Hal and Nancy Standish
I met Hal and we began dating. He didn’t like or understand dogs. I’d beg him to come see my
little springer run after rabbits in the woods. Finally, he watched her and next thing I knew, he bought a
gun and a second dog which was a field springer. Hal actually introduced ME to field springers, as I was
a bench person – showing and exhibiting for about 10 years. I said,“I’ll never get involved with field
springers!” NEVER say never because I then spent the next 20 years running dogs, judging dogs, and
training dogs for trials. Our first experience with field bread dogs was thru Jack and Marilyn Watkins.
Our first champion was bred by Bill Cosgrove.
I had been training and running my dog Justamuc’s Wildfire “Blaze” for a few seasons. We’d had
some success, but it came to a point when Blaze thought she knew how to do it all without me. We’ve
all been there, right? She’d run down the coursewith big time “O.C.” (obsessive/compulsive disorder),
break (ie she thought it was her call when to go for a retrieve). So, after a season of continual failure,
my husband, Hal, (aka the experienced dog trainer) felt sure it was “handler error” (aka the wife’s goof).
Blaze had already won a trial and had a few placements. She finished her water test but those
last few points toward championship eluded us. So, after Hal’s “positive handler suggestions”(ie
criticism), I told him to “go for it”(aka good luck, sucker!).
He ran her a few times at home in training. She was smart enough to know the difference
between “training” and “trialing”. So, now that she was running well at home, Hal decided it was time
to give trialing a try. Off to New York he went.
We’d made a pact. He would run her in the Open Stakes (aka he’s a professional), and I would
run her in the Amateur. We asked Gary Wilson to keep Blaze after Hal ran her on Saturday so he could
drive home. I would, in turn, be on my way driving to New York. We were like two ships
passing…anyway, as I tooled down the toll way around 2pm in the afternoon on that particular Saturday,
I noticed his truck across the toll way at a rest stop. I hit the next “crossover” and illegally crossed and
raced back to the rest stop. It was way too early for him to be done and back in Ohio already. “Yup, she
broke. Dog must be crazy,” Hal said. (Because it surely wasn’t the handler!)
So, the following day I ran her and she broke. We went home, took a year off to regroup and
retrain. The following year I took her out and finished her – won the trial – on our first time out! The
rest is, as they say, history.