Reports on Wild Apple Jack and Autumn Moon from The American Field

Excerpt from the 2012 International Amateur Woodcock Championship

By Deb Kennedy

The American Field 02/2012

 

Pointer male Wild Apple Jack (Doherty) and setter female Old River Glory (Parsons) drew the last brace of the trial.  They broke away in the deep woods on the upper half of the Wishart land.  The ‘birdy” part of this course tends to be later on, and Jack had read the play book, taking off at a blistering speed.  He ran beyond his bell and then came in just enough as if to say, “Of course, I’m still here!”  This was really wonderful to watch.  Once in awhile you get a chance to see someone who raised and trained his own dog, who knows and loves his dog, who knows and loves him back.  They put on a show that demonstrates not just a well-trained dog and his man, but the love they share made visible in the way the dog and the man sing and dance through the woods.  There is an intimacy that comes with trust, trust that the dog will run to hell and back, find a bird, stay there for as long as it takes for his person to find him.  Jack always knew where Craig was; he knew where the birds were, and he knew how to get everyone in the same place when it really mattered.  Jack ran hard and big for the first 40 minutes.  His bracemate ran much closer, making it difficult to hear Jack’s far flung bell.  Austin picked up his charge well before time, so Jack had the remaining course to himself.  At 40 Jack stopped in some young popples that always hold a woodcock or two.  Craig flushed for awhile, sent Jack on and then Jack stooped again.  Craig did another cursory search and moved Jack back to the course.  At 44 Jack stopped again and was found on point by scout Mike Flewelling.  Jack remained rooted to the ground as Craig flushed.  Ever vigilant, Mike saw the bird sneaking away and called out to Craig, who finally flushed the woodcock and fired.  Once released Jack exploded forward over a rise and then, nothing.  The bell stopped before 50 and the search began.  Both judges, Craig, his scout Mike Flewelling, and this reporter fanned out into the woods looking for the dog everyone knew was there somewhere, but where? Craig walked fast and kept up a quiet patter, “I’m coming Jack, I’m coming.”  Finally there was a ghostly whisper of a bell next to a beaver pond where the alders grew thick as grass.  Craig waded into the stand to find the bird hew knew was there.  The hour had run out.  After several minutes Mike Flewelling joined the group starting at the far end of the grove and found Jack standing.  Craig ran to his dog, the woodcock flushed, the shot was fired, thus capping a championship performance by man and beast.

            A short list of Jack’s notable placements includes the 2007 Grand National Grouse Championship (winner); 2008 Northern New England Woodcock Championship (winner); 2010 Lake States Grouse Championship (winner); 2011 Northeastern Grouse and Woodcock Championship (runner-up). Jack is a full littermate to Autumn Moon which is also a multiple (5X) champion.  When not competing or hunting, Jack lives in the house.

 

Excerpt From the 2008 Grand National Grouse Championship Report

By David Fletcher

The American Field 12/13/08

 

New Champion and Others

Pointer male Autumn Moon was the clear cut winner.  His performance was sensational, featuring three grouse finds, albeit an unproductive, but his overall talents in getting through the inviting cover of the grouse woods, his size, power, stamina and eye-catching way of going in the timber were all combined to top the field.  Jack Harang bought the pup from Craig Doherty, his good friend . . . hunted him on his Texas lease one winter then turned him over to Scott Chaffee for development.  His learning sessions came in Michigan and his qualifying win came at the Ralph Warrington Memorial Shooting Dog Stake hosted by the Beaverton Club on the Gladwin grounds.  Last year's Grand National Champion Wild Apple Jack, owned and handled by Craig Doherty, is a littermate to Autumn Moon.

 

brace-by-brace

Autumn Moon (Chaffee) was wonderfully athletic, spectacular on deep casts and he handled. Taz (Ecker) was taken up at 38, resulting from a show of insufficient manners around a grouse. Moon had a grouse a 42, relocating nicely on a crippled bird, his composure in this situation excellent.  Moon logged an unproductive at 46.  Moon scored his second grouse find  at 55 . . . a nice cast to good looking cover and he was high and tight with good location.  Moon had a third grouse find, superbly done, to close an hour of memorable hunting and great bird work.  So far Moon was the dog to watch in this historic stake.

 

 

Excerpt from the Northern New England Woodcock Championship

By Craig Doherty

Submitted to The American Field

 

The Winner and others

Having judged and reported this and other events in the woods on numerous occasions, it is with the greatest humility I present the following.  When you judge and watch an event of this magnitude, you see many exceptional performances, and as the judges walk along they are hoping to see something special. A performance that stands above the norm, that you can clearly and unequivocally say is what you came hoping to see.  At this year’s Northern New England Woodcock Championship it came in the 22nd brace which ran on the number one course first thing Tuesday morning.  This would be the ninth time over the course during the trial.  Braced together were Wild Apple Jack the reigning Grand National Grouse Champion handled by his owner and the reporter of this event, Craig Doherty, and Texas Cherry Bomb handled by Scott Forman for Pennsylvanian Kevin Klein.

            The dogs were sent away close to 7:30 and before the stopwatches had reached 20 seconds both dogs were stopped and then a brood of approximately four grouse began lifting one at a time.  Both handlers fired with all in order and the dogs were sent on.  Wild Apple Jack’s bell went quiet again at the seven minute mark and he was found to the front with a second grouse find.  Cherry experienced a nonproductive at about the same time and another at 46 to end her bid.  Jack went on to hunt the likely cover around the course until his bell fell silent for the third time at the 50 minute mark.  After flushing thoroughly in front of the dog it looked like a nonproductive was about to go in the book.  When I headed back to the dog, Jack turned his head to the left and back. When I stepped in that direction the woodcock, which had most likely been running around under the ferns, flushed within three feet of the dog.  Although the club rules allow a champion to be named on either grouse or woodcock, it was good to have the woodcock in the book to top off a very strong hour.  But Jack wasn’t done yet.  Sent on he swung forward to the left side of the course and his bell went silent again.  Another woodcock was produced as the dog’s fourth find and the exclamation point of his championship winning performance.  Matt Mentz, who had judged Jack when he won the Grand National, said he was even better on this day.  Andy Kalgren, who has judged this event two times previously over these same courses, said it was the best he had ever seen a dog handle course one.  Personally, I just feel fortunate to follow this dog, flush his birds, and fire my gun.

 

 

 

Excerpt from the Grand National Grouse Championship Report

By Ryan Frame and David Fletcher

The American Field 12/8/2007

 

“Topping the field was Wild Apple Jack, a good sized, upstanding white and liver pointer dog owned and handled by Craig Doherty of Milan, NH. Jack laid out a big, forward, easy handling race, hunted the cover and had one grouse find with faultless style and perfect manners.  The dog moved strong and hunted well throughout.  He was bred and raised by Doherty.  His dam [Elhew Liebotschaner], which ran in the fourth brace, came from Elhew Kennels and his sire, 2X cover dog champion Wynot Ace, is largely a combination of Elhew and Guard Rail breeding.  That combination of Elhew and Guard Rail has been a potent one in successful cover dogs.

     This was the first championship win for Wild Apple Jack but it certainly was no fluke.  I, Ryan, reported the Southern New England Woodcock Championship at the beginning of the season and Jack’s performance there would have won that stake in most years, but was edged out.  He was solid in several other trials and it was clear that he 'had one in him.'  And if a dog has one in him, the Grand National is the one you want.”

 

Wild Apple Jack Winner of the 2007 Grand National Grouse Championship

 

Brace 8:

 

"Tehaar’s Elvis (Hughes) and Wild Apple Jack (Doherty) were loosed on Lonesome Ridge.  Jack went big and laid to the front with little handle required.  Elvis checked back close three times early and then laid out in the cover by 12.  Both carried themselves well, the pointer checking in from the distance.  Neither handler said much from 20 to 40 but both dogs worked well forward and in the cover, handlers stopping to listen now and then.  When seen both were going well and very stylish.  Jack’s bell was missing forward at 40 and he was found well forward and right, pointing back [towards] the course.  He looked good and had a grouse pinned neatly, the dog never wavering at the flush or shot.  He continued his big going, easy handling effort, through the swampy stuff and into the bigger woods.  Elvis continued well to the front and when seen looked good.  We ran out of course at 54 and turned left down the dirt road.  Shortly after Elvis dug into the right and stopped near some evergreen trees.  He was a picture and a grouse flew out to his left, all in order.  Both dogs finished well down the road.  At this point, according to the judges, Jack and Elvis bumped out Maxima."

 

 

Excerpt from the Miss Leslie Open Derby Woodcock Classic

By Ron Ashfield

The American Field 12/11/04

 

“. . . And so it was in the late afternoon on the second day of running that Craig Doherty was summoned to display the bird handling skills of his precocious young pointer male, Wild Apple Jack.

     It was do or die.  The blue ribbon had already been claimed; runner-up laurels hung in the balance.

     Jack was cut loose in the alder rims boarding the left side of an old field that angled from our parking area to heavy evergreen woods beyond.  Despite his tender age, Jack tackled this venue with purpose and vengeance, undeterred by occasional blackberry tangles that can quickly draw blood and scratches on all trespassers.  With eye-popping style, a high-cracking tail and an obvious desire to please, Jack totally shredded all the available cover the field rims had to offer and before long we were back near the vehicles but without having moved birds.  Twenty minutes had already expired.  Jack was quickly watered and sent down along older alder rims bordering the car path on our entry route.  Toward the bottom of old fields the heavy alder swales gave way to the alder and popple pockets intermingled with open spaces and Jack was quickly swinging beautiful casts, on the end of a ringing bell, through seductive pockets in complete rapport with his anxious handler.  The judges, trusty scout (spouse) and your scribe were bringing up the rear.

 

 

 

Wild Apple Jack R/U Miss Leslie Derby Classic 2004 (Jack was 10 month old at the time)

 

     Given the ease of navigation through the open areas between the alder pockets, the handler adopted a somewhat twisting path of travel that on occasion required his handsome pointer to come in from the side in order to regain the front on an altered travel route.  It was on such a ‘route adjustment’ that the final curtain call came.

     Jack was working in from the left side of an alder pocket, his merry bell indicating game.  Handler meanwhile was leading the field trial party around the right edge of the same alder grove.  Then came the rush of rapidly beating wings as a woodcock narrowly missed colliding with the handler; the colorful but unprintable expletive of the startled handler; the realization of sudden silence accompanied by the judge’s order to ‘fire that gun!’ and a glimpse of a regal young pointer locked solidly on bird scent.  It was an exciting climax to a most memorial renewal of the ‘Miss Leslie’ and as we withdrew from the ancient meadows of Henderson Settlement it seemed most fitting that that a coveted red ribbon, emblematic of runner-up laurels, together with a framed print of flying woodcock were bestowed on the stirring performance of this young pointer, so aptly named – Wild Apple Jack!

 

Home Page   Wynot Ace   Elhew Liebotschaner   gallery   Contact Wild Apple Kennels   Puppies and Started Dogs