06/27/2024
Dog horse named Bob
Alder Fork English Setters
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- Danbury, WI
- Alder Fork English Setters
We breed English Setter bird dogs and offer gundog training services.
06/19/2024
Little man Sin starting to point strong on scent. This is him standing the launcher after he pointed then chased on the flush and came back around. He’s a smart, stylish, driven pup with good natural instincts owned by .
06/17/2024
Pallets.
I guess we take a lot of things for granted. But I’d be willing to bet most of the essentials stocked on the shelves of your kitchen, bathroom or kennel were stored and shipped on a pallet at some point. That’s what these larger trees will mostly become. It doesn’t sound real glamorous but we’re all about utility here on the Fork. Maybe your next grocery store purchase will arrive, stacked on some upper St. Croix Valley Red Pine.
This second thinning will open up the forest floor and begin to allow a thick understory to develop again, transforming this small tract into a much more appealing area for wildlife. When we advocate for harvesting timber resources for the benefit of people, gamebirds and other wildlife it’s not just lip service.
06/15/2024
I’ve been at this for a little while now. In 1986 you couldn’t Google anything. You had to read a book and then go work your dog.
06/01/2024
Sin! A precocious little Elhew bred pup is here to go through my puppy program. We’re best buds already…
05/23/2024
I’m Sioux Too - CH Woodville’s Yukon Cornelius x Kasida.
05/20/2024
We’d like to take a moment to thank all of our Grouse hunting guests coming north this fall to hunt the King with us. We are fully booked for our all inclusive October hunts in Minnesota! Day hunts are still available in November if the weather holds out.
We are now booking for the 2025 season and offering multi day hunts with groups of more than 2 hunters as we increase our capacity to accommodate the demand.
We offer very private, first class accommodations situated deep in the Grouse woods, literally surrounded by miles and miles of public Grouse and Woodcock habitat. Some of our guests have hunted right out the back door! Hearing Grouse drumming on a well moonlit night is a regular occurrence. This is a bird hunters paradise. You will walk miles behind highly trained Setters, eat very well and sleep like a rock at day’s end.
We cater to the needs of each group and create a hunt that will send you home with lifetime memories.
05/18/2024
As our business grows, I’m proud to be outfitting a couple hosted hunts with my friend Durrell .
Experience a classic upland adventure in the heart of the Northwoods this October chasing the King with Durrell - a passionate dog handler, artist and upland guide. He only has a few dates available. Contact for booking!
05/13/2024
July 20 - August 31 are the dates. I’m almost booked up and only have a single kennel open for summer camp this year. If you want your dog to see more wild birds in 6 weeks than most dogs see all year, send me a message. We take all pointing breeds 6 months and older, trial dogs or gundogs and we run them on Sharptailed Grouse, Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock, 7 days a week!
Why send your dog to us? - an abundance of wild birds, small number of dogs - individual attention to each dog and many years of training experience.
05/02/2024
Making life memories.
Got this photo recently of a beautiful chocolate colored bird that was taken on a guided hunt two seasons ago. Two of my return hunting guests both got a real special bird mounted from that trip.
What I remember most from both birds is the dog work and exactly how Blaze and Mina worked those two birds so they could be taken on the wing. I have great respect for these birds and the dogs that consistently handle them.
“While other American gamebirds may well demand the respect of the confirmed grouse hunter, the present day ruffed grouse is far more of a problem for a dog to handle than any other. He is the craftiest of all our gamebirds”. - William Harnden Foster
04/30/2024
2024 International Amateur
Woodcock Championship Winners
Moss Meadow Seeker, SM, Ken Moss
Bang Bang's Longshot, SM, Scott Luther
04/27/2024
Had the privilege of judging the International Amateur Woodcock Championship the last couple days with Brett Edstrom and saw some very nice amateur handled dogs. Thanks to the Moose River Grouse Dog Club for hosting this rotating AFTCA wild bird Championship. When my buddy Bill asked me to help out I was excited to give back a little to the grouse trials I’ve enjoyed so much for the last 20+ years.
Congrats to Ken Moss with multiple Champion - Moss Meadow Seeker and Scott Luther with his Champion and now Runner-Up Champion - Bang Bang’s Long Shot.
A couple of the best moments I recall from both performances: Seeker hunting with a strong consistent, mostly forward race and executing 3 pieces of bird work, 2 grouse and 1 Woodcock. On his last bird he made a masterful relocation on a running Grouse. And Scott Luther’s Long Shot dog had a strong reaching ground effort as well. On his bird he went deep front left at about 10 O’Clock until his bell faded out. Scott jumped into the cover having a good line on where the dog was last heard but he had made a big move. I was sticking with the other handler and dog as the course turned toward the left and we were separated from Scott by quite a distance we see a single Grouse blow out just below us in some Hazel and Alder. A few more steps along the course and I’m looking down into that bottom, I see Long Shot styled up like an absolute Bull. Scott was far back but finally caught up to shoot his gun, judge Edstrom reporting to me that he was intense and stylish even after standing that long with the bird gone. “That’s a field trial move”, I said to Brett as he nodded in agreement.
04/16/2024
I Know You Ryder.
04/15/2024
I want to thank Joe for bringing Duke back to me to develop in my puppy program. Developing pups is one of my strengths - starting them very early on birds, giving them lots of walks, exposing them to the consistent, deliberate life of a bird dog.
As a breeder one of my goals is to be able to work with and train as many of my own dogs as possible - to see what I’m producing first hand and to develop them like few other people could, knowing their tendencies generations back. I’m fortunate that Joe and Duke gave me that opportunity and I’m deeply blessed by this bird dog life.
04/14/2024
Littermate brothers Wilder and Duke pointing their first wild birds. They’re by the great grouse CH Ponderosa Mac out of our Derby of the Year winner Little Hawk. Here’s Wilder pointing his first Grouse, a big red bird! And Duke pointing a Woodcock. Phone pics in the woods are never great. But 5 month old pups pointing Grouse and Woodcock ain’t bad.
04/11/2024
I’m Sioux Too.
04/10/2024
04/10/2024
Briar - after she ran around for an hour finding and flushing multiple Grouse and Woodcock, she decided to point this one staunchly. I had already leashed her since we were getting close to the truck.
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04/09/2024
This is my Uncle Butch with my Cousin Dave’s dog Shadow. Uncle Butch passed away recently. He dearly loved his family and he was a kind and gentle soul. But he also loved the dogs! He would take Shadow on regular walks and help take care of him as if Shadow was his own.
It wasn’t until the past year or so that I came to realize that my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Butch had been following along with all the work Katie and I had been doing with our dogs. They’ve shared our story with a number of people. And so Aunt Sandy sent us this photo of Butch and Shadow and a special contribution to our program. I told Katie last night, “I think we’ll put up this photo of Uncle Butch and Shadow in the kennel so they can keep watch over the dogs for good”…
04/06/2024
Had to repost this photo of Layla. She’s a Ponderosa Mac x Little Hawk pup owned by our friend Michael . He says she’s the most natural pup he’s had. Just like her momma and her grand dam before that - the most naturally talented bird dogs I’ve ever owned. These are traits deeply encoded within their DNA and moving down through subsequent generations. Catching it in your hands for a time is a parlor trick. Drilling it into multiple generations and maintaining it is an art.
03/26/2024
Never hurts to revisit this absolute classic every couple years…
03/18/2024
WI/MN Coverdog Open Derby of the Year - Little Hawk, pointing Ruffed Grouse. She’s by CH Erin’s Hidden Shamrock out of our female War Paint. The top half of her first Shooting Dog trial season was spent raising pups, now she gets to work.
03/06/2024
Sassy looking like her momma on point.
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02/21/2024
Our friend Travis Burnett sent us this shot of his pup Boone figuring out bird scent on a pigeon. We’re just as excited as you are to watch him develop! Boone is by CH Ponderosa Mac out of our Derby of the Year Little Hawk.
02/20/2024
Another season down at the ranch. It’s a special place where wild quail still thrive.
Had to take a quick photo at the gate with Blaze, wouldn’t be here without her. Thank you to for taking care of home, wouldn’t be here without her either. And thanks to Mike Miller and all our hunting guests.
02/18/2024
Consistency.
1 - Little Hawk at 8 weeks.
2 - Her daughter Sassy by Ponderosa Mac at 8 weeks
3 - Little Hawk in a workout at 4 Brooks
This breeding concentrates some of . I’m looking for one of those rare bird finders. And I want them to be made just like Little.
02/15/2024
Little man Tuff stacking up on quail scent.
02/11/2024
North Hollywood Shootout
02/10/2024
Getting high drive dogs to go with you.
The only tool for me is the e-collar. It’s the easiest and most expedient way, putting the least amount of stress on the dog…. But the training begins with a simple rope snapped to the dog’s flat collar - the check cord.
I hadn’t worked and .dobbins Ernie since summer. First I put him back on the check cord so we could come to an understanding before I turned him loose to rely on the e-collar.
I’m also using tone without any stimulation about 85% of the time. Does anyone else use the collar tone for recall/handling?
📷:
02/08/2024
“Me, You and these Setters are the best quail hunters in the world Deano.”
Deano: “You got that right papa! You got that right…”
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Address
8682 Black Bear Trl
Danbury, WI
54830
Opening Hours
| Monday | 8am - 5pm |
| Tuesday | 8am - 5pm |
| Wednesday | 8am - 5pm |
| Thursday | 8am - 5pm |
| Friday | 8am - 5pm |
| Saturday | 8am - 5pm |
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Videos
I Know You Ryder - Keystone’s Red Rage x War Paint. . . . #IKnowYouRyder #Setter #KeystonesRedRage #WarPaint #ChipsTorquato #RiversEdgeSadie #KeystonesRedRyder #TekoaMountainSunrise #GrouseRidgeBeen #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #AlderForkSetters
Alder Fork Briar getting ready for her upcoming Derby season and some guided hunts this fall. She’s by Keystone’s Red Rage x War Paint. . . . #AlderForkBriar #Setter #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #AmericanFieldBredSetter #DogTraining #AlderForkSetters
Yard work season - teaching Sioux “heel” and “whoa” with the pigging string and whoa post. This is where she’s at after only 3 sessions. Next I’ll establish a point of contact around her belly with the e-collar before beginning the breaking process. Notice me pick up her low head. Low means go. Read your dog and adapt accordingly. . . . #ImSiouxToo #Setter #DogTraining #Whoa #Heel #LowMeansGo #ReadYourDog #ThinkLikeADog #BirdDogDevelopment #AlderForkSetters
Omashkooz. . . . #Elk #DetroitDiesel #Wisconsin
Sassy on the pigeon pole. She’s from our most recent litter - CH Ponderosa Mac x Little Hawk. Katie mentioned you can hear her jaws snap in the video when she jumps to grab the bird. . . . #Sassafrass #Setter #Pup #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #PigeonPole #DogTraining #AlderForkSetters
Getting Z ready to defend her MGDA Spring Shooting Dog and John Hadaway Classic wins. We had just crossed the Fork and took a hard left to swing back to the truck when her bell stopped at 65 yards. Once I saw her I’m thinking Woodcock all the way - haven’t seen them return home yet but it should be any minute - and when she’s pointed with a lower tail like that it sometimes means she’s on top of a Woodcock. But as you can see it was no Woody, but a big red drummer that had run around behind her at my approach. Notice how she turns her head as far back as she can once the bird goes. She knows he ran back around behind her. But an experienced Grouse dog also knows how to handle super spooky spring Ruffs. She’d dropped her tail a bit letting me know she wasn’t really in the scent cone but she absolutely knew that bird was near and if she so much as turned her body to get her nose in the cone again she likely would have put him to wing before I arrived to flush. There are lots of cool tricks you can teach a dog, but being a careful wild bird dog that understands just how much pressure a spring Grouse will take isn’t one of them - they either figure it out or they don’t. . . . #Kasida #BigRedDrummer #RuffedGrouse #TheAlderFork #Setter #WildBirds #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #AlderForkSetters
Puppy walks with Duke. Such a smart little dude which makes him super easy to work with. Thank you for bringing him back to us to develop Joe! @joeleuman . Duke is out of our Derby of the Year Little Hawk, sired by the great Grouse CH Ponderosa Mac. Developing pups through my puppy program is one of my strengths. It’s best for pups 12 weeks up to about 6 months. But I’ve also used it with dogs a year of age and even older if they haven’t been worked much. If you have a young dog or pup that needs a solid introduction to “learning how to learn” and to focus on bird dog tasks, give me a holler. The puppy program is 4 weeks long and I’m available all year for this type of work with the exception of October - guiding hunts every day - and January/February when I’m away from my kennel guiding in TX. . . . #DukeOfAlderFork #PuppyDevelopment #Puppy #PuppyTraining #ImprintBehavior #Setter #BirdDogDevelopment #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #AlderForkSetters
{ WILD BIRD SPRING TRAINING PROGRAM } This is one of many Woodcock Z pointed during a very short workout. Our property has Grouse and Woodcock on it and it’s surrounded by many square miles of public land Grouse cover. We don’t even have to get in the truck to work dogs on wild birds. Due to the fact that I have a lot of my own young dogs and pups to work, I’ll only be taking a small number of client dogs for spring training on all wild birds - Grouse and Woodcock. I’m planning to begin taking dogs on March 1. Last fall I saw the most Grouse I’ve seen in 38 years of chasing them. Adding to that good news, it looks like the mild winter will carry over a lot of those birds and we should have a long, productive spring training season. Message me for more details and to get your dog signed up. Why send your dog to us: - 37 years experience - Abundant wild birds - Individual climate controlled indoor/outdoor runs . . . #WildBirdsOnly #SpringTraining #RuffedGrouse #Woodcock #DogTraining #PointingDogs #AlderForkSetters
I love this dog. I like to call him “Junior” because he reminds me of his momma Z. Ernie is owned by @haydendobbins and @kait.dobbins . Hayden brought him down to south TX because he needed to get a better handle on him as he was starting to self-hunt and take off. So we taught him that he can run all he wants as long as he goes with us. If you watch the video all the way through you’ll see Ernie’s stylish, happy way of going hard, scorching the ancient ocean beds of south TX, and how easy he handles now, even when he ranges out. In the video he hits about 300 yards before I start singing him back in. This is extremely tough ground. The best way to describe it is if you pressed your bare hands down anywhere they’d come back loaded with small stickers and any number of prickly things. It looks like a soft sandy prairie but the ground is anything but soft. You could never walk barefoot on it, but the dogs run barefoot on it as fast as they can go… or they don’t: the process of weeding out. As you can see, Ernie powers across the terrain here like he’s floating on a magic carpet. That kind of grit, toughness and running power doesn’t come by accident. His sire and dam have it too. He’s by CH Woodville’s Yukon Cornelius x Kasida. . . . #Junior #Ernesto #Setter #Quail #Texas #Pita #Mariposa #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #AlderForkSetters
Little Hawk on her 4th covey rise of the day yesterday. She ranged out until birds stopped her, carding finds at 385, 417, 268 and 459 yards. I’m slightly biased but I ask you… is there a better looking pointed bird dog!? No way! . . . #LittleHawk #PointingStyle #DerbyOfTheYear #Setter #Texas #Quail #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #WorkingDog #OnYourLeft #CoveyRise #BrokeDogs #WildBirds #AlderForkSetters
Blaze putting shooters on top of them in the Rodeo. . . . #WarPaint #Rodeo #Mariposa #Texas #Quail #Setter #AlderForkSetters
Big Gus sticking one along the fence line in the Santo Domingo this morning. . . . #BigChungus #Setter #Quail #Texas #BrokeDogs #WildBirds #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #Mariposa #SantoDomingo #AlderForkSetters
Broke dogs - wild birds. Little. . . . #LittleHawk #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #Setter #Quail #Texas #Caramayola #Mariposa #AlderForkSetters
Run run run… . . . #Setter #Puppy #AlderForkSetters
Came across this video of Blaze on a covey a couple years ago in the Rodeo. I have a singular focus - broke work on wild birds. And to be more specific, I want my dogs to excel in places where a lot of other dogs fail, where many Setters fail. This is one reason I love south Texas. Come look at the kennel - 60-70 dogs - maybe 15-20 Setters, eleven of them are mine. Running Setters in 95 degrees with 70+% humidity will sort them out real quick if the sand burrs don’t… . . . #TheProcessOfWeedingOut #EnglishSetter #AmericanFieldBredSetter #WarPaint #CoveyRise #Mariposa #Rodeo #BobwhiteQuail #DeepSouthTexas #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #AlderForkSetters
Blaze on her single Woodcock find in the Grand. You can’t win pointing the stinky worm eaters. But it was a great experience and privilege to be braced with Doc Holmes - a true dog man, great competitor and handler and the epitome of sportsmanship. He leaned in to me after this find whispering, “Beautiful piece of work.” After this at about 55 minutes she made a big move to the left and hit a road which lead her out to the group of trucks and by then she was absent too long so I pulled the tracker. . . . #WarPaint #GrandNationalGrouseChampionship #Gladwin #AlibiHall #AmericanWoodcock #AmericanFieldBredSetter #AlderForkSetters
Z sticks a pair deep on an Alder edge. . . . #Kasida #RuffedGrouse #AmericanFieldBredSetter #GrouseDog #BareNovember #AlderForkSetters
Blaze taking a quick dip in the Alder Fork just before she had two Grouse finds. “Good giiiirrrl” I whispered, as she stood tall watching each bird take flight. I fired my blank gun and watched them bank away into the setting Sun… “What was full, was not my creel but my memory…”. . . . #WarPaint #AmericanFieldBredSetter #RuffedGrouse #TheAlderFork #AFishingIdyl #LiveALifeOfConservation #UpperStCroixRiverValley #AlderForkSetters
Gus at just under 7 months of age pointing Woodcock. He’s also pointed Pheasant already. He’s owned by Pat Cooke. Pat is the breeder of our War Paint - Blaze. Since Blaze was a pup I’ve kept in contact with Pat, telling him how special she is, no doubt a direct result of her multiple wild bird Champion mother - River’s Edge Sadie who Pat proudly owned and sent to the Forman brothers to campaign. Sadie dominated the Grouse trial circuit for a while, winning 5 Championships. When we knew this would be Blaze’s final litter, bred to a producer of fine wild bird dogs - Keystone’s Red Rage - and concentrating some of the old Setter blood, I advised Pat to take his pick of the litter. Without his breeding efforts in raising Blaze from the whelping box we would not have the current Setter power in our kennel - dogs that can win trials and put food on my table by consistently producing game on guided hunts. We feel deeply blessed to watch this all come full circle and to see little Gus taking after his momma so well. . . . #AmericanFieldBredSetter #WildBirdDog #EnglishSetter #Puppy #AmericanWoodcock #Woodcock #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #AlderForkSetters
Just when you thought we were laying up… . . . #Setter #Pointer #Kasida #NorthHollywoodShootout #Speedball #FindYourWeakness #MakeItYourStrength #BirdDogs #K9Athletes #TheNewSetter #TheOldSetterBlood #Roading #AlderForkSetters
