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Vizsla club of America Nationals, and South Dakota hunting trip 2006

This story is long overdue, but as they say better late than never. We already have our 2007 trip planed and have the entries for nationals printed.

Our South Dakota trip started the way most trips do, a-lot of phone calls, excitement, and anticipation. Other than hotel reservations, I didn’t even start thinking of South Dakota until after the VCA Nationals.

At the Nationals in the national gun dog first series, Ruger had a solid find, a back and a stop to flush. He stayed to the front, and looked good. On the stop to flush he started moving his feet after the birds were gone. We were given the choice of leaving him down or picking him up. There was too much movement and he would not be used. I decided to pick him up and call it a day.

A couple of days later, I was able to run Ruger again in the National Amateur Gun Dog stake. In the first series he had good moves, and multiple finds. He ran hard, stayed to the front, and held the lines. Ruger was invited back for the second series. He had a shaky start when he could not pick me out of the crowd and took his lead from the other handler. I corrected the problem and he was to the front. He held the tree lines, and was running hard. Ruger disappeared around one of the fingers of trees on the course. Once we rounded the trees there was no Ruger. I went on a little while looking for him and finally sent my scout out to check inside the tree line. A minute or two later I saw him on the other side of the road. He had made the biggest move I saw all week. He had rounded the field and was working his way back to me on the tree line on the other side of the course. He took a cornrow and when he was at about 2:00 I called him back. Ruger shot across the gravel road to the front of me. He caught a line. He took that until he stuck a quail on the edge of the woods. I tried to stay calm and rode up and dismounted. I started walking in. He was edgy and I handled him wrong. The bird moved a foot and so did he. The bird flushed, and Ruger could not take it anymore. He chased after the bird, and that was the end for Ruger.

I was very happy with Ruger’s performance even though we screwed up. This was his first Nationals as a broke dog. There is a lot of pressure on both the dog and handler. A dog can read the handler, and if he is nervous the dog will be also. I think he was reading me and it was too much for him to stay composed.

In the OPEN PUPPY stake at the Nationals one of Ruger’s puppies, SHILOHS ROCK MY WORLD (ROXIE) won the stake. She is owned by Matt and Ruth Rogers. She ran hard, made some good moves and is showing a-lot of talent. Roxie should be a nice broke dog in a year or two. Look for her in the derby stakes this fall. She has multiple placements in the trials.

I would like to thank Jerry Jordan for taking my horse and I to nationals. For all the help he has given me with Ruger’s training, training in general, and having me to his camp for a few days. If you are looking for a good pro trainer you might give him a call.

Our trip to South Dakota started the same as the last 8 years. We met in Janesville on a Thursday night at about 9:00 pm. We had a big group this year. Rodney and I rode in his truck. Doug and Jim C rode in Doug’s truck. Steve, Pete, and Jason rode in Jason’s truck. Brad, Tom, and Dan rode in Brads truck. This was not our largest year but far from our smallest. Rodney, Dan, Brad, Tom, and I have Vizsla’s. Steve and Doug have Labs. Jim has German wirehaired Pointers, And Jason has an English setter. Pete is dog-less. Yes we do hunt pointers and flushers together. We hunt each for their best qualities and rarely have an issue with running them together. Our biggest problem comes from the pointers running bigger than the labs and we move to fast. In most years there are plenty of birds, and we just separate in the same field. For S.D. pheasants in heavy cover or cattails a lab is hard to beat. In the grasslands, crops and creek beds a pointing dog is the way to go. The vizslas will hunt the cattails or heavy cover they just get beat up more. The labs will hunt the grassland, you just walk a-lot more to cover the same ground.

We made it to Mitchell S.D. for breakfast. After hitting Wal-Mart we broke up. The vizsla guys went to the grasslands and the others went to Cabalas. We found a field that had crops up to the edge and had a deep ravine. We covered some good ground and put up 4 or 5 pheasant’s. I shot one but after a lengthy search we gave up and moved on. It landed on bare ground at the top of the ravine. It must have ran for a mile. After making it back to the truck we met up with Doug and Jim. We hunted a property that had a lot of potential. We had 4 or 5 seasoned dogs on the ground and none of them even turned on. After covering a lot of ground Brad found a couple of grouse on the way back to the trucks. We started hunting a nearby area where Doug and Jim found a bunch of Grouse. Rodney and I also were into some grouse on the other side of the road. At the end of the day not much was taken and it was a good thing the cattleman’s club was open. We hunted the area for the next few days. We hit birds here and there, but there was little cover and the effects of the drought were obvious. The number of birds was way down. We did have a phenomenal hunt at a small private field north of Pierre. We all left the field with heavy vests.

For our last day the vizsla guys went toward Aberdeen. We met up with Kendall Stoddard a friend that owns High Trail Connection. He has great pheasant hunts and does not put out birds like so many places (yes, most pay places plant birds even in S.D.). See my link to his site if you would like to know more about Kendall. We saw more birds at his place than we did the rest of the week. In a normal year we would probably have seen more by Pierre. Aberdeen was not hit by the drought as bad as other parts of the state last year. It is simple no cover, no food, or no water = no birds. After spending the day with Kendall and having a nice diner we said our goodbyes and headed home to reality. This was not our best year for bird numbers. It was still a great year to get together with old friends, welcome some new, and watch some good dogs.

Until next time, Mark

Pam & Mark Spurgeon
5200 Shattuck Road - Belvidere, Illinois 61008
815.547.9027
Email Crimson Sky Vizslas @ csvizslas@yahoo.com

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