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WKC's 2nd Hunting Test
For Pointing Breeds
Following on its successful event of last September, the Westminster
Kennel Club is pleased to be holding its second American Kennel Club
Licensed Hunting Test for Pointing Breeds on Saturday, September 26, at
the Tamarack Game Preserve in Millbrook, NY.
The entry is limited to the number of dogs that can be run safely during
daylight hours. Entries will close when that limit is reached, if prior
to the scheduled closing time of 4 p.m. on Monday, September 21. For
details and entry form, please click here. Drawing for the order will
take place on Thursday.
For additional information and a map to the Preserve, contact Hunting
Test Secretary Harvey Wooding at 212-213-3026.
In 2008, Westminster became the first all breed kennel club to hold an
AKC licensed hunting test for pointing breeds, an event evoking memories
of the Club's early days. After all, Westminster was begun back in the
mid-1870's as a gentlemen's sporting club, with its primary activity
being bird hunting, primarily with pointing breeds and Pointers in
particular. After all, the iconic club logo through all the years is
Sensation, the great Pointer that belonged to the club.
After some Westminster members helped to create the governing body of
the sport, the American Kennel Club, in 1884, Westminster gradually
began to shift its focus to that of the dog show ring. There, members
could show their own dogs and also help dog fanciers exhibit their own
dogs for the world to see. But at the same time, the original intent of
the club's forefathers was firmly evident: protect and promote the
purebred dog and its abilities to do what it was bred to do.
A hundred years later, in 1986, the American Kennel Club created a
hunting test and Westminster hosted the first demonstration in Pine
Plains, NY. The February 1987 issue of Town & Country reported it
thusly: "Top pointers, spaniels and retrievers were sent afield under
the whistles of amateur handlers, while about 800 members of the bird
dog fraternity from across the country stood staunchly on the rolling
hillsides to honor the AKC's new, noncompetitive program for judging a
dog's handiness towing and shot."
Many specialty clubs have staged hunting tests since then, but up until
September of last year, no all breed club had done so. Perhaps it is
appropriate that the Westminster Kennel Club, the country's oldest
organization dedicated to the sport of purebred dogs, would do the
honors and hopefully open the way for other all breed clubs to follow.
Hunt Test at the Tamarack Preserve Ltd, Millbrook, NY
Saturday, September 26.
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