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Hello Minnesota Chapter Members,

First off, a reminder that 2023 Chapter membership renewals are now open.  Save $10 by renewing now.    Click here to be taken to the online renewal system.   Members get the inside track on training & testing, so it is important you stay current with your membership.

We are also now accepting applications for the Joe Dolesji Youth & New Handler Scholarship.  Full details and application form link are here.

Hunting Season is still in full swing, but your board of directors is hard at work planning our 2023 calendar of events.  Here is some of what we have in the works:

**Fable Fest-Feb 4th-Save the Date!** Thank you to those that responded to our survey about the Annual Meeting/Fable Fest.    We are excited to announce that we WILL be doing an in-person annual meeting at an event/banquet center in the north suburbs on Saturday Evening Feb 4th.  All members will receive further communication and registration information in an email in the next couple weeks.  Watch for that!

Feb 4th & 5th-Retrieving (Force Fetch) and Advanced Obedience Clinic with NAVHDA Director of Judge Development Mark Whalen in Blaine, MN.  (Not open for entries yet.)

10 week Positive Reinforcement Behavior Classes (Indoor)-Weekly starting late January in Stillwater, MN.  (Not open for entries yet.)

Versatile Dog 201 HEEL-WHOA-FETCH-Course Sessions starting in mid February in Ham Lake, MN.  (Not open for entries yet.)

2023 Fundraiser–  We will again be raffling off a custom fitted and built shotgun through the Upland Gun Company.  Ticket sales will start Feb 4th at Fable Fest.

MN NAVHDA 10% Discount on The Upland Institute Video Training Series.  Full details here.

2023 Test Dates (Tentative)-Test Entries will open in early 2023.

  • May 13-14 “double” NA test at Four Brooks
  • June 3-4  ‘single” UPT-UT test at Kelley
  • July 22-23 “double” NA test at Four Brooks
  • Aug 19-20 “single NA-UPT-UT test at Virginia-IRRC
  • Aug 26-27 “double” UPT-UT test at Four Brooks
  • Sept 9-10 “single” NA test at Four Brooks

2023 MOCK NA Tests (Tentative)

  • April 29th at Kelley
  • July 15th at Four Brooks

NAVHDA AIMS & Rules Clinic-June 3-4 at Kelley (Not open for entries yet.)

NAVHDA Invitational Handlers Clinic-June 24-25 at Kelley (Not open for entries yet.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minnesota NAVHDA now has an arrangement with Ron Boehme’s (The Hunting Dog Podcast) and Justin McGrail’s (Black Creek Dog Training) UPLAND INSTITUTE to offer a discount on their video series training guides. Use the promo code “MNNAVHDA” for 10% off of any individual course or the complete program. Our chapter mission statement is rooted in the philosophy of helping people train their own dogs according to the NAVHDA Aims, Rules & Principles. I personally believe that the methods outlined by The Upland Institute fall more closely in line with NAVHDA principles than any other training series or books I have reviewed and will be a valuable resource for our members. You can check it out here:

UPLAND INSTITUTE

Except for the last 2 years due to the CV-19 Pandemic, Minnesota NAVHDA has traditionally held its annual meeting and “Fable Fest” pot luck banquet in early February. With the size of our chapter, we have outgrown the venue we have been most recently using for this event. We are trying to gauge the interest of members to hold a more formal catered banquet at a banquet facility in early to mid February. This would no longer be a pot luck, and there would be a cost per person to attend. Please follow this link to fill out the survey. If we are going to hold this event, we need to start planning it. https://mnnavhda.org/mn-navhda-annual-meeting-banquet…/

NAVHDA International is having an upcoming election for its Board of Directors. Voting will be done electronically this year, and everyone who is a current member of NAVHDA will be getting an email between now and about Oct 15th.  Please watch for those emails and make sure you take part in the voting. You can read about the candidates in the September issue of the VHD magazine.

You can read the candidate biographies here:

Hunting season is in full swing, and we hope you are all getting your dogs plenty of time out there on wild upland birds and waterfowl.    While we do our best to simulate real world situations in our training & testing during the off-hunting season, there is no substitute for wild birds in natural settings for your dog’s development. 

While NAVHDA International does not track individual chapter membership numbers, Minnesota NAVHDA is likely the largest chapter in NAVHDA with over 300 members, and we are verified as holding the most testing days of any chapter the last few years.  In 2022, we held TWENTY test days over eight weekends.    Thank you to all of our members and volunteers for supporting that effort!   We are going to keep up our testing capacity in 2023 to keep meeting the demand for testing slots.

Being a very large and active chapter, Minnesota NAVHDA and its board of directors meets year-round to stay on top of planning and administrative duties to make sure our members have adequate training & testing opportunities.    To ensure we have birds, grounds, judges, clinic leaders, test secretaries & coordinators, etc…most of our schedule is planned 9-12 months in advance, and our testing & training birds are all already contracted out for 2023.  Here is a snapshot of what we have planned so far for 2023:

WEEKEND CLINICS

February 4-5 Force Fetch/Advanced Obedience Clinic Hooley Hall Stillwater
June 3-4 NAVHDA AIMS Clinic Kelley Farms
June 24-25 NAVHDA Invitational Clinic Kelley Farms

TENTATIVE TEST DATES

May 13-14 Natural Ability Four Brooks
June 3-4 UPT & UT Kelley Farms
July 23-24 Natural Ability Four Brooks
August 19-20 NA-UPT-UT IRRC Virginia
August 26-27 UPT & UT Four Brooks
September 9-10 Natural Ability Four Brooks

There will also be some weekly winter Obedience classes again that will be announced probably in mid to late November.  These will start in January.

Members will be notified by email when registrations are open for our 2023 events.

One thing we are also aware of is that we have a lot of new members with young dogs/puppies that perhaps are not getting the exposure opportunities they need.  We have been strongly encouraging members to form their own small training groups, but we understand this can be difficult for new members.  For 2023, we are looking into doing some larger chapter “open” training days (perhaps monthly in May, June, July, August) where we have a variety of stations and training/exposure opportunities for members and their dogs.    If we are going to be able to pull this off, we will need a lot of help from you members!  Please watch for more communication about this over the winter.

Enjoy your hunting season!

 

Hello chapter members,

We are heavy into our training and testing season, and we hope that all of you are having fun with your dogs in your pursuits this summer.

We also have just a handful of tickets remaining for our 2022 Raffle fundraiser for the Upland Gun Company’s custom fitted shotgun.   If you would like a ticket, please contact Sam Snyder at:  sam.snyder@mnnavhda.org.  We will hold the drawing as soon as all tickets are sold.

https://mnnavhda.org/mn-navhda-2022-fundraiser-upland-gun-company-raffle/

We have just about a month left of training, and we have four weekends left of testing.  We are still looking for volunteers for these tests.  See chart on our website here.  If you can help, contact the Test Coordinators in the very right column.

https://mnnavhda.org/2022-test-clinic-contact-information-for-volunteers/

Also looking ahead, our Bylaws require that the membership be notified this time of year about upcoming board position openings and terms.

Article VI: Nominations, Elections, Voting Section 1: On or about August 1st of each year, but not later than August 15th, the Secretary will announce to the membership that nominations for expiring board positions are open. This communication shall include a list of all current Board Members and the expiring dates of all terms. Section 2: Nominations will be accepted by the Secretary from the Membership until August 31st. Members may nominate themselves. Members who are not nominating themselves must agree to accept the nomination which is to be verified by the Secretary.

Here is the current Board of Directors, Position held, term expiration, and their intent.

  • Pete Aplikowski-President.  Expires October 2023
  • Brent Haefner- Treasurer. Expires October 2023
  • Mitch Carlson-Director of Training. Expires October 2023
  • Sam Snyder-Vice President. Expires October 2022-nominated self for a new term.
  • Andrew Blonski-Secretary. Expires October 2022-nominated self for a new term
  • Sean Ewaldt-Director Testing. Expires October 2022-nominated self for a new term

So, there are three board position terms that will end in October, and there are three nominees for the positions.  Nominations from the general membership for the board are now open until August 31st.   If there are more nominees than open positions (three), there will be an election.  If you would like to nominate yourself, or someone else, please send an email to secretary@mnnavhda.org.

Based on the feedback from the Northern Groups Committee, The chapter Board of Directors unanimously approved the following proposals at the June 21st Board meeting.

We look forward to helping the Pineridge Grouse Camp group form a new NAVHDA chapter, and continuing the relationship with the Virginia group.

  • Iron Range Retriever Club (IRRC) NAVHDA Group Proposal:  Based on feedback that came from the Committee  about forming any new chapter(s) in the Northern part of the state, Minnesota NAVHDA will do the following for the group based at  the Iron Range Retriever Club (IRRC):
    • Continue to sponsor a NAVHDA test at these grounds provided that:
      • The test is on the 3rd weekend in August. 
      • This group must reserve these dates and negotiate their own grounds fees for the test with the IRRC.   
        • Prior to January 15th of the year of the test, this group must notify the Chapter Director of Testing of:
          • Who the Test Secretary will be.
          • Who the Test Coordinator will be. (If different than Secretary)
          • What the grounds fees will be.
        • The chapter will request approval of the test with NAVHDA, set and collect test fees and pay test expenses. Any other chapter policies related to tests will be in effect.
      • To be consistent with the chapter Mission Statement, the group Testing and Training at the IRRC must identify a person or persons that can be contacted for any NAVHDA training inquiries for the IRRC grounds and this person(s) contact info will be published on mnnavhda.org.
  • Pineridge Grouse Camp (PGC) NAVHDA Group Proposal:  Based on feedback that came from the Committee about forming any new chapter(s) in the Northern part of the state, Minnesota NAVHDA will do the following for the group based at  the Pineridge Grouse Camp (PGC):
    • Support and assist this group with making applications with NAVHDA for the formation of a new chapter, as long as the application is made by Sept 1st, 2022.
    • When the new chapter is recognized by NAVHDA and a bank account is established, Minnesota NAVHDA will send $4,000.00 to the new chapter.
    • Any equipment purchased by Minnesota NAVHDA for this group will be gifted as well.  (Approximate value $1,000.00).
    • Provide advice and assistance as needed going forward.  
      • Establishing Bylaws.
      • Establishing website and online payment systems.
      • Sourcing Birds
      • Consulting on training schedule & events.
      • Consulting on Test management

 

UPDATE 6/22/22-Committe is dissolved. 

At the NAVHDA International meeting this winter, it was announced that NAVHDA International membership has now surpassed 10,000 members.    Along with that, was the fact that growth in new chapters is falling short of being able to support adequate testing & training opportunities for members.

Minnesota NAVHDA has also grown significantly recently, and by the end of each season has had well over 300 paid members the last several years, with about 50 member-families in the northern part of the state.  (Roughly from an east-west line north of Mille Lacs Lake.)

Across North America, suitable grounds for training and testing dogs are always in short supply, especially for Utility Level Tests.    Northern Minnesota members are very fortunate that there are TWO proven grounds to hold quality NAVHDA tests.  The Iron Range Retriever Club and Pineridge Grouse Camp.

Minnesota NAVHDA is forming a committee to discuss the logistics of forming new chapters for the 2023 training & testing season (next year) in the northern part of the state, centered around these two sets of proven training & testing grounds.    The primary goal of this committee will be to identify ways to better serve all NAVHDA International members in the state, and offer more focused local involvement and participation to those members.

Any new chapters would NOT be affiliated with Minnesota NAVHDA, and could set their own dues, policies, bird sources, training programs and sponsor their own NAVHDA tests.

If you are interested in serving on this committee, please fill out and submit the form below.    This committee will meet via virtual teleconference several times throughout 2022, starting in May.

Running on wild birds in the spring when the snow is melting and the timberdoodles are making their return back to Minnesota can be a rewarding experience after a long winter of inactivity for us and our dogs.

Respecting the birds should be at the forefront of our minds when planning to run during the off season on wild birds. To stay legal, in Minnesota, one can run their dogs off-leash prior to April 16 on most state and county lands. Federally owned lands (except National Forest) are generally off limits outside of the hunting season. Now just because you can, does it mean you should?? Depends… personally I feel there are a few general rules of thumb to dictate whether to go or not.

Keep in mind that whenever a bird is disturbed, it wastes energy it could have otherwise conserved. Flushing, running, vacating the area it felt safe all take a negative energetic toll on birds who have already endured a long, cold and snowy winter. Disturbing birds while they were feeding could leave them cold and hungry  Weather is the first factor to consider when deciding whether to go run. If the temps are below freezing the energy demands of all birds are already increased, but keep in mind woodcock feed by probing their bill into the ground, so it must be thawed for them to feed on their primary source of food (earthworms). I do not recommend running dogs on wild birds when it’s below freezing or during inclement weather.

The second rule of thumb is to leave a bird (or birds) alone after one flush. Sometimes this means leaving the area altogether and checking out a new area. Forcing birds further away from their comfort zone increases unnecessary stress. It’s tempting to re-flush birds to get a second attempt at training success but not only is it not ethically a good idea, you’re also less likely to be successful in your endeavor as re-flushed birds carry little tracking scent.

Lastly, if you ever see signs of nesting or courtship (mating) behavior, do not target those birds and better yet; work on heeling and head back to your car. Not only is it unethical, it can be illegal depending on the species, and any disturbance of brood production could reduce a whole lot of birds that you and others could hunt the next season. The quiet season start date of April 16th was set statutorily many decades ago, birds can’t read the regulations book and during a warm and early spring like last year, many game birds began nesting prior to the April 16th closure.

Oh, and don’t forget while you’re in the woods that there are other dangers of spring – bears are waking up, feeding, and raising young. Wolves and coyotes are also raising pups during this time. Beaver trapping is still open so there could be water sets near outlets, culverts or other near shore areas.

-Bailey Petersen