Pine Shadows News

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	November 19, 2007 Another note: Hi Mark and Sophie, Chica is doing great. Everything is really coming together for her. We had a great day up here today with nine flushes. If I could shoot better, we would have had more to eat. We have had a wonderful grouse season and we are off to Bader's tomorrow for some pheasants. Just to note to keep in touch. Thanks, Dan Olson November 6, 2007 Reports from the field: Success at the Minnesota Field Trial on the last weekend of October. Star, O/H Tracie Wilson, wins First Place in the Amateur and Nealy, O/H JP Martin, wins First Place in the Puppy Stake. Here is a photo of Chester in the field.  We had a wonderful time in SD and I believe Chester did as well.  I will call and settle up on the bill and ask some questions about where the training needs to go from here. Thanks, John Thames Brooks at 5 1/2 months old made over 50 grouse retrieves on a hunting trip to Ontario, Canada.  Here with sharp tailed, spruce and ruffed grouse.  He's a great dog! Charlie & Renee Head Just got back from North Dakota this past week.  The weather was rather wet and many of the birds were out in the corn or rather jumpy as they would flush way out in front of us.  Above is a picture of our owners and how we did one day.  We had lots of fun chasing down the cripples that our owners winged.  Good thing they had us along as we had a couple of retrieves that Jetta found well over a hundred yards out. We did well staying within gun range and Wallace was steady to wing and shot while he was hunting.  Say hi to everyone at Pine Shadows and have a great fall! Sincerely, Jetta and Wallace October 15, 2007 The past couple of weeks have been phenomenal for the Pine Shadows Springers. At the St Croix Valley Springer trial, Pilot won a rather large puppy stake. Pilot was handled by Bob Schulke for the first time. Pilot put on an impressive bird finding performance in the puppy stake.  Morgan handled Tracie and Jayne's dogs and finished the Open stake with Sota but no placements were forthcoming. Jeff Johanns handled Norm to a second place finish in the Amateur. Norm was coming off back to back placements from North Dakota and MN Heartland. Ryan Lamberg ran Pine Shadows Wallace but was only able to finish the second series and not get called back to the third.   If you think that all we did was pheasant hunt and run trials then the good news is that Morgan represented Pine Shadows again this year at the National Grouse and Woodcock Hunt sponsored by the Ruffed Grouse Society. Morgan was the huntsman for the winning groups on both of the days! The springers can do a wonderful job in the forests and grouse thickets of northern Minnesota.  By the way, all of the dogs Morgan ran in the field trial this past weekend were hunting grouse the prior Thursday and Friday. So one can hunt and trial the same dog and also have it curl up in bed with you if you desire. The Springer Spaniel, a most perfect hunting buddy. Another bit of good news, Grant took is 5 year-old daughter Isabel to South Dakota for her first non-resident duck hunt. Grant had Rigby and Lacy with Isabel handling her pup Lacy. They were able to bag a few ducks and the memories created were awesome. Here’s a photo of them with Isabel’s cousins. Fall hunting is here - make the most of it!  Find a kid to take hunting!
		October 8, 2007 We just returned from the weekend at the Minnesota Heartland Trial. JP’s Nealy earned another placement in the Puppy Stake, a third, while Morgan and Mark’s open dogs did well, but not enough for the competition this weekend. However, in the Amateur Stakes, JP Martin and Jeff Johanns finished dogs in the third series. And most significantly, Jeff’s springers, Whisper and Norm, not only finished on top of the list, first and second respectively; they both completed their AKC Amateur Field Championships! Congratulations Norm, Jeff, and Whisper! What outstanding accomplishments! This week look for Mark at Dakota River Ranch while he and a string of Pine Shadows Springers guide several pheasant hunts for a returning group of sportsmen from Las Vegas. Morgan will be at the 26^th annual Ruffed Grouse Society’s National Grouse and Woodcock hunt in Grand Rapids. Pine Shadows has provided volunteer guides nearly every year, hosting the visiting hunters and leading them through the grouse coverts of Itasca County. Annually, this hunt raises well over $100,000 for the RGS. From there he will leave to compete in the St. Croix Valley Springer Trial near New Richmond, WI. October 2, 2007 The fall is here. We are beginning to see through the trees as the leaves continue to fall. Our colors here are past the peak, but that makes the hunting good. Lynn Peterson and I just returned from Dakota River Ranch and are happy to report the pheasants are all over in Northeast South Dakota. Those of you who have booked hunts with us at Dakota River Ranch will have some tremendous hunting. We are looking forward to hosting the hunts again.  The conditions are dry with ample water in the low ground so the birds will be all over. The bean harvest is going strong and some of the corn has been combined. It looks good. We do have some time slots open for group hunts if you are interested. We have no new litters to report this time. We are waiting for some of the breeding females to come into heat. That should happen any day.  We do have plans for Jarvey, Birch, Nestle and Vegas, all yet this fall. Morgan just returned from judging the NE Wisconsin field trial near Green Bay. We have two more trials before the Nationals. Morgan and Mark will be at the Minnesota Heartland trial this weekend and Morgan will run the dogs at the St Croix trial.  Morgan also will be representing Pine Shadows at the annual National Grouse and Woodcock hunt in Grand Rapids sponsored by the Ruffed Grouse Society. Fall is here - get yourself ready! Sept 24, 2007 A busy weekend for the Pine Shadows crew. Mark and Sophie made the trip to Iron Mountain, Michigan as Mark was judging the Tilden Valley Field Trial. His co-judge, Steve Gorrell and apprentice judge Steve Beyer had a wonderful weekend looking at some high quality springers. Morgan took the dog trailer to the North Dakota Trial and our crew came away with some placements. The puppy stake was won by Neala handled by JP Martin, 2nd place went to TA and Morgan and third place went to Pilot handled by Jeff Johanns. All three pups are Pine Shadows puppies. In the open Morgan finished Blue but did not place. Morgan was pleased with the runs of all of his dogs considering the hot, tough conditions.  In the Amateur Teri Mayer ran Zell and finished the 2nd series along with Thor and Steve Krueger. JP ran Secret and Linda Martin ran Rice and did OK.  Jeff Johanns handled Norm and Whisper completing all three series with both dogs. The judges chose Norm as the best of the day and he won the trial! Congratulations to Jeff and Norm! Sept 16, 2007 Pine Shadows did very well at the NMESSC Field Trial this weekend! Morgan handled Sota to a first place in the trial. Sota earned her AKC FC Title with this win. Sota is owned by Tracie Wilson and Jayne Reinhart. Morgan also handled Blue to a third place in the Open. Blue is also owned by Jayne and Tracie.  Windsor completed the trial but did not earn a placement.  He was handled by Mark Also in the puppy stakes Joannie Peterson handled Pilot to a 2nd place finish.  We also had a couple amateur dogs get into the third series. Mark Sheflo handled OZ and Don Vanderwerff handled Cody. Both had good trials going into the third. The NMESSC field trial is run very efficiently because of the great group of club members who turn out to help. All of the club members are willing to work hard to put on a great trial. This upcoming weekend Morgan and the big red dog trailer will travel to North Dakota with the dogs. Mark is heading to Michigan to judge the Tilden Valley Club trial near Iron Mountain, Michigan. With a heavy heart I am saddened to announce the passing of Kat. Kat was a very special dog owned by J.P. and Linda Martin. Many of you got to know the absolutely phenomenal diagnostics skills that Kat possessed as a therapy dog. Kat and JP had regular rounds at the St. Cloud MN hospital dealing with patients in trauma situations. Yes she was a therapy dog but probably one of the most famous therapy dogs in the country because of her ability to bring comatose patents out of their comas. Kat has been credited with bringing 14 patients out of comas plus diagnosing numerous health issues from accident victims.  JP has a special skill in communicating with his beloved Kat and she will be greatly missed not only by JP and Linda but by the many patients at the hospital who knew her well.
		September 2, 2007 The fall trial season has started for Pine Shadows. The whole crew made the trip to Winnipeg for two trials up there. Morgan handled 8 dogs and finished the first trial with Norm and Blue. Mark headed up the gun team and had the gun team did very well on the strong pheasants. Sophie was able to make the trip as well and she ran her puppy TA and placed Third in the Friday puppy stakes. Joannie Peterson handled Pilot to a 4th place in the puppy stake on Friday. Neala, handled by J.P. Martin, won the puppy stake. Watch for these three pups in the fall trial circuit! On Sunday, Joannie won the puppy stake with Pilot and Nealy placed Third, again handled by JP. Sophie was unable to run TA because Jeff Johanns was one of the puppy judges.  We had some great performances by the open dogs under then guidance of Morgan.  Windsor was really showing his power running in the field and having some tremendous bird finds. His downfall both days was failing to retrieve a couple of long shot cripple birds that had run off from the fall. He is running strong right where he left off last spring. Morgan was very happy with Thor's performance as well. Some issues sorting out running birds in the heavy wind made it difficult for Thor to trail out the birds. This seemed to be the issue with Oz as well. Blue and Sota performed very well but just failed to get in the ribbon territory. The next trial for Pine Shadows will be the Northern Minnesota trial on Sept 15, 16. This upcoming Saturday will be the final Saturday training day until after the fall hunting and trial season. Training on Wednesday evenings will go on for a couple more weeks and then it is hunting time! August 20, 2007 Game Fair is completed for another year and the Pine Shadows crew was very pleased with the opportunity provided for us to visit with all the folks. The Fair, although slow on some days, still provides a great venue for us to meet new dog people, explain our dog training philosophy and to visit with current and past customers of Pine Shadows.  Thanks to all of you for visiting us and stopping by to say Hi. The fall trial season begins in a couple weeks. We will be traveling to Winnipeg at the end of August for our first trial of the season. We will have a string of 12 dogs heading up there. I just returned from Dakota River Ranch checking the fields and finalizing some of the hunting plans for the groups. We are anxiously waiting for the opening of the pheasant season. There are tremendous bird numbers around the lodge but still plenty of water in the low lands. August 13, 2007 It was great seeing so many of you at Game Fair last weekend. I believe Pine Shadows has participated in all 26 years of this event. We talked with some owners who have had our dogs since the 80’s. In spite of the heat good crowds attended on Friday and Saturday. And a big gang of enthusiasts turned out on Sunday. We will be there again this weekend, Friday through Sunday. Our seminars in the Dog tent on the hill will be at 12:30 pm each day. We will be talking about raising puppies as good citizens. We had another good training day on Saturday. Walt and Wendy from Winnipeg were down to select a little brother for Boomer. In addition we had dogs and owners from Michigan, Maple Grove, St. Cloud, Brainerd, and Nisswa. Tess had her pups on Sunday. August 9, 2007 We will be at our booth at Game Fair, Friday – Sunday, for the next two weekends. In addition we will be having demonstrations every day at 12:30 in the Dog Seminar tent. Stop by. We will also have our usual training sessions at Pine Shadows on Saturdays August 4, 2007 Well August is here and that means to me it is the start of the hunting season. Preparing for the fall begins in earnest now. Game Fair is just a couple weeks away, fall hunting gear is going on sale at all the hunting malls and the dogs are excited. Lynn Peterson and I just returned from a trip to Dakota River Ranch early this week and the pheasant numbers are awesome. There is plenty of cover and the birds are everywhere. Dakota River Ranch is filling up with group hunts but contact me to get a spot reserved for your group. Some of the current litters of pups are heading to new homes within the next couple of weeks. Tess is due next week and the list of started dogs is still pretty good.  Stop by for training or schedule your dog for training soon. Come October it is hunting time. The hot weather is a bother but we live with it. July 20, 2007 Friday July 20th turns out to be a wonderful day for working dogs. The temp has cooled a bit and the dogs can sense the air. The next week coming up is supposed to be quite warm so we may be starting early and using the afternoons in the heat for inside training and office work! It has been a busy week with Bree-Ez's pups being moved up to the building. We have the Tracker pups at 5 weeks old and the Bree-Ez pups at ten days old so things are moving for the staff. Puppies are always so much fun to work with. Joannie and Jill have been taking the teenage pups down for water work in the hot afternoons and they certainly like that.  We have some powerful water dogs coming up with the youngsters.  Wednesday evening training has been very busy of late. We get some serious dog training done and have good camaraderie as well. Saturdays are still available for training. If you are close in stop by for training.  Dove season is only 41 days away! July 12, 2007 Lynn Peterson and I just returned from a trip to Dakota River Ranch, the hunting lodge where we showcase the Pine Shadows Springers pheasant hunting. We were there on a mission to visit with the landowner, check on the crops and look for broods of pheasants! It was a successful trip as we were able to look at all of the food plots and cover crops that we will use for hunting this fall. There was a good hatch of birds as we spotted several broods of young pheasants. There is still water in all of the low areas which we may not be able to get into them this fall if they stay wet.  Dennis Jones, the landowner, has planted several acres of wheat which will make some excellent grass cover in which to work the dogs and it will hold the pheasants as well. The lodge and grounds are looking good and we expect some very good hunting this fall. Bree-Ez had her litter of pups on July 10th. She had 3 girls and 5 boys. More information to come as this litter progresses. We have several pups from the earlier litters starting to go home to their owners. The next litter due is Tess and Oz due in August. June 28, 2007 The 4th of July is on a Wednesday. The normal Wednesday evening training will be moved to 8:30 am on Wednesday. We will not be training the evening of the 4th of July.  The pups from the recent litters are all doing well and the early spring litters are now getting to be ten weeks old and some are starting to go home. Joan and Jill have started some of the early quartering work with the Perth  x Pride pups as they are just ten weeks old, Tracker x Fisher pups are growing and moving around. We will see their personalities start to come out soon. Norma is quite busy with the imprinting process on all of the pups. If you have purchased a young pup this spring please check in with Pine Shadows for some early training and handling tips. We can schedule your new pup in for training and have it ready for some hunting this fall. June 13, 2007 Exciting things are happening at Pine Shadows. A litter of nine pups came from Tracker and Fisher on June 9th. Their tails and dewclaws were just done today. All are stable and looking OK.   Spice is due this week as well however she will not be having very many pups so we will wait and see. The NMESSC had the third fun trial this past Saturday. A good turnout with 41 dogs entered. Sophie was busy with the Tracker pups but took the time to come up and run TA in the puppy stake and finished with a win. Morgan and Joan took the kids to the skeet range for gunning. Using his fantastic Hunter’s Choice Marinade, JP prepared chukkar on the BBQ for everyone. Warm weather is upon us here in north central Minnesota so we are off to the water with the dogs. The afternoon training sessions for Morgan and his crew involves lots of water retrieves.
		June 3, 2007 The normal Saturday training day was moved to Camp Ripley this past Saturday. Pine Shadows was asked to do dog training demonstrations for the Boy Scouts Rendezvous.   So we hooked up the big red trailer, set up the tent, training tables, place boards and the dogs and conducted the training and dog handling demonstrations there.  Thanks to the special friends who helped with the training: Bruce Eide with Ellie, Steve Krueger with Thor, Ryan Lamberg with Wallace, Joannie and Lynn Peterson with Ketchum, Zia and Merlin, Jeff Johanns with Norm and Whisper, J.P. Martin with Rice, Neala and Secret, and Morgan, Sophie and me.  Also along for the day was John Thames from Alabama who was in town selecting a pup from the Perth/Pride litter. We were able to tag team the demonstrations with Steve Grossman from Little Moran near Staples MN and his English Setters. Over the course of the day we must have been visited by a majority of the 10,000 boy scouts in attendance. Hawkeye pups came this past week. She had four girls and two boys. The tails and dewclaws will be taken care of Monday; then they will be moved up to the kennel. So far they are all stable but the early days of a pup’s life are critical and Sophie monitors them carefully. Lots of rain here in Minnesota making the grass grow. We had two Canada geese hatch out hits past week on our pond. We now have a resident flock of 8 geese and they are joined by the pheasants and chukkars that seem to get away during training sessions. May 30, 2007 This past week Sophie and Joannie headed up a class field trip of 18 second graders from a Brainerd elementary school touring Pine Shadows. Joannie had the children throwing the rabbit sticks and the atlatls.  Sophie talked about puppy first aid and did a short obedience session with the kids handling a Pine Shadows dog.  Hawkeye is having her pups today.  May 20, 2007 Cool weather has come back to the Brainerd area. We had 37 degrees this morning with clouds.  3/4 of an inch of rain on Friday night which was needed to make the cover grow.  We will be haying soon. The cover in the training fields is coming up well. Saturday training day was busy with some new folks coming up and the regulars coming by for training. It was great weather for dog work and some instructional time for the handlers.  June is coming up soon with summer time fun but don't forget about working your hunting buddy. Schedule some training time for your dog. We also offer shotgun shooting lessons here with Morgan or Joannie. Both are NRA certified shotgun instructors. You ladies that want to come learn to shoot check in with Joannie or Morgan.  Bring the kids along and get them into the hunting mode. May 12, 2007 What a wonderful day yesterday was for the 2nd NMESSC Fun Trial.  We had 48 dogs entered in all 8 stakes. There was some stiff competition in the Limited Open and the Open stakes.  We had some new folks interested in what happens with our springers. The weather was marvelous and the dog work was great.  Our next fun trial will be June 9th at Pine Shadows. A dozen kids participated in the children’s events of orienteering, rabbit sticks, marksmanship, dog handling, and hawk tossing. Placements went to Alex Glenn, Stella Concannon, Kylie Grauf and Alexis Grauf.  Happy Mother's Day. Bree-Ez was bred to Merlin and will be having pups around July 15th or so.  Bree-Ez is a Pine Shadows springer and is owned by Ed Zahler of Fergus Falls, MN. We will be having the pups here under the supervision of Sophie. If you have recently acquired a new pup, check in with us for summer training. We have several options that may work fro you regarding training schedules and time lines. Don't wait until it is too late for training. Even if you have a pup, come on out for some training to get the pup started in the right direction. May 10, 2007 Bree-Ez is being bred to Merlin this week so her pups should be born around July 12.  There will be black and white pups from this litter. Both Hawkeye and Spice are due soon. Both are carrying pups. Wednesday night training last night was a huge success. We had a perfect evening for working dogs with a good number of people working with Morgan and the staff at Pine Shadows.  We had some new people that came along to see what we do and we always welcome new people and their dogs. I made a trip to Dakota River Ranch this past Monday to view first hand the amount of water that the Aberdeen area received. Total amounts neared 10 inches of rain. Many of the township roads were washed out and water was in every low spot in the fields and some were now lakes. It was nice to see all the water; however, some folks were flooded out and I am sure tired of the water.  This water will make the grass fields grow strong cover for hunting in this fall. The birds should have been OK as they are just starting to lay eggs so if any nests were damaged they will re-nest quickly. I did see a tremendous amount of pheasants and ducks as well.
		April 30, 2007 Congratulations go out to Morgan and Sota!  Sota won the Open stake at the NMESSC trial this past weekend. Handled by Morgan and owned by Tracie Wilson and Jayne Reinhart, Sota put on a great performance for the judges in all three series. Sota just turned two years old and is on the road to an impressive field trial record. Also this weekend Bruce Eide had Ellie into the third series but did not place.  Ellie did place 4th in the puppy stake handled by Joannie Peterson. Joannie also handled Zell to a third place in the puppy stake. Zell is on course for Midwest high point puppy for 2007. Greg Livingston handled Pip to his second complete trial in a row. Pip has been doing well for Greg this spring. Some more good news was Bob Schulke handling Windsor to the third series only to leave early on his last bird in the trial. He was running well and listening to Bob.  Don Vanderwerf completed 2 series with Cody but did not get called into the third. Also running dogs from the NMESSC were Steve Krueger with Thor, Lee Grauf and Checkers, Stacy Avery with Lizzie and Couch, Duane Maki and Hunter, Jeff Johanns with Norm, Pete Rainey and Peaches, Lynn Swartout and Tuffy, Deb Livingston handled Pearl. Mark Sheflo with Oz and Fisher, Mark Rysavy with Comet and Ryan Lamberg with Wallace. We have a tremendous club made up of great members who like their dogs! April 25, 2007 What a wonderful weekend trial we had this past weekend near Red Wing MN.  Our pups did well taking a 1st place with Zell and a 3rd place with Wallace. Neala and Ellie and Thor all ran and all looked good as well. Thor was handled by Steve Krueger and there is a good bond developing between the two of them. Mark handled all four of the other pups. We had some good success with the open dogs having Rice, Windsor and Star finish the trial. This was Star's first trial since her extensive recuperation from her injuries last fall. Star is owned by Tracie Wilson. Windsor put on a wonderful demonstration of trailing out running birds. It was one of his best trial performances to date. Also our friends Deb and Greg Livingston had Pip finish the amateur stake. Pip was handled by Greg and he was competing with 11 dogs back into the third with some tough competition. A bit of sad news this week. Steve Krueger lost his old Springer, BJ to old age. BJ and Steve had done many grouse hunts together at his cabin in Wisconsin.  Perth had her pups and they are all doing well. The tails and dewclaws came off yesterday. We are moving that group to the kennel building today.  There are 6 females and 3 males in the litter. April 16, 2007 Morgan just received a call from Mike Young who owns a Pine Shadows Springer named Dutch.  Mike and Dutch had just won the Nebraska Pheasant Classic Championship in Hastings, Nebraska and he phoned to tell us about it. Dutch is a three year old out of Switch and Rigby.  We also received a note from Duane Pandorf with Butch. He too has been running in the pheasant championships and is doing very well. Last weekend’s Heartland Field Trial found a couple of second placements for our crew: Norm handled by owner Jeff Johanns in the Amatuer and Zell handled by Joannie Peterson in the Puppy Stakes. Congratulations! April 10, 2007 The 1st fun trial for the NMESSC was a success despite the 14 degree temperature and the 8 inches of snow on the ground. We had 40 dog run in the events plus we had a handful of energetic kids participating in the kids events that Joannie orchestrates.  We managed to keep the hobo fire going and the big red trailer was used as headquarters and a wind blocker.  The next club fun trial will be held May 12 at Pine Shadows. Upcoming events this weekend include the Minnesota Heartland Club Field Trial to be held at Major Avenue Hunt Club near Hutchinson, MN.  Mark will be traveling there with the trial dogs. Pilot will be running in her first puppy stake. We did have two litters this past week. Ice had 6 pups and they are all stable now plus Philly had 4 strong pups. They are all doing well and have been moved up to the building from the maternity pen in our house. Norma has started imprinting on the Ice litter.   Perth is the next mother due in a couple weeks.  We have also bred Hawkeye with Spice this week. April 3, 2007 Trial Results: Congratulations to Norm. Morgan handled Norm to a fourth place ribbon in the Open All-Age Stakes at the St. Croix Field Trial last weekend. Norm is owned by Jeff Johanns. And applause to Wallace in the Puppy Stakes. Wallace’s owner, Ryan Lamberg handled Wallace to the fourth placement. Next Saturday April 7th is the first Northern Minnesota Springer Spaniels Club Fun Trial. The fun trial will be held at Pine Shadows.  As usual, Joannie will be heading up the kids events. March 31, 2007 A rainy Saturday morning greets us. Morgan has the trailer and a dozen trial dogs at the St. Croix Valley Field Trial near Owatonna, Minnesota.  It will be a rainy day for running dogs. The dogs thoroughly enjoy running in the rain but the birds don't take kindly to have to fly in the rain. Morgan has all the dogs in trial ready shape and we look for some good results from this weekend. Mark flies out to Roanoke, Virginia to attend the Orvis Conference for all the Orvis Endorsed Hunting lodges and endorsed kennel programs. This will be a chance for Mark to visit with the other owners of the top hunting lodges and breeders in the country. March 26, 2007 We had a busy weekend of field trials. Morgan finished the West Allis trial in Wisconsin with Whisper and had good runs with Blue, Norm, Mattee and Neala. Jeff Johanns was able to go with Morgan and he was on the gun team for the trial. Steve Krueger, Mark Sheflo and Mark went to the Eastern Nebraska trial with the balance of the trial dogs. Mark placed 2nd with Zell in the puppy stake. Merlin finished the third series but did not place. Ice and Philly are due this week with pups. We are hoping for bigger litters. This upcoming weekend Morgan will be taking the trial dogs to the St Croix Valley trial near Owatonna. There will be a large group of dogs attending that trial. Mark will be flying out to an Orvis conference in Virginia. Orvis has invited all of the Orvis endorsed dog kennels and hunting lodges to a retreat center near Roanoke, Virginia. More details will follow.
		March 19, 2007 This past weekend brought some new people into the Pine Shadows family. Stacy Baehman, who has been patiently waiting to obtain a pup, came up from Hudson, Wisconsin to select one of the Lacy/Merlin pups. She sent a picture back with Lucky! We look forward to working with Stacy as Lucky grows up to be a hunting dog and family member. We have some sad news in that Sophie had ultrasounds done on Holly and Tudor to determine if there were puppies showing up. Unfortunately neither female is bred. This will set us back some more with the people waiting to acquire a Pine Shadows puppy. We do have more litters planned for this spring and summer. We just now have to wait longer. Ice is the next one up with her pups due April 6. Field Trial News: Joannie Peterson handled two puppies, Zell and Ellie, to 1st and a 4th place finishes in the Oklahoma Field Trial Puppy stake. Both dogs put on impressive displays of dog work in the field against 15 other pups. Zell is owned by Teri Mayer and Ellie is owned by Bruce Eide. Pine Shadows has a strong selection of young started dogs coming up for field trialing or hunting. Mark handled Whisper to a 2nd place in the Oklahoma Open stake. Whisper ran the wind perfectly and put out a great bird finding show. She is an 8 year old Springer with tremendous drive. Whisper is owned by Jeff Johanns. Blue, owned by Tracie Wilson, finished the Kansas trial on Saturday and put on a great piece of dog work in each series but a pesky running chuckar in the 3rd series gave her some trouble having to track it off the course into a plum thicket. She made the retrieve but did not place in the trial. She sure worked her little heart out though trying to please. Mark Sheflo made the trip with us to Kansas and Oklahoma trials this past weekend as well. He handled Oz, successfully completing the 2nd series in both stakes but not getting called back into the third. More work on handling for Mark and trailing out runners for the young Oz. This upcoming weekend the Pine Shadows trialing team will split with Morgan heading to West Allis and Mark going to Nebraska. Morgan will be handling three of Tracie's dogs and it will be the inaugural run for Neala in the puppy stake. Owned by J.P Martin, Neala is just a year old but is a strong trial prospect with a long stride and a smooth gate. Morgan has been working the board flushes with her and has her ready. Jeff Johanns will be traveling with Morgan. Mark Sheflo with his dogs Fisher and Oz and Steve Krueger with Kipper and Thor will be accompanying Mark as he competes with Merlin, Rice, Checkers, Windsor, Wallace, Zell, and Ellie. March 11, 2007 Saturday training produced a welcome group of over 35 enthusiasts to work dogs, talk about dog stuff, and generally prepare for the field trials coming up this weekend. The temperature reached close to 50 degrees and settled the snow by almost half. The fire was going but wasn't really needed with the warm temperatures. We were able to get the golf cart running with the warm weather. JP rode the golf cart and watched his Neala dog run down the field. Morgan has been working Neala on bird work while JP is laid up with his foot operation. The Pine Shadows road team will be traveling to Wichita, Kansas this week to participate in the Okalahoma and Kansas field trials which are held back to back from Thursday through Sunday. We are bringing twelve dogs to compete. Windsor had a good run yesterday in training that owner Bob Schulke was able to watch. Bruce Eide's dog Ellie will run her first puppy stake and be competing with Zell. Both of these pups look good. Joan Peterson will be handling the pups in the trials this weekend. Morgan has Tracie Wilson's dogs ready to go and Mark will be handling them.  Mark Sheflo will be handling his young black and white, Oz. And of course Zia is ready to run with Lynn Peterson in the amateur stake as well. March 5, 2007 This past Saturday we had a training day instead of traveling to the Central Wisconsin field trial. The travel conditions from Brainerd to Monroe Wisconsin were treacherous and we opted to cancel attending the trial. Instead we had a very nice training day with the bright sun, 18 inches of snow and a good fire to warm us. Spotted at the training day was J.P. Martin who recently had hind foot surgery to repair an old war injury. It was very special to have JP attend the training as he will not be able to run dogs this spring because of the healing process.  The Doc said he should be as good as new when it is all healed! The dogs were having a great time running in the deep snow. Retrieves were difficult because the birds were dropping in the snow. I tried to instruct the guns to just wing shoot the birds so they would float down and land on top of the snow! The snow is here for a while but training still goes on. March 1, 2007 The winter storms are hitting our area this week and hit this pas