10/28/2025
The 2025 GSPCA National Open Gun Dog Grand Championship at Eureka, Kansas is in the books. Bl**er fell short of the top four placements, but she was awarded a Judge’s Award of Merit! She earned every bit of it!
I woke up Saturday morning to pouring rain. I looked at the weather forecast hoping to see a break in the weather for her run, but it looked like rain all day. She was first brace of the day. My last hope was the folks in charge would decide to postpone things until the following day. When I got to the club house the board read, “Brace 13 Rain or Rain”. Not exactly the news I hoped for, but that’s field trialing. I decided to look at the weather as an opportunity. If Bl**er could put on a show in nasty weather it might just play to her favor. Bl**er just needed to be herself. Go do what Bl**er normally does.
The rain wasn’t terrible when her brace started, but everything was soaked. The ground was a slick, sloppy mess. Her first bird contact was a stop to flush on a covey of quail. Shortly after she had a nice limb find on a covey that was hunkered up trying to stay dry. She followed that up with another covey find and a stop to flush. Then it started to pour. We were all soaked to the bone. Bl**er kept rolling coming up with 2 more covey finds and a find on a single. Her race wasn’t as powerful as normal but her application was spot on. Her race was that of a mature bird dog who knew she needed to gear things down a notch to do her job. She did that and boy did she look beautiful on her birds! With 7 minutes left one judge road up and told me, “Man keep her going!” At two minutes left another judge said, “We really like her but get her out of here.” I knew he was implying they wanted to see a strong finish, but Bl**er was too wet and cold to be her normal powerful self. Finishes are normally one of her strong suits but the weather had taken its toll and the best she had to give just simply wasn’t enough. After her brace they decided to postpone the trial for the day.
A Judge’s Award of Merit isn’t what we came for but I couldn’t be more proud of my dog. She gave it her all which is exactly what she always does. Thank you to Barry Bollinger for scouting for her and for all of your work with her the first few years of her life. All of her successes are due in large part to your hard work. I just get to play with the Ferrari you tuned up. I’d also like to thank the judges and volunteers who worked so hard to put on the event. Your efforts are appreciated! Thank you to my good friend, Robert Kubas, for watching dogs for a couple days to allow me to get away. Last but not least thank you to the Bechtel’s for allowing this event to take place on their beautiful piece of the Flint Hills!
