Before joining the High Flyers chapter of the Hunting Retriever Club with his black labrador retriever, Mandy, in October 1994, West Deer native Jim Baird never had hunted or trained a hunting dog.
Five years later, Mandy has become one of only 21 dogs in the 16-year history of the Hunting Retriever Club, which has 110 chapters in North America, to amass 1,000 points as a Hunting Retriever Champion dog.
Points are accumulated by passing a series of tests.
A dog begins as a starter and has to pass two identical field-retrieving tests. Each time it passes, it accumulates five points.
| Club questions |
| Those with questions about the club can e-mail Jim Baird at baird@nauticom.net . |
There, it can accumulate 15 points before becoming a hunting retriever champion, when it can accumulate as many points as it can.
Each chapter has test days in the spring and fall, but dogs and trainers with serious plans on accumulating points will travel far to test their dogs.
Baird, a retired financial advisor, and Mandy have traveled to Colorado, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and Missouri among other places. They also attend numerous testing days in their region, which includes Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
By attending an average of 22 tests per year in the six years Mandy has been involved in the hunting retriever club - and passing 85 percent of the tests - 7-year-old Mandy became the youngest female dog to reach 1,000 points. She is one of only two dogs in the region to have accomplished the feat.
'She is quite an amazing dog,' Baird said. 'It's very gratifying when she goes to tests in places that are strange to her, with strange people, strange territory, strange everything, and she passes, and the guys there say, 'Man, you've got a great dog.' That's just a great feeling. '
Baird never had heard of the sport until he spoke to the owner of the dog with whom he had bred his first dog to produce Mandy.
'(The owner) told us, 'Hey, you've got to get involved in this, it's a lot of fun, these are great people,' ' Baird said. 'She invited my wife, Bonnie, and I to the next training session, and we had a great time. We went to another a month later, and the next thing you know I'm buying shotguns, duck calls, camo, decoys, and ammo.'
The next summer, he found out that one of his Delta Sigma Phi fraternity brothers, Bob Slaney, from his days at Thiel college, was a founding member of the club.
In testing and hunting, Mandy shows a tremendous amount of patience and reliability.
'Everyone I hunt with is very confident shooting over Mandy,' Baird said. 'She is very dependable and the ultimate reliable dog.'
Her qualities also have allowed her to earn a license as a therapy dog. Baird often takes her to nursing homes to bring a little bit of happiness to the patients there.
Baird officially has retired Mandy from testing. She recently had a puppy, and it took some time for her to get back into testing shape.
He is beginning to work with the puppy, named Nattie, but he will continue to use Mandy on hunting trips.
'I've already accomplished more with Mandy than I ever imagined in my wildest dreams,' Baird said. 'Now I'm working with the puppy, and she's doing things at 9 months old that Mandy was doing at age 2.'
If she has her mother's instincts and reliability, it won't be long before Baird has another member of the 1,000-point club in his household.
