2021 National Amateur Walking Shooting Dog Championship by Greg Blair

The 2021 AFTCA National Amateur Walking Championship was run November 12th-14th at Keith Wright’s Redwood Farm, near Covington, IN.

The Redwood Farm is the perfect place to show a walking shooting dog with rolling hills, edges, feed strips and plenty of cover that gives the opportunity for dogs to make moves while staying completely in tune with the handler.  Most importantly there was no shortage of birds as every brace had bird contact with many having multiple covey finds. The field was filled with tough competition full of numerous champions and many that will have their day soon enough. The Wrights are by far and away the best hosts of any field trial I’ve ever attended and from the feedback received I don’t think I was alone in that belief. Thank you to each and every handler who traveled from all over to make this a great Championship.

Indiana sure put on a show with the weather we had Sun, Wind, Rain, Snow, Sleet, and a mix of everything. Multiple dogs finished the hour but the champion and runner-up champion gave the judges exactly what they were looking for in a Champion.

Our Champion “Justice” came from the final 16th brace and after his brace mate was picked up for failing to stop to flush he had the course to himself. His application was big at times but he shortened up when the course called for it while always in tune with his handler. During his hour he had 3 pieces of bird work (31, 38, 50) which he handled flawlessly.

Our Runner-up Champion “Holly” came out of Brace 10. Holly’s application was forward and not as big as our champion but boy did she put on a bird finding show with finds at (12, 25, 33, 40, 45, 47) along with two stop to flushes (16, 22) and finished strong and forward.

Running Order

1A Georgia Born Windstorm/PM/Margie Ridings – Find at 5 but it was too much to handle for the dog and handler picked him up

1B Pond Rivers Pressure on/PM/Joshua Griggs – Finds at 8,21,30 handler elected to pick up at 38

2a Penrosa Behr Devil/PM/Tim Penn – Finds at 5 and 11 with the one at 11 causing the handler to pick up

2b Stella’s Natural Disaster/PF/Mike Duvall – find at 5 but after failing to back at 11 dog was up

3a Crow Creek Sugar Baby/PF/Ken Black – Finds at 25, 33, 50, 55 and 57

3b Right Stuff’s Warrior/GSPF/William Padovano – Handler asked for tracker at 30

4aTenacee Rowdy/PM/Phillips – Finds at 4, 12, 33, 34 and an UP at 26

4b Cates Rocket Girl/SF/David Cates – Find at 5 that was too much to handle and handler picked up

5a Royal Rock Allota Hard Cash/PM/Mike Roper – Finds at 15, 25, 30 backs at 36 and 45

5b Emert’s Show Me Mo/SM/Dave Emert – Finds at 3, 18, 30, 36, 45 and a UP at 55

6a Bob’s Elhew Sage/PF/Bobby Phillips – Divided find at 7

6b Hainline’s Silver Star/PF/Jeff Hainline – Divided find at 7 with Finds at 12, 25, 35, 36, 42, 48 a stop to flush at 32 but 2 unproductives at 15 and 52 had the dog up

7a Beaucoup Creek Buck/SM/Heisner – Find at 8 and moved forward, picked up

7b Caird’s Lefty/PM/Sam Ridings – Did not have pointing on his mind and was under birds at 3

8a Right Stuff Rock N Roll/GSPM/William Padovano – Finds at 6, 33, 43, 49 UP at 18

8b Rocky Ridge’s Perfect Storm/PM/Mike Roper – Find at 12 failed to back at 18

9a Crow Creek Duece/PF/Ken Black – Finds at 10, 38 and 52. He finished the hour

9b Alliwood’s Shady Shay/PF/Adam DeLude – Finds at 6, 28, 33 but one more at 52 proved to be too much for her to handle

10a Bullfrogs Happy Patch/PF/Jeremiah Feider – Finds at 10, 20 and 35 dog moved forward and was picked up

10B Bob’s Elhew Holly/PF/Bobby Phillips – See Runner up Champion above

11a Thumper’s Anything But/PF/Mike Duvall – Divided finds at 23, 28, 30 Finds at 39 and 54

11b Touch’s Valiant Lady/PF/Keith Lowry – Finds at 10, 15 with divided finds coming at 23, 28, 30 before pulling the tracker at 50

12a Georgia Born Braveheart/PM/Sam Ridings – Dog did not have pointing on his mind and was up early

12b Blair’s Calvary Mountain/PM/Greg Blair – Failed to stop to flush and was up at 40

13a Beaucoup Creek Gus/SM/Heisner-Finds at 3, 27, 31, 39, 43 and at time with a UP at 10

13b Tenacee Copper/PM/Isenberg/Phillips – Scratched due to injury

14a Emert’s Show Me Mo To/SM/Dave Emert- Find at 4 picked up at 20

14b Bob’s Elhew Kate/PF/Sam Ridings – Could never get it going in the cold snowy weather and handler elected to pick up at 12

15a Redbud’s Country Girl/PF/Aaron McAfee – Finds at 15, 35 and 60

15b Penrosa Hidden Cash/SM/Tim Penn – Finds at 20, 27, 30, 33 and 36

16a Bob’s Elhew Sushi/PF/Bobby Phillips – picked up at 10 for failing to stop to flush

16b Faith’s Maximum Justice/PM/Ken Delong – See Champion above

No field trial is complete without a great team of workers. This year’s championship was no exception. I would like to personally thank Keith & Jessica Wright, John & Jill Wright, CJ Campbell, and Shannon St. John for all their help. Keith rode every single brace and helped each handler navigate the course, CJ and Shannon shared dog wagon duties over the weekend and were always there when we needed them, Jessica, John, and Jill provided top notch hospitality and made sure meals were ready. There is one guarantee if you ever get the chance to run a trial at Redwood and that is you will NOT leave hungry! The Redwood team made sure we were well fed all weekend with breakfast, lunches, and dinners each day! Our Purina dinner Friday night was a ribeye steak dinner from the Beef house Restaurant in Covington, IN.

We want to thank the judges who took time out of their busy schedules to come and watch this great field of dogs while giving their utmost attention to each and every dog over the weekend…Jim Lawless from Sparta, IL and Bill Elliot from Harvard, IL.

We’d like to also thank our sponsors for their continued support, Purina and Garmin provided dog food and collars for our Champion and Runner Up Champion.

Garmin