Pine Straw Chester earns first field trial placement.

PINE STRAW CHESTER took first place in the Open (All-Age) Derby held by the Black Belt Amateur Field Trial Club's fall trial on October 29, 2017.  This was Chester's first placement in a field trial and came in the second trial he's run in.

CHESTER is out of our breeding of 2X National Champion Shadow Oak Bo to our National Amateur Grouse Championship Runner-Up Pine Straw Katydid.  I think just about all Setter people are familiar with Bo. Katydid took Runner-Up at the 2010 National Amateur Grouse Championship held at Marienville, PA against a field of 69 entries. Katydid is out of Grand National Grouse Champion Chip's Uncle Buzzie X Mult. CH Sky's Blue Belle.

Big thanks to Lee Phillips out of Trail South Kennels for running Chester.  Lee runs our all age dogs for us and most importantly lets me come out to the prairie to ride along for a few days every year to watch.

Shearjoy's Unforgiven X Pine Straw Country Sunshine pups arrive.

Our Will X Dottie litter has arrived. Unfortunately for our customers/bird dog partners, there were only 2 puppies, and we are going to hang on to both for a while to evaluate them. The pedigree for this litter is full of Hall of Fame dogs and Champions, from both the shooting dog and all age venues. Grand sires are Hytest Skyhawk and Highground Jax Jabba, both having multiple trips to the National Championship. See our post on this breeding for more details on pedigrees.

If you were wanting a pup out of Dottie, take heart, we will likely breed her again in the future.

Pine Straw Sweet Tea has BIG time at English Setter Club of America's spring trial.

Pine Straw Sweet Tea (Sugar) wrapped up her first year as a Shooting Dog in fine form. Dillon Shaffer ran Sugar for us in both the Open Restricted Shooting Dog stake and the Open Shooting Dog Stake of the English Setter Club of America's spring trial held at Medford, New Jersey. A handful of finds and nice race garnered 3rd place for Sugar in the Open Shooting Dog. Three finds and a great race earned Sugar a big 1st place win of the Open Restricted Shooting Dog stake. A big thanks to Dillon for running Sugar and to Cole Henry for scouting her.

Sugar's runner up for the Bill Conlin Setter Shooting Dog Derby award for the 2015-2016 season gave us high hopes for her shooting dog career and she has continued to improve through her first year. Sugar is out of our Mult. CH/RU Highground Jax Jabba X RUCH Pine Straw Katydid litter. She is very classy running, biddable, and seemed to mature a little more at every trial. Wrapping up the season with two nice placements keeps our hopes high for Sugar.

Pine Straw Black Hawk Earns 3rd Place at Keystone Shooting Dog Classic

On April 13, 2017, CH Pine Straw Black Hawk earned 3rd place at the Keystone Open Shooting Dog Classic held at Indiantown Gap. This is a big wide open venue that requires dogs that can really open up their range. Hawk laid down a great performance against a field of 42 which contained many champions. Big thanks to Jeanette Tracy (handler) and Dillon Shaffer (scout) of Ladywood Kennels for running Hawk.

This was a good way to end a trial year that had more than its share of setbacks, including an injury during the season that took Hawk out of competition for 3 months. He was then forced to return in the heat of the season at less than optimum condition due to the injury.

Hawk's 2015-2016 year qualified him to run in both the Shooting Dog National Championship and the Shooting Dog Invitational. It was an honor for him to compete at both even though he was fresh off his injury and not at the top of his game.

Hawk X Maggie daughter Ladywood's Jazz It Up earns first placement.

Ladywood's Jazz It Up (CH Pine Straw Black Hawk X AKC FC Pine Straw Magpie) took first place in the open derby stake of the Mid Atlantic Red Setter Club trial under the whistle of Dillon Shaffer. Congrats to Dillon and Jeanette Tracy. It's good to see Hawk's first litter of pups competing and great that Jazz earned a blue her very first trial.

Shearjoy's Unforgiven X Pine Straw Country Sunshine - Dottie has been bred

We have bred Dottie (Pine Straw Country Sunshine) to Shearjoy's Unforgiven.

Dottie is a first year All Age dog and this past year earned her first AA placement in South Dakota. In addition to being excited for her to be qualified to run in championships, we also were pleased that the placement came on the prairies where an AA dog has to show serious run to place. Dottie has always been a great bird finder, even as a little pup. Now she is a 48 pound leggy female that is fast on the ground.

Will (Shearjoy's Unforgiven) is just finishing his derby year as an AA derby with multiple placements. He is a big, proud standing dog that reportedly broke early and stayed that way. I have seen pictures of him on the internet (as you may have) and he looks good in them, but when I saw him in person, he looks even better. He is a very impressive dog. Will weighs in in the 55-57 pound range and has a leggy and athletic build.

We bred this litter in an attempt to get All Age Setters. While both Will and Dottie are early in their trial careers, they both appear to have the potential to be successful all age competitors. In addition, we like what the pedigrees bring to the table.

PEDIGREE DETAILS

Shearjoy's Unforgiven - CH Hytest Skyhawk X Prodigy's High Anxiety

Pine Straw Country Sunshine - Mult CH/RU Highground Jax Jabba X RUCH Pine Straw Katydid

In discussing pedigrees a lot of people like to talk about what a dog "goes back to", and I will elaborate on what lies behind Will and Dottie's breeding. But sometimes when I see people using the term "goes back to" I worry that it is euphemism for: "up close ain't much". That is not the case in this litter.

Grandparents:

Hytest Skyhawk - he needs no introduction, but so you know, he competed 4 times at the National and has shown to be a good producer of both winners and producers.

Prodigy's High Anxiety - she has her own ties to the National as her sire has produced 2 National Championship contestants: Stardust Chazz and Prodigy's Bonfire (a full sister from a repeat breeding).

Highground Jax Jabba - Jabba had 6 appearances at the National Championship and has produced champions with very limited breeding

Pine Straw Katydid - Katie is the only grandparent not directly tied to the National Championship, but she earned her own acclaim at a national trial, taking Runner-Up at the 2010 National Amateur Grouse Championship in a field that drew 69 dogs. Also, her sire won the grouse dog version of the big one, the Grand National Grouse Championship.


Overall Pedigree - A look at the first 8 generations:

National Championship Contestants:

This litter will have seven National Championship contestants: Hytest Skyhawk (2nd gen.); Highground Jax Jabba (2nd gen.); Tekoa Mountain Patriot (3rd gen.); Tekoa Mountain Sunrise (5th gen.)***; Hick's Rising Sun (5th gen.); Amos Mosley (7th gen.); and Johnny Crockett (winner) (7th gen.).

***While Tekoa Mountain Sunrise doesn't show until the 5th generation, he appears 19 times in an 8 generation pedigree of the litter. In the ancestor analysis of blood percentage as calculated on the Willie Walker database, he contributes approximately 24.5% blood percentage (where parents give 50%, grandparents 25% etc.)


Hall of Fame dogs:

This litter will have seven Hall of Fame Setters in its first 8 generations: Tekoa Mountain Sunrise, Hick's Rising Sun, Johnny Crockett, Grouse Ridge Will, The Performer, Destinaire, and Tomoka.


The Grouse Dog side:

I believe that successful grouse dogs have to be top notch bird dogs; and there is value in bringing the most athletic of those dogs into the breeding of horseback trial competitors. If the grouse dogs lines (or lines from any other venue) are brought in, it makes sense to pull the best. In the roughly 1/4 of the pedigree of this litter that comes from those grouse dog lines, there are at least 7 winners of the Grand National Grouse Championship: Chip's Uncle Buzzie, Stillmeadow's Jim, Grouse Ridge Storm, Grouse Ridge Will, Ghost Train, Jetrain, and Stokely's Diablo Jake.


Acknowledgements:

A huge thank you to Betty Shearhouse for allowing us to breed to her Will.

Thanks to the folks at the Willie Walker Setter pedigree database for making a lot of the information readily available. If you're a Setter person, you really need to use their database.

Thanks to those breeders that went to the effort to produce the great dogs that comprise the foundation of the English Setters of today.

Of course, now we wait. Wait to see if or how many pups we get, wait to see if they are bird finders, wait to see if they'll run, wait to see if they're classy, wait to see if they can be broke without losing that spark, wait to see if any of them have the ability and character to be a champion, wait to see if on that special day if one of them draws the right course at the right time with the right wind conditions, wait to see.......well you know what I mean.

Dogs available - Update Elle and Dash have found homes

We occasionally have started dogs or puppies for sale. To be honest, we essentially breed for ourselves and our goals. But we can't keep all the pups from every litter and when we do have a litter, there are usually some that are available for purchase. We usually keep 20-50% of the puppies and begin to develop them. While we are bird hunters first, our main goal in breeding is to produce dogs that will be successful in field trials. I believe, based on experience, that good trial dogs can make great hunting dogs. However, there are a lot of really good hunting dogs that aren't cut out for the field trial game, often because of stylistic differences between what is seen as ideal for a trial dog. Often we have dogs that we work hard to develop and evaluate, giving them time and training to show if they can be successful as field trial competitors, but in the end they just don't quite have all it takes to be a stylish, dead broke (steady to wing and shot) trial dog. And those dogs we then try to find loving hunting homes for.

We care deeply about our dogs, they are part of the family. And so when we have one that we've put time and effort into developing but it won't make a trial dog, we start trying to find the right home for it. We do sell these dogs, but we are more interested in the right home than how much we can sell them for. Because of that, I rarely post a price on these dogs. We try to work with the right people to get the dog a wonderful home.

HUNTING DOG AVAILABLE

Pine Straw Covergirl (ELLE)

WE HAVE FOUND A HOME FOR ELLE.

Elle is almost 4 years old, runs beautifully, has an awesome loving and biddable personality, finds birds and gets them pointed. Elle is available as a hunting dog. Contact us for more details on Elle and price.

We do sometimes have young field trial prospects that are available as well. If we feel we have a particularly promising group of pups we've kept from a litter who all show potential we may be willing to let one go to a field trial home. At this time (Jan. 2017) we have such a litter with three young (5 month old) dogs that all appear to us to have field trial potential. So if you are serious about a young field trial Setter give us a call.

FIELD TRIAL PROSPECTS

These pups will be 6 months old on Jan. 13. They are 2X National Champion Shadow Oak Bo X RUCH Pine Straw Katydid.

DASH

WE HAVE FOUND A HOME FOR DASH

Dash is showing a lot of potential. He is leggy and runs with a fancy tail. He is very birdy and is diligent in his searching. We kept Dash because a buyer changed their mind and then shortly afterward he broke a bone in his leg. So we kept him through rehab and continued his development. We have been assured that the leg is now fine and in fact will be stronger than it would have been. We would really like to see Dash go to a field trial home of some kind.

EMMY and CHESTER

Emmy (tricolored female) and Chester (O&W Male) are where we are going to have a tough time deciding. Emmy is fast and snappy, and a very seriously good bird finder. She is pointing with rare intensity for this age, and hits those points hard. Chester is very fancy running, uses his nose well with his head up and points with style. He is the kind of pup that wants to go with you, not just run off, while still being bold about going and searching for birds. While we aren't actively seeking a home for either Emmy or Chester, the right person may be able to talk us into selling one of them, but we are pretty serious about seeing how they develop as field trial prospects.

EXPERIENCED FIELD TRIAL DOG MAGGIE has been sold. She will be a Texas bird finder come the fall. We sold Maggie to experienced quail hunter and new friend Dean.

At this time we have one experienced field trial dog who is available. AKC Field Champion Pine Straw Magpie has a number of field trial placements, both AKC and American Field, and both walking and horseback. Maggie is out of Grand National Grouse Champion Chip's Uncle Buzzie X Annibel Blue Sky. Maggie is a dead broke field trial dog, or would make an outstanding polished hunting dog. Maggie is just one point shy of her AKC Amateur Field Champion title at this time (Jan 2017). We will continue to trial her as long as we have her. She is lively and quick and looks good on her birds. Maggie weighs about 36 pounds when in trial shape. She has whelped one litter of puppies several of whom are promising derbies on Jeanette Tracy's string. Maggie is 4 years old.

If interested in any of the dogs or you want to talk about our dogs, field trials, or our future breeding plans feel free to contact me at pinestrawsetters@gmail.com or call 912-256-3826.