Dr. Lundy attended his first field trial in Portland, Oregon in 1948 and it was there that he conceived the idea of forming the Idaho Retriever Club. He was the driving force in the creation of the club, the first field trial club in the Intermountain Region, and served as its first president. He went on to serve as the president of the American Chesapeake Club in 1957, 1958. 1959, and again in 1973. Dr. Lundy was also president of the National Amateur Retriever Club in 1966 and was instrumental in bringing the National Amateur Stake to McCall, Idaho in that year. Since then, three more nationals have been held in McCall and another will be held there this year.
Dr. Lundy judged his first A.K.C. retriever trial at the Shasta-Cascade Retriever Club in Klamath Falls, Oregon in 1950 and since then has judged well over one hundred licensed A.K.C. stakes. His assignments included:
- The National R. C. Championship Stake in St. Louis, Missouri.
- The National Amateur Stake in Park Rapids, Minnesota
- The National Amateur Stake in Sacramento, California.
- The Labrador Retriever Club Open Stake in Long Island, New York.
- The Golden Retriever Club Specialty in Seattle, Washington.
- The AKC Specialty on three occasions, three Canadian trials, and many others from Alaska to Texas, Maine to California and others in between.
In addition he has served on judging clinic panels in six states.
As a field trial competitor, Dr. Lundy owned and trained a Chesapeake dog named Atom Bob who became and FTC-AFTC and is now enshrined in the National Retriever Hall of Fame. Atom Bob holds a special place in the hearts of the Lundy family. Dr. Lundy also ran six other dogs who were A.K.C. qualified point dogs. His dogs were always very competitive, collectively winning literally hundreds of ribbons and trophys.
Though his dogs were bred sparingly, they produced field trial champions, a runner up in Holland's national trial, a BOB at the Westminster Kennel Club shows, and a high point derby dog on the East coast, BoMarc of South Bay owned by August Belmont.
Dr. Lundy's involvement in field trials runs the gamut from typing ducks, planting blinds, gunning, throwing birds, obtaining field trial grounds, marshalling at national trials, serving as field trial chairman on many occasions, and serving as head auctioneer at three National Stakes calcuttas.
He has also written numerous articles and stories for publications such as the Retriever Field Trial News, the American Chesapeake Club Bulletin, a chapter entitled Training Your Retriever: in a Chesapeake Bay Retriever book by Eloise Heller, The Retriever Journal, Idaho Outdoors, and others. It can easily be said the few persons enjoy the people and spirit of retriever trials more than Dr. John C. Lundy.
(From The Bumper Bag, The Idaho Retriever Club Newsletter, April 2003)
