About 35 versatile hunting dog lovers turned out for the 2018 RMC NAVHDA annual meeting, held Sunday Jan. 7 at the Blue Moon Brewery in Denver. At the meeting, the Chapter elected the 2018 slate of Officers and Directors, established test and training dates and amended Chapter by-laws and standing rules.

Here’s a brief summary of :

NAVHDA Tests
Test dates for 2018 were established.

Spring Test – June 1, 2 and 3
Fall Test – August 17, 18, 19

Test registration applications may now be submitted to the Testing Director. Fees remain unchanged from 2018.
Tests are held at the Cobb Lake State Wildlife Area in Wellington, CO

Training Days
The following training dates were approved.

February 24 – Indoor training day, Spicer Arena, Eaton, CO.
March 10 – Cobb Lake SWA
April 7 – Cobb Lake SWA
May 5 – Cobb Lake SWA
June 2 – Cobb Lake SWA
August 11 – Cobb Lake SWA

Participants in training days must be members of the RMC.
The Board opted to keep membership fees remain $40 for another year.
Training day signups will once again be managed through the Signup Genius app.

Board of Directors
Chapter members in attendance elected the 2018 Board of Directors at the annual meeting.

Officers

President – Theo Stein
Vice President – Dan Sprague
Treasurer – Scott Waggy
Secretary – Allen Kidd

Directors

Director of Testing – Sara Heesacker
Director of Training – Craig McLaughlin
Director of Judging – Brian Thoman
Director of Promotions and Fundraising – Denton Shaffer

Appointed positions

Bird Steward – Jake Heesacker
CPW Liaison – Craig McLaughlin
Webmaster – Steve Roberts.

The Board abolished the position of Newsletter Editor. To maintain an odd number of Officers and Directors, the Board established the position of Member at Large, who will serve as an Officer. Members will elect someone to fill that position at the 2019 annual meeting,

In other business, the Board resolved three motions related to the NAVHDA International annual meeting:

• A motion to reimburse the registration fee for the Chapter’s delegate to attend the annual NAVHDA International annual meeting was approved
• The Board voted to support a motion by the Central Minnesota Chapter to include the French Brittany as a recognized breed in the NAVHDA registry.
• It voted to not support the Central Oregon Chapter’s motion to establish an annual Far West Invitational in a west coast state.

Several motions related to the Chapter’s by-laws and standing rules were also approved.
Revisions of these documents will soon be posted to the Chapter website.

Submitted respectfully

Theo Stein
President
RMC NAVHDA

The 2018 training season is right around the corner!

Dear RMC members

Hard to believe another hunting season is drawing to a close – with the start of our training year hot on its heels. Your chapter will be holding its annual meeting on Jan. 7 at the Blue Moon Brewery, located at 3750 Chestnut Place, Denver – just a couple of miles from the intersection of I-25 and I-70.

NOT YOUR STANDARD BUSINESS MEETING

As usual, at our business meeting we will set test dates, training dates and elect board members. After that, we’re doing something new – a presentation from Dr. Brianna Harris of Jasper Animal Hospital on care for your hunting dog. Bri will cover common injuries – and less common ailments that might need urgent attention. We’ll also have a selection of pet vet kits, in case you don’t have one, for you to consider. Then we’ll wrap up with a little social time – for us to hang out, brag about our dogs and get psyched for the coming year.

We need your help!

STEP UP AND HELP RUN YOUR CHAPTER

We know how talented our members are – now we need your help. This year we have some particularly pressing needs to fill vacancies on your chapter board.

• Treasurer – Sara Heesacker has offered to take over from Phil Goodwin as Testing Director. Phil has done a magnificent job performing the most important role on the board. During his tenure, we have grown dramatically and added new training events, so having Sara as treasurer was an incredible blessing. Now we desperately need someone who can succeed Sara and competently manage our books.
• Training Director – After many years of stalwart support, Craig McLaughlin will be stepping back in 2018. Craig will still be active, but just can’t commit to the responsibilities of running 6 training days this year. If you are an experienced trainer and can help us manage our training days, we would love for you put your name in the ring.
• Promotions and fundraising – There’s good stuff out there that can really help our chapter better serve your training needs. We need a charming self-starter who can help us find and take advantage of opportunities that we’re missing out on.
• Secretary – Every organization needs a scribe to take notes at meetings and record votes. Is that something you can do for us?

As always, we welcome nominations for all other board positions as well – including president and vice president. The strength of any organization is in the next generation, so we are always looking to nurture our next leaders. In 2019, this chapter will need to find a new president. It’s been an extraordinary privilege to watch the chapter grow, but it’s time for someone new to run the show. If you have leadership skills and are thinking about helping the members who have helped you progress in your training program, please consider volunteering this year in preparation for stepping into a leadership role in 2019.

One more thing – our chapter has been unable to take advantage of the generosity of numerous members because we are not yet registered as a 501c3 non-profit with the state. If you’re an attorney or have done this before and can help us through this process, we would be extraordinarily grateful.

So please mark your calendars for January 7 – and look for a Signup Genius invitation. Come join us for some important business, learn about keeping your dog healthy and enjoy the companionship of your chapter members.

And if you have questions, please email me: [email protected]

With gratitude

Theo Stein
President, RMC NAVHDA

Here are the results of the Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Spring Test, held August 18-20 at Cobb Lake State Wildlife Area in Wellington, CO. Our thanks to the handlers who presented their dogs, the judges who assessed their performance – and our volunteer corps, who are the heart of our chapter.

Following up on this week’s post: Here’s some additional information about the intent and meaning of the language in the proposed changes to Chapter 8 of the Colorado Parks and Wildlife regulations involving hunting dog training.

Like you, I was concerned about how the intent to exclude “exercise and conditioning” from the definition of training would affect us. So I called Tom Kroening, Deputy Regional Manager for the Northeast Region ( and my last supervisor while I was working at CPW).

To recap – the proposed language reads:

“Training means the act of a person instructing a hunting dog to follow scent, point, flush, retrieve “and respond to related commands to improve the dog’s performance in hunting wildlife or for field trials.” ( emphasis mine)

CPW has long struggled to manage non-hunting dog use of some state wildlife areas. In 2011, the then-Division of Wildlife wrestled with excessive use of two Loveland state wildlife areas by dog walkers. It was a messy public process and generated a lot of ill-will by non-hunters who had come to view these wildlife properties – bought with hunting license fees – as their local parks. So this is not a new issue for Colorado’s wildlife managers.

Tom said the language for this proposed revision to the regs was selected with our needs in mind. It allows handlers to train their dogs to be responsive in the field – which is a necessary skill for a finished hunting dog. The key, he said, is the regs would allow training  a dog to respond to … commands to improve the dog’s performance in hunting wildlife or for field trials.”

In practice, what that means is a handler needs to be commanding his or her dog while it is in the field.

I specifically asked Tom how District Wildlife Managers and Wildlife Techs would apply the language to the training we do for cooperation while hunting – and specifically to encourage a dog to actively and productively search while remaining in range of the gun. Tom said so long as a handler is commanding the dog, such as with voice, whistle or collar, they are within the scope of “training” as contemplated by the proposed revision.

Tom added that CPW recognizes that young dogs may not actually respond to commands. The test for law enforcement will be whether the handler is actively commanding the dog or using other training techniques to establish cooperation.

Bottom line – If you’re just letting your dog run around, uncontrolled, not caring where it goes or how far out it goes, allowing it to chase wildlife without attempting to call it off,  then you may not be within the scope of “training.”

So don’t do that. Bring a whistle, fit your dog with an e-collar, use them to keep your dog in sight while you teach it that the two of you are a team and it needs to pay attention to you and respond to your commands.

We’re lucky to have state properties where we can train our dogs. In some other states, chapters spend thousands of dollars every year to lease training grounds.

It’s pretty clear to me that the intent of the language is to permit the training activities that we use to train our versatile hunting dogs. The key is to be controlling your dog in the field. Which is what you should be doing anyway.

As always, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.
Email them to [email protected].

Thanks

Theo Stein
President
RMC NAVHDA