Local Brittany is top dog at trials

By Mike Hodgson/Associate Editor

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Firestorm’s Mega Chip of Smoke displays the classic pose of a Brittany on point during the American Brittany Club Western Section Futurity gun dog competition near California City. //Myra-Dawn Ellis/Contributor

A Nipomo man’s American Brittany was named top dog in the California Brittany Club’s Western Section Futurity Gun Dog Stake last week in the rugged Mojave Desert east of California City.

Firestorm’s Mega Chip of Smoke, a 21-month-old Brittany raised by breeder Mark Nunez, was judged the champion in the Jan. 25 field trials for dogs less than two years old.

The event drew the largest turnout ever, Nunez said, and his dog — “Chip” for short — beat a field of 20 Brittanys from 12 states and Canada to take the championship.

“Last week was a very good week. It made up for not getting a piece of the action at Eukanuba,” Nunez said, referring to the AKC/Eukanuba National Championship, where his dog Firestorm’s Wild Rose — Chip’s half-sister — failed to place last December.

“But that’s mostly (based on) looks,” he added. “This is based on hunting instincts, proving he can do what he was bred to do.

It’s also an endurance event.”

Chip was handled in the competition by Paul Doiron on foot, with his wife, Peggy, serving as scout. Nunez followed on horseback to observe.

In gun dog contests, Brittanys range ahead of their handlers in search of game birds — in this case chukkar — as they would in a regular hunt.

They are expected to range far and wide — but not out of the range of whistled and yodeled commands or out of sight too long — and always stay ahead of the handler.

At that, Chip excelled.

“They’re expected to finish strong and to the front,” Nunez said. “At the end, he was 600 to 800 yards to the front, almost half a mile.”

Nunez estimated that over the course of the half-hour contest,

Doiron walked about 2 1/2 miles and Chip ran somewhere between 4 and 5 miles across the steep, rocky terrain.

“And she had more gas in the tank to keep going if we wanted to,” he added.

When they locate birds, Brittanys are expected to point “staunchly and with style,” which means standing tall and proud, with head and tail high, Nunez said.

Again, Chip excelled.

“He had four really nice, clean finds,” Nunez said, adding that one time after disappearing over a ridge, the scout — who can leave the handler’s route to locate a dog — found Chip standing on point.

“A couple of times he was on point for two or three minutes, waiting for someone to come,” he said.

Nunez noted the judges said Chip set the standard for all the other dogs to beat. None did.

Besides the Western Futurity, Chip competed at 20 field trials over the past year, placing 19 times and earning 4 of the 10 points required to be an AKC field champion.

Nunez, a member of the Santa Maria Kennel Club, now is waiting for the latest round of statistics kept by the California Brittany Club to see where Chip stands.

“He should be either first or second — for the United States, not just the West Coast,” Nunez said. “That’s based on the number of times he places or wins, the number of dogs he defeats.”