NBHA

Dan Smith

Dan Smith was the first NBHA President. His expert leadership and promotion of the NBHA during its inception helped it to grow to an organization that would eventually run over 10,000 dogs a year. One of the original incorporators of the NBHA, he talked with Bill Brown at the American Field and secured our original regional championship events. When asked about his role in starting the NBHA, Dan said that he wanted a good running bird dog that could hunt all day. Dan worked a lot of his young dogs early with Ronnie Smith and said that his ideal dog was one that had a horseback shooting dog range but would handle to foot and was intelligent in handling its game. His goal was to develop the ultimate bird dog. He designed a competition which is essentially the same today and allows us to evaluate the nose, intelligence, style, stamina and run a dog possesses. He campaigned several successful NBHA and horseback shooting dogs including W.W. Moses.

When asked about developing early rules for the NBHA, Dan's approach was quite simplistic. Always choose what is going to make the best birddog and what is going to help you develop that dog, and to keep your eye on that goal.

Without his hard work there would be no National Bird Hunters Association.

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