Full Blast wins the Foster Award to add to the Flanagan Award

Jeb2 - Full Blast

Full Blast

 

Full Blast, son of Pennstar,  has won the Harden Foster Award for the top coverdog of any breed for 2011-2012.  Earlier he was announced as the winner of the Flanagan Award for the 2011-2012 field trial season.  The Flanagan Award recognizes the top cover dog setter derby.  “Jeb” scored a number of big wins to top a strong field of young contenders.  Jeb started off the past season with a first at the DuBois-Beaver Meadows open derby.  While this trial is not a part of the cover dog circuit, Jeb’s three finished finds and strong hunting effort made us realize he was something special.  Some of his finds were well off the path and this kind of composure on game is rare for a dog who is less than a year and a half old.  Always calm and cool, “Jeb” went on in the fall to capture 1st in the prestigious Blakely Derby Classic.  This stake accompanies the PA Grouse Championship and virtually all the top derby dogs were there with their trainer/handler.  In the spring, first place awards over large fields at Nittany Valley and the West Branch Grouse Trial Club elevated “Jeb” to the forefront of the competition for the top setter derby.  One judge exclaimed at the end of his West Branch brace, “what a specimen”.  Late in the season, “Jeb” placed in the International Cover Dog Futurity.  In all his wins, “Jeb” was handled by co-owner, Dick Brenneman. 

 

“Jeb” was bred by Jim Chambers of Uniontown, PA.  When we acquired him, we immediately put him into our puppy program which Bob Watts has been building since the 1960s.  Lots of exposure to new situations, learning to stake out, travel for significant periods of time in a crate, standing calm on the whoa bench and time in the field, on a 3X a week schedule, with as much wild bird contact as possible synthesizes the puppy program.  “Jeb” came along fast on wild birds as he was handling wily pheasants in late fall and winter.  In the summer prior to his derby year, “Jeb” was in training with Dave Hughes and Ryan Frame.   Dave deserves much of the credit for “Jeb’s” advanced development around game.  Back home with Dick and Helen Brenneman, Jeb was worked in grouse and woodcock covers exclusively on the 3X a week program.  When Mike Spotts took Jeb along to Maine in September for grouse and woodcock, “Jeb’s” training and instincts really shone with many solid points on these wild birds.   The stage was set for the trial season and all this work came together with “Jeb’s”  strong drive, pointability, style and desire propelling him to come out on top of the Flanagan award competition.  “Jeb” is the third winner of the Flanagan Award that we have owned.  Earlier our Topseed (Ch Body Guard sired) and later-to-be Grand National Grouse Ch. Full Tilt (another Pennstar prodegy) had won this award.