The Buggytown Story... it could belong to any of us...
Posted 04/10/2012
The Buggytown Story...
I would like to share our story... and anyone can do this, or find the right person to help, with your dreams in tact and a lot of determination...
My first GSP was Rose (Annies mother). I bought her because she was beautiful and a friend talked me into driving to SC to get her pup and get one for myself! Not a very hunter-like start was it? It took only a moment to fall for this beautiful, and a bit aloof at times, liver and white colored pup.
I worked for a veterinarian at the time, as a tech, and always enjoyed seeing the talented dogs that came through the clinic. Sure, lots of pets of all sorts, but I tended to be drawn to those special ones... there was one little JRT that had been badly mauled and her owner would not give up. She had been to at least 2 other vets, who gave her no chance.... and then she got to us... not long before closing. Our doctor gave her little chance..but the little dog made it. I will never forget her.
Another dog came in for bloodwork. He was a good sized dog, not very pretty but he was a mottled brown and white color and I paid little attention to him other than proper care.... that is, until he got into the treatment room. We had a caged pigeon (one wing, so he just lived right there in his big cage) just inside the door. When this brown dog saw that bird he came to attention and froze in place, staring at the bird! The doctor pulled blood and did his exam, and the dog never moved!
Little did I know that I had just seen my first Field Champion on point! His owner chuckled a bit when I told him what I had just seen. As you can see.... I had no idea! The dog was Cowboy, a German Wirehaired Pointer. Rose was just a pup but she was a Pointer breed too.... could she do that? I had to find out.... so with our doctors permission I called the owner of Cowboy and asked him if my pup could learn to do what his dog did. Knowing this man much better now, I can just imagine the wry grin as he told me to bring her over sometime and lets see.... Rose was only 6 months old but we took him up on the invitation!
She was a little girl then. Her Junior Hunter was won in 4 out of 4 tests! In my mind we had just won the BIGGEST award out there!! I mean, Rose had a TITLE! She was a Junior Hunter!
I love being a breeder. I was a horse breeder before GSPs entered my life, but a serious surgery waylaid those plans ... I did not obtain Rose in order to raise pups, but now she was a titled dog! I wanted to breed her, but not to just any dog. She had to be bred to a Field Champion (by then I had learned that FC was a really nice title) because only that would be fitting for her.
So, I asked my friend ... he gave me the names of 3 people he knew that had Field Champion males in a close enough proximity for me to be able to make that work. I think he would rather I had not bred her then, but she was 2 years old, had her hip x-rays, and was due to come in heat soon and it was spring. The season for hunting tests would soon be over ... so, I got on the phone. Of the people I talked with only one was seriously interested in a Junior Hunter for their FC males. I am sure the others got a bit of a charge over an older lady with a Junior Hunter wanting to breed because she was such a good dog.
One, however, told me to bring Rose to see them and they wanted to meet me and let me see their male. So, Rose and I took off to south GA to RoyaleRun Kennel. Their male was a Dual Champion. That seemed to really be pretty cool! David had Rose in the field and let her work some birds and was complimentary, willing to work with us.
His male, Doublerun Cole Bier, was wonderful! In the horse world I knew performance was as important as pedigree and he was a beautiful animal who moved effortlessly as he ran and played around while we talked. Yes, he was the dog for Rose.
So the deal was made and Rose was bred. Such nice people and they actually travelled around and took their dogs out west and did all sorts of cool stuff. Cole Bier, I learned was going to run in a GSPCA National Championship that year, so shortly after the litter was born I found that the dog who was the sire of the litter was NGDC-DC Doublerun Cole Bier!
Annie was chosen as the pup to keep! She was sharp and pointing as a baby, and we decided that she ought to have a chance to excel. After all, her mother, Rose, was a Junior Hunter! So, we sent her with David and Sara King to a summer camp out west. After that, she ran a few field trials, and she was under a year old when she won her Derby points! She never ran in Puppy Trials. After the Derby win, we waited for her to be ready for her big dog Trials, where she would run in Open Gun Dog and Open Limited Gun Dog and stuff like that.
In the meantime, teach her to retrieve, work with her at home a little and don't mess up the work David and Sara had done with her. She has never had to go through force fetching. She picked up the retrieve idea right in our back yard and she must have liked it because she has never refused to go get her bird and deliver it back to the handler.
As a 2 year old Annie started competing for the big time and she did well, never doing a bad job, just getting some experience and some trials. She got in the call backs and started winning some Second Place ribbons ... every now and then a win, but David and Sara said give her time. She is doing well. This will happen. My friend told me she would be the first Field Champion for Buggytown.
This season Annie hit her stride, looked great, but still placed Second in 3 successive Trials. Then a major win ... . And right after that another win! Annie was on a roll!! Her Field Championship secured as a 3 year old, she is on to the 2012 AKC National Championship!!
Since those days when Rose, as a Junior Hunter, was just Annie's mom she has become a Senior Hunter with passes on her Master Hunter! She will be bred once more, to NGDC-DC Doublerun Cole Bier, and then she will retire to play with birds for the rest of her life! Rose, after all, is the queen of the kennel and has brought her Princess into the world to carry on the torch for a small kennel in middle GA and an old lady who, 7 years ago, had never seen a pointing dog work. Annie will become the Queen here soon enough, and we will find a fitting mate for her.
This story could not have been written though, without my amateur local friend, or without the capable David and Sara King of RoyaleRun Kennel. We might have just been one more who hoped something good might come from what we did with our dogs. David and Sara, however, never looked at us or our Rose as just small fish in a big pond of potential clients. They saw us and our dogs with the same care and attention as if we had been some big time person who could afford the most expensive dogs out there. They have worked with us and our dogs and they are the reason we are now looking at FC Ana von Heidbrink instead of just Annie the cute pup from that Junior Hunter Rose.
David King has a sense of the needs of the dogs he works with. He understands them in a way that not everyone can see. I grew up around a few horsemen like that, and I know that special handler/trainer when I see him (or her). His quiet manner and skilled understanding of what it takes to make a dog into a champion will soon give us our second field champion.
There are other trainers out there, but I expect only a few like the Kings. The thing that brought me to them was their kindness and their ability to see a good dog, not just an important name. Rose and I had been overlooked by others but not by the Kings, so that is where Buggytown Bird Dogs will remain ... with RoyaleRun Kennels! And I must at this closing, thank them as publicly as I can for all they have meant, and still mean, to this old lady and her dogs!
I would like to share our story... and anyone can do this, or find the right person to help, with your dreams in tact and a lot of determination...
My first GSP was Rose (Annies mother). I bought her because she was beautiful and a friend talked me into driving to SC to get her pup and get one for myself! Not a very hunter-like start was it? It took only a moment to fall for this beautiful, and a bit aloof at times, liver and white colored pup.
I worked for a veterinarian at the time, as a tech, and always enjoyed seeing the talented dogs that came through the clinic. Sure, lots of pets of all sorts, but I tended to be drawn to those special ones... there was one little JRT that had been badly mauled and her owner would not give up. She had been to at least 2 other vets, who gave her no chance.... and then she got to us... not long before closing. Our doctor gave her little chance..but the little dog made it. I will never forget her.
Another dog came in for bloodwork. He was a good sized dog, not very pretty but he was a mottled brown and white color and I paid little attention to him other than proper care.... that is, until he got into the treatment room. We had a caged pigeon (one wing, so he just lived right there in his big cage) just inside the door. When this brown dog saw that bird he came to attention and froze in place, staring at the bird! The doctor pulled blood and did his exam, and the dog never moved!
Little did I know that I had just seen my first Field Champion on point! His owner chuckled a bit when I told him what I had just seen. As you can see.... I had no idea! The dog was Cowboy, a German Wirehaired Pointer. Rose was just a pup but she was a Pointer breed too.... could she do that? I had to find out.... so with our doctors permission I called the owner of Cowboy and asked him if my pup could learn to do what his dog did. Knowing this man much better now, I can just imagine the wry grin as he told me to bring her over sometime and lets see.... Rose was only 6 months old but we took him up on the invitation!
She was a little girl then. Her Junior Hunter was won in 4 out of 4 tests! In my mind we had just won the BIGGEST award out there!! I mean, Rose had a TITLE! She was a Junior Hunter!
I love being a breeder. I was a horse breeder before GSPs entered my life, but a serious surgery waylaid those plans ... I did not obtain Rose in order to raise pups, but now she was a titled dog! I wanted to breed her, but not to just any dog. She had to be bred to a Field Champion (by then I had learned that FC was a really nice title) because only that would be fitting for her.
So, I asked my friend ... he gave me the names of 3 people he knew that had Field Champion males in a close enough proximity for me to be able to make that work. I think he would rather I had not bred her then, but she was 2 years old, had her hip x-rays, and was due to come in heat soon and it was spring. The season for hunting tests would soon be over ... so, I got on the phone. Of the people I talked with only one was seriously interested in a Junior Hunter for their FC males. I am sure the others got a bit of a charge over an older lady with a Junior Hunter wanting to breed because she was such a good dog.
One, however, told me to bring Rose to see them and they wanted to meet me and let me see their male. So, Rose and I took off to south GA to RoyaleRun Kennel. Their male was a Dual Champion. That seemed to really be pretty cool! David had Rose in the field and let her work some birds and was complimentary, willing to work with us.
His male, Doublerun Cole Bier, was wonderful! In the horse world I knew performance was as important as pedigree and he was a beautiful animal who moved effortlessly as he ran and played around while we talked. Yes, he was the dog for Rose.
So the deal was made and Rose was bred. Such nice people and they actually travelled around and took their dogs out west and did all sorts of cool stuff. Cole Bier, I learned was going to run in a GSPCA National Championship that year, so shortly after the litter was born I found that the dog who was the sire of the litter was NGDC-DC Doublerun Cole Bier!
Annie was chosen as the pup to keep! She was sharp and pointing as a baby, and we decided that she ought to have a chance to excel. After all, her mother, Rose, was a Junior Hunter! So, we sent her with David and Sara King to a summer camp out west. After that, she ran a few field trials, and she was under a year old when she won her Derby points! She never ran in Puppy Trials. After the Derby win, we waited for her to be ready for her big dog Trials, where she would run in Open Gun Dog and Open Limited Gun Dog and stuff like that.
In the meantime, teach her to retrieve, work with her at home a little and don't mess up the work David and Sara had done with her. She has never had to go through force fetching. She picked up the retrieve idea right in our back yard and she must have liked it because she has never refused to go get her bird and deliver it back to the handler.
As a 2 year old Annie started competing for the big time and she did well, never doing a bad job, just getting some experience and some trials. She got in the call backs and started winning some Second Place ribbons ... every now and then a win, but David and Sara said give her time. She is doing well. This will happen. My friend told me she would be the first Field Champion for Buggytown.
This season Annie hit her stride, looked great, but still placed Second in 3 successive Trials. Then a major win ... . And right after that another win! Annie was on a roll!! Her Field Championship secured as a 3 year old, she is on to the 2012 AKC National Championship!!
Since those days when Rose, as a Junior Hunter, was just Annie's mom she has become a Senior Hunter with passes on her Master Hunter! She will be bred once more, to NGDC-DC Doublerun Cole Bier, and then she will retire to play with birds for the rest of her life! Rose, after all, is the queen of the kennel and has brought her Princess into the world to carry on the torch for a small kennel in middle GA and an old lady who, 7 years ago, had never seen a pointing dog work. Annie will become the Queen here soon enough, and we will find a fitting mate for her.
This story could not have been written though, without my amateur local friend, or without the capable David and Sara King of RoyaleRun Kennel. We might have just been one more who hoped something good might come from what we did with our dogs. David and Sara, however, never looked at us or our Rose as just small fish in a big pond of potential clients. They saw us and our dogs with the same care and attention as if we had been some big time person who could afford the most expensive dogs out there. They have worked with us and our dogs and they are the reason we are now looking at FC Ana von Heidbrink instead of just Annie the cute pup from that Junior Hunter Rose.
David King has a sense of the needs of the dogs he works with. He understands them in a way that not everyone can see. I grew up around a few horsemen like that, and I know that special handler/trainer when I see him (or her). His quiet manner and skilled understanding of what it takes to make a dog into a champion will soon give us our second field champion.
There are other trainers out there, but I expect only a few like the Kings. The thing that brought me to them was their kindness and their ability to see a good dog, not just an important name. Rose and I had been overlooked by others but not by the Kings, so that is where Buggytown Bird Dogs will remain ... with RoyaleRun Kennels! And I must at this closing, thank them as publicly as I can for all they have meant, and still mean, to this old lady and her dogs!
