HR DR’S MIDNIGHT TRAILBLAZER

AKC Reg. No.: SF513579
D.O.B.: May 30, 1986
D.O.D.: May 10, 1999
Weight: 82 lbs.
OFA: “Excellent”; LR-35633E46M
CERF: LR-3605/94-9
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HR DR’s Midnight Trailblazer (aka Blaze) was the first Lab I owned. I purchased him as a puppy in the summer of 1986. He was from AKC field trial bloodlines. His father was linebred on ‘68 NFC ’67 & ’68 NAFC Super Chief and his mother was a double granddaughter of ’72 & ’75 NAFC-FC-’71, ’73 & ’74 CNFC River Oaks Corky. His fraternal grandmother, Cup a Soup, was a full sister to ’77 NFC-AFC Euroclydon while his maternal grandmother, Corky’s Blackstrap Babe, was the dam of DCH-AFC Hiwood Shadow, one of only 38 dual-champions in Labrador retriever history.

Blaze was a very handsome dog. He was short and stout, had a great head, a super dense coat, and an excellent otter tail. He was a bold dog and a driven retriever. Together, we learned about retriever training and how to hunt upland game with a flushing dog. I’m not sure I would be a dog trainer or in the breeding business today if not for Blaze’s talent, drive, determination, and his forgiveness of all the mistakes that I made while I was learning.

I have been told that we often don’t recognize the true value of our first dogs until they are gone. I think this is the case with Blaze. I used him at stud only twice. The first was with a bitch I did not own. The second was with my Echo. It was from this litter that I got Star. She may be the best Lab I have ever owned or produced. If I knew then what I know now, I would have repeated this breeding while it was possible.

I have learned a lot about Labs since I got Blaze in 1986 and I owe a lot of that to him. He inspired me to learn more about Labs, the breeding of dogs, and dog training. We learned about hunting and hunt tests side by side. He lacked only one HRC Finished pass to earn his HRCH title. I wish I had stuck with the games. He deserved the title. In my mind he will always be a champion! He was a great dog!!!