Heads Up Tracks in the Taiga MH, WC***Can. WCI, JFTR, QFTR***

“Trek”

 

AKC #: SR47521904

CKC #: TA137930

Date of Birth: 1/31/07

OFA HIP #: GR-97570G24M-VPI (Good)

CERF #: GR-41855/2011

OFA ELBOW #: GR-EL19511M24-VPI (Normal)

OFA CARDIAC #: GR-CA17327/34M/C-VPI (Normal)

OPTIGEN Accession #: 10-7159 (Normal/Clear)       

DNA Profile #: V592137

 

 

TREK’S PHYSICAL APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER TRAITS

 

Trek’s wavy coat is a rich, dark gold with lighter feathering and no white.  He stands just over 23 inches tall and weighs about 63 pounds.  He has full dentition and a scissors bite with no misaligned teeth.  So far, he has been very healthy with no allergies, chronic ear infections, or hot spots.  He is the proper 12:11 Golden Retriever proportion of length to height.  His eyes are the color of his coat but look lighter in many photographs since they were taken when the sun was low on the horizon to capture the best light.

 

Trek has a special smile.  Many dogs bare their teeth when smiling.  Not Trek.  He scrunches up his face, squinting with his eyes.  Not long after I took him home, I met with his breeder Anne Everett for some field training with our older dogs and to let Trek and his sister Zinga (now an MX and MXJ in agility) play together.  Anne saw Trek and asked if he had been stung since his face looked swollen.  I said, “No, he’s just smiling at you.” Some of his puppies seem to have inherited this trait.

 

Trek is calm and quiet in the house, but with plenty of speed and style in the field.  He is an excellent marker with a memory to match.  His nose can get him into trouble but also can be a plus.  He is extremely focused and intelligent.  Even as a young dog, he excelled in focus.  While the other puppies in his litter were clamoring for attention at the side of the litter box, he sat square in the middle of the pen and stared at me with an amazing attention span even at 6 1/2 weeks.  How could I not take him home?  When Trek was just over a year old, we trained with pro Evan Graham for a week.  After watching Trek retrieve a land mark, Evan asked the training group what the difference was between Trek and the other dogs.  He answered his own question with the word “focus”.

 

Trek has been trained and handled entirely by me.  I did Trek’s basics and transition work on my own and worked with various amateurs who helped guide me to develop Trek’s marking ability.   I have since day-trained with several different professionals and am grateful for their advice and counsel and all the great training set ups as Trek has developed into an all-age trial dog.

 

 

TREK’S ACCOMPLISHMENTS

 

Trek quickly showed his field potential by earning his WC at 7 ½ months at the GRCA National Specialty in 2007.  He was the youngest dog to run and to pass the test consisting of a land double and two water singles.  Two weeks later, he earned his Canadian WC on Saturday and his WCI on Sunday.  At just under 8 months, he was steady enough to come to the line in the WCI off leash, watch two birds go down, be surprised by the honor dog breaking to retrieve one of his birds, return to the holding blind, go back to the line off leash, watch and retrieve the double, and then honor another working dog.  He showed his intelligence by calmly deciding on his own to pick up the double in reverse order, just in case that honor dog wanted to get his go bird again.

 

In 2008, Trek ran Derby stakes in the U.S. and Junior stakes in Canada.  He earned multiple Judges’ Awards of Merit (JAM’s) in the U.S. and multiple placements in Canada.  He earned the Junior Field Trial Retriever (JFTR) title in Canada by accumulating 5 points with at least 3 placements.

 

On his second birthday in 2009, Trek earned a JAM in a 39-dog Qualifying stake at the San Jose RC trial in Northern California.  He went on to win a Qualifying stake at the Prince George RC trial in Canada at 25 months with snow on the ground and icy water.   Later in the year, he won a 46-dog Qualifying stake at the Red River RC trial in Texas before he turned 3.  Those wins made him Qualified All Age in both countries.  To seal that Texas win, Trek executed a near-perfect, complex water blind in the rain in 32-degree December weather.  The water was so cold that some dogs, even some Open dogs, entered the water and immediately turned around and came back out.  Others refused to re-enter.  Not Trek.  He sliced into the water on his own and one cast had him swimming down the long channel right on line.  He tried to swim around the point, but one cast onto the point and one cast back into the water and he held a perfect line to the blind.  When Trek picked up the last bird of the water triple, one judge told me, “I’m not supposed to tell you this, but no one can catch your dog.” And he still had half the field left to judge!  He later told people that he is a Lab man, but he would like to have Trek on his truck.

 

Just days after turning 3, Trek earned a JAM in a 51-dog Amateur stake at the San Jose RC trial in Northern California, boldly entering swiftly moving river water that swept him downstream three times on the water triple.  Two months later, he placed 2nd in a Qualifying stake at the Samish RC trial in the sagebrush of eastern Washington State.  The next month, he placed second in the Vancouver Island RC Open stake in Canada which bumped him out of the Qualifying in the U.S. and Canada but earned him the Qualified Field Trial Retriever (QFTR) title in Canada.  The QFTR is earned by winning a Qualifying stake and accumulating 10 points (Trek had the win and 8 points) or earning a placement in an Amateur or a placement or Certificate of Merit in an Open.  He later placed 4th in another Canadian Open – Upper Island RC.  He qualified for and competed in the Canadian National Retriever Championship in September 2010 near Merritt, BC and finished four series.  That year (2010), he also participated in two hunt tests earning two legs toward the Master Hunter (MH) title. 

 

Toward the end of his 3-year-old year, Trek was a participant in a Dave Rorem handling seminar.  Dave is a long-time, very successful professional trainer and handler who worked closely with the renowned Rex Carr.  After watching Trek run two marks, two water blinds, and two land blinds in cold, rainy weather, Dave commented to the gallery that Trek “is the best Golden I’ve seen in 20 or 30 years, bar none.”  He went on to say that Trek is “loaded with quality” and “this dog gives me goose bumps.”  He stated that all Trek needed was experience and predicted that he would have his AFC if not his FC when he was five.   He said he would be watching to see how we do.  Talk about pressure!

  

At four, Trek earned another JAM in a U.S. Amateur stake early in the year at the Sacramento Valley RC trial in Northern California and placed 4th in the Open at the Vancouver Island RC trial and 2nd in the Amateur at the BC Labrador RC trial in Canada, again qualifying for the Canadian Nationals.  Then, on May 29, 2011, he earned his first U.S. all-age placement by taking 4th in a 66-dog Amateur at the Western Montana RC trial in Missoula, MT at a little over 4 years of age.  Titled dogs made up 36 percent of the field that weekend and 56 percent of those in the final series.  Trek earned kudos from the judges on his water blind as well as the final mark in the water triple that he pinned perfectly.   Then, since Trek had earned those two Master legs in the fall of 2010, I thought we might as well go for the title.  He passed his next four tests and earned the MH title on June 12, 2011, passing six out of six tests and qualifying for the 2011 Master National.

 

 

TREK’S PARENTS

 

Trek was sired by FC-AFC Glenhaven HTRS MN Baronet MH, OS, FDHF (Bart) who not only excelled in the field with many national rankings and trophies while being trained and handled by an amateur but also has been a top producer of titled Goldens in many venues.  At this writing, he is on the list of top ten sires of Master Hunters, Qualified All Age field trial dogs, Obedience Trial Champions, Utility Dogs Excellent, Utility Dogs, GRCA Obedience Dog Hall of Fame dogs, Agility Excellent dogs, and the #1 producer of Obedience Master dogs.

 

Trek’s dam is UH, HRCH, GMH Goldnguns Dynamite Diva MH, QFTR, WCX*** OD.  Diva has been a very accomplished and consistent Canadian hunt test and field trial competitor having earned a second and a third in Open field trial competition before retiring.  She finished 5 of the 7 Opens she ran.  She is a wonderful house dog and an excellent goose hunting companion on annual fall hunting trips to the Canadian prairies and the interior of British Columbia.  From her two litters, she has produced 10 dogs with 42 performance titles earned so far including obedience, hunt test, field trial, and agility titles in the U.S. and Canada.

 

Diva’s sire is the well-known Boomer, more formally FC-AFC-FTCH-AFTCH-Can. OTCH TNT’s Explosion Am. UD, OS, FDHF, Can. FDHF, ODHF.  Boomer earned obedience High in Trial awards in the U.S. and Canada as well as many national rankings and trophies for his field accomplishments in both countries.  Boomer was also a finalist in the 2003 U.S. National Amateur Championship – one of very few Goldens to finish a National since NAFC-FC Topbrass Cotton won the Amateur in 1985.  He, too, has been an outstanding producer of performance Goldens.

 

 

TREK’S SIBLINGS

 

Trek has several siblings that have been active in field, obedience, agility, and other activities.  One brother is a Master Hunter in the U.S. and qualified for the 2011 Master National.  He was also the dog featured on the cover of the 2010 Field Issue of the Golden Retriever News.  Another brother has a Canadian Senior Hunter title as well as a Canadian TD, CDX, and WCX.  Two sisters are accomplished agility dogs with one having the MACH title and the other nearly there with MX and MXJ titles.  Both have entered the Agility Dog Hall of Fame.  One of those also has earned a Flyball championship title.  Still another brother is an RCMP Search and Rescue dog.  Several are excellent hunting partners.

 

 

TREK’S OFFSPRING

 

Trek has sired two litters so far, both born in March 2011.  They are already showing promise in the field, pet therapy, tracking, agility, and any other activities the owners have chosen to pursue.  In October, one passed a Junior Hunter test at seven months, the same day her father Trek earned another Master pass.

 

 

   

Owner:

Judy Myers

2023 E. Sims Way #291

Port Townsend, WA 98368

360-301-5945

taigagold24@yahoo.com

 

July 22, 2011