Shamrock X Sugar Son Earns Derby Placement

Vitali's Grouse Ringer Justify (T) earned second place in the Michigan Brittany Grouse Dog Association Open Derby stake on October 6, 2019. T's race in combination with a woodcock find settled him firmly into the second place spot.  We love when our dogs place and getting it done on wild birds is icing on the cake.

T is from our breeding of our winning female, CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea to CH/RU Erin's Hidden Shamrock. Some may wonder how a son of an AA champion mated to a Shooting Dog champion can result in a successful cover dog competitor. Well, if you look through T's pedigree you'll find prominent grouse dogs top and bottom. His maternal grand-dam is RUCH Pine Straw Katydid that took Runner-Up at the National Amateur Grouse Championship and her sire (T's great grand-sire) was GNGCH Chip's Uncle Buzzy who won the Grand National Grouse Championship. So he's got serious grouse dogs up close in his pedigree.

We appreciate Gary Vitali putting the work in to developing T as a bird dog. Congrats on a qualifying win Gary! And thanks for sending us the picture!

Sugar bests a field of 50 at the English Setter Club of America Labor Day Weekend Trial.

On Labor Day Weekend 2019, CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea ran in the Open Shooting Dog Stake at the English Setter Club of America's Trial. The stake drew 50 dogs and under the whistle of Jeanette Tracy, Sugar took first place.  Jeanette's up and coming scout, Taydem Boyer assisted in the effort, rounding out the team.

It was a nice way to start the field trial season.

Sugar wins again at York Pointer and Setter Club!

CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea (Sugar) wrapped up a great year with a first place finish in the Open Shooting Dog Stake at the York Pointer and Setter Club's spring (2019) trial. Sugar's four find performance under the whistle of Jeanette Tracy of Ladywood Kennels topped a field of 20 tough competitors. We greatly appreciate the folks at the York Pointer and Setter Club for their efforts in holding the event and the judges that put the time in the saddle to look at the dogs.

Sugar had a very good field trial year and we plan to breed her next year for a spring of 2020 litter. We haven't made the decision on the stud at this point, but stay tuned if you're interested.

Puppies available by Pine Straw Smudge

Pine Straw Smudge (CH/RU Chip's Torquato X RUCH Pine Straw Katydid) has a litter on the ground out of Breakaway Sugar. Smudge is probably the best wild bird dog we have produced. While he has walking and horseback placements, his full time job now is being a grouse dog and he is the best grouse dog we've seen. Smudge is a litter mate to Elwin G. Smith Award winner Pine Straw Blackhawk and a half brother (via RUCH Pine Straw Katydid) to CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea.

Breakaway Sugar is a fancy bird finder in her own right. And she brings some powerhouse dogs into the breeding with what is behind her.

The pedigree of these pups is not only packed with cover dog champions like GNGCH/CH Chip's Uncle Buzzie and 5XCH Grouse Ridge Reroy, it also contains Ridge Creek Cody and CH Hamilton's Blue Diamond.

All pups are white and orange and they were born April 17, 2019.  They will be old enough to enjoy their first season hunting this fall. They are in Michigan.

If interested call Dale Ash - (616)318*8254

CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea takes first at Delaware Pointer and Setter Club

On March 29, CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea took first place in the Open Shooting Dog Stake at the Delaware Pointer and Setter Club's spring trial.  Under the whistle of Jeanette Tracy of Ladywood Kennels, Sugar topped a field of 20 shooting dogs. Way to go Jeanette and Sugar!!!

Vitali's Grouseringer Justify scores again.

Gary Vitali's pup "T" took third place in the open puppy stake of the Elkhorn Bird Dog Club trial. This NBHA trial was held on February 9th, 2019 at Berea, Kentucky. I was told that T's only "fault" in his run was that with 3 finds he found too many birds, including a well dug up find on a woodcock.

Below is a picture of "T" when he was still with us at Pine Straw Kennels.  As I've mentioned before, he is out of our CH/RU Erin's Hidden Shamrock X CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea litter.

Shamrock X Sweet Tea Puppy on the Board

With all the excitement of Sugar (CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea) winning a championship (Northeastern SD CH) and a runner-up champion (Garden State SD CH) I almost failed to mention the first CH/RU Erin's Hidden Shamrock X CH/RU Pine Straw Sweet Tea puppy to score a placement.

Vitali's Grouseringer Justified (T) garnered a 2nd place in the Chuck Pagano Puppy Classic held in Michigan this past fall. This pup is showing what appears to be very good potential.

We would like to thank Gary Vitali for getting this pup from us and giving him the time and experience needed to start him down the road toward becoming a field trial bird dog. We are hopeful and excited to see what Gary and this pup can do together.

With his dad having made an appearance at the National Championship, his maternal grandsire Mult CH Highground Jax Jabba making 7 appearances at the National, his dam earning a spot at the Shooting Dog National, his maternal grand dam having competed in the Grouse and Woodcock Invitational, and one of his maternal great grandsires being a Grand National Grouse Champion; he has some big shoes to fill. We'll see if he's up to the task.