Ch. Wintergreen Max wins the Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational

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Ch. Wintergreen Max

 

Mickey Fancher traveled from Wisconsin to New York’s Flanagan Farm to guide his Wintergreen Max, son of Pennstar, to the top placement in the 2011 Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational.   The Invitational is a three-day event in which all the invitees run for an hour on two consecutive days with the judges determining what dogs they would like to see on Day Three for an hour.  This is a great test of bird dog skill and determination. 

 

Max and Mickey teamed to record a strong hunting effort each day.  Coupling this with grouse finds on Day 2 and 3, he was the logical winner.   The field included the best of the coverdog world.  Only placements earned during 2010 in Grouse and Woodcock Championships count toward the invitation to this classic event.  Especially impressive is that Max is trained and handled by his amateur owner, Mickey Fancher.   They went up against the best dogs of the cover dog world as well as several of the all-time most successful professional handlers and emerged on top.  This is a great win to be savoured for a lifetime.

5X Ch. Pennstar, Retired, Producing and Available at Stud

Pennstar

Pennstar

Pennstar, now 11, continues to be available at stud.  This winter, as we always do, we had his sperm checked by the leading reproductive specialist in our area.  When he took Pennstar’s sperm sample and examined it in the lab, he excitedly called in the other vets and lab technicans to see the sample under the microscope.  “This looks like the sperm of a five-year old dog”, he exclaimed.  There was a high sperm count, high motility and very few deformed sperm in the sample.  He declared Pennstar ready to continue producing pups in the forseeable future.

 

Pennstar is reaching new heights in terms of his offspring’s accomplishments.  To date he has produced 67 winners who have won 367 field trial placements.   Our kennel’s record for number of wins by progeny was held here by Wire whose offspring recorded 340 wins.  These statistics add up to a lot of enjoyment for dogs and owners. 

 

Beyond the shear numbers, Pennstar’s setting records in terms of the quality of the wins that his offspring achieve.  With Wintergreen Max winning The Grouse and Woodock Invitational in 2011, with Full Tilt winning the Grand National Grouse Championship in 2010, with three of  his progeny winning the Grand National Grouse Futurity in earlier years, Pennstar’s record in producing dogs who can win at the highest level places him in the elite in grouse dog history.  On our Home Page, we describe our goal as focused on producing and campaigning dogs that meet the standards of the Grand National Grouse Championship and associated competitions at this national level.  Through Pennstar and with hard work by many owners, we have accomplished our goal.