FOREST AND 
STREAM 
13 
GROUSE DOGS AND TRIALS 
EFFORTS TO ESTABLISH STANDARDS 
FOR A GENTLEMAN’S SHOOTING DOG 
By James Sansom. 
A WAY back in the mountains of North 
Central Pennsylvania, nine miles 
from the little city of Kane, last 
month, almost a hundred men, enthusiasts 
on the grouse dog, followed on foot over 
a rough, mountainous country the running 
of almost fifty braces of dogs. As the 
courses must have averaged close to two 
miles in length it is evident that these men 
were enthusiastically interested in the per¬ 
formances that were going on, else they 
would not have expended the energy neces¬ 
sary to cover one hundred miles of such 
rough country in a little over five days, and 
the question naturally occurs—why? 
The history of breeding and of field trials 
for bird dogs teaches us that the American 
bird dog is a much more highly developed 
individual than his English ancestor. Ex¬ 
perience has taught these men and many 
others that the bird dog in America has 
not in the past been developed, through 
field trials at least, in the proper way to 
make of him a dog able to handle the 
greatest game bird in the world—the ruffed 
grouse of our forest regions. 
I T was for this reason over three years 
ago, that the writer, after a campaign of 
publicity and education, succeeded in 
inducing the Pennsylvania Field Trial Club, 
an organization of amateur lovers of the 
bird dog, to father the first Grouse Dog 
Championship which was run at Killarney 
Park, in Fayette County, during the first 
week in December of 1913. 
This Grouse Dog Championship was run 
for the fourth time at Kane in November, 
1916, and that there was a demand for such 
a test of the bird sense of dogs is evidenced 
by the fact that while the trial at Killarney 
Park drew only 12 starters, and those of 
only average class, the Kane trials this year 
had a total of 69 starters out of an entry 
of 84, and the Pennsylvania Field Trial 
Club expects, on its fifth running of these 
trials next fall, to have more than 100 dogs 
as starters. This is a record which indi¬ 
cates the increase in interest and in en¬ 
thusiasm in the grouse dog tests, but the 
number of entries no more reflects the in¬ 
terest than does the class of dogs that com¬ 
peted, and we believe the general class of 
the competitors has been lifted year by year 
fully to as great an extent as the number 
of entries. 
The primary purpose in establishing 
grouse trials was based on the desire for 
the establishment of a line of breeding that 
would be marked by the possession of un¬ 
usual bird sense—bird sense in dogs mean¬ 
ing in a large way ambition to hunt, bird- 
instinct and bird-wisdom. We had, for 
many years previously, seen the great Na¬ 
tional field trials on quail produce a line 
of dogs which we believed were physically 
unfitted to compete all day long with the 
difficulties of a grouse country, and many 
of which did not handle birds very well. 
We believed that speed and excessive range 
had been developed at the expense of 
strength, endurance and bird work, and we 
were aiming at developing blood-strains by 
which, through proper breeding, we might 
attain finally the ideal gentlemen’s shooting 
dog on grouse. 
T HERE have been many differences of 
opinion on the judging of the dogs at 
the four championship trials that have 
been run, and we can safely expect that 
there will continue to be varying estimates 
Fanny Kid, Grouse Dog Champion, 1913, 
Owned By Frank Mellon, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
of the justice of the awards at the grouse 
trials. 
In the first place, individual standards of 
grouse dog excellence vary, widely. Many 
men, perhaps most men whp are grouse 
shooters, prefer the slow, careful dog which 
never flushes a bird. Others prefer the 
dog which by extremely wide searching 
will cover a great amount of territory, 
find far more birds than the slow dog, 
but, on account of his speed and the difficult 
nature of the cover he is working, will 
flush many birds, not intentionally, but be¬ 
cause he is traveling faster than his nose. 
Somewhere between these extremes there 
is a happy medium and to our mind that is 
what the judges at these trials have been 
trying to secure. 
Given such a dog, of persistent and intel¬ 
ligent searching quality and high-bred in¬ 
stinct, without such extreme range or speed 
as to be out of sight, the next factor is 
the matter of control and training that will 
make a dog obedient, that will make him 
hunt to the gun, that will make him staunch 
on point, perfect in his handling of birds 
after he has found them, and steady to 
shot and wing. 
Then enters the third factor, that is what 
might be called class, including both style, 
gait and intelligence in ground work, as well 
as natural style on point. The entire prob¬ 
lem at judging a grouse dog at trials is that 
of estimating with each individual dog the 
amount of weight which should be attached 
to each of these three factors, and it is in 
the individual differences of opinion about 
the relative importance of searching, which 
also includes range; bird handling, which 
includes all the points of training; and na¬ 
tural class and style, that there has arisen 
a difference in the judging of grouse dogs 
when on trial and therefore, a difference 
in the estimates of what should constitute 
a perfect grouse dog. 
I N the grouse trials to date we luckily 
have been spared from the necessity of 
watching many of that class of dogs, 
which was in evidence at the quail trials 
not so long ago, and which might be 
termed “aimless runners,” and we do not 
believe that a dog of this character could 
possibly be placed in a championship grouse 
trial under any of the judges that have so 
far presided. We have had, at some trials, 
what might have seemed to be an undue 
emphasis placed on such a minor factor in 
AT THE FIRST GROUSE-DOG CHAMPIONSHIP. 
Group of Handlers and Followers: Judge John Begg, Right Middle Row; Champion 
Fanny Russell With Her Owner on Right; Frank Mellon on Right Below. 
