Thor Kain’s All In Wins Region 2 Amateur Walking Shooting Dog Ch.

Region 2 Amateur Walking Shooting Dog Championship

 

All In

All In, son ex our Grand National Grouse Champion Full Tilt won the Regional 2 Amateur Walking Shooting Dog Championship with owner Thor Kain at the controls.

The Championship event featured a strong field of 26 contenders including many of the top coverdog circuit winners along with a number of dogs bred from and winning as horseback shooting dogs in professional strings. Most all of the entrants had multiple finds.  The grounds at the Oak Ridge Pointing Dog Club, Harrisville, PA, demand that a hunting dog reach for objectives and know how to hunt fence rows and field edges.  “Chance” registered 9 finds and a back.  His finds had the birds well located and his style on point during and after the flush was arresting–high and tight.  He was still going forward with drive and jump in his step at the end.

This is an especially sweet win for all of us as “Chance” realized the full potential we expected from this planned mating 6 years ago and that we saw in “Chance” as a pup.  Originally, “Chance” was our “pick of the litter,” sired by Ch. Lilley Hills Secret Stash ex Ch. Full Tilt.  We looked after the early development of “Chance” and I can recall telling folks that at 5 months of age, “Chance” was the best looking male prospect I could recall working with.  We won with him a few times and Mike Spotts took him to the North American Woodcock Futurity and won as Bob Little, a judge at this event, recalled in his recent CoverDog post.  However, dogs with great potential don’t always develop in a straight line from pup, derby to all-age.  With other dogs like future Grand National Grouse Champions Straight Forward and Full Blast of the approximate same age, when “Chance’s” development took a dip, opportunity and luck fortuitously came together.

At this time we were coming to know a young enthusiast who was working with our buddy, gun dog pro Tom Gingher.  Tom kept telling us this young guy needed and deserved a quality prospect to work with and once we met Thor Kain, he seemed to be a perfect match for “Chance”.  Even though we were pretty attached to “Chance” who was our house dog, Dick and I gave “Chance” to Thor.  This turned out to be one of the best moves we’ve ever made.  Thor took on the challenge of “Chance’s” continued development with both owner and dog working extremely hard and learning a lot as they went along.

It’s easy now to understand why this is such a ‘sweet’ win, not only for Thor and “Chance” but for Dick, my wife Janet (who loved our house dog and was along for most of his workouts) and me.  This is the first Championship for both Thor and Chance.  At this point we can say unequivocally that the Championship win by Thor and “Chance” is much more fulfilling than if we’d have won the event ourselves.  Full Tilt, too, has a smile on her face as her boy “Chance” joins his littermate Ghost Train Cody, owned by Tom Fruchey, as pups ex hers who have won Championship laurels.