168 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March, 1918 
THE MAN WHO HANDLED RINGING BELLS 
ROBERT ARMSTRONG, TRAINER OF POINTERS, HAS WRITTEN A PAGE OR TWO 
OF FIELD TRIAL HISTORY WORTHY OF THE TRADITIONS OF HIS FAMILY 
T HERE would not be much to field 
trials without sensations, in fact it is 
the high lights that attract the public 
and keep up interest; but there is such a 
thing as repeating sensations until they be¬ 
come monotonous, and for the past year 
and a half the Ziegler string of bird dogs 
have won with such painful regularity that 
the public is beginning to ask when will 
another string of dogs and another handler 
appear to dim their laurels. 
It was a year ago last September that 
Robert Armstrong first cast away these 
Ziegler dogs before a field trial judge on 
the occasion of the All American trials at 
Rigby, N. Dakota. They began breaking 
records that day and they have con- 
By PIOUS JEEMS 
tinued breaking records ever since. 
These Ziegler dogs are pointers and the 
pointer has always been recognized as the 
prairie dog par excellence. His coat is 
shorter so that he stands the heat better 
than his long haired brother; his round 
cat foot with its thick pads stands up bet¬ 
ter on the harsh soil of a good chicken 
country than the 'mere spaniel-like foot 
of the setter, and finally the elusive run¬ 
ning tricks of the pinnated grouse are 
solved by the pointer with an accuracy that 
the setter is seldom able to equal. It is a 
question of ancestry. The pointer is a de¬ 
scendant of the hounds and loves to work 
out the mysteries of a trail; the setter is 
of spaniel ancestry and works fastest on 
birds that do not run but which hide and 
spring into the air only when forced to do 
so by the approach of danger. 
In years past some remarkable dogs have 
appeared at the All American trials. In 
fact a win in one of their big stakes shares 
with the United States trials the distinction 
of being the most important honor of the 
year, for the All American formally opens 
the field trial season which closes with the 
United States trials at Grand Junction. 
In the early summer of 1916 a dozen or 
more of the best known field trial handlers 
and their assistants located in the Dakotas 
and over the line in Manitoba preparing for 
these trials the bird dogs that had been sent 
(continued on page 191) 
Qy Courtesy of the American Field, Chicago. , 
Robert Armstrong holding Great Island Ringing Bells (right) and John Gude holding Unospeck at the 13th American Futurity 
