Potential. Having a young dog with the potential to develop into a bird dog that can win at the top of the game. This is what most of us are seeking and it’s the reason we have “junior” stakes at field trials. Puppy and Derby stakes feature youngsters from a variety of matings and lineages. The placements in these stakes sort out which pup/derbies have the desired traits to go on to win as all-age/championships and which sires and dams are producing offspring with the potential to win in the best of company.
Particularly the Grand National Grouse Club standards have been the goal of our breeding program and the dogs that we campaign. These standards emphasize hunting intelligence, bird finding, drive and desire, speed, running and pointing style and class. This is what we are aiming for.
In the last weeks, again, youngsters sired by Grand National Grouse Champion Full Blast have been judged to have this sought after potential reflected in the Grand National Grouse Club standards. At the 2017 Grand National Grouse Puppy Classic, Full Blast sired Full Breeze, Asper Hill Pippi and Knob Mountain Mayhem were placed 1, 2, 3. Previously in the 2016 and 2015 Grand National Puppy Classics, Full Blast pups were 1st and 3rd and 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively. Eight of the 12 pups placed at The Grand in the last three years were sired by Full Blast. No setter has ever come close to this record.
And it doesn’t end there. In just the last couple weeks, other Full Blast offspring have scored in classic events throughout the various cover dog regions. Youngster, Game Winner, scored in the Jan Zabericki Puppy Classic. Diane Wheelock’s female, Angel’s Envy, won the Beaverton Derby Classic in a field of 26. Recall Danny Nein’s Parachenee Flight won the 2016 National Derby Classic and White Mountain Derby Classic last year.
In 2015 Blast Off won the Grand National Grouse Futurity and this spring, 2017, his potential was realized as he entered the championship circle for his owner, Justin Evans, at the Ontario Grouse Championship.
There are numerous good setter males available that have done well in competition. In deciding what dog to breed to, I have learned two lessons in 50 years of breeding setters. George Eckdahl taught me the first lesson. You are breeding to a dog for what he produces, not what he has accomplished. Yeah, Full Blast is the only setter in history to win both setter awards (Flanagan and Seminatore), the Purina Top Cover Dog Derby and Purina Top Cover Dog All-Age and the Grand National Grouse Championship. This gets him on your radar as a sire. But you’re obviously getting his progeny, not the sire. And Full Blast progeny have proven to have the potential we all seek–the ability to win at the top as described in The Grand National Standards. The second lesson I learned from trial and error and from observing which dogs succeed. That lesson is to go with the best, the proven, the winner. Be this in selecting a trainer, a pup or a stud dog–go with the proven best. At this point, based on the record and keeping these two breeding principles in mind, Full Blast must be considered as a worthy stud dog who produces offspring with the potential you’ve been dreaming of.