The Board of Directors would like to inform members that the annual chapter meeting will be held Saturday, August 20th, 2022 at 6:00 pm at Jake and Sara Heesackers. As stated in the chapter by-laws, the purpose of the annual meeting is to:

a. Elect new board members
b. Present Treasurer’s report
c. Appoint a delegate to the International meeting
d. Vote on changes to the by-laws
e. Present a proposed schedule for the following year’s events

Included in Item (e) is to set test dates and training days. A major reason for moving up the date of the annual meeting is to allow the chapter test secretary a better opportunity to schedule judges for our tests.

I hope to see a good turnout for the meeting as it’s been so long since we’ve been able to get together as a chapter. See you all on the 20th.

Tim Griffin
President, Rocky Mountain Chapter – NAVHDA

UPDATE: The chapter will be providing dinner. Please RSVP.

Join us on Saturday April, 23 for a fun day at the Cobb Lake Unit of the Wellington SWA. We will pack out trash, clean parking lots, remove invasive trees and have an amazing time with our fellow upland hunting and bird dog enthusiasts. We are excited to partner with Pheasants Forever and other local Northern Colorado hunting dog clubs for this event.

Please bring gloves, boots, appropriate workwear, sunscreen, and any tools you want to help collect garbage. Friends and family are welcome to come.

Please get in touch with John if you can volunteer so we have a head count for lunch.

When: April 23rd from 9:00 – 3:00
Where: Wellington SWA, Cobb Lake – meeting at the east parking lot: coordinates 40.660516, -104.963109
Directions: From I-25 and Hwy. 14 exit, go 5 miles N on E service road to CR 56, then 1.4 miles E to CR 3, then N to the parking lot on the west side of the road.

On January 8, 2022, RMC-NAVHDA held it’s annual meeting. If you were not able to make the meeting, you can find the meeting minutes here.

Mark Lance, Sharelle Gonzales, and Riverlight Images have posted the pictures from this year’s Spring Test. Thank you Mark and Sharelle for all your work at the test days this year. To view the pictures, please click on your test day:

Spring NA Test – FRIDAY photos by Mark Lance

Spring UT Test – SATURDAY photos by Sharelle Gonzales

Spring NA Test – SUNDAY photos by Mark Lance

If you would like to purchase any pictures or if you have any questions, you may email Mark at [email protected], call 720.258.5820, or contact him on instagram @riverlightimages.

Hello Everyone!
Please see the below message from our Jake Heesacker, our Chapter President. Only paid 2020 and 2021 memberships will receive a link to attend our annual meeting. As you will read below, you can now pay your dues online; making it easier than ever to stay current. THANK YOU to Steve Roberts for making this happen for us.

Candice Cooper
RMC-NAVHDA, Secretary
___________

Hello RMC NAVHDA members!

I hope each and every one of you has been able to get your dogs out and enjoy some hunting this season!

As hunting season winds down for the year, it is time to start preparing for training and testing season. Every year we kick off the new training season with our annual meeting, and this year will be no different. However, with the current state of COVID-19 and the regulations regarding large indoor gatherings, we will be holding a virtual annual meeting for 2021.

The RMC NAVHDA Annual Meeting will be held virtually on January 9, 2021 at 6:00pm.

The week prior to the meeting I will send out an invite to all of you with the link to the meeting. At that time I will also send all of you a copy of the agenda and chapter financial report. At the meeting we will discuss the dates of our upcoming tests as well as training opportunities in 2021.

The annual meeting is also where the membership has the opportunity to volunteer and vote for positions on the RMC Board of Directors. If you would like to volunteer to serve on the RMC Board of Directors in 2021, please reply to this email so I can reach out to you and discuss opportunities to serve next year.

I would also like to take this time to remind everyone that chapter memberships are due for renewal on January 1, 2021. I would also like to announce that you are now able to renew your membership (or become a new member if you have a friend looking to join the chapter) on the website via credit card at rmc-navhda.com. I would like to shout out a huge THANK YOU to Steve Roberts and Candice Cooper for getting our chapter set up to take credit card payments on the website! It makes paying our memberships more convenient for everybody! Here is the link to the website for memberships: https://rmc-navhda.org/join/

Thank you all for being members of our great chapter! Myself and the Board are looking forward to seeing and training with each and everyone of you in 2021!

Jake Heesacker
RMC NAVHDA President
Dogs with Altitude

Mark Lance and Riverlight Images have posted images from this year’s Fall Test. Thank you Mark for all your work at the tests and training days. To view the images, select this link: https://www.riverlightimages.com/navhdafall2020. If you have questions, you may email Mark at [email protected], call 720.258.5820, or contact him on instagram @riverlightimages. In the meantime, Happy Hunting!

Dear RMC NAVHDA Members,

I hope this finds you all doing well amidst the crazy times right now. 

I’m sure you all are anxious to get back to training days and the camaraderie of your fellow versatile dog owners. I hope that you all have been working with your dogs and puppies as much as the current situation allows. We are still planning on having the training day at Cobb lake on Saturday, August 8th. We are looking to add another Saturday training day at Cobb lake in July as well. As soon as we have our permit we will post the date and also information on how the training days will look. We are having to make some adjustments due to COVID-19 regulations so these trainings will look different than we had originally planned back in February. Stay tuned and we will share more information as soon as we secure our dates at Cobb.

We are also going to start the Friday evening trainings at Surefire Kennels back up starting this coming Friday, June 12th. These trainings will look a little different as well. Each of these trainings will be a “mini clinic” covering a specific topic. Sara and myself will work with attendee’s dogs through training scenarios showing how we train through different situations and lay our foundation. They will not be NA or UT specific nights anymore. If you are interested in the topic of the week, please come join us. Signups for these will be on the website and will be active the week of the training. The information for all of these training nights will be on the website. Feel free to email Sara Heesacker if you have any questions regarding training days/nights.

I would also like to update you all on our testing situation the rest of this year. We are still planning on a 3 day test August 21,22, and 23. Unfortunately due to difficulty securing additional judges, we won’t be adding any more test days this year. If you have a puppy that needs to be tested this year, and you are not currently in our August test, I highly encourage you to read Dave Trahan’s President’s Message in the June issue of the Versatile Hunting Dog Magazine with the updated NA testing policy. I also highly encourage you to look at the testing calendar toward the back of the magazine and look at entering your puppy in another chapter’s test. There have been a lot of test days added this fall in surrounding chapters but they will fill up fast, so don’t wait to send in your entries for other tests.
Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions.

Thank you and I look forward to seeing you all in the field very soon!

Jake Heesacker
RMC NAVHDA President
Dogs with Altitude

To all Rocky Mountain NAVHDA Members,

I hope this finds you all well during these tough times of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.  

All NAVHDA members should have received an email today from the NAVHDA Executive Council in regards to COVID-19.  As we are all aware, this is a very fluid situation that can change daily. Keeping this in mind, we are going to assess the COVID-19 situation weekly to determine if we will have the RMC training nights/days that are currently scheduled. Also, as we approach our spring test, the Board of Directors will discuss how we should best proceed. Currently nothing has changed with our spring test, but as the COVID-19 situation develops we will make any necessary adjustments.

In regards to this week’s training, we are cancelling the UT Foundation training night at Surefire Kennels on Friday, March 20. We encourage all handlers to continue working with their dogs on the exercises we went over at the last training night. Feel free to use the Facebook page to ask questions or discuss training topics. Even though we may not be able to meet weekly, we are still here to help with your training.

We will send out updates to the training schedule weekly via Facebook and Email. As always if you have any questions, feel free to send me an email or give me a call.

Thank you all and stay safe!Jake Heesacker
RMC NAVHDA President
Dogs with Altitude

Over the last couple of years, a number of members have asked about RMC T-shirts. Well, here you go! We’ve worked with a local promotional shop to come up with a sharp design that will let you show your RMC pride. It has our logo on the front and our “Dogs with Altitude” motto on the back.

We have 2 color options for unisex short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirts, plus two ladies’ designs.

Prices are $25 for short sleeve and $30 for long sleeve.

Pre-order at this link by Feb 2 and we’ll have them for you at the Feb 9 training day:

https://form.jotform.com/92026162631146

Theo Stein

The annual meeting was held January 11 to good attendance. About 40 members, young trainers, and dogs attended the meeting at Sheels in Loveland. Two new board members were elected, welcome Dale Parker and Candice Cooper. Candice is the new secretary and Dale is the new member at-large. You can check out the meeting minutes here.

An ambitious new training schedule will be undertaken this year, with 33 training sessions on the calendar. The chapter has outgrown its six training day, all training levels, once-a-month training format. This year, Natural Ability handlers and their dogs will be treated to sixteen 2-hour training sessions, some held at Surefire Kennels with Jake and Sara Heesacker near Wellington, and some at Jackson Creek Kennels near Peyton with Dale Parker. Utility handlers will be treated to eleven Utility Foundation training nights at Surefire, and five day-long Utility and Invitational training days at Cobb Lake.

A chapter-wide indoor training day kicks the year off on February 9th at Larimer County Fairgrounds. View the flyer for the training day here. Signup for the February training on the Events tab. This year’s Youth Challenge events will begin at this training day. Obedience training sessions (for the DOGS!) will be held. This year’s guest speaker is Nik Wright, biologist with Pheasants Forever, who will present ‘Scouting Your Fields: Diving Deeper into Habitat and Hunting Strategies to Successfully Find Upland Game.’ A potluck lunch will be served, so remember to note in the comments section of your registration what dish you will be bringing.

Eleven Natural Ability training nights will begin March 13 at Surefire Kennels, hosted by Jake and Sara Heesacker from 6-8pm. Five NA training mornings at Dale Parker’s Jackson Creek Kennels will begin March 14 from 8-10am.

Eleven Utility foundation training nights will begin March 6 from 6-8pm at Jake and Sara Heesacker’s Surefire Kennels. Day-long Utility and Invitational training days will begin March 7.

See the Training tab for the full training calendar.

Test dates were set during the meeting, and two 3-day tests will once again be offered. Test dates will be May 15-17 and August 21-23, 2020. See the NAVHDA Tests tab for details. The board set itself the task of investigating whether double tests would be feasible. Double tests would double the number of dogs tested, conducting a completely separate test with three additional judges and using other parts of the Cobb Lake property. We should hear more on that subject later.

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the hunting season, then let the training begin!