Youth Field Trial Alliance (YFTA)

Kids and dogs. It’s a timeless combination. Humans have had an inexplicable connection to “man’s best friend” dating back as far as 20,000 years, according to scientific evidence revealing when domestication of wild canids began. Social media, online games, cell phones, and whatever comes next will not break that bond, though it may lie dormant at times. Let’s narrow it down to kids and sporting dogs. Let’s assume you are reading this publication because your own life has been made inexorably richer through the preoccupation with upland bird or waterfowl hunting, field trialing, bird dogs, or gun dogs of any breed. You are likely also aware of the growing list of factors that may threaten our cherished sporting life. Now is the time to give our children all the opportunities available to cultivate the bond with sporting dogs that places them on the path to the same fulfillment we enjoy and, hopefully, to ensure the same for future generations.