Shadow Mountain Jackie

     Meet Shadow Mountain Jacklyn 

                           

Jackie went to Steve Hurdle's Puppy program last spring ( 2014) .  Steve thought she might be special, and ought to go north.  At the end of summer, he thought she would be competitive in his string.  Her first trial was a bust as she was gone from the break-a-way to long to be placed.  However she did win her next two starts, as well as several other good placements.  We brought her home to try her as an Open shooting dog here in the mid west.  Physically she is on the small side, but her heart and motor are quite large.  She goes hunting from the get-go, and has an incredible nose  .She is a June puppy, so is still young.  Two of her brothers, Shadow Mountain Jackson, and Steel City Arapahoe have also won this fall.  Jackson is here at the kennel, and "Buddy" is with Jeanette Tracy.

                                              ANOTHER DOG OF THE YEAR AWARD    

" Jackie was just named " Dixie Trace " Open Derby  for 2014-2015

Thanks Steve Hurdle for handling her to these placements and this award     

Shadow Mountain Kennels fall wins

The breeding of Shadow Mountain Jack X A fancy Shadow has been a stellar feat for us as it has produced multiple major circuit winners from the first litter, and puppy winners from the second now 9 months old .
Shadow Mountain Jacklyn (above) had a good fall with Steve Hurdle blowing the whistle over her.  She was entered in 3 trials and won two.

Shadow Mountain Jackson (above) with Bud handling won for us and is now qualified.

Shadow Mountain Gus (not pictured) was 2nd. in a nice puppy stake at 7 months.

Steel City Arapahoe (pictured above) won big for Bob Reed and Harry Blaine, Jeanette Tracy handling.

Our other derby, Shadow Mountain Black Sam (above), was second in a nice derby for us.

All these young dogs have multiple crosses to Joe Shadow.

Steel City Arapahoe

Steel City Arapahoe has had a sterling fall for owners Bob Reed and Harry Blaine, with handler Jeanette Tracy.  In the 51 st. National Shooting dog futurity, he was mentioned as one of those in contention in the field of 35 of the nations best young shooting dog prospects with two broke finds.  What is amazing about this early trial is that "Buddy" was a June pup, and broke easily and early.
Buddy followed this with a 4th in the 79th. New England futurity from a field of 40.
He was then 2nd. in the Keystone Open Championship companion derby from a field of 23. Next came the  Lehigh Valley Pointer Setter Club's trial where he won the open derby from a field of 7.

Spring puppies

Let me introduce you to Jackson, "Shadow Mountain Jack x A Fancy Shadow".  This picture was taken after he had been "Rock n Rollen" for 20 minutes.  He has such a determination to run, he jumped through the creek, instead of taking time to cool off or get a drink.  He is 9 months old, and looks like his range might just be all age. 
He does have a good nose, and hit these pigeons hard , even though he was very hot.  He never caught up with his breathing, or cooled off his body temps, through out all his standing here for about 5 minutes.  I finally flew a bird for him, and took him to the kennel. 
Our hope is that he gets smarter , and slows down as he grows older.  He is big, stout, and with a few changes in his mentality, should make a good one.  We have his sister, also, who we think could maybe just with some luck, become a great one.
This has been a good breeding, as several of these pups show promise.  We also have a second breeding on the ground, and you can see them on another post.   bud

Thought I would show you our 9 week old "Jack x Fancy " pups.  they enjoy a run in the hay meadows.  We have been planting pigeons for them on the pvc poles, and in crates.  They are learning to use their noses to find birds , and in doing so learning that birds are along edges.
Yesterday we flew the birds for them for the first time.  They loved it!!!!!  "Jake" has always been satisfied to back the others, but when we started flying them, he wanted to be "up close and personal " with those pigeons. 
These pups seem to have a lot of point in them, and independence.  Very seldom see all three pups on birds at the same time.  They love to pack run, but seem to hunt independently.  Two weeks ago, Billy Sue was the star.  Yesterday Gus was the one.  Funny how they change from day to day.
 

Thoughts on line breeding

The top picture is our "Buttons N Bows" (Allie) sired by the dog on the left , National Champion Connor's EZ Button , and grand sired by the dog on the right, National Champion Shell Creek Coin , both owned by David O'Connor, and handled by Steve Hurdle.  All three go 60 + lbs. .  We have a super young prospect out of the above female , and a Son / grandson of Joe Shadow , ( Shadow Mountain Black Sam ) , with Steve in his spring puppy program.  We will probably breed Buttons N Bows this next Feb. to National Champion Lesters Snow Watch . I have never been "high" on Miller bred dogs as a strain, but I do like Snow Watch and Coin.  We had good luck bringing Ch. Mississippi Hot Rod (Millers White Powder ) into our Joe Shadow line with Shadow Mountain Witch.  A Fancy Shadow (DOY) is from this cross.
We thought that a Snow Watch , " Allie" , winning female might cross well with " Sam " .
The Snow Watch cross would give us three National Champion's lined up.  We thought this might accentuate what we are looking for in pups, bird finding ability, handle, and drive.  We believe these are a large part of the Amesian standard.

Here is the debut of Shadow Mountain Billie Sue, at 6 weeks of age.  Billie Sue is by Shadow Mountain Jack x A Fancy Shadow.  This is a repeat breeding of two of our favorites.  All the owners of pups from the first breeding have commented about their desire to find and point game, (one said of his 5 month old. I believe he could find and point birds on the Wallmart parking lot. ) and their boldness in "going over the hill".
She has two brothers we like a lot that are liver and white.
We raised these pups, literally, in the library, so they should read and understand English at an early age.  I think we will take them to the hay meadow tonight and see if they will follow the 4 wheeler.
We like to challenge our puppies every time out.  We think it pays dividends later on. 
Dad was wing and shot at 13 months, and a brother with Jeanette Tracy is also wing and shot at 9 months.  Steve Hurdle has a female at Sunny Hill with his puppy program. 
What do you think ?  Is she ready to win yet ?    bud

Using the barrel to start breaking your derby

Above are two pictures of my barrel set-up.  Notice I have a metal frame around my barrel, and in the second picture that I have a cpvc pole 8 feet tall, with a 10 foot cord on it, 12 feet in front of the barrel .
I do not introduce birds until the third day.  For the first three days, I set the dog up on the barrel, with an electric collar on the flank, attached to two bungee chords from the top on the metal frame. I stroke the dog under his chin, up his back, up his tail, and up between his back legs , in that order.  I then point a finger at him, say whoa ONCE, touch him with the E collar once on the lowest setting,  and walk a big circle in front of him to get to the other side.  Repeat this same sequence on the far side, and take the dog down , and walk him around or put it on a stake out for 2 or 3 minutes.  Repeat this sequence 3 times, and put the dog up.  Do every day 3 days in a row, then introduce birds in a crate.  Guarantee, he will come off that barrel to get to them.  Touch him one time with the electric collar, on it's lowest setting, and put him back up on the barrel. and repeat the stroking sequence , say whoa ONE time, and walk out and kick the bird crate.  When he stands for this without moving, put one of your birds on the tether, and let it walk around on the ground.  If he moves, touch him one time(low setting), and stroke him again.  When he stand for this, without moving,  usually about 3  times, then walk the bird up, and make it fly it's circle in front of the dog.  As the work progresses, you can move the barrel up closer to the pigeon, until it brushes the dog on it's circle flight. This sequence of training should take from 8 to 10 days from start to finish.  When your done, you can walk in front of him on point, point your finger, and flush and shoot.  The finger pointing becomes an unsaid whoa.   bud

When is a derby ready to break ?

At the top of the page is a picture of Shadow Mountain Jack, pointing birds at 25 months of age.  The birds had been flushed, and we were working on him standing with style, after flush.  He has been "steady " since he was 13 months old.  At this stage of his training, we are working on style, standing for long periods after flush, and standing out of site, and stops to flush.  I feel all these topics are inter-related to the mentality and thinking process of the canine.
To me, breaking a dog as we do it for field trialing, is a mental process.  If you do not let the dog develop "bad" habits, then the process is so much shorter, as you do not have to do any displacement, only developing an understanding of what you want.
At this level, we need to talk about being smarter than the dog to be in control.  Who is training whom ?
I often say when you get your dog to understand English,  then you can teach him, them, any thing.
They are really smarter than we give them credit for.  They under stand your posture, voice inflection, touch, body language, and many more concepts that we seldom think about.  An example is feed every day for a week at 10:00 : a.m.  Then let 10:00 a.m. come and go.  notice the noise level of the kennel at 10:15.  They will all vocalize that it  is past time to eat. What happens when you then sound mad, and yell at them ?  Yep its hit the dog house and be quiet time.
So learn to use all of your body posturing, as well as vocal to teach your dog.
Also learn where to touch your dog, and how to put your hands on your dog, so that it  is comforting, and assuring.  Learn by doing, observing, and changing.  Mike Johnson is one of my very best friends, and was very successful as a major circuit trainer with dogs like Millers White Diamond, Millers Excell, Kodak Moment, and many others.  Mike did not want his owners, or any one else touching any of his dogs, ever.  We had a lot of long talks about this and other training techniques.  His thoughts were, he did not want the dogs to have to re-adjust their education about people, because of mixed signals. 
Has this conversation given you reason to think about your approach to training ?  Drop us a note and lets discuss it.   bud