Dogs Point to Perfection

By Michael Pearce - The Wichita Eagle

Greenwood County – Over 20 days, hundreds of brown-and-white dogs will run the Flint Hills. When they find a scent, they’ll spin on a dime and eventually stop statue-still, nose straight out and stubby tail straight up.

And they’ll hold the instinctual pose as up to 50 people approach on horseback.

They won’t budge as a walking man flushes a bird and another shoots it.

Most of the dogs will do it to near perfection because they’re some of the best in the nation.

This is the 20th year the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of America has come to Kansas for its national championship.

The event, sanctioned by the American Kennel Club, finds vast acres of countryside and a wide cast of locals willing to lend land and helping hands.

"We have people from New York to California and Georgia to Arizona. We also have some Canadians," said Mike Aldrich, the field trial co-chairman from Nogal, N.M. "This place is ideally centrally located."

It’s also an ideal testing ground for the 280 dogs.

"The grounds are perfect. It’s got wide-open spaces, plenty of brush and it’s hilly," said Phil Mathiowetz, a Red Wing, Minn., trainer. "The grass is ideal."

Owners range from weekend hunters handling their family pet to professionals.

Dogs qualified by winning one of about 700 North American field trials.

The shorthairs will compete through Nov. 2 in classes that feature dogs handled by amateurs and pros. There’s a separate class for dogs younger than 2.

Dennis Brath, a co-chariman from Campbellsport, Wis., said pen-reared chukar partridge and quail are released for the trial.

Only the chukar are shot to ensure no wild quail are killed.

Dogs are released in pairs and hunt up to an hour. Two judges on horseback rate the dogs on their ability to find, point and retrieve birds. Enthusiasm and style are also rated.

Dogs can be disqualified for flushing birds or failing to stop and honor another’s point.

A gallery of up to 50 spectators on horseback often follow the judges. Many are trial entrants awaiting their dog’s turn.

"I’ve always loved hunting dogs and eventually realized I love riding horses, " said Rob Schuester, an amateur from Green Bay, Wis. "This is about as good as it gets."

Most visitors say the care and assistance they get from residents are of equal quality.

"We all love it here because everyone in the area’s been just so good to us," Brath said. "They really treat us great and feed us right. It seems like we come weighting about 140 and leave at 210."

Joy Jensen, a Eureka business owner, said she’s figured the field trial results in about $400,000 injected into the local economy.

Motel rooms are booked in Eureka and El Dorado. Restaurants serve hundreds of meals to visitors. Attendees also spend heavily at livestock and grocery stores.

Many volunteers aren’t linked to a business.

"A lot of people just go out and help because they really like what (the field trial) brings to the town and the county," said Keith Dunham, a Eureka grocer. "It really helps pull the community together."