American Field Futurity

I think the biggest thing is the loss of habitat in Ontario. It's just not a bird hunter's dream. With bird numbers declining it's hard I think for young people to get into it (in young myself - 29). As far as hunting goes there are tons of young folks out there but I know even in my own social circles everyone hunts big game or waterfowl. Waterfowl are the only bird numbers that are constant. Even myself - if I could only hunt one thing it would be upland but it's hard when you don't have good bird numbers. I'm even at the point where I'm starting to think about a second dog. I was thinking initially of getting into a pointing breed but realistically I will probably go with a lab and ramp up the amount of waterfowl I hunt.

As a young Canadian field trialer running in Coverdog at 31 yrs old I am by far the youngest person that is at these trials the majority of the people are well past 65.
As far as getting the younger generation involved in trials I think the first step is more public awareness that field trialing exists . Second I think that years ago people ran American field trials because that was the only game in town now you have nstra, navhd ,ckc etc .
This is only my opinion but younger people of my generation don't want to put the time and effort it takes to get a dead broke competitive dog that is capable of winning in American field trials. Most people I meet who have hunting dogs are fine if their dog finds the occasional bird and breaks on the flush or shot and to get them to train to the next level is of no interest to them , I am not sure if it is the same in the retriver world.

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Originally Posted by trkyhntr21

This is only my opinion but younger people of my generation don't want to put the time and effort it takes to get a dead broke competitive dog....

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I think this is true of people of all ages ... it's a lot of work and most people are satisfied to get partway there and have a hunting dog.

I think your point re promoting trials is well taken. The trial community does things the old fashioned way ... there tends to be little web presence, etc. Younger people (and here I mean younger than 45!) tend to expect to find things online.

But on the other hand look at the UK where although small there seems to be a vibrant gundog community, at least in the spaniel and retriever worlds. Difference being, a formalized system of shoots at which you must have a fully trained dog, and a lot done to promote dog training and dog events as a result.

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Originally Posted by Tim Tufts

There are a few issues.
First and foremost is the lack of habitat for upland game birds
Second is the lack of interest among the next generation. Seems that these days if it doesn't have horns then it isn't worth pursuing.

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This is bologna. Waterfowl is incredibly popular amongst young hunters because of the fast and constant action.

The problem with young hunters I would think is a few things. Mainly, IMO, is the lack of good hunting opportunity. Why should anyone in southern ON invest the time, money, and effort into an upland dog when he can buy a deer tag and shoot one of the plentiful whitetails (antlered or not) and feed his family for a good while at a reasonable fee (and without the monetary commitment of a dog)? And back to the waterfowl, the opportunities are monumentally higher for waterfowl over upland birds.

For myself, someone who was once very involved in NAVHDA it was two fold; 1) not enough upland opportunities within a reasonable travel distance 2) it is very expensive to train an upland dog in comparison to a waterfowl dog.

I was spending almost all of my training time preparing for upland hunt tests only to hunt waterfowl all fall. Membership in the chapter was about $70/year, each training day has a $5/dog fee, each pigeon and you usually use three was $5/bird, chukars were $12/bird, pheasants and ducks $18/bird, that was only training days, if you are training through the week then you have higher costs, you also have hunt test entry fees ($150-200), travel/gas ($50), fundraising efforts, etc....I budgeted around $2,500/year to run two dogs in NAVHDA.

At the end of my time a chapter president I had to ask myself, is it worth it if I am only going to hunt waterfowl?