Generations of men, and their sons, and now grandsons who travelled first by train to this vast landscape to train and test their dogs in the most telling grounds left on this continent.
When you first saddle up and ride across this landscape it can be a bit unnerving. Miles and miles of prairie, interspersed with poplar groves, stands of wolf willow, sage brush, and prickly pear cactus. I'm turned around within an hour, but my horse usually knows where camp is.
Yet you're not alone. Expect to see coyotes skulking the next rise, watching you as intently as you're watching them. Jumbo whitetail deer, explode out of coulees in groups of three and four, often with a buck at the head of the group that hunters can only dream of.
And the birds. Native flocks of Sharptail Grouse and the upstart Hungarian Partridge. Untouched and unsullied by man.They're why we're here, especially the sharptails.
They're why those men started coming so many years ago. Juvenile sharptail are the finest training tool for pointing dogs ever discovered. They are predictable in location, hold until pushed, try to stay flocked up, scent well, fly a short distance when flushed to another predictable position, and its all done at a cooler temperature than back home in Mississippi, Alabama, or Georgia.
Now this is key. The birds are not everywhere. They are in very specific locations, that a smart dog learns to identify. Dogs learn to hunt here. Really hunt. It's no coincidence that when you review the winners of the major trials and the Purina All-Age Handler awards that a disproportunate number are regulars on the Northern Plains.
And yet the trials and trainers have been struggling to exist here. Government regulations eliminated many of the professionals that came here for generations. Many trainers were forced to seek other grounds in the Dakotas, Nebraska and other places on the southern side of the border. Changing economics have also played a factor. The professional shooting dog trainers have disappeared (from this area at least), as owners run more of their own dogs as amateurs themselves. The professionals here run All Age stakes almost exclusively.
So, the prairie has evolved into two somewhat separate, somewhat integrated worlds. The old magical names are still occupied.
Broomhill and Melita still are home to fierce competition. Colvin and Mazie Davis, disciples of John S. Gates run several trials, and this year revived the Manitoba Championship. Robin and Hunter Gates are nearby, along with Ricky Furney with his powerhouse string of Miller bred dogs.
In Stoughton Saskatchewan, Lefty Henry trains occasionally with my partner Pat Lewis, who learned his trade under the late Ted Gardner, on grounds developed by Ted's father John. The Epps still visit Piapot SK each summer.
No where is the history more felt than Mortlach Saskatchewan, home of the Dominion Chicken Championship, plus many other trials. Here's the corrals at Mortlach the morning of the Dominion. Fifty Tennessee Walkers in the boxes plus horses staked out everywhere else.
Now why are these trials important to the average hunter or weekend trialler? There are several reasons.
When dogs are discussed, the question is often asked "Can he win on the prairies?' Triallers and breeders know it takes a special dog to win here. Now, I have nothing against the southern trials, but there are definitely different conditions, and different ways of running. In heavy cover games can be played. Creative scouting can rest a dog, take a dog magically to the front with no sign of assistance, and put a dog to the front in a known birdy area. In the north, things are different. The birds are wild, the cover is sparser, the territory covered larger. Its more open, and tougher to change the odds.
Well known Canadian Amateurs, fr. left Trevor Palmer, Dr. Lou Qualtiere (Ardath Field trial Club), and Ron Bender (Mortlach Field Trial Club)
Secondly there is a theory called "drag of the breed". Basically, the theory is that unchecked, breeding indiscriminately leads to mediocrity. If you take two National Champions, put them on an island, and come back in fifty or a hundred years, what you'll find is an island full of coyotes.
In a typical full all age breeding, of seven pups, you might have only two dogs that will run all age, while the rest may only be shooting dogs or hunting dogs. If you breed shooting dogs together, you may have a couple of shooting dogs, and a bunch of real nice hunting dogs. Now there are magic "nicks" that change the odds, and "blue hen" bitches that will throw great trial dogs no matter what they're bred to (think Potato Patch Sue, or Wine List). As hunters and triallers concerned about the future of our breeds, we have to keep looking to the great trial dogs to revitalize our breedings. Bob Wehle did it time and time again. Look at his outcrossings to dogs like Guard Rail, and Dunn's Fearless Bud among others.
Here's some of Doug Vaugn's Shadow Cruiser derbies at Ardath. Primarily Miller Silver Bullett and Whippoorwill's Rebel breeding.
My old partner "Sun" waiting for the start of the Prairie Shooting Dog "Ogilvy" Classic at Ardath.
Bill Preston & Maureen Preston watering one of their charges.
Kind of a "who's who of Canadian triallers" From left standing: Butch Froese, Sheldon Rogers, Ron Bender. Kneeling: Doug Vaughn, Bill Preston, Dr. Lou Qualtiere, with Ron's grandson.
