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What are professional trainers and some of the World's greatest tournament players saying about ICE? Here is Black Ice on point with head held high. At first we thought the bird had run out. We couldn't find it, so we released her on command and she carefully moved forward some 10 yards. Still no bird. We repeated this process 3 times until we finally found the bird still asleep on the nest where it was planted, SOME 22 yards away from where ICE first locked up.
WHAT OTHERS HAVE SAID ABOUT George Kane When Ice was 6 months old we were headed out of town for a vacation to Disney World. I asked a good friend George Kane if he would continue to train her for me. George is nationally known for his Pointer accomplishments over three decades in bird dog tournament hunting. Including winning the World Championship in the Pointing Doubles Division in 2005. Like any professional trainer George naturally wanted to do an evaluation on Ice before he agreed to what he could accomplish with her over just a span of just 7 days. So we agreed on a time and a place and I provided the birds. George set out the first three birds and asked me to just turn her loose so he could see what she could do and how she was handling in a bird field. Ice raced out and pointed the first bird inside of 30 seconds. I flushed and harvest the bird and in roughly 10 seconds Ice had retrieved the bird to hand and in a blink of an eye was 100 yards away. To make a long story short Ice put on a great display. Coming back around on each beep of the whistle and sitting on any long blast to demonstrate to George just what she knew. But she knew sit, stay, come and heel by voice, hand & whistle commands by the time she was 14 weeks old. She was gun broke at 12 weeks of age and has retrieved at the speed of a greyhound since 10 weeks old. George Kane looked at me and said "there is nothing to train she is simply amazing." I said then will you run birds through her 4 or 5 times while I'm gone to help keep her sharp. He naturally said yes. A week or so later George was at an event at the Big Rock Shooting Preserve in Central Wisconsin and I learned that he was bragging to another multi-time World Champion, Mark Sweeney, about Ice. Later Mark told me that George said, "I don't think Chris realizes what he has in this dog." But I did a few months later when she won back to back National Championships. I recently ask George if he remembered making that comment to Mark and what exactly did he mean by it and he said, "yes I remember that" and what I meant by that was.. "I have seen and trained hundreds of dogs in my life, I have owned National Champions, but no where have I ever seen the likes of a dog like this, at any age, much less at six months of age. You had a dog of a life time. You didn't know it back then, but I know you know it now." George Kane 7/30/08
Scott Peterson Scott Peterson is a professional gun dog trainer and owns Prairie Gun Dog Kennels in Parkers Prairie, Minnesota. Scott is also one of the best bird dog challenge competitors on the planet. He has qualified six times for "I have had the pleasure of watching this dog since it ran in it's first event at 3.5 months old. I have both judged her and I have been Chris's Doubles partner when she won her first NBDCA event at the incredible young age of 4.5 months old. Perhaps the greatest pleasure I have had to date with Ice is when after one of her APLA Hunt Test in Minnesota, she got to stay with me in my kennel for 10 days until Chris traveled North to run her in one of the Summer BDC events in Eagle Bend, Mn. Chris asked me to shoot some birds over her and if I wanted I could run her on a few blind retrieves. What I witnessed over the next few times I had her out was simply amazing. This dog found birds I didn't even put out. Ice's nose is second to none and ranks with the best I have ever seen in my life and I have judged, train, & run well over a thousand animals. Not to mention she was perfectly steady to wing and shot on all 15 birds I harvested with her the three times I took her out. When Chris asked me what did I say to her, I said, nothing. I never said I word to her it was like she knew exactly what I wanted. Then for s & g's I planted a blind retrieve some 150 yards out. I then went and got Ice out of my truck and lined her up. I had never handled this dog before or since. When I released her she took off like a greyhound chasing the mechanical rabbit. HOLY COW I said out loud. In a matter of just a few seconds she had run straight out, stepped on the blind and was racing it back to me. Ice is one incredible animal and does this dog live to work, or what?" John Koenig John Koenig has had a professional gun dog training business for over 20 years and has been training bird dogs in general all his life. Recently he also demonstrated to the tournament hunting community that he can be as tough as anyone in the Bird field by taking 3 of the top 5 places in the Master Pointing Division at the 2006 BDC Nationals. What did John have to say about Ice?
Mike Wallace Mike Wallace is from a small town in Kansas called Shawnee. He hase been competing in various venues for over 7 years, and English Pointers is his breed of choice. He has have qualified all 4 of his English Pointers for the NBDCA Nationals 5 straight years finishing in the top 10 in his class 3 times and has qualified 3 of them for the NBDCA World Championships for the last 3 years.
Mike Lettau Mike Lettau has been a professional dog trainer for close to 30 years and is the co-owner of K & L Kennels located in Higginsville, Mo. (roughly 40 miles East of Kansas City). Mike has been handling Ice for the better part of 10 months. The two of them have made great progress as a team earning both the Master and Grand Master APLA titles this spring. Mike has also completed 7 consecutive passes with Ice in HRC Hunt Tests. Thus, he achieved her €˜Seasoned" title and has two passes toward the required four passes for her "Finished" HRC Title. Mike works with ICE at least 6 days a week and frequently multiple times during a single day. Here is what Mike had to say about Reno's Black Ice; "Ice is an amazing girl. First, her ability to mark the fall of an object is like nothing you have ever seen. Triples, quadruples, 150, 250 yards, it makes no difference to this dog. Ice has always marked long. Meaning the worst that happens is she'll over run the mark by a small margin and then quickly, instinctly, comes right back to it. There are times when she only catches a tiny glimpse of the third or forth mark and I think, oh know this one is going to be really tough. But I line her up; give her the line, and she runs straight out and steps on it." "I have sent this dog on blinds over fences, through cattails, edge rows, you name it, this dog just knows that if she takes the line I give her, she will get her reward, the retrieve itself. Her desire to please and her drive are simply unsurpassed. One would think after being three years old that just one morning when you took her out of her run that she would show a little bit less desire than the day before. But not ICE. Every day she comes out of the kennels like a tornado moving at 70 MPH. This dogs desire to work is beyond description. There is no quit or limits in this dog. She is one of those one in a million animals and I am just proud to be a part of her development." Mike Lettau
Don Clark Don Clark has watched Ice's development over the past two years perhaps better than anyone. He is one of the rising STARS in the bird dog challenge tournament circuit has he made his mark by taking 2nd Place at this years BDC Nationals in the Top Gun Pointing event with his awesome GSP, "Duece." Don also qualified for last years UFTA (United Field Trialers Assoc) and qualified one dog in the Top Gun Pointing run offs. Here is what Don said about Ice: "The Ice machine is an incredible dog. I have had the honor of running her in many BDC & UFTA events and have even taken her duck hunting in Arkansas. Seldom in life do you get to see such an animal with this drive, intensity, learning ability, and desire to please. This dog has the ability to understand what is required no matter whether it's a hunt test or shooting dog competition. She is the real deal. There are no limits to what this dog can do. You didn't hear it from me, but she also makes an outstanding sleeping partner on week long hunting trips."
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