Tom Ness
I bought my first spaniel, a tiny very powerful little springer in 1976 from Jim Stone. I just wanted a hunting dog. Little did I know that this little liver and white dog would change the course of my life and begin a lifelong friendship with Jim. I graduated from the University of North Dakota with a degree in Geology and moved to Casper, Wyoming to begin my career with a mining company. By this time, I had been bitten by the dog training bug and had attended a few trials where my little springer got a few awards. In 1984 I moved my family back to North Dakota and supplemented my day job by training a few dogs and eventually guiding some hunts for contacts I had made when I lived out West. On opening day of pheasant season in 1992, I was guiding a group from Colorado when I suffered a severe accidental gunshot wound. When I recovered, I decided to pursue the dogs full time. I trained all breeds, mostly springers but had an interest in Cockers. I had tried a few, none of which were very useful. That changed in 1993 when I imported Parkbreck Elm of Bishwell, “Maeve”. I was still very green but knew immediately that she was something special. With Cocker trials starting again I decided that the rest of the world should see this great dog. Since then, I have had many wonderful clients and seen the Cockers come back from the brink of extinction to a viable choice as a gundog with some truly great individuals. At that moment, being shot in the back with a 12 gauge shot gun from 4 inches, did not seem like a good thing. But today I recognize it as a blessing. It allowed me to meet my wife and pursue a career breeding and training the little dogs I love.
Tom’s Contributions to the sport:
* Tom has been involved in cocker trials since our first modern day trial in CO in 1993
* First field trial cocker was Mave who has since inducted into the HOF.
* Founding member of the North Dakota Sporting Spaniel club and was the first president.
* Hosted many cocker trials and hunt tests on his property.
* Senior Cocker and Springer field trial judge as well as an approved field trial gun.
* Judged the Canadian National Spaniel Championship in 2005.
* An ECSCA member
* Served as a past FTC member and past HOF memberd
* Served on the Cocker National Field Trial Committee in 2005 and 2013.
* Member of the committee for the upcoming 2020 NCC.
* Served on the Field Trial Committee as chairman or committee member of many North Dakota field trials.
* Tom has donated his time by giving numerous training demonstrations throughout the years for local organizations, such as the North Dakota Game and Fish and the National Wild Turkey Federation Jakes (Youth) Program.
Tom’s Accomplishments:
Tom has 23 Cockers Field Champions, 2 Springer Spaniel Field Champions as well as 5 Canadian Field Champions. He has also trained many spaniels that have gone on to become Field Champions and Amateur Field champions for other people.
Tom was the 2017 AKC Spaniel Field Events Breeder of the Year
1994 – High Point Dog Open Stakes “Mave”
1995 – High Point Dog Open Stakes “Mave”
1999 – High Point Dog Open Stakes “Gilly”
2000 – 3rd Place NCC “Gilly”, NCC CM “Rikki”
2002 – Canadian National CM and Gunners Award “Hoover”
2005 – NCC CM “Penny”, High Point Open Dog “Penny”, High Point Puppy stakes “Shelby”
2006 – 3rd Place NCC “Penny”, NCC Gunners Award “Oscar”
2007 – 2nd Place NCC “Cassie”
2010 – 1st Place NC “Nellie”, CM “Penny”, Golden Whistle Award
2011 – NCC CM “Oscar”, CM “Nellie”, High Point North American Cocker “Nellie”
2012 – NCC CM “Cassie”
2015 – NCC CM “Kenny”
2016 – NCC CM “Tug”, CM “Tilly”, NCC Guns Award “Tilly”
2017 – NCC CM “Tug”, CM “Tilly”
2018 – NC CM “Nugget”
From one of the nominations for Tom:
“I think Tom deserves to be inducted into the HOF not just for all his accomplishments but for what he has done for our sport. The number of people he has introduced to our sport by maintaining the North Dakota Sporting Spaniel Club, hosting many spaniel events, training many spaniels for people and always trying to grow our sport has resulted in a continual growth of new people to the cocker field trial world. Tom always goes out of his way to say hello to everyone at a field trial and if he doesn’t know you, you can bet he’s going to walk up to you and introduce himself and make you feel welcome.”