Local lab wins big in Canada

JORDAN DAWSON / Bigfork Eagle

Bigfork is once again home to a champion. Not the Olympic kind, but an international champion of a different type.

Hugs and Moochie, a five-year-old yellow lab nicknamed HAM, recently became the Canadian National Amateur Field Champion.

HAM competed against more than fifty other dogs from Canada and the United States July 14-19 in ten series of competitions in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada to earn her title. The dogs participated in land marks, land blinds, water marks and water blinds.

A marked retrieve is when the dog must mark and remember where a bird was thrown. A blind test is when the bird is placed somewhere without the dog seeing, and the handler must guide him toward it with only hand signals and whistles.

Though only 50 competed, 176 dogs qualified for the Canadian Amateur. It is unusual for an American dog to win a Canadian championship, especially a yellow female lab, said HAM's owners Bill and Sarita McKnight who own Moonstone Labradors. This is partly due to odds. The majority of the dogs in the competition are Canadian dogs, and they are mostly black male labs.

HAM is part of a winning tradition; her mother, Libby, had a total of five wins and four traveling trophies from her competition days.

"HAM does well primarily because of her breeding," Sarita McKnight said. "She comes from a great mom and dad. Also, we started training her from the time she opened her eyes. She's very smart. She has a lot of heart and she really likes to please her handler."

Biscuit, a 4-year-old black Labrador who is another of the McKnight's dogs at Moonstone Labradors, also competed in the Canadian Amateur, but did not make it past the fifth round due to what Sarita McKnight said was a "young dog mistake."

Just one week prior to earning her CNAFC title, HAM went to Lethbridge, Alberta for a field trial, and won, which earned her a Canadian Amateur Field Championship.

"HAM is well-balanced, intelligent and consistent," Sarita said. "I had a feeling that she was going to win when Bill took her to Canada. It's like being really prepared for a test. You know you're going to do well. She was ready. She was well-trained and well-practiced. Bill is a great handler and they read each other well."

HAM is now qualified for all four championships coming up: the American National Open, in Texas in November, the American National Amateur, the Canadian National Amateur and the Canadian National Open.

The McKnights are a rare breed themselves. Most people are not owners, trainers and handlers of their dogs. Typically, people send their dogs to professional trainers because it is too hard to train a dog for competition and maintain a career, according to McKnight. Since the couple retired in Bigfork in October 2003 they focus their time on Moonstone Labradors, which they established in 1998. The McKnights also have 40 acres in Ronan where the dogs train. Their dedication has earned them two American Kennel Club Breeder-Owner Medallions.

"We both absolutely love Labradors and I think we're both pretty competitive people," McKnight said. "There are a lot of contingencies so there is a lot of strategy involved in these competitions. We're really fortunate to be able to do this all the time. It's a dream come true for me."