{"id":1250,"date":"2015-11-07T09:39:12","date_gmt":"2015-11-07T17:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/?p=1250"},"modified":"2015-11-07T09:39:12","modified_gmt":"2015-11-07T17:39:12","slug":"full-blast-wins-the-2015-grand-national-grouse-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/?p=1250","title":{"rendered":"Full Blast wins the 2015 Grand National Grouse Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Full<\/a>
Grand National Grouse Champion Full Blast<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Full Blast has won the\u00a073rd Grand National Grouse Championship.\u00a0 Five year old “Jeb” faced a field of 49 of the best cover dogs in the country and after four days of running, with each dog having an opportunity to hunt for an hour over the\u00a0historic covers of the Allegheny National Forest, Marienville, PA, \u00a0“Jeb” emerged the champion.\u00a0 Hall-of-Fame trainer\/handler Dave Hughes guided “Jeb” to this hallmark win as he has for\u00a0“Jeb’s” other championship honors.<\/p>\n

Birds were hard to find, as is typical of ruffed grouse.\u00a0 Those that were found were touchy and difficult to get pointed, as typical of ruffed grouse.\u00a0 In his championship effort, “Jeb” went aggressively about the task of finding grouse right from the breakaway.\u00a0 He went forward and laid to the front at the very edge of bell range throughout the first thirty minutes.\u00a0 Several times his bell faded and as Dave sang to him, “Jeb” swung back and his bell could be identified often 100-150 yards to the front.\u00a0 At the half as\u00a0the course turned back,\u00a0we came to a forestry road and it was apparent that “Jeb” had gone down the road to the next cover.\u00a0\u00a0 We were delayed for several minutes waiting for “Jeb” to come around.\u00a0 Scout Thor Kain went down the road and let Dave Hughes know that “Jeb” was coming back Dave’s way.\u00a0 Upon returning “Jeb” hunted in the pocket and at reduced range as the cover on the course got noticeably heavier.\u00a0 Still popping and with jump in his step, “Jeb” dug in and thoroughly investigated the thickets and pines along the stream edge.\u00a0 Suddenly off to the right, “Jeb’s” bell stopped.\u00a0 He was only 35 yards from the handler and gallery but the cover was so dense that we couldn’t see him.\u00a0 The handler and judges went to “Jeb” who was reported standing with tight, straight-up style.\u00a0 Intense throughout, “Jeb” stood with a high head indicating the bird was well out in front and after a brief flushing effort the grouse was clearly heard to take wing right from where “Jeb” said it was.\u00a0 What a thrill when at the clubhouse Grand National Secretary Dave Fletcher called Full Blast’s name as the Grand National Grouse Champion.<\/p>\n

Humbly, we note that “Jeb” is our kennel’s third winner of this title.\u00a0 In 1998, our partnership was in its 17th year when Body Guard was name Grand National Grouse Champion.\u00a0 “Skeets ” was handled by Dave Hughes and his spectacular performance still stands as one of the greatest in the long history of the Grand.\u00a0 That first one was perhaps the most exciting for us as owners.\u00a0 Then in 2009, Full Tilt went out and gave a full hour of hard driving effort coupled with her over-the-top jump and crack and a sharp grouse find to nudge past the legendary Ch. Long Gone Madison for the crown.\u00a0 Now, Full Blast has brought the trophy home again.<\/p>\n

In all these wins of the Grand, we note there is a key breeding ingredient,\u00a0the bloodline of 5X CH. PENNSTAR.\u00a0 Body Guard’s sister was Pennstar’s dam.\u00a0 Pennstar is the sire of both Grand National Champions Full Tilt and Full Blast.\u00a0 Pennstar lives.<\/p>\n

It’s a special thrill to have three living national grouse champions ALIVE in our kennel.\u00a0 Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational Straight Forward (she did a terrific job at the Grand again this fall and would have likely won had the judges been able to hear the grouse flush on her find), Full Tilt (12 years old when she visited the Marienville grounds this fall season) and now Full Blast.<\/p>\n

Rightly so, Dave Hughes our friend and handler of our dogs for 25 years, has been elected to the Bird Dog Hall of Fame.\u00a0 For his expert training and handling of Full Blast and all our Grand National winners we are grateful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Full Blast has won the\u00a073rd Grand National Grouse Championship.\u00a0 Five year old “Jeb” faced a field of 49 of the best cover dogs in the country and after four days of running, with each dog having an opportunity to hunt for an hour over the\u00a0historic covers of the Allegheny National Forest, Marienville, PA, \u00a0“Jeb”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1251,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1250\/revisions\/1251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}