Sage with upland trifecta (pheasant, grouse, partridge) in his first season all solidly pointed and retrieved by him.

Sage on his second field hunt for geese as a pup. He was still a little small to handle them, but had no fear of live geese and was enthusiastic about the process, and waited calmly in the blind as the birds decoyed.

Sage
Sage (Cascade's Give Me Birds) is from our 2017 Rainy /Zeb litter. Pairing Rainy and Zeb brought 3 NAVHDA VC's (Versatile Champion) in 4 generations. Sage was the "silver spoon in his mouth" pup of the litter. Although he was mid-sized, he never got stuck behind Mom, never failed to hook up to a faucet at feeding time with minimal effort, never seemed to have difficulty encountering new things. He was one of the first to explore independently outside, usually the first one out the gate when it opened, first to use the doggy door, learn to use new toys, find planted wings in the yard, point birds, and generally approached life boldly  and calmly with minimal stress. He was one of the most people connected pups in that litter but also very independent when left alone.  He was the first in his litter at 6 weeks old to notice honking pairs of geese flying over while the litter was playing in the yard. While they were all nice, there was just something charmed about Sage. I just had to keep him and see how he turned out.
Sage is intelligent, biddable, eager to please, calm in the house, exuberant in the field and just really nice to be around. His obedience, yard work and Whoa training was so easy. His housebreaking was simple and quick. He spends much of his indoor time at the window, on point, intently watching small birds in the yard.  He's a very athletic 61 lbs at 1 year old with nice furnishings and a harsh wiry field coat. Sage's posture, gait and personality command attention. As Karen puts it, "He just looks like a stud."
Sage started pointing birds  and voluntarily entering water at 10 weeks old. He was holding his points and retrieving shot birds to me before 5 months old.
In his first season, he has been successfully hunted on pheasant, sharptail grouse, hungarian partridge and geese.  We've pretty much adopted a no pressure, have fun the first season, attitude so he isn't perfect yet. He holds his points, searches hard, has incredible prey drive, tracks moving roosters with finesse, and is learning to honor other dog's points.
Sage's Pennhip is .35R and .36L, better than the breed average. (Griffs average tighter hips than most other sporting dog breeds to begin with)
We will test Sage in his NAVHDA Natural Ability test in spring of 2018.
We think he may have a pretty special future as a stud.