PURINA TOP SHOOTING DOG AWARD

            Covey Rise’s Offlee Amazin Wins 2009-2010 Award

Covey Rise’s Offlee Amazin and his mother and kennelmate, Elhew Hannabell, went down to the last trial to see which of these great champions would win the coveted Purina Top Shooting Dog of theYear Award.

Amazin earned a total of 3,930 Purina points, winning out over Hannabell by a mere 150 points.

Amazin is co-owned by Gary Hertz of Bismarck, N. D., and Drs. Thomas and Robin Morgan of Holly Springs, Miss. Shawn Kinkelaar is the handler and has had charge of this great dog for his entire adult life.

Dr. Morgan spent a lot of time with “Braxton” as a puppy. He then turned him over to Rick Roy in Missouri for further development.

Shawn got him in the winter of his Derby year and thus began his career as an award-winning trial dog.

“Braxton’s” pedigree is that of a true blue blood. His mother, Elhew Hannabell, winner of 19 open championships, is out of the great producing bitch Hanna’s Elhew Lou; his sire is Ch. Elhew Sinbad, who was out of the great winning female champion Elhew Swami. Bloodlines don’t get any better than that.

To reach his impressive 3,930 point total Amazin won five championships, two runner-up championships and was first in a major classic.

He started his campaign with a win in the Dakota-Saskatchewan Championship in North Dakota then moved on to Kansas for a victory in the Jayhawk.Soon after he won the Southwest Missouri Championship at Grovespring, Mo. From Missouri his next placement was a runner-up at the Ozark Championship at the Camp Robinson grounds in Conway, Ark. From Arkansas his next victory was the Texas Open Shooting Dog Championship at Ardmore, Okla.

His handler, Shawn Kinkelaar, had won most every major championship on the shooting dog circuit during his professional field trial vocation, except the prestigious National Shooting Dog Championship. Well, Amazin changed all this by annexing that title for his owners and handler in February at Hoffman, N. C.

Not through yet, he went on to earn runner-up at the Southeastern Championship in Georgia. Not even finished yet and needing the points to stay ahead of the ever threatening Hannabell, his last victory of the season came in the Lone Star Classic. This was a particularly satisfying victory because birds were scarce at Ardmore this year and in the middle of an 85° day he went bird hunting and had two brilliant finds in extremely difficult conditions.

He won trials from north to south and east to west, evidence he has all the merits of a truly great champion.

Winning five championships in one year is an amazing feat, but doing it before your fifth birthday while being the recipient of the coveted Purina Top Shooting Dog of theYear honors shows the remarkable qualities of this “Amazin” young dog.

Shawn Kinkelaar feels that the best is yet to come; barring anything unforeseen, he has a promising future and many more trips to the winners’ circle.