Hawk Wins Northeastern Open Shooting Dog Championship!!!

CH Pine Straw Black Hawk took the Championship title at the 2015 Northeastern Open Shooting Dog Championship under the whistle of Jeanette Tracy and Scouted by Dillon Shaffer. Hawk tallied 6 finds to take a decisive victory over a quality field of competitors. For more details on Hawk's run, see the well written account of the trial on page 13 of the November 14, 2015 edition of the American Field. We appreciate reporter Margaret Drew's effort in relaying this exciting brace.

Hawk takes 2nd at Inez C. Smith Open Shooting Dog Classic

In a field of 42 dogs, Hawk competed against some of the best shooting dogs in the country and came out with a second place finish. Hawk was handled by Jeanette Tracy and scouted by Dillon Shaffer. He ran when the temperature was 92 degrees, but never let up during his hour. In addition to his great race, five finds helped launch him to the second place spot. This win was made extra sweet because of the large number of times he was in the "honorable mention" category last year. Big thanks to Jeanette, Dillon, and the Pittsburgh FTC and Associated FTCs of Connecticut.

Maggie had her pups at Ladywood Kennels.

Maggie whelped her pups on July 21 and 22. Five females and 3 males. Contact Jeanette at Ladywood if you're interested in purchasing one (717-227-4773)

Dottie went to the Prairies

Pine Straw Country Sunshine (Dottie) went to the prairies with Lee Phillips to see if she has what it takes to be an all-age dog. Lee has done a great job with her so far and we're excited to watch her continue to develop. She has found a lot of birds, both pheasants and sharp tails, and is starting to run some. We'll see how she does.

Hawk and Maggie have been bred.

After much deliberation, we have bred Hawk to Maggie. We listened to advice from Jeanette Tracy, who has run both Hawk and Maggie for us in making this decision. Hawk has already had a good career, even with us moving him to different venues. He showed a lot of promise in the Shooting Dog venue this year and we knew we wanted to get some pups on the ground from him soon. Maggie's impressive juvenile career led us to consider her, then she finally got to run in a broke dog stake in March and knocked it out of the park, taking away any concern that she wasn't yet proven.

This breeding is essentially a line breeding on Grand National Grouse Champion Chip's Uncle Buzzie (as Maggie's sire and Hawk's grandsire) and CH/RU Chip's Torquato (as Hawk's sire and Maggie's great grandsire). Prominent in the pedigree are multiple occurrences of Hall of Fame Tomoka, CH Grouse Ridge Reroy, Grouse Ridge Been, CH Grouse Ridge Storm, 8xCH Stillmeadow's Jim and CH Brannigan.

The litter is being whelped by Jeanette at Ladywood Kennels. If you have questions about the breeding or the dogs, you can contact me at pinestrawsetters@gmail.com or Jeanette at Ladywood.

Maggie wins her debut as a broke dog.

Pine Straw Magpie made an impressive showing in her first broke dog stake, the Amateur Gun Dog of the East Tennessee Pointing Dog Association's spring trial. She ran huge, and forward with two very well mannered finds. Her second find was on a covey of running birds that she handled with perfect manners. At one point, one of the judges told me "Your dog is 7 tenths of a mile straight out there on the edge." This was a 3 point major win for Maggie. We were very happy with her and are excited to see what next year will bring.

Our Dogs Hunt

While we spend quite a bit of time and effort running in a variety of field trial venues, we also hunt with our dogs. We try to take at least one and often two hunting trips per year out of state along with getting them on birds around Georgia. Our dogs usually have the chance to hunt pheasants, quail, woodcock and grouse by the time they are 2 years old.