Whats in a name?
Now heres the part of the story where anyone who is not actively involved with the NAVHDA needs to really pay attention. I am not involved, but had planned on getting involved. After all, my new pup had three complete generations of solid NAVHDA versatile champions on one side and three complete generations of solid AKC master hunters on the other. I found a local NAVHDA chapter about 45 minutes from home to check into, now all I needed to do was send off my NAVHDA registration application for my pup and I was set, right? WRONG! Several days after I sent off my application I received a disturbing email from the NAVHDA. It informed me that a word used as the last word in my dogs name was a protected kennel and in order for them to register my dog I would have to change his name. What? Change my dogs name? Because I used a common noun found in the English language as his call name and placed it at the end of his registered name? You have got to be joking me, I thought. They gave one person exclusive rights to a two syllable noun? This just couldnt be right, so I got on the phone. The woman on the other end told me that indeed that was right, and I would have to change my dogs name to register him with the NAVHDA. She said, and I quote, just add a couple initials and people will just think its part of his name, that way it wont mess up our record keeping. I even explained to her that this protected kennel raised Pudelpointers not German Shorthaired pointers, and that didnt matter either. Well, I am sorry, but no. No, I am not changing my dogs name. No, I am not explaining to my customers why my dogs papers do not match from one organization to the other. No, I am not trying to explain why my dogs papers dont match when talking to sanctioned event personnel if I want to test or compete. And as I told the nice woman on the phone at the NAVHDA, No, I wont be registering my dog with them at this time and to let me know how to go about protesting this. She kindly said that they would return my money, but offered no insight as to how one could contest this. Whats in a name you ask? As far as I am concerned there is a lot. Whats the moral of the story? Well, if you want to duel register your dog you had better check before you name him Fido or Henry or Buckshot or Gunsmoke and register him with the AKC, because the NAVHDA may have given those particular words exclusively to a sole individual and they are protected and you cant use them. So for the time being, I guess I will just have to stick to AKC sanctioned events only. I feel better and I hope this helps prevent this from happening to any of you, happy hunting and thanks for reading.
Related Aritlces
Girls, Guns, and Gun Dogs!
Growing up in the south one gains an appreciation for late fall/early springtime bobwhite quail hunting behind a brace of pointers about as much as anything can be appreciated. The landscape here is dotted with private plantations, public shooting preserves, and small family farms that hold the elusive Gentleman-Bob...opportunities abound. In fact, I cut my gun dog teeth, as it were, training pointing breeds and stumbling around bottom lands I could access hunting quail. It would be some years before I switched my focus over to retrieving breeds entering the world of professional training and trial competition.
Tall Timbers: Burning Down the House
I’ve heard of folks figuring out the price tag on costs to raise wild quail, but I don’t know of anyone who has kept track of the amount of time that goes into the breeding, training and developing of a championship gun dog. Both are significant. Take that dog number, multiply it by 55, and you’ll have one heck of a lot of hours all represented in the dogs that qualified to run across 28 braces in the February 2025 National Championship for Bird Dogs held at Ames Plantation. The first brace of this 126-year old Super Bowl caliber event commenced on February 10th . The final brace ran over two weeks later on February 27, and during that time weather conditions ranged from a soggy, below-freezing 22 degrees Fahrenheit day to a 75-degree Fahrenheit sweat lodge. If you don’t like the weather in Grand Junction then wait five minutes.
4 Great Ways to Shoot Your Dog
Karl, a German shorthaired pointer, zig zagged his way through the humid, early season corn maze. These South Dakota stalks stood tall, taller than even an NBA center, and if a bird flushed up it’d make for tricky shooting. To harvest a bird over a point, Karl’s owner knew he’d need to get out to the edge. When there was an opening he headed west, and stopped where the last row of stalks met the winter rye.
