​Even with this 17th Mearns season of mine being the 2nd most challenging I’ve had to date; it doesn’t change my love for the area or chasing these special birds. If anything, it only motivates me to learn even more about them.

​Here is a little breakdown, with what may possibly be a few handy tips and tricks to get yourself, and your pup ready to test.

​In Summary:
The NA Test is about having fun with your dog and to have the most fun, your team should be prepared. If you are having to force anything during your preparation, simply put, you are doing it wrong. For the NA you should be focused on creating a lasting bond and partnership with your dog, some good memories, and ultimately a nice hunting dog that you can live with. 

In Part 1, Sam and I brought half-sisters, Ila & Sage to Montana with their trusty sidekick, (GWP) Rye. We had a good time despite having to battle with high winds and storm surges on the daily. For Part 2, we returned to Eastern Montana to meet up with Josh, and his lovely boy Dio. Dio is from the  Tule x Fen Litter of ’21. Tule being a Dutch Import, and Fen a boy produced from Powder’s first litter with Munson back in 2017. So, with that, we had Grandmother, Mother, Son, and Ila as an Aunt/Cousin depending on how you looked at the family tree. We also had Fizzy and Rye along for good measure.

Man, it was amazing to see the change 3-weeks had brought to the region. Once green and lush, everything was crunchy, dry and brown. On the way into town Jenna and I stopped in an area to air the dogs out and get a quick hunt in before checking into the hotel. The area held plenty of ditch parrots mid-September,  so what would we find? Well, it isn’t so much of what we found, but what did Fizzy find? She found the only pit filled with gloppy black mud, that’s what she found. Her bright and vibrate orange and white coat was rendered black with stringy ropes of muck dripping black, scummy water rife with the stench of rotting organic material. A simple bath wasn’t going to fix that, we needed a priest. Now this is how you end a twelve hour drive a short way out from the hotel! Yeah, in case you wondered, no birds, hell the girls didn’t even get birdy. We covered every square inch of the property. Frickin’ sweet man.

​We met Josh and Dio in the morning, as he had succumbed the afternoon before to the siren’s call of good-looking habitat and had to pull several Sharpies from the sky – poor guy…but the detour made an evening arrival out of the question.  We decided to hunt a pheasant rich area that wasn’t much of a secret. Just a few days into Montana’s pheasant season and Holy Moly were the birds thinned out and wise to human activity. We spent some time on the struggle bus hunting other areas with very limited success. This trip was going to be hard. Later that afternoon we hunted an area we like, because it takes some walking to get into, and because of this, it usually is pretty good. We were not entirely disappointed! All of the dogs did some really nice work on the ditch chickens and our game pouches began to collect birds. Fizzy, normally very “sticky”, showed marked improvement with her tracking and relocating and became an effective pheasant dog on this trip. Dio, managed a few points. Ila and Tule, a great team on phez, did what they do – one tracking and pointing, the other getting the bird boxed in, which translates to some fairly easy shots.

After such a frustrating day, we decided we needed to change the script, and so we began afresh in an area I had only briefly hunted a few years ago. This did in fact change the game for pheasant for our hunting. We saw generous numbers of birds, and many were still very huntable using pointing dogs. In short, we had a blast! We spent the last days of the trip trying our new to us parcels of land, rotating dogs, and hunting to our limits, which were filled with fat birds and colorful feathers despite their being an alarming amount of hunting pressure.
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On the last day, Josh managed to bang out his limit in short order, and I had one last bird to get. A decision was made to get that bird elsewhere. To be honest, I wasn’t really on board with this, as I wanted my last phez and to head back out and work on mix bag hunting! We toured around the area, and each property we looked over really didn’t hold much if any magic for my sensibilities. Wasting time, and feeling pressured, we selected a parcel we wanted to hunt the day before, but trucks were already there. I said, “that’s it, I’ll hunt it or pass – and after that we’ll switch gears”.

Arriving at the property and getting a good view for the first time, I wasn’t exactly excited. A small square of cut wheat stubble surrounding a dished out, dried swamp pit the shape of a pear. It was filled with tule grass, cattail, and dense tall grasses that grow in these areas. Just great, this was gonna be tough with one gun. I made the decision to throw it all at the wall, with one critical handicap – no GPS collars! So, we ran Powder, Tule, Ila, and Fizzy, hoping the chaos would encourage at least a bird or two to make a mistake.  Josh and Jenna off my left flank, we walked counterclockwise starting from the 6 o’clock position. We reached 12 o’clock, and nothing had stirred, also I was having some regrets on running the dogs without collars. They spent most of the time burrowing sight unseen in the deep thick vegetation. At 1 o’clock, hens were starting to pop, hey that’s a gooder sign. By 2 o’clock, Josh motioned me to punch out to the tree, I nodded in agreement and stepped up and out of the deep channel I had been in to see Fizzy on point to my right 15 yards away. Then I saw the white fur of Tule, and Powder on the right and left flank of Fizz. I made my approach, and walked to Fizzy’s left, there was Ila, deeper in and to Powder’s left. I began stomping and smashing the dried crispy vegetation aggressively. Whoop! The rooster lost his nerve and down he went. What a way to finish it out, all the dogs on point together, doing it all without any influence. Just fantastic!

Hello gang! Well, that is likely an ambitious statement theses days since I have not been regularly making blog posts for a while now. I do hope to correct that moving forward, and possibly win your hearts and minds back.

We recently returned from a bit of a whirlwind tour of Montana for some "early season" birds. This trip we were accompanied by Sam and Sage, with the intent to show them the ropes of hunting Montana. I think we did our jobs right. We got Sam and Sage on Sage Grouse, Huns, Sharptail, and mass of pre-season Pheasant, and contact with Blue Grouse. It is hard to shake a stick at that!

We dealt with some extreme weather, high winds, and poor shooting - yeah. It seems our shooting mojo got left in the garage... Seriously, never omit that from your packing list. Ever. Additionally, and rather regrettably, I failed to pack my good camera. Temperatures were surprisingly cool for this trip. So much so my phone case hardened up, which made the "quick camera launch" feature impossible to use.

Fortunately for me, Ila and Rye can and will hold a point. I'm standing there like a fool trying to capture images, gloved hands, camera not activating... at a certain point a guy has to come to terms with losing the photos for the attempt to bag a bird. Hence the dearth of photos from what was otherwise a good trip.

Rye and Ila worked well together, and backed one another with very little or no intervention - that work is starting to pay its dividends! Sage hunted very well, and for what was essentially her first "big girl" hunt, she did fantastic! She was field trained entirely in-house as well. She hunted her own hunts, she made solid points and backed/co-hunted like a much more experienced dog - this was exciting to see as her breeder and trainer.

We'll be getting back out there with the whole horde soon - maybe we'll see you?

​Jenna and I would like to take a quick moment to tell you a little bit about the American Drentsche Patrijshond Association. 

Despite our previous relationship with the other domestic Drent organization, we stopped being heard, or valued some time ago. Now we no longer feel represented by their mission, vision, or conduct. 

We aren't alone. The ADPA was envisioned by some Drent enthusiasts who thought things could be better and in short order all active Drent breeders, and those seeking to breed in the near future, came together and left the other organization to found the ADPA.

The ADPA is about building a supportive community of Drentsche Patrijshond fanciers who wish to celebrate, promote, preserve, and advance the breed through education and mentorship, continuous improvement of thoughtful breeding practices, and enjoyable community events and exhibitions. The ADPA is recognized by the American Kennel Club, and is a legal non-profit entity. 

If you are interested in joining a breed Association that is interested in working together to create synergy and community, or even if you just want a place to share your silly Drent photos and stories, then look no further than the APDA!

Friends of the ADPA (FaceBook)
AmericanDrentAssociation (Instagram)
AmericanDrentAssociation (FaceBook Official)

The ADPA is currently accepting applications for charter memberships (help us ensure the organization is set up for success and get a super cool limited edition t-shirt) as well as regular annual single and family memberships!

As always, if you have questions, comments, feedback, or would like to chat - we are here, please just reach out.

​With that all being said, what does it mean to you having a puppy or dog with a limited Registration? If you have no intent to show your dog in an AKC show ring or breed him/her, then it means very little as all performance events are open to you and there isn’t a negative impact with non-conformation AKC events, NAVHDA, IABCA or UKC participation.

What if you decide you would like to start participating in Open Shows and your puppy went home on a Limited? A Limited registration can always be changed to full later on if you decided you wanted to try the Open Show thing. You have to initiate the paperwork with us and the AKC will charge you what amounts to a nuance fee to make the change (currently $25). The only difference with limited is that you cannot show in open shows and puppies can't be registered out of the dog, but you still get the pedigree, registration number and all official documentation from the AKC. You can participate in every AKC non-conformation venue. 

What if you would like show and/or potentially breed and want those options open? Well that is between you and your breeder (us). For those wanting to show, there is a very easy solution -- we enter into a co-own arrangement with you. Co-ownership with us means that one of us goes on the AKC paperwork along with you. As far as the AKC goes, the only venue in which full registration is required is to enter Open Shows and win Certificate of Merit points. As mentioned, you can do AKC hunt tests and all the other titling sports without full registration. So for this, it allows our clients that want to show to have the ability to do so, while allowing us to manage rights regarding reproduction/breeding, to include mentoring when it comes time to find a partner for your dog. 

If breeding (or providing stud service) becomes something you would like to explore, we want to ensure the dog is what we hoped & expected, that the basic health testing has been accomplished (is passing) as well as hunt testing, and show ring exposure in particular if/when breeding (made available for stud) becomes something you would like to pursue. To help us with evaluation, with co-owns, we have a higher expectation of getting regular photos of the dog as it matures. Ultimately, there is no downside. For us, co-ownership doesn't involve any of your day to day with the dog. It only provides a method of  having some say over what gets bred.

We hope that all makes sense!

The breed standard of the Drentsche Patrijshond doesn’t state it outright, but the Drent is a “head breed”.

So, what does that mean, being a “head breed”? The details of the head are what defines a Drent. It is these details individually, and in summary that separates the Drent from the German Longhaired Pointer, Small Munsterlander, French Spaniel, or other somewhat similar white and brown piebald continental hunting dog from western Europe.

Another element not mentioned in the breed standard that all true fanciers can and will go on and on about is the “expression of the Drent”.

The expression of the Drent is the summary of all the details of the breed standard referencing the head; eye set, shape and color, ear set, muzzle length and proportion to skull, stop, nose bridge, and so forth all coming together in balance to create the classic look of the Drent; calm, warm, inviting and intelligent. A correct expression is defining of the Drentsche Patrijshond, much in the way that correct coat defines a German Wirehaired Pointer. Once you know what the correct expression of a Drent is, you cannot unsee it.

​Here is Bono Cooper v. d. Bezelhonk for reference.