Ch Woodland Petersfield Jericho SH WCX
Ch Petersfield Pathfinder ex Woodland Black Willow
October 6, 1994 - August 2, 2005 Bred by Tom & Peg Metcalf
In 1994 I decided that I wanted to buy a Flat-Coated Retriever to show. I joined the Flat-Coated Retriever Society of America and the Great Western Flat-Coated Retriever Club. After talking to various breeders all around the country I found Pat Debree, who raised Flat-Coats under the Petersfield prefix in Connecticut. Pat graciously sent us a puppy who had been pick of the litter from a breeding of her Ch Petersfield Pathfinder to a daughter of Ch Petersfield Tobias James CD. We named him Jericho.
Jericho’s first show was the 1995 National Specialty in Anaheim. I drove up to the show site with Jericho in the back of my Honda CRX. Sarah Messick and Tracy Kerns had groomed him for me, and Lea’ Plaut had given me some handling lessons. Without the help of these kind, generous folks I would have been even more clueless than I was. I was absolutely delighted when Michael Faulkner gave Jericho first place in the 6-9 puppy dog Sweepstakes class. I was absolutely stunned when he pointed to us for Best In Sweeps. We were off to a great start.
When I was looking around for a Flat-Coat pup, I recall one breeder asking if we planned to do field work. My response? “Certainly not!” Dead birds had no appeal to me whatsoever, and I had never seen a Flat-Coat working in the field. I didn’t know how much joy it would bring the dog, and me. Sarah Messick called us one day and invited us to join a small field training class she was starting, to be held on Wednesday evenings. I was busy leading Worship at our church on Wednesday nights, but Ed thought it might be fun to try field work. In no time at all Jericho went from being my show dog to Ed’s field dog. Sarah taught Ed and Jericho the basics and we were thrilled when he acquired his Junior Hunter title. A couple years later, with lots of help from our training group (Cynthia Trotter, Dave Terry, Wendy Pennington, and Tracy Tennison) Jericho completed his Senior Hunter title at the 2000 Specialty in Kentucky.
Jericho was a very balanced, medium sized dog, with a lovely, classic head. He had an excellent front with very good lay back of shoulder. He had beautiful feet, and carried his tail level.
At the 2001 Specialty he won second place in the field trial dog class. The following day he passed the Master Hunter test.
At the 2004 Specialty in California Jericho placed second in the 9-11 Veteran Sweeps class under breeder-judge Lori Kunz. A couple weeks later he won Best in Veteran Sweeps at the GWFCRC supported entry for the third year in a row.
Jericho died of cardiomyopathy/bloat in August 2005. We could not have loved him more.
Hips OFA Good * Patellas OFA Normal * CERFed Annually
Cleared for Glaucoma * Hypothyroid * VetGen tested pure for black