BEAUTY, BRAINS AND BIRD SENSE
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ONCE AGAIN, IT REQUIRED THREE LEGS TO EARN THOSE CERTIFICATES AND IT REQUIRED
The second part of the award is “Brains.” The committee determined that an AKC obedience title was the minimum requirement for this part of the award. Once again, this requires practice and a time commitment to achieve, even at the lowest level of Companion Dog. It isn’t like training your Gordon to roll over or fetch that bag of chips that is just out of your reach. (Gordons would charge you a fee for that little "chip trick.") When Agility trials became an AKC sponsored sport, the award was changed to include those titles as well. Allow me to reiterate here—a Beauty, Brains and Bird Sense award is not easy to achieve. The “Bird Sense” part of the award proved to be the most difficult to win approval. Obviously, an AKC Field Champion title would qualify, but at that time in the 1980s there were only a couple Gordons a year earning those titles. Field trials required horses, they were seasonal, and they were beyond the reach of most people. Also, at that point in time the AKC did not have the hunting dog program and the titles that are available now; that program was still several years away. However, the GSCA had in place a precursor to those hunting tests in the form of its Working Dog Certificate and Working Dog Certificate with Retrieve tests. Once again, it required three legs to earn those certificates and it required effort in both time and training to achieve. With the advent of the AKC Hunting Tests, the number of Gordons working at basic levels in the field soared, and so did the number of dogs that have earned the Beauty, Brains and Bird Sense award. Listed here are the current requirements for the award; one title from each group: Awarded to the owner of any Gordon that has attained an AKC Championship conformation title (CH) and... Obedience, including Companion Dog (CD), Graduate Novice (GN), Graduate Open (GO), Versatility (VER), Rally Excellent (RE), Tracking (TD), Novice Agility (NA), or Open Agility Preferred (OAP)] and... Field, including Junior Hunter (JH), Senior Hunter (SH), Master Hunter (MH), Field Champion (FC), Amateur Field Champion (AFC), GSCA Working Dog (WD) or GSCA Work- ing Dog Retrieve (WDR) Certificate title. Finally, some special mentions need to be made. Two dogs that had ended their careers prior to the establishment of the award were given full credit and received the first two awards. They were both Dual Champions with obedience titles; DC Gunbar’s Dare Devil CD, owned by Bill and Marge Platt of Illinois and whelped in 1952, and DC Shadowmere Ebony Shane CD, owned by Jack and Barbara Cooper of California and whelped in 1974. One other Gordon deserves special mention. OTCH CH Chaparral Justin Time UDX MH, owned by Janie Bristow of North Carolina and Linda Sanders of Nevada, is the most-titled Gordon to earn the award—and is the only OTCH to earn it.
EFFORT IN BOTH TIME AND TRAINING TO ACHIEVE. WITH THE ADVENT OF THE AKC HUNTING TESTS, THE NUMBER OF GORDONS WORKING AT BASIC LEVELS IN THE FIELD SOARED, AND SO DID THE NUMBER OF DOGS THAT HAVE EARNED THE BEAUTY, BRAINS AND BIRD SENSE AWARD.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Jim Thacker has owned, bred, and campaigned Gordon Setters in the show ring and field since 1977 under the Dunbar kennel prefix. His dogs have earned titles in each part of the sport, including one Dual and Amateur Field Champion who was twice the parent club's Gun Dog of the Year. He previously judged AKC and American Field pointing breed trials and hunting tests, and has also judged Spaniel hunting tests. He is currently the Gordon Setter breed columnist for the AKC Gazette. He lives in southwest Ohio.
236 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, APRIL 2021
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