Long Gone Conway

My friend Dr. Solon Rhodes first took her to his sprawling farm outside of Bennington, VT.and gave her a lot of time and love. By the end of the summer she was here at Long Gone Kennels working on pigions, quail and chuckers. By mid Sept. she was in the woods of Northern NH, finding and pointing woodcock and grouse daily. Todd Kalter took her to Northern Ontario to hunt grouse and woodcock, she had “Many” shot over her points ! “Connie” was back here in NH by mid oct. and was hunted almost daily on grouse and woodcock. We shot “ A Lot “ of wild birds over her points, when the woodcock left, we simply kept her on grouse until the snow stoped us in mid Dec.. Todd took “Connie” to North Carolina and shot wild quail and woodcock over her until early Feb. when she came back home to NH. In late Feb. I took her to Southern Ohio with Dave Hughes to work her on quail and woodcock at Kelly Shepherds farm and kennels. I left her with Dave in PA when I came home in March. Dave placed her in some big puppy stakes in PA. and then in April she won the Grand National Grouse Puppy Classic in NY over a large and talented field, the same stake her daddy had won just two years before. Connie ran in several more puppy and derby stakes in the spring of 2011 and placed in all of them, with forward, strong races, and broke bird work.

In the summer of 2011 we worked “Connie” on wild birds, usually about 4 days a week. Connie always found good numbers of birds, and we were working on backing also. In Sept. she was entered in her first Derby Stake ( as a derby ) The Bill Kearns Memorial Open Derby Classic, she won it. She did not run in another field trial until The Grouse Futurity in Michigan at the end of Oct.. Dave, Ryan ( Frame, Daves assistant ) and I hunted her daily during the grouse only season in VT. She was developing a real talent for finding and pointing grouse ( if only we could shoot!!1). The when NH opened in Oct., we hunted her on both grouse and woodcock for a solid month. A lot of birds were shot over her, as they are over all our trial dogs.

Dave ran her in the 67th Grand National Grouse Futurity in Michigan ( we stayed home and kept hunting our other young dogs!). “Connie” found and pointed a grouse, with several relocations required on this running bird, to win this, the most prestigious derby event in the grouse woods. 34 of the top derbies in the US and Canada were there. ( The third place dog in the futurity was sired by CH Long Gone Boston, the second futurity winner he has produced, as he produced the winner in 2009 ).The following week Dave took “ Connie “ to PA and entered her in “The Blakesley Open Walking Derby Classic” with 17 braces ( 34 dogs ). Connie got second with a big , forward, easy handling race and broke bird work in the call back. We could not be happier with her development and look forward to continue her grouse hunting the rest of this year, before she heads south for the winter to work in North Carolina with Dave and runs the U.S. Quail Shooting Dog Futurity ( horseback ) in early Feb. 2012. Thank you to Kevin Kline for showing enough confidence in our young stud dog, CH Long Gone Buckwheat, to try him in your breeding program, as now we have a good bitch to hunt, field trial and breed down the road, Grand National Grouse Futurtiy Winner, Long Gone Conway.

“Connies” winer and spring derby season was a smashing success. She won a horseback all age stake at Hoffman N.C. with Dr. Roger Macphearson handling. Connie won the Venango Open Derby in PA.with a big entry, won the White Mountain Open Derby Classic ( with 2 grouse finds in a quail trial !, in NH ) and the Garfield Wall / Clifton Hale Open Derby Classic ( in Maine ) We look forward to working her on wild birds this summer of 2012.