We traveled to the Montana German Shorthaired Pointer Club’s combined hunting test and walking field trial event this past weekend to run our Vizslas and to get Mel’s first judging assignment under her belt.  We’ve been to this event a few years in a row now—great people and beautiful country (http://www.fusionvizslas.com/vizslas_latest20.html).  Our “load” was the lightest it’s been in a very long time.  Making the trip with us was Kosmo (CH Derby's Read Em And Weep MH) and Amante (CH Boulder's Bolder Amante SH).  We decided to run Kosmo, who will be 9 years old this September, in the walking field trial for the fun of it.  Though he’s really opened up in his “old age”, we know his run isn’t as big as most of the other pointing dogs who compete in field trials.  But, at this stage in his life and ours, sometimes just having fun goes a long way toward building the best of memories.  We didn’t enter him in the hunting test because he’s already an AKC Master Hunter—the highest title a pointing dog can achieve in this game.

Amante, on the other hand, is competitive.  She finished her AKC Senior Hunter title in the fall of 2010, (you can read about it here http://www.fusionvizslas.com/vizslas_latest26.html) in Yoder, Kansas and now has the training in place to test at the Master Hunter level.  She also has enough range and independence to be competitive in walking field trials.  Her Master level training—also known as a fully “broke” or finished gun dog—combined with her style, intensity, range, and independence allows us to run her in these very different games.  Briefly, AKC hunting tests are not competitions.  They’re **tests** in which dogs entered are judged against a standard and NOT against each other. AKC field trials are competitions in which dogs defeat each other—in addition to meeting the requirements of each “stake” (puppy, derby, and gun dog)—for placements/points toward a championship title.    

We entered her in a Master level hunting test on Friday and the Amateur Gun Dog (AGD) stake in the walking field trial on Sunday.  We couldn’t enter her in the tests on Saturday because Mel was judging.  The girls had fun on Friday with Mel handling Amante to her first Master hunt test qualify.  The performance was a bit rough in a few spots but overall, pretty good for her first time testing at this level.

Next up was the walking field trial.  Both Amante and Kosmo were entered in the Amateur Gun Dog stake.  Amante already has 2 points toward her Amateur Field Championship title (AFC) from her all-breed Derby win in Texas back in 2009, (http://www.fusionvizslas.com/vizslas_latest9.html).  Given this trial would be her first running as a Gun Dog, we were just hoping for a solid performance and clean run.  Well, she gave us that…and a big ol’ pretty BLUE ribbon!!  Her win was worth a 3 point retrieving major--which means she now has 5 points toward her AFC title.   WAA-HOOO!!!!!  She's halfway there! Because Vizslas are a retrieving breed, the AKC requires 4 of their points to be from retrieving stakes. This AGD win fulfills her major win requirement and leaves her needing one more retrieving point. And, because the AKC allows 4 Amateur points to also be counted toward a Field Championship (FC) title, she has 4 points toward her FC (which means she's 6 points away from becoming a Dual Champion!). You can read the confusing requirements for earning Amateur Field Championship and Field Championship titles here.

Another cool tidbit--Amante has collected her points in just a handful of stakes. 5 to be exact. ;-) To date, she's competed in 1 Puppy stake, 3 Derby stakes, and 1 Gun Dog stake. Of these 5 stakes, she's taken 3 placements--2 of them being first place wins worth 5 points. Not bad! Who knows what her trial record will be in the future but we're so proud of what she's accomplished thus far.

Amante has been exclusively breeder/owner trained and handled to all of her qualifies and wins. This may not seem like a big deal to some but it is to us. Doing all of the training and handling ourselves makes the wins so much harder to come by. It takes a lot longer for us to "get there" but, when we do, it so very sweet! Amante was bred by Judy and Edj Hetkowski of Boulder Vizslas.

We hope you enjoy the photos of Amante's first Master qualify and of her winning run!