Dancyville training top bird dogs to compete

By Bryan Brasher
Memphis Commercial Appeal
article at commercialappeal.com

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Blake Kukar of Dancyville, Tenn., works with his seven-month-old Vizsla pup, Lil B. Dancyville is chock-full of bird dog field-trialers. Bryan Brasher/The Commercial Appeal

DANCYVILLE, Tenn. -- If you believe our colossal planet is truly a small world made up by millions of tiny interlocking towns, then you are sure to appreciate Blake Kukar's story on the unincorporated West Tennessee town of Dancyville, population 1,800.

Kukar, who works for Morgan Keegan Investments, was on a boat once in the middle of Turkey's Black Sea -- thousands of miles away from his diminutive hometown of Dancyville -- when a man he'd never met began asking him questions.

"He wanted to know where I was from, and I told him 'Memphis, Tennessee' to avoid having to explain where the little town of Dancyville actually is," Kukar said. "Then the guy wanted to know what kind of hobbies I was into, and I started to think I was being set up by some of my coworkers."

Still, Kukar told the man about his interest in field trialing. He told him which dogs he had owned and trained and exactly who his neighbors were in "Memphis."

When the man heard the names, he knew right away that Kukar wasn't actually from Memphis, he was from Dancyville.

Dancyville has gained that kind of worldwide reputation as a field trialers' paradise -- a reputation that reaches around the world and deep toward the horizon of the most remote seas.

"Just about everyone who lives here in Dancyville is involved in field trialing in some way," Kukar said. "A lot of us actually own and handle dogs ourselves, and we bought property here to manage it for quail."

Kukar said that makes day-to-day operations easier.

"If I'm out working a dog and it gets lost, I can always count on my neighbors to find it, look at the name on the collar and call me," Kukar said. "On top of that, it's just not as easy to lose a dog here because all of the property owners know one another and we don't put up that many fences. You can work your dogs for miles and never worry about whose property lines you're crossing."

There's only one long road in Dancyville, and it's so dominated by field trialing enthusiasts that most refer to it as "Bird Dog Alley."

Kukar lives at one end of the road with his neighbors Bill and Linda Hunt -- both of whom are members of the Field Trial Hall of Hame. Also on the road are famed field trialer Dempsey Williams and Rich Bomeister, a native Minnesotan who keeps a residence in Dancyville to work his bird dogs during winter.

On the same road is the West Tennessee Field Trial Club, which is known as a daily gathering spot for field trial enthusiasts from around the Mid-South during the competitive season.

"My wife says I waste a lot of time here," said Bill Hunt, a national championship owner and trainer, who was inducted into the Field Trial Hall of Fame on Saturday. "But there are times when she doesn't have a lot of room to talk. She's in here more than me sometimes."

Linda, a 2006 Hall of Fame inductee, admits that's probably true.

"I devote a lot of time to field trialing during the season," she said. "But then, the whole town of Dancyville really does too.

"It's amazing how many people there are in Dancyville who enjoy working with the field trials, but they don't actually own a dog themselves. They just know it's part of the culture here. Their families have been a part of it for years, and they want to be part of that too."

Kukar said it's nothing unusual for Fayette County police officers to block off public roads during a West Tennessee Field Trial Club event. He said one group of women used to ride their horses to every field trial where they would sell hot-cooked meals to raise money for their annual vacation.

"Field trialing really is a town effort here in Dancyville," Kukar said. "A field trial in Dancyville has a special kind of feel to it."

Center of the Universe

The devoted townspeople of Dancyville are just one of the many reasons why West Tennessee has come to be known as the Center of the Field Trialing Universe.

The aforementioned Field Trial Hall of Fame is located in Grand Junction, Tenn., along with the National Bird Dog Museum and the National Retriever Museum.

The Field Trial Hall of Fame showcases field trialing superstars -- both humans and dogs -- from the past century. The National Retriever Museum features dogs and their handlers from as far back as the 1930s.

The Hall of Fame and Museum contain rich historical accounts of the top field trial events from around the country, including the centuries-old National Championships for Field Trialing Bird Dogs held every year at Ames Plantation in Grand Junction.

Ames became the permanent home for the National Championships in 1915, thanks to the great influence of Hobart Ames, the longtime president and judge of the prestigious competition.

Since then, the event has been chronicled in books by famous authors like William F. Brown and Nash Buckingham. The event has also received attention from many high-profile national outdoor magazines like "Field & Stream" and "Outdoor Life."

Bird Dog Super Bowl

The event, which begins on Monday, takes place on 6,000 acres of meticulously groomed property at Ames Plantation. The grounds are stocked annually with special "flight-conditioned" quail raised right there on the grounds.

The National Championships usually draw about 36 dogs (pointers and setters) from around North America and thousands of field trialing enthusiasts, who come from around the country simply to ride along in the gallery of spectators on horseback.

For field trialers each year, it's like the Daytona 500, the World Series or the Super Bowl.

"For field trialing enthusiasts, this is it," said Ames Plantation superintendent Rick Carlisle. "This is the Super Bowl for them. Everyone with an interest in field trialing wants to win here, and we're very proud to be the hosts of such an event every year."

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR FIELD TRIALING BIRD DOGS

West Tennessee is, in fact, the Center of the Field Trialing Universe and this week, once again, the spotlight shine on our region with the return of the National Championships for Field Trialing Bird Dogs.

The competition begins Monday at Ames Plantation in Grand Junction, Tenn., and will run for about two weeks, depending on weather delays and call-backs by the judges.

The drawing for daily braces was held late Saturday night, and complete results are now available at thememphisedge.com.

- Bryan Brasher: 529-2343