Bird Dog Junction

by Stuart Englert

Andy Daugherty climbs off his horse to retrieve his bird dog, which is standing like a statue—body motionless, tail erect—after sniffing out a second covey of bobwhite quail on the Ames Plantation in Grand Junction, Tenn. (pop. 301).

"All right," says Daugherty, 50, a dog trainer and handler from Grovespring, Mo., pulling his dog Cypress Gunpowder from among the briars and brambles. Daugherty blows his whistle. "Go on," he says, signaling the dog back on to the 11.5-mile course that winds across the 18,643-acre plantation.

Before the afternoon is over, the dog finds six more coveys and runs more than 20 miles, zigzagging through woods and fields during the 106th National Field Trial Championship last February.

For bird dog enthusiasts, the national championship is the crown jewel and the Ames Plantation is the center of the universe for their sport, which pits the nation’s best pointers and English setters against one another in a century-old competition of canine endurance, style and hunting ability.

"This is the Super Bowl for bird dogs," says Jim White of Bowling Green, Ky., one of three judges who selected Cypress Gunpowder—owned by David Nutt of Jackson, Miss., and Larry Mitchell of Franklin, Tenn.—as last year’s national champion from a field of 32 dogs that qualified to participate.

During the two-week competition, two dogs at a time are released and their handlers, riding on horseback, attempt to guide the dogs along a designated course, finding as many birds as possible in three hours. When a dog finds a covey of quail, its handler dismounts, walks toward the dog and flushes the birds. When the birds fly, the handler fires a blank shot into the air. The trained dog must demonstrate its maturity by standing in place until the handler orders it to continue along the course.

An entourage of judges, plantation officials and hundreds of spectators follows the dogs and their handlers on horseback. The riders watch as the handlers communicate with their dogs through a continuous barrage of vocal commands and whistles.

"Every dog here can win," says Larry Huffman, 44, a dog trainer, handler and scout from nearby Michigan City, Miss. "It’s just the one that gets the breaks."

When the competition concludes, one dog is crowned national champion, an honor bestowed annually since the first National Field Trial Championship in West Point, Miss., in 1896. The championship was moved to the Grand Junction area in 1900, and the event found a permanent home on the Ames Plantation in 1915.

Named for the intersection of the Memphis & Charleston and Mississippi Central railroads, Grand Junction long has been associated with railways and bird dogs. Before the era of interstate highways and jet airplanes, trains transported dog owners, handlers and spectators to the national championship.

Trains still rumble through town, but nowadays bird dog devotees arrive by car or truck. Many stop to visit the National Bird Dog Museum, which honors more than 40 pointing, flushing and retrieving breeds and houses the Field Trial Hall of Fame and Wildlife Heritage Center.

Officials say Grand Junction was the natural location for the museum because the Ames Plantation is only a few miles away, it’s not far from waterfowl hunting along the Mississippi River flyway, and the area has a long-standing tradition of hosting quail hunting competitions.

"The first recorded field trial was in the Memphis, Tenn., area in 1874," says Garette Lockee, 82, of nearby LaGrange, Tenn., a founding member of the Bird Dog Foundation, which opened the museum in 1991.

Garette and Wilson Dunn, owner of a local sporting goods store, donated 4.5 acres of land for the museum in 1988 and Dunn’s original display of field trial memorabilia was the nucleus of the museum’s present-day collection of paintings, photographs, trophies and bird hunting accessories, now displayed in a 25,000-square-foot complex.

The exhibits provide a glimpse into a tradition that has made Grand Junction the place where bird dog devotees gather each February to watch the nation’s top dogs pursue bobwhite quail—and the national championship—just as they’ve done for more than a century.

The 107th National Field Trial Championship begins Feb. 13. Visit www.amesplantation.org or www.birddogfoundation.com for more information.

Stuart Englert is a Senior Editor at American Profile.

first appeared: 1/15/2006