's Diamante-Boudica, Michelle & Austin Turley, owners; Austin Turley handler.