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Seabank Kennel, New York, NY (2025)

07/21/2025

Slow is smooth, smooth is fast.

Apparently this is an expression commonly used in the US military, but I don’t know where I learned it. But it sums up my summers pretty well.

Just a slew of nice pictures of dogs making good, slow, incremental progress. And all green-broke after just a weekend 😆.

I love working with owners who want to train their dogs and/or handle their dogs. And after almost a year-and-a-half of weekly lessons (albeit with time out for winter), some are at that nerve-wracking point of getting in front of their own dogs. Well done, everyone!

07/16/2025

This weekend I hosted a 2-day seminar on the West Method for owners who have dogs with me that are either just finished being broke or in the process of being broke.

I have seven dogs here with me this summer to get broke, some of whom have been here a month, others for whom it was literally Day 1. But it was fantastic to illustrate the method I follow with a group of dogs at the various, individual stages in the process.

And not try to force a dog through a three-month process in two, three, or four days.

I am especially grateful to Jessie & Bowie and Talia & the Queen of Darkness for being willing to show their unfinished dogs in front of a crowd of (mostly) strangers. You were all great!

For anyone interested in the West Method (named after Bill West from Oklahoma), these are most of the resources I sent owners:

1) Martha Greenlee's podcast with Gun Dog It Yourself: https://podcasts.apple.com/my/podcast/189-martha-greenlee/id1475109621?i=1000612307673

Martha started hosting West Method seminars with Dave Walker from Idaho as early as 1993; she then hosted seminars with the late, great Maurice Lindley as early as 2000, and with Maurice and my own mentor, Bill Gibbons, several years after.

2) I don't personally know the author, but I think this also captures the West Method succinctly: https://www.amanandhisbirddog.com/blog/2018/4/23/training-with-mo

3) This is a Strideaway article I wrote shortly after I came back from my first summer with Bill Gibbons: https://strideaway.com/a-month-with-bill-gibbons/

4) Bill Gibbons always talked about writing a book with Dr. Charles Herpje from California, but it never happened. If there was ever someone who spent first-hand time with Bill Gibbons, and who has the talent as both a writer and trainer to write a book on the method, it is trainer Kim Sampson from UT. You should follow her page to read every single one of her public service announcements.

5) There are also both Dave Walker's book, The Bird Dog Training Manual, sadly now out of print, and Martha's book, Training with Mo.

07/09/2025

It has already been a busy summer — and while this year’s weather is making me consider why I don’t go to the Dakotas or Alberta, it is a good time of year to settle into the routine of getting dogs broke.

And it’s great to have a nice strong group here for a few months as well as the several owners who have also resumed the journey to training their own dogs.

There are a couple more about to start this week — and I am looking forward to working with them too. My pigeons are already demanding a new labor contract, though.

06/07/2025

While I still have to judge an exciting-looking Amateur Gun Dog stake tomorrow at the Hudson Valley GSP Club trial, I am done running dogs for the weekend. And we have had a very good weekend.

Friday was hot as Hades. And being early June, Flaherty is jungalicious with cover. (We lost Top Secret Sam on point in OGD on Saturday: even with the Astro, we couldn't see him from 10ft.) It's a rough time of year to run dogs -- but someone has to be the last trial of the season.

In Open Derby, the Fugitive had a nice strong race in the heat but was beaten to birds by the eventual winner. Thank you to her owners, the Potters, for letting me have her this winter and spring. I am excited to see her again this winter. Our own Spudtastic managed to get a bird pointed and took 2nd in OD.

In Open Limited Gun Dog, it was '86 feels like 90' when the Hobgoblin ran -- and he was still as strong as he has been all spring. Three nice finds and a strong race despite the heat. And a lovely retrieve in the callbacks. He was given the win over some very nice dogs for 2pts and, more importantly, his two final retrieving credits. Thank you to Jess Woolston for scouting the Goblin!

Once he has completed his water test, the Hobgoblin can be officially referred to as FC Southpaw Bootlegger, aka Shiner. Congratulations to his breeder, Meredith Wadsworth, and her co-owner, David Melnick, for producing such a remarkable dog -- and for wanting him to compete in horseback and truly all-breed trials where he was likely the only Weimaraner. The late Maurice Lindley started him for Meredith and Ike Todd also took him to North Dakota for a summer. It takes a village, but the water test is up to you!

In Open Puppy, Boom Sauce came out of the gate hot -- and did a nice job to earn 3rd. Spudtastic continues to show increasing comfort with the horse and earned the win in OP for 1pt. He has an exciting summer lined up for him.

In Open Gun Dog, our own Stormnormulous took the win. Last fall, he had a great 4pt win in PA and I thought he was finished, but upon checking what I thought had been another prior 4pt win had had two scratches leaving him 1pt shy. For obvious reasons, he has been on the bench for the spring, but with this final trial of the season, he had to take a swing at it. And with two finds, a STF, and his usual strong race, he swung for the fences. With this 2pt win, and pending official recognition, he can now finally be referred to as FC Seabank's Pitch 'N' Roll. Congratulations to his breeder, Tracy Torrey Haines! Thank you to Mitch Swierczynski for scouting the monster.

05/20/2025

We spent the weekend at the Northern New England Brittany Club walking trial in the ‘lost town’ of Hill, NH. (Strictly speaking, the town isn’t lost, it was moved to the top of plateau in 1941 to get it out of the floodplain for the soon-to-be constructed Franklin Falls Dam. But there are still traces of old foundations and historical marker posts.)

I ran the three gun dogs — Havthor, Hobgobln, and Top Secret — in the two Open stakes. While conditions were a little more jungalicious than previous years, the ‘Open side’ is still a nice mixture of open areas and woody chutes.

In OGD, some flooding forced a change in the ending to the usual course — and derailed the Hobgoblin right at the end. SamSam had one find too many… which in his case, seems to be five. Summit managed to keep it all together with four or five finds and a strong race. He ended up with 2nd in OGD, but the judges made a point of telling me it had been a tough decision. Well done, Havthor!

Happily, the committee opted to run the gun dog course backwards with a much better start for Open Limited. Because of the course change I walked the first brace and saw two super performances, and I knew the dog that had beaten Summit in OGD had made it around clean too. And so I knew competition would be tough. Was very pleased to discover that Shiner had earned 3rd and Summit 4th in OLGD — both had three finds and a strong race in the growing warmth and humidity; SamSam had run well, but went from flood to famine and ended up honoring twice.

Thank you to the Club, the judges, and all the volunteers for hosting an enjoyable, well-organized trial.

05/12/2025

Some times you are the hammer and sometimes the nail 😆!

We went down to Arcadia Wildlife Management Area outside Exeter, RI to do some judging and to participate in the Eastern New England Brittany Club's walking trial. I hadn't been to the grounds in 13yrs since my first ever judging assignments as a field trial judge.

All three of the broke dogs got around clean -- and all did something remarkable and made me proud. Summit had a nice find out in the woods and stood through his bracemate not standing perfectly; we also had to go look for him at time and found him standing on what would be his third find. Shiner ran hard, had back-to-back finds within the space of 25yds, and then we had to go look for him in the woods -- to finally find him standing to the front looking gorgeous, all three of his birds at a good distance. SamSam, too, had two finds and a stop-to-flush, and on his second find, he looked initially unsure so I asked him to relocate -- at which case he moved up, firmed up and I flushed the bird. I took him out into the open field to turn him loose and released him onto another bird -- which he stopped for at the flush. (His uncertainty had been due to the fact that he had been trying to pin two different birds, both running through the thin understory.). But they all got beat by dogs more used to the grounds, most of whom had just competed on them in an amateur championship immediately prior to the stake.

And when I judged most of those same dogs the next day in Amateur Gun Dog, David Corrazini's Brittany, Domino, laid down a race that was both searching and animated and entirely appropriate for the cover. I say this to illustrate that while I believe in running dogs on multiple grounds in a season, none of my three dogs showed themselves quite as well for these grounds.

Our own Spud got his first trial debut in both Open Puppy and Open Derby -- and left me excited for the future, earning 3rd in both stakes.

But the superduper chicken dinner went to Boom! I had encouraged Jessica to handle her dog in both Open Puppy and Open Derby because these were both walking stakes and it would be a great chance to try for Open points with (probably) very little professional competition! It was especially rewarding for Boom! to win the Open Puppy stake under a judge who had judged her in her very first stake when she clearly took some time to realise that it was not playtime.

But bravo to Jessica and the BoomSauce for earning their OP win! We still need to teach her how to stack a dog if she's going to keep on winning! 😉

Thank you to all the volunteers who put on this event -- the judges, bird planters, and especially the folks who brought all the great food!

05/05/2025

We had quite the weekend at the Connecticut Valley Vizsla Club trial at Flaherty this weekend. Besides a warm spell on Friday and some ugly showers that interrupted play late Saturday afternoon, the weather was great for running dogs.

Thank you to the whole committee for all their work this weekend, to all the volunteers who pitched in bird planting, gunning, bringing food, etc. The Club ran a lot of dogs this weekend and it wouldn’t have been possible without you.

Thank you, too, to all the judges looking at a lot of dogs this weekend.

And thank you to Jess Woolston for scouting my dogs

While I couldn’t run him, Shawn Harris ran BillyMac in the 45min Eastern Amateur Classic, for vizslas only, and named in honor of long time field trialer and breeder, Lisa DeForest. He’d never run him before but the two made a great team — earning BillyMac his second win of this particular stake. Thank you, too, to Grace Anne Lawson for scouting for Shawn.

In Open Derby, the Fugitive from Justice struck blue with two strong finds and a nice, snappy, forward race. Bravo, Squints, and congratulations to her owners!

The big winner was the Hobgoblin! He won the Open Limited Gun Dog stake on Friday, for not only 2pts, but also 2 retrieving credits. He had a lovely race with 1x find and 2x honors — the first was because he was catching the front after his find, the second because he’d already swing around the edge of the penultimate section and was coming around to the next intersection when he encountered his more moderate bracemate and slammed into an honor from 20yds The callback was also not straightforward and I was very happy with him. And in doing so, he has earned his name as the first Weimaraner on the Patrick Cooke Memorial Trophy.

Shiner then came out and won the 19-dog Open Gun Dog stake, claiming 4 more points, with a strong race and three finds on birds that were either dry and running, or wet, running, and crippled. Congratulations to his owners, as well!

And to cap it off, it was wonderful to see an amateur owner have some splendid success with their dog, the one we call Boom! After a 4th in the Open Puppy with me, she then went out to win the Amateur Walking Derby stake, earning a spot on the Dick Frawley Memorial Trophy. This is a new trophy commissioned after the passing of our dear, beloved club member, and a prominent presence at Flaherty. And he would have loved Boomsauce!

04/27/2025

We switched gears again and attended the double-double-header hosted by the TarTan Gordon Setter Club and the Irish Setter Club of New England at Markover Preserve in Danielson, CT.

Thank you to all the judges for looking at the dogs and to the small army of dedicated volunteers from both clubs who kept things rolling and kept us well fed.

We had rain on and off all day on Saturday and then a cold, sharp wind in albeit dry conditions on Sunday. The chukar were as uncooperative as usual -- and thanks go to the gunners for trying to make the best of difficult situations.

On Saturday after a truly great retrieve (in which he couldn't locate the shot bird in a double-blind situation and so tackled another live bird and brought it to hand) and then an honor, Otto got caught out by another malevolent chukar eager to (unsuccessfully) prove its running skills up the middle of a path. It was bum luck.

On Sunday, he kept his act together and scored SH pass #2. Congratulations to his owners!

The highlight of the weekend, though, was going two-for-two in SH with Tenacious. And so pending official recognition, Declan can be referred to as Glen 'Mor's Declan SH. Congratulations to his owners, and thanks to Jeff Reis for doing the bulk of the work to get him broke.

04/21/2025

After last weekend's snowy Saturday, we had Apocalyptic Summer Saturday at the TarTan Gordon Setter trial -- with temperatures reaching into the mid-80s! Happily most of my dogs were done before it got ridiculously warm for this time of year. But my heart certainly went out to the handlers and judges in the Amateur stakes that afternoon.

As ever, thank you to all the judges for looking at my dogs, and the (very) small army of volunteers bird planting, marshaling, and providing hospitality. Thank you, too, to Jess Woolston for scouting my dogs.

We had some success this weekend as well. The MIghty Havthor had his second run as a broke dog and a second 4th place this time in the Open Limited Gun Dog stake! Bravo, Summit!

BoomSauce showed up for Open Puppy and earned a solid 3rd place! Her pattern is getting increasingly mature in front of the horse -- which is great.

But the big chicken dinner was The Hobgoblin! Congratulations to Shiner for winning the 16-dog Open Gun Dog! Despite no juvenile points, and no blue ribbons of any kind to this point, Shiner had already earned 4pts towards his FC the hardest away possible -- with two 2nd places in 5pt major Open stakes. And this, his first blue ribbon, was in yet another all-breed major stake where he was the only grey dog! Congratulations to his owners and breeder!

04/14/2025

Lots of firsts this weekend: first weekend of events in New England, first field trial, first hunt test, first weekend of hauling the new big trailer and horses, and of course snow.

We went to the Southern New England Brittany Club field trial at Flaherty FTA in East Windsor, CT for Saturday — and then swapped out trailers and went to the Vizsla Club of Central New England double-header hunt test at Herman Covey WMA in Belchertown, MA for Sunday. First thanks go to all the volunteers at both events for helping out with judging, bird planting, gunning, hospitality, and ferrying judges to and from courses. Especially on Saturday these folks were out in the same craptastic weather I was.

We had to leave Flaherty before placements but received the good news that, despite the snowy, muddy conditions, Squints (aka ‘The FFJ’) had taken 2nd in Open Derby, and Summit (aka ‘Havthor’) had not only got around clean in his first broke-dog stake, but he had also earned 4th in the 18-dog Open Gun Dog stake. This first major placement not only qualifies him to run in Limited stakes but also to compete in the VCA National Field Championship. (The photo is of Havthor on his last training birds before the trial.)

On Sunday, the weather was cool but far from unpleasant for the VCCNE hunt test. I especially liked the revision to the SH/MH course now that all the work clearing and reseeding the grounds has been completed. Kudos should go to the State of MA Division of Fisheries and Wildlife not just for their work in making these particular grounds so amenable, but for their overall and genuine encouragement to the working dog sports here in the state.

The Bug came off the couch and earned her third MH pass in clear, clean fashion!

And then Declan, the Gordon (who is now nicknamed ‘Tenacious’), earned his second SH pass! In full recognition, the bulk of his training was done by my friend, Jeff Reis (whose trailer nickname will not be shared 😆), and I was lucky to handle him.

The same is true for Otto, the GSP — whose nickname should probably be Bevis — who came out and also earned his first SH pass. The bulk of his training was carried out by my friend, Dave Molyneux, and I was lucky to knock off the rust and handle him.

Thank you to all the judges and congratulations to their owners!

04/07/2025

While we gear up for the spring hunt test and field trial season, it is incredibly rewarding to see two of our Winter Camp participants already enjoying success as owner-handlers!

Congratulations to Joe Lussier and Trout (formerly known as 'Cut Bait') for winning the Open Derby at the PANE trial this past weekend at Flaherty!

Congratulations, too, to Jessica Predom and Lucia (who will always be known as 'Boom') for tackling the Amateur Walking Derby and securing a solid 3rd. Progress is progress for the baby bird dog !

Always nice to hear that after several weeks of wild bird exposure (and no formal steadying work), both these dogs are finding birds and still letting their owners flush for them.

If you are interested in giving your dog some extended wild bird exposure next winter, please reach out sooner rather than later as spots are already filling up.

03/18/2025

We have made it safely home to Massachusetts after another long, productive winter in southwest Georgia. Stay tuned for more exciting news and developments!

As we have for the last couple of years, we stopped over at the Weimaraner Club of Washington DC field trial at Norman Wilder just outside Felton, DE. The grounds may not be the biggest, but the competition is stiff, and the club does a great job welcoming newcomers and old timers alike -- and runs a tight ship. Thank you to Becky Fockler, Michael Swallop, and Lance Fargo, especially, as well as the rest of the club who showed up to help.

It was a pleasure to judge the OGD (ret) -- and we saw a number of solid performances. Discovering that Mary Brown and I placed three of the same dogs in OGD as the judges in OLGD was no mere coincidence but a testament to the strength of the field.

As for my dogs in OLGD: Stormy was an as**at, SamSam was unlucky with his fifth bird contact, and Shiner had a good run with 1x STF and 2x PTs but just got beat.

In the juvenile stakes: I ran Boom in OP and the FFJ in OD, and was lucky to have Boom's owners, Jessica and Jeremy, willing to run their own dog and Squints in the AWD.

Boom figured out what the point of all these horses and strange bracemates -- and with Jessica's guidance, the light came on and she earned a 4th in AWD.

As for Squints: the Fugitive is back in the house.! She didn't need much in the way of acclimatization and earned a good 2nd in OD. Jeremy had his hands full, but showed great persistence as the FFJ went on a spree. Squints would win the AWD and earn her first 2pts towards her AFC! Congratulations to her owners and thank you to Jeremy for making it possible.

Seabank Kennel

07/21/2025

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