In the 5 yrs since I got Bump, I learned a lot about the breed, and even more about what is expected of a German Wirehaired Pointer. I'll expand on that another time. I wasn't a total novice anymore when it came to showing a dog, or running in field trials. Not an expert by any stretch of the imagination, but I had learned some hard lessons. This time I was going to do things right.
When Putter was old enough (6 mos. old) I began running him in puppy stakes at local trials. He liked birds, and hunted pretty well, but just wasn't quite enough dog to bring home the blue ribbons. Sometime around his 1st birthday, the light came on and he turned on! Putter started to place at the trials and he earned his puppy and his Derby points.
We began showing him around the same time, and he did ok. I wasn't a very good GWP groomer and didn't understand about stripping Wire coats. I'm afraid he probably looked like quite a mess in the ring most of the time. But the judges saw something they liked and he finshed his show CH before he was two yrs. old.
Enough folks had encouraged me to continue with Putters field training, so we sent him off to Denes Burjan, a pro trainer in Flemington NJ. Denes worked with both Putter and I, teaching us both about field trials and how to do well in them. Putter was a good student, an easy to teach dog who truly wanted to do things your way. He was cooperative, easy to live with, and truly was my best buddy.
My 1st Dual Champion
Ever since my first field trial, my goal was to have a Dual Champion. That is a dog who is a show CH and a Field CH. Not an easy goal, and there were darn few GWP Dual Ch's at that time. In March of 1989, Putter achieved that goal for me. He was now Dual Champion/ Amateur Field CH Dunkees Justa Hole N One! The icing on the cake was that he finished both his Open and Amateur Field Championship on the same day. The 26th GWP Dual Champion.
Putt continued to show he was a good all around GWP by completing his Master Hunter title in November 1989, his CD title in June 1990 and became only the 2nd DC of any breed to complete a NAVHDA UT title. (The first was DC Cascade Rogue, owned by Ray and Lynn Calkins of Portland OR. )
In 1991 Putter was named The Amateur Shooting Dog of the Year by the Association of Field Trial Clubs of New Jersey, the 1st GWP to ever receive that honor. All during this time we showed him as a Special here and there and he won a fair share of Best of Breed awards. The pinnacle of his show career came in 1991 when he won the Del Val GWP Specialty show and went on to a Group 2 award. Now Putter was the only Group placing GWP in history!
We continued to run Putter in the trials, and took him to the GWP National Championships. He was Runner Up in the GWPCA National Championship in 1992 held in Sunnyside WA. Not bad for a dog from PA! Neither Putter nor I had ever seen that type of country before, so it was an impressive feat for us both. After that he placed in almost every Championship he ran in.
Putter was a good, solid stud dog as well. Bred 9 times, he produced the following titles'
- 10 Champions
- 1 Dual Champion
- 1 Field Champion
- 2 Amateur Field Champions
- 1 National Amateur Field Champion
- 4 Master Hunters
- 4 Senior Hunters
- 8 Junior Hunters
Putter died at the ripe old age of 14 yrs old. To this day I miss having his head in my lap, but his kids have done us all proud. It's unfortunate that we didn't get any frozen semen on Putter all of his get were from live breedings.
