Ya'll know how I hate to brag on my dogs

[Mike Shepherd]

but I know some have a keen interest in them and I try to keep you informed.

In the first West Texas Regional field trials of this fall my Red won a first. Four finds, four retrieves and a back for 830 points. 26 dogs.

I shot my Parker VH 12 with 30" barrels, double triggers, cylinder and 15 thousandsths, 7 3/4 pounds, sling swivels and a sling. That gun will not miss a pen-raised bob white.

Full disclosure. I actually entered him in two separate trials today and he came in first in one of them. Normally I enter four dogs but today it was Red only.

[ed good]

mike: here is ah similar gon... unforturnately, hit dont hit dem skeet birds awl de time...but, den nun uv erm du fer me...

[Fred Preston]

Way to go Red. The best old Ringo ever scored was 841 (4,4 and a back) out of 32 dogs at Jim Mahoney's Thanksgiving Classic 12 years ago, which got him a 3d place and beat his litter mate, Reverend, by one point. Ringo was not trialed very often and when he was, our object was to out score the Rev which only happened 2 or 3 times. The Rev was a multi champ, campainged hard, and died young at 8 years. Ring, my hunting partner, lived to 13. The boy's daddy, Bart, out champed them all, but only lived to 8. Ring is burried in our Dog Patch next to his daddy.

[Russ Jackson]

Hey Mike ,Congrats. to you and Red !!!!!! I tried my Hand at one Puppy Stake ,I ran Chip and his Sister Annie ,Chip got disqualified and Annie placed second , the Judges felt so bad for Chip ," ME " ,they decided to let him run but he couldn't win anything , He had Six finds and Five solid points and held to flush on Four of the Finds ,Too bad he went and BIT his Brace mate in the first Round !:banghead: " TWICE !

[Mike Shepherd]

Fred it sounds like Ringo was a great dog. I searched him and his pop out in the NSTRA records. As you know it takes some luck to place in a trial but the dog has to do his job.

My dogs are 92% companions, 7% hunting and 1% field trialing and the best money I spend on recreation.

Yep Russ, too bad. Laughed out loud. Pointing puppies are unpredictable. Sounds like he is one good bird hunter though. And any good pointing dog puppy gives the world the finger now and then and goes off and does what he thinks needs doing, including giving his brace-mate a quick lesson in the pecking order.

My Red placed fourth yesterday. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Best,

Mike

[Fred Preston]

Mike, My mistake, Rev only lived to 6. He got some exotic infection working in the Southwest, tick born I think. He had two or three 1000+ point days and he may have surpassed Bart if he had lived as long.

Ringo was my first bird dog; I had had a number of coon hounds before him. In '96 I got involved with a couple of guys I knew in bird hunting, Bob DeSanto with his Springers and Don Ludwig with his GWP. They both lived on Sandusky St. in Ashland, Ohio. I started looking for a bird dog. In February '97, Bob ran into a guy (Dion Bliss) at a dog event over on the Indiana line who turned out to be a neighbor on Sandusky St. who had Pointers, including three pups left from an October, '96 litter. Bob told me about the pups and I went to see them on a cold drizzly evening. Dion showed them to me and flipped a wing on a string in front of them. One was clearly more responsive to it than the other two, so I said "I guess that one" which was Rev. Dion said he was keeping that one. I asked him which of the other two would be best for me as a novice bird chaser and he said that probably the block headed one. I got him, Ringo, and the rest is history.

[Chuck Heald]

Atta boy, Red. See you in Kansas. Oh, bring Mikey too.

[Mike Shepherd]

Red says he looks forward to marking your leg.