Attended my first Cover Dog Trial

[Grange]

Just got back from the cover dog trial. It was in the Eau Claire County Forest in Western WI. It was different than I expected. I wanted to bring the camera and take some pictures, but it was raining a lot and I didn't want to ruin my camera.

I got there much later than I wanted. The road was closed so I had to drive around. When I got to the staging area a group had just left to run a trial. A couple of the guys there offered to take me to the trial grounds so I could watch. We got there and waited for about 10 minutes or so and I was able to catch up with the group. I introduced myself to the group and walked along for the rest of the coarse.

I had expected a large block of land to be marked out and the two dogs, handlers and judges would be free to hunt the entire area any way they chose. That however was not at all how it was run. There is a set "path" marked out through the coarse and the everyone walks single file along the "path" with the dogs running all around. The two handlers are generally the first with the judges following each handler. Each handler had a spotter that helped located the dog when needed. There weren't a lot of spectators along, which was probably a good thing for the dogs.

I went on three trials. The first one as I said I caught up part way through. It was a Shooting Dog trial and was 1 hour long. Much of the habitat was river bottom. The two dogs, both english pointers, found one woodcock, one grouse, and one rabbit. Both dogs were steady to wing and shot (blank pistol).

After lunch I went on a Derby trial with a irish setter and english pointer. Both dogs were under two I believe. This trial was 1/2 hour long and the coarse was fairly wet through popple stands and river bottom. Unfortunately neither dog found a bird although we did hear a grouse flush.

The third trial I watched was another Shooting Dog trial. This time it was one english pointer and one english setter. habitat was similar to the first trial, a lot of river bottom. The english setter got lost so the handlers separated. Not wanting to add any more pressure on the english setter's handler I decided to follow the english pointer. I really wanted to see the english setter work some more because he was just beautiful running through the woods. More graceful than the english pointer to me, but the english pointer seemed a little more driven. That's not to say though that the english setter wasn't going "balls to the wall", but it just looked smoother.

The english pointer had one unproductive point and didn't find a bird the rest of the way. It was also by far the biggest running dog I saw that day. At times it easily got over 200 yards away from the handler. Like all the other dogs it wore a bell so the handler knew where the dog was because for much of the time it was out of sight.

Finally some things I noted while walking along. The dogs run BIG in this cover dog trial. I've hunted grouse most of my life and have never hunted behind a dog that ran that big. They were never allowed. This tells me the handlers have tremendous confidence in their dogs abilities. There were times (mostly due to terrain) when we couldn't even hear the bells. This is when the handler would call the dog.

The second thing I noted was how vocal the handlers were with their dogs. They rarely called them in, but they "sang" to the dogs so they would know where the handlers were. Whistles were usually not blown unless the dog had been out of sight for a while.

The third thing I noted was that the handlers always wanted their dogs out front and for the most part these dogs were out front. No looping around the back. They were always driving forward.

I had a great time. The guys and gals were very friendly and very helpful. If anyone from the Chippewa Valley Grouse Dog Club reads this I would like to again express my gratitude for the hospitality that I was shown. You guy run a tight ship. I plan on cross posting this on a couple other dog forums in hopes someone from the club will read this.

Unfortunately I didn't see a Llewellin and only one english setter, but as I said earlier I really enjoyed watching that dog work. I want to go back tomorrow and watch again, but I doubt I will have time. Hopefully I'll see a few more at the NSTRA trial in a few weeks.

[snips]

If there is a set course each time and it is run on wild birds, seems like the first braces would do much better, as they would move most of the birds from the area since they are going over the same course. ????

[Grange]

I asked them about that. Normally they have six course, but due to the road conditions they could only use three. I guess they will run each coarse twice a day. Once in the morning and once in the afternoon. They said it is luck of the draw as to who gets what course.

[Wagonmaster]

snips, grange is not talking about a "set course" in the meaning of that term at an AKC trial. all wild bird trials are multiple course trials. most grouse/cover dog trials I have been at have five or six one-hour courses, so they never run over the same area more than once a day. the "set course" grange is talking about is just a trail cut through the woods and everyone stays on the trail unless, of course, the dog has a find. the reason for the trail is pretty simple, stick to it and you will not get lost.

grange, we call each running of two dogs for an hour, a "brace." we call the running of several dogs of the same type a "stake" (i.e. "Amateur Shooting Dog stake") and we use the term "trial" to refer to the whole event. So, for example, a dog might run in the 2nd brace of the Amateur Shooting Dog stake in the Chippewa Valley Cover Dog Trial.

The spring trials on grouse can be pretty tough. The birds are in breeding mode, they are spooky and run like the "bleep". And of course in the spring, all that is left are the wily birds that survived winter, and whatever woodcock have migrated.

Glad you enjoyed yourself. You will learn alot about good grouse dogs from those people.

[Grange]

Thanks for the correction, I'm still trying to get the terminology down. Very knowledgeable guys and gals were there.