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

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is proposing to change regulations involving dog training. These changes will be discussed at the September Parks and Wildlife Commission meeting in Steamboat and would be finalized at the Commission meeting in Yuma in November.

The key changes appear to be:

• You will need to be actively training your dog for hunting. “Exercising” and “conditioning” will not qualify as training. The language of the regulation does not specify whether training for “search” and “range” is covered.
• Permits will be issued on an individual basis, though permit holders may train with up to 9 friends. “Subpermittees” are eliminated. If you will be releasing birds on your own, you’ll need to have your own permit.
• The annual reporting requirement is dropped.

  I’ve posted below the letter from CPW outlining the proposed changes, and the actual language in Chapter 8 of state wildlife regs.

  While the changes may appear to be minor, it’s unfortunate CPW did not reach out to us or to any other dog club that I’ve spoken with in the past few months to notify us about potential changes to dog training rules, let alone solicit input.

  We will seek to get some clarity from CPW on the impact of these regulations. In order that the RMC chapter can best represent our shared interests, let’s please get information before we respond to CPW or the Commission, and we’ll take it from there.

  Thanks and stay tuned,

  Theo Stein
  President
  RMC NAVHDA
  Dogs with Altitude

  Chapter W-8 Letter

  REDLINE CHPTR08

All
Due to recent churn in the test roster, the Rocky Mountain Chapter has a very few Fall Test slots available.

• Two NA slots are available for Friday August 18.
• One UT slot available for Saturday August 19.

Don’t wait! Contact Testing Director Phil Goodwin: [email protected]

Theo Stein
RMC President

RMC members

RMC tests usually have a long wait list. So as you may have heard by now, the RMC Board decided this year to expand our fall test to 3 days – to give our members a better chance to test their hunting companion close to home. With our final training day now behind us, it’s time to get ready for our test.

Test days are Friday Aug 18, Sat Aug 19 and Sunday Aug 20 at Cobb Lake State Wildlife Area in Wellington.

Our chapter is known for hosting smooth-running tests, but these three days will test us, for a change. Friday is all Natural Ability. Saturday has a mix of NA and utility dogs, so we will need to set up and support the maximum number of test events. Sunday is all UT, so it will feature the maximum run time.

We need help setting up and packing up, bird planters, pheasant runners, someone to manage lunch for judges and volunteers and good-will ambassadors who can make sure handers’ questions get answered quickly. In short, we need your help.

For those who have volunteered before – please see if you can pitch in on at least one day. If you are testing with us in two weeks, please consider volunteering on days you are not running. If you have not volunteered before, here are several reasons to come out and help.

• Volunteering gives you a great opportunity to watch other dogs and learn from other handlers.
• You’ll hang out with experienced chapter members – and pick up valuable observations about dog behavior and tips on handling skills while you build friendships with fellow chapter members that you’ll be training with in the years to come.
• By watching dogs in the field and later hearing their scores, you’ll better understand judging criteria.
• Chapter events you’ve participated in have been run by volunteers. Pay it forward.

If you’ve volunteered before, please indicate your experience. Don’t worry if you haven’t volunteered before – you can learn on assignment!

Click on the Signup Genius link to help us give a bunch of handlers just like you a day they’ll always remember.

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/409044fa4aa2ba5f85-call

Thanks and hope to see you there!

Theo Stein
RMC President

Director of Testing Phil Goodwin waits with Milburn Markle and his Pudelpointer Levon before the NA water event.

Running a volunteer organization like the Rocky Mountain Chapter of NAVHDA takes – you guessed it – volunteers who are willing to give their time and their energy to help others succeed in training the hunting dog and companion that will be with them for years in the field, and give them memories for a lifetime.

RMC NAVHDA’s tests are always full. We feel a responsibility to run NAVHDA tests that take the pressure off handlers and give their dogs the best chance to perform. And we could not do it without the selfless help of volunteers. So thank you Rick Huber, Dan Sprague, Jake & Sara Heesacker, Don Andrews, Michael Autrey, Ross Sibley, Andrew Hoezel, boatman Allen Kidd and Tom Swezey.

Judges prepare the drag event for Sunday’s UT handlers with the snowy Front Range foothills in the background.

A special thanks to:

• Test Secretary Phil Goodwin, for doing all the hard work behind the scenes that make a test run smoothly,
• Colin Hornbeck, for taking photos on Saturday and
• Sheryl Dierenfield, for throwing down two absolutely scrumptious lunches for the judges and volunteers.

And a puppy picture, just because.

Ridiculously adorable German wirehaired pointer.

Here are the results of the Rocky Mountain Chapter’s Spring Test. Our thanks to the handlers who presented their dogs and the judges who assessed their performance.

Thanks in advance for helping us run another great test!