{"id":903,"date":"2012-11-06T10:49:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-06T18:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/?p=903"},"modified":"2012-11-06T13:35:36","modified_gmt":"2012-11-06T21:35:36","slug":"straight-forward-wins-the-prestigious-pa-grouse-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/?p=903","title":{"rendered":"Straight Forward wins the prestigious PA Grouse Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Straight
Straight Forward<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Straight Forward, our young setter female, put\u00a0down a\u00a0strong, forward and hard driving one hour hunt that included a grouse find and a back to win the PA Grouse Championship for 2012 over the Allegheny National Forest courses near Marienville, PA.\u00a0 This was the 100th anniversary\u00a0running of\u00a0the PA Grouse Ch.\u00a0\u00a0 “Cracker” was handled by Dave Hughes.\u00a0 It took a nearly perfect performance to win over the other 59 entrants, a number of whom put on championship level displays of hunting and bird finding prowess.\u00a0 Congratulations to Ch.\u00a0River’s Edge Sadie owned by Pat Cooke and handled by Mark Foreman for winning Runner-Up.\u00a0 Sadie, the 2011 Seminatore Award winner, had two finds and mounted a strong challenge.<\/p>\n

Everything came together for “Cracker” during her brace.\u00a0 She was consistently laying forward at 100-200 yard range, driving from one objective to another.\u00a0 Only on one turn did she come from the side.\u00a0 At 25 “Cracker’s” bell stopped and the\u00a0scout found her more than 150 yards away with the grouse right in front for the flush.\u00a0 At the flush “Cracker” was motionless.\u00a0 Later in the hour, she backed\u00a0on\u00a0her bracemate’s find.\u00a0\u00a0“Cracker’s”\u00a0last ten minutes were as strong as the first ten and she finished well ahead searching.\u00a0 It’s a thrill to watch a performance like this one and to win the Championship we covet most, other than the Grand National.\u00a0 All the work that I put into her as a pup and all the work Dick and Helen Brenneman (often\u00a0“Cracker’s” handler in workouts)\u00a0put into her as a derby\/all-age has paid off.\u00a0 Pro Dave Hughes has polished “Cracker” and his expert skills as a handler let\u00a0“Cracker”\u00a0show off her talents ideally.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Cracker” is sired by Craig Peters’ Ch. Keystone Red Rage\u00a0ex\u00a0our daughter of Pennstar, Quixstar.\u00a0 We chose\u00a0Red Rage as the sire to breed to Quixstar based on his exceptional athleticism, drive, running class\u00a0and intensity\u00a0around wild birds.\u00a0 Rage’s dam, Keystone’s Red Ryder has been to the Championship circle and recorded a long\u00a0string of wins.\u00a0 Rage’s sire, Steve Chippini’s, Ch. Chip’s Torquato, has proven to be a sire with\u00a0important\u00a0influence in raising the quality of coverdogs, as he appears in the pedigree of a good number of top dogs on the circuit.\u00a0\u00a0“Cracker’s” dam, Quixstar,\u00a0is sired\u00a0by\u00a05X Ch. Pennstar ex Barnburner (whose offspring have won 68 times).\u00a0 The dam’s side of the pedigree brings a strong dose of our Grand National Grouse Ch. Body Guard blood\u00a0leading back to Ch. Ghost Train.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When we decided to breed Quixstar she was in the care of Jim Smythe of Lititz, PA.\u00a0 When\u00a0we retired females or when we chose not to campaign them, Jim has taken them as hunting companions while allowing us to mate them if we wish.\u00a0 On a trip Jim and I took to North Dakota, \u00a0Quixstar was the star bird finder and the most exciting dog on the ground and on point–we took several of our other top dogs on this trip.\u00a0 Quixstar\u00a0could really roll,\u00a0 was\u00a0light on her feet and had a knack for digging up birds and pinning them like few others we have owned.\u00a0 She passed away in 2011 and we are especially happy to know that her blood will go forward through her daugher, Straight Forward.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Straight Forward, our young setter female, put\u00a0down a\u00a0strong, forward and hard driving one hour hunt that included a grouse find and a back to win the PA Grouse Championship for 2012 over the Allegheny National Forest courses near Marienville, PA.\u00a0 This was the 100th anniversary\u00a0running of\u00a0the PA Grouse Ch.\u00a0\u00a0 “Cracker” was handled by Dave Hughes.\u00a0…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903","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=903"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":910,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/903\/revisions\/910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}