Well- Katy wrapped up her juvenile field trial career yesterday in East Windsor, CT at the Connecticut Valley Vizsla Club's field trial. She was entered in the Amateur Walking Derby stake and took 1st Place in a field of 11 dogs!

 We started the fall field trial season with a win at the Hudson Valley Brittany Club trial in Oxford, NY....... Katy won again at the Southern New England Brittany Club trial in mid-October and now she finishes the season and her juvenile field trial career with another win at Flaherty with a 5 find performance (3 of her finds were coveys!).

 Katy is showing EVERY sign that she's ready to be broke- staunch finds, steady to wing...... sometimes even steady to shot.  Katy just needs to be finished now & turned into an honest bird dog over the winter.  It shouldn't take too much- as she's a very biddable young girl.  I want to keep all that style that had her wearin' blue so often this fall.

 I've put very little pressure on this young gyp up to this point- just kept cuttin' her loose in training and making sure she understood to stay to the front and that she was supposed to stay with me.  She handles like a dream and hunts really hard when down.

Rob

Way to go Rob. Sounds like you have a REALLY nice young dog there that you are going to have a lot of fun with.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Terry

Terry, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I have in Katy- and that is a very biddable young gyp who is showing tons of potential in the grit, desire & handle dept.

 I had folks telling me to break her out this past summer, but she was only 14-15 months old this summer.  I feel that a dog only has ONE chance to be a pup and once they're broke- they're not a pup anymore.  So I decided to spend the summer continuing to foster her run and handle- which she is doing tremendously at this point. 

 I've been hunting her on wild birds (Woodcock, Grouse, Pheasant) this fall and she is steady to wing and will stand birds for upwards of 2-3 minutes (or until I get there).  She holds steady to shot about 30-40% of the time- but certain scenarios (delayed second flush, multiple shots, covey flush) seems to be her undoing.

 I looked back on all the stakes she ran in this fall and realized that she was in the ribbons every time she had a find.  There were only two times when Katy went birdless (a 20 minute walking stake in 85 degree weather & another 20 minute walking stake in 80 degree weather where they failed to plant birds for two braces prior to her running), other than that- Katy was used by the judges in every other stake (horseback open or walking amateur) she ran in this fall.  That tells me more than just about anything......... a bunch of different folks liked what they saw in her whether she was handled from horseback or off of foot.

Are you the Terry Chandler whose name I see all the time in the field trial results in AF?  If so, do you ever get up to the New England area?

Rob