Needless to say, I am extremely honored and humbled to have been chosen to judge the 2008 U.S. National Open.  Before I move into my background, I would like to take this opportunity to thank each of you for placing your confidence in both Jim and me.  Wow!  What an honor this is.

I, like a lot of others in the Field Trial game, became involved with field trialing while looking for a hunting dog.  On numerous occasions, my wife and I had passed a farm on Route 42 outside of Lebanon, OH and had noticed the infamous bicycle flags in the field.  On one particular jaunt, I decided to stop and enquire as to the use of the flags.  It was explained to me that they were a Field Bred English Springer Spaniel Kennel (Turtlecreek Farms) and that they trained Springer Spaniels in that particular field.  After my asking 9 thousand questions, I was invited to their next training session (the giant sucking sound).  The next Saturday, I attended their training session and was in total amazement as to what these little guys could do.  I was most impressed with their athleticism and how much they liked what they were doing.  I immediately purchased my first Springer.  My first desire was strictly hunting but as we trained people kept telling me what a good pup I had and that I should try Trialing him.  I did and became hooked.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to train, judge, gun, and run with some tremendous mentors across the country.  I feel the help I have received from all of these folks in all aspects of the game will be extremely valuable to me in judging this year’s National. 

To all of you competing in this year’s National Open I congratulate you and look forward to seeing each of you.  I wish each of you all the success in the world and I know Jim and I will do everything we can to make every series as fun and successful as possible.  Remember “IT’S THE NATIONAL, STRUT YOUR STUFF.”

Good luck and have fun.


John Leininger