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Long Gone Conway

Winner, 67th Grand National Grouse Futurity
In the spring of 2009 I had honor of Judging ( and reporting ) The Grand National Grouse and Woodcock Invitational Championship in Marionville, PA., the dog Dick Brenneman and I named Champion after the three days of competition of the top 14 grouse dogs in the US and Canada, was a wonderfull setter female named CH Texas Copper Top. Copper never got tired in her three consecutive days, found and pointed both grouse and woodcock and showed amazing style , both running and pointing. In the fall of 2009 Long Gone Buckwheat won the New England Open Grouse Championship, as a fall derby, the only dog in history to win a “Grouse” championship, as a fall derby. Coppers owner, Kevin Kline was looking for a male to breed his “Copper” to, and selected CH Long Gone Buskwheat. The litter was whelped at Kevins “Lone Star “ Kennels in PA., in Feb. of 2010 .I trusted Kevin to pick me out a pup, I simply asked him to “pick out the pup you would pick for yourself “ he selected and sent us a tri colored female we named “ Conway “. We liked her right from day one!
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.
2011 Grand National Grouse Futurity Winners, Gladwin, Michigan Winner...Long Gone Conway Connie is sired by CH Long Gone Buckwheat
2011 Grand National Grouse Puppy Classic Winner Long Gone Conway in Northern Ontario, hunting grouse with Todd Kalter, Fall, 2010, at 7 1/2 months (whelped Feb 22, 2010)
Long Gone Conway, winner 64th Grand National Grouse Puppy Classic, April, 2011, New York State. (Her Daddy CH Long Gone Buckwheat won it in 2009!)

Testimonials

Lloyd,

Congratulations on winning the Futurity with Connie. Like I told you in the spring – I like her a lot. I know Bruce is happy with Mia (another Boston pup doing well) getting 3rd. Especially with that big of an entry. I hope all is well and I hope to see you guys in the spring.

Eric
Hi Lloyd,

Congratulations on your big win at the 2011 Grand National Grouse Futurity. I know you have worked long and hard to achieve this and you certainly deserve it. Nice job!!

I had the pleasure of walking the brace that included your new Futurity winner. I took a few pictures of his find that cemented his win. Hope you like them. I used the zoom to get these so they are not perfect but I think I was the only one taking pictures so these may be the only ones there are.

Enjoy your winter looking at the beautiful silver bowl.

Regards, Robert Kluger
Hi Lloyd,

We came back yesterday, as both of us needed to get back to work. Back to reality.

Yes, we saw Connie go, and she was great. As I said, she was very mature in her application, very consistent, and had a beautiful relocation on a grouse. Very classy going. There was no doubt that she was the dog to beat. We also saw Chaz go, and like him a lot. We could easily see him on point, and he looked a lot like Jim! Dorothy told us the story about her baby. Those two proved that good bird dogs will still find birds…in spite of the traffic on those courses this fall.

DW