Bird Dog Challenges

ford

ford

New member
If anyone or if you have a club that is having a bird dog challenge or a hunting competition would you please post some dates and contact info. I ran in some last year and I am hooked, the problem is people dont hear about them and thus the competitions get small turnouts. I will be posting info on 5 or six of them when I get the final copy of the schedule.

The first one is in Hitchcock SD at ringneck Retreat Jan 24 and 25 2009,
Feb 28 and Mar 1 2009 Southfork Lodge Dallas SD
Mar 21 and 22 2009 @ Thunderstick Lodge Chamberlain SD.
April 18 and 19 @ Ringneck Retreat Hitchcock SD.
May 9 and 10 2009 "Championship" @ Ringneckretreat Hitchcock SD

For Questions Contact info is on www.ringneckretreat.com
The website for the series is www.dakotadogseries.com


Thanks for your help
 
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The only bird dog challenge that I've done in South Dakota was in Huron at the Ringneck Festival which is held in November of each year. I participated a few years but quite because I didn't like their scoring system. I felt it was weighted way too much on time. I feel that more emphasis should be placed on the dog work and shooting of the the hunters. One year I finished in 14 place so I re-scored the top 14 teams under 2-3 other bird dog challenge scoring systems and I would have finished 3rd or 4th in every one. We had a perfect run. No shots missed, all birds found and fully retrieved but our time wasn't as fast as some other teams.

Over the years I have looked at various BDC's around the midwest and what I found were some very fast times. I found out this was mainly due to limited cover for the birds as they want everyone to bag all their birds. I guess in some of the states they don't have the opportunity to shoot pheasants like we do in South Dakota so they make it easy. I'd rather they make finding the birds more difficult so the work of the dog is more critical. It would help separate the very good dogs from the average.
 
so your saying it should be called BHC "Bird Hunter Challenge" and leave the "dog" out of it ? if so i agree.
 
I agree a friend of mine was in the ringneck festival in Huron and got second they got all their birds and didn't miss a shot and full retrieves with every bird and lost to another dog that had 3 ,1/2 retrieves, but a shorter time. I agree it has to much to do with time and not the dog work that should be the important thing.
 
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I disagree. usually the best dogs wins. If your dog was able to go out and and show his superior nose and run and find them birds, point and retrieve in 3.68 min ,don't you think it should beat out another dog that maybe doesn't cover the ground as well and has a hard time finding the birds and it takes him 14 min.? If you shoot and miss your bird and your dog cant produce a bird in your hand you get time docked off your total run time and that is the same with the retrieves ...........GO MEG
 
Oggie,

I think you missed the point here. What you say is absolutely correct. But the bird dog challenge in Huron is too heavily weighted towards time. We are not saying that time shouldn't be a factor, just not so much. In any of the bird dog challenges if everything else was equal the dog with the fastest time would win. That's fine, but in Huron the dog could not retrieve one or two birds, the hunter could miss a bird and yet you can place higher than a team that had all the finds and full retrieves and the hunters never missed a shot. Almost everyone I talk to in Huron feels the same as I do but the person responsible for coming up with the scoring system won't change it.

We all have our opinions. If your preference is to run in BDC's that are heavily weighted on time then you should head to Huron. Personally, I'll probably stay away. That's my choice and my preference.

Zeb
 
Well there is good points and bad points to everything,They all have them. There just the games we get to play in the off season. I will agree I have seen some pretty nasty dog work out there but for the most part for the ones who get to go (not watch on TV) there are some really nice dogs there. A close Friend of mine has 2 of the nicest dogs I have ever seen hit the Field, Meg and Rock both 3X national BDC champs would put either one against any dog in the country..:thumbsup:
 
Thanks for the post and everyone is entitled to their opinion but not at all what i was looking for. I guess I will try somewhere else.


Thank You
 
Sorry about that I did not mean to come accross gruf or anything, There are some good dogs yes. Typeing can come accross several diferent ways. The Prarie lakes HRC club has a few events coming for all breeds and I will post the details. There is also some hunt tests this spring as well. There is a Ukc club in Brainerd as well that has some hunt test events. The Horse and Gun club in the metro MN area has a few Dog chalenges each year as well, MN hunting spaniels has hunt tests every year as well. I will find out dates and put them up later
 
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Kinda waited for others to chime in butam finally throwing my two cents worth in.
Lots of valid points. I shot a fair number of these years ago and also judged. There were a number of different formats and I did not like many of them.
For example, points given for points or finds where the bird did not end up in the bag. Guys would clean the field without killing the bird and/or getting a retrieve. For some shoots one decent retrieve is all thats required.
I also like the no running rule that is seldom invoked. I am not the athelete, the dog is. Yes, they have Senior divisions some times. Also amateur divs. where you can run and see if you like this sort of thing.
Re the Minnesota Horse and hunt events, beware that the playing field may not always be level. The owner runs a ton of dogs after he gets your $, the fields vary greatly. As long as the "team" is different a dog can run in a great many events.
TIP---- the birds are placed under the dead xmas trees in the poor fields.
Having said this I have had some success there to include dog of the day over a four day event. Had our $ in the calcutta too!

I have done many club events and at the SD GSP Pheasant Championship once we went with a Senior Dog Class. Judged on all birds brought to hand and steady to wing and shot. The time element was in place as were shells retrieve to hand etc.. The party with the better time ended up in second place and was pissed until we went over the rules pointing out the bird he missed and the few faults of the dog, plus the fact that he had the clear rules before he went out. The other judge and I had the same scores. I actually liked the second place dog much better than the First, a methodically trained, very close working dog that seemed to have lost it's spirit. This was at the owners bidding, but the rules were the rules and we were not judging style.
We also had an amatuer event which I entered and took third with a young Pudelpointer who was quite adept at finding birds that day, tho did a lousy job retrieving in the heat. Was pointing the third and last bird as I was picking up the second, so I went for the time and quickly got the last bird myself also. Had the fastest time but lost on retrieve points.

You have to shoot in these contests also. A store bought pheasant is generally pretty slow and I give them a little more time to hit a full pattern.
Stay calm, don't get excited and take them one x one. If a two man event designate a shooter and let the owner handle the dog, the owner taking only those shots the shooter cannot or as a backup.

I was thinking about the Hitchcock shoot, but wonder what the fields are goint to be like!
________
HONDA GL650 HISTORY
 
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Sojka has nothing to do with this. This is the Dakota Outdoor Gundog Series. We just use some of his rules.
 
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engpointerman said:
sojka is in it for the money day of the show and the entries I would not take time to piss on his head the dirt is better.
Click to expand...

Where did this come from???
 
No Ford asked if anyone knew of any events comeing up ,we got missdirected a bit here. It realy is just about a guy wanting to go have fun with his dog for the day. I think he found one to go to and wish him all the luck:thumbsup: Don't miss Ford.
 
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