Full Tilt
Ch. Full Tilt, (156190, female, 6/12/04) won the 2009 Grand National Grouse Championship. Besting a field of 73 contenders, 28 of whom pointed grouse/woodcock. her win was well earned. “Callie” fulfills the confidence we have had in her since a pup and this win is an extension of the winning ways she has demonstrated since being recognized as the top coverdog derby by winning the Flanagan Award competition in 2005.
In the fall of 2010, Callie continued to prove her mettle as a bird dog by winning the RU Champion award at the conclusion of the New York State Grouse Championship. There were over 80 dogs that competed and many dogs scored on grouse. Callie’s find topped a spectacular hunting hour in which she drove from one objective to another with her usual running style, determination and flare.
Right out of the whelping box Callie stood out for her boldness, her cracky/flashy look in motion and desire to keep on driving in the hunt for birds. She pointed the first grouse and woodcock that she contacted. Running Callie in three-a-week workouts was exciting right from the start. To see her cruise through the cover with her cracking tail and fluid gate makes you just want to keep watching her. Running Callie is like driving a Corvette through a winding country road at max speed. You get that same thrill.
From the start it was fun to run Callie in trials and show off her ability. The experienced judge at her first trial expressed his amazement at how a dog could be so quick and light over the ground and have so much action in her tail and carriage. He said his attention was just riveted on her.
Callie is one of the most physically tough dogs we have owned. She loves to get out and go as hard as she can to find birds. Texas is a place that is tough on a dog and at the end of her workouts during the month she spends there, she is completely spent and dinged up from all the things that can either bite you or cut you. However, the next time you put her down she’s totally ready and gives it all she’s got again and again. She has earned her place as our top female competitor based on her determination, grit, heat-resistance, desire, class in action and bird finding ability.
We retired Callie in 2011. Since then she has enjoyed the life of a housedog although she spends hours each day out in the dog pastures with her kennelmates. She looks forward to time outside, it’s in her blood.
Callie has produced three litters of pups and her offspring have had a significant impact. Bred to Ch. Lilley Hill’s Secret Stash, she produced four winners who all placed first in open derby trials–two of whom won the International Cover Dog Futurity and the North American Woodcock Futurity. In her second litter, sired by Impact Player, there have been four open stake winners. They are now derby age and recently three of them swept the open derby at the West Branch Group trial. Finally, Callie whelped three pups in August, 2013 by Ch. Keystone Red Rage. These pups are two young to trial but they look promising.
All her life, Callie has given 100% to everything she has done for us.
We will continue to campaign Callie in championship level stakes and we expect her to be a contender for years to come.
While we continue to believe that giving a young dog a lot of opportunity in quality hunting situations is a key to having a pup with great potential turn into a great performer, our experience with Callie points out how key genetics are in having a top performer. Callie was injured as a pup and her recovery sidelined her for critical months in her development, but she more than overcame this setback with her great genetics working in her favor.
Callie’s pedigree includes some of our favorite dogs both on the sire’s and dam’s side. Callie is sired by 5X Ch. Pennstar. Clearly she gets her drive, snap and desire to point birds from him. Callie reminded us as a little pup of Pennstar’s dam, Northern Anndee. Callie, like Anndee, is quick on her feet, always in motion, and has a motor tail ( her tail was always cracking as if it was attached to a motor).
On the dam’s side, Callie comes from a dog we owned and later sold to Donnie Spencer of Mooretown, PA, Sorber Run Serena. Serena was a favorite of ours, but she was born at about the same time as we had a litter from Super Ghost ex Northern Anndee. Serena as a pup was competing to make our team against Pennstar, his sister Firstar (1st, 28 dog entry, Pennsylvania Grouse Dog Open Puppy) and Pennstar’s other sister First Option (1st, The Grand National Grouse Puppy Classic, 56 dogs). Serena held her own against these top dogs but eventually, being two amateurs, we had to make some decisions and Firstar and Serena were sold. Serena is now owned by Walt Konopke of Noxen, PA. When campaigned by Don Spencer, Serena had an impressive 1st at the Lancaster County Open Derby where she was braced alongside Pennstar with both dogs having steady bird work and excellent races. Pennstar was 2nd that day. We admired Serena and felt fortunate to lease her from Donnie and later to lease her from Walt to have the first litter that produced Callie, and then the second litter to produce Bold Move. The generosity of Don Spencer and Walt Konopeke made a vital contribution to our 30-year cover dog program.
Sorber Run Serena’s sire was our Grindstone. One of our favorite dogs, Grindstone, son of Grand National Grouse Ch. Body Guard, was known for his remarkable speed and flashy running style. As time goes on it has become clearer that Grindstone, while bred sparingly, is a lynchpin in our program and helped give our dogs an added dose of class in action.
Callie obviously gets some of her ability in this regard from the dam’s side. The dam of Serena is Sirocco who is a daughter of Body Guard ex Dr. Jim Stiteler’s ten-time winner Pleasant Valley Lucy. Thus on the granddam’s side, we have Body Guard blood again with Northern Anndee being a full sister to Body Guard, and the dam of Pennstar.
There are Body Guard genes (Grand National Grouse Champions Northern Alibi x Liberty Express Wire) on three sides of Callie’s pedigree. On the fourth side is Pennstar’s sire, Super Ghost. This line brings in some invigorating old-time grouse dog blood through the performer Super B who won all the cover dog puppy classics available in his era.
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