2023 Inductee – “Ike”
Owner/Handler: Kevin and Barbera Eskam
605 Champion Points
Legendary Status Champion
30x Champion
5 Super Major Championships
2 Major Championships
A friend of mine bred his Dog Bear and another friend’s dog Molly and Ike was born, Bob decided to keep Ike and kept me in the loop of his hard point and training, at 6 months old Bob asked if I wanted to buy Ike and I didn’t hesitate at all and said yes!
Ike was fairly easy to train, and loved the upland bird part of it, It took no pressure to steady him to wing and shot, at 1 year old he passed his first test without moving as the guy chased the bird around. We started running hunt tests with Ike and he achieved his 4 X Grand Master Pointing Retriever title with the APLA, then his Hunter Receiver Champion in HRC, He ended HRC with over 500 Championship points.
Then I was introduced to the Bird Dog Circuit By Rich Cathcart, We started to play the game, Ike since he was a Pointing Labrador was made fun of quite a bit for him being in the Pointing division, Yes he wasn’t as fast as the pointers BUT he had a fantastic nose, There was hardly any pointing Labradors that ran in the pointing division at that time and hardly any did any good at that time in it. A judge in Nevada was coming out of the field from a prior run took a look at Ike in the holding blind and said “ You do know this is the pointing Division, I thought here we go, I said just wait until after you see him run before you form an opinion! Ike had a 5-minute run but I had an extra shot. The Judge was impressed, The judge said he always saw labs point too close, Not Ike! Ike won the Hunter Division with Barbara at that Tournament.
In 2017 and 2018 Ike turned it on! Ike went to Nevada Big Meadows tournament and won the Top Gun Pointing, Then in January 2018 won the Doubles Pointing at the Invitational, One month later back at Big Meadows again and Ike who got the same treatment by a different judge came back in the finals and won the Top Gun Pointing and placed 3rd in the Doubles Pointing, Ike made the finals at the BDC Nationals and placed 3rd in 2019, Then in the spring of 2019 Ike wins the Classic in Iowa, Ike made the finals in a lot of events and also competed in Dog of the Year in 2019 he also won a lot of trophy’s with Barbara.
We could always count on Ike to find birds in tournaments or wild bird hunting, he would often circle around and find birds that had run behind us or we had walked over, he had and still has an excellent nose and a knack for finding birds.
Ike is in a elite group as he is the only Pointing Labrador to ever win a Super Major event in the BDC Open Pointing Division let alone 5 of them and a couple of Majors, I don’t know if I will ever have as good as a pointing Labrador as my Ikey Boy!
Today, March 9, 2023, Ike enters the Bird Dog Circuit Hall of Fame as a LEGENDARY STATUS DOG with 30 Championships, 605 career Champion points, 5 Super Major wins and 2 Major wins, Ike is taking it easy now, In his lazy boy recliner most of the time, He has earned it!