Hutchinson ? Marty Knibbs knows a quality springer spaniel when he sees one. The 43-year-old Canadian has been working with dogs for three decades and taking them to field trials for nearly that long.

And this, Knibbs said, could be the year he returns to Saskatchewan as winner of the National English Springer Spaniel Field Trials — the U.S. championship event, which begins Sunday near Hutchinson.

Nearly 150 dogs from throughout the United States and Canada were entered for a chance to prove they’re the nation’s finest at finding upland game birds.

“I think I have a really strong team this year,” Knibbs said Wednesday as he worked his dog at Don Bramwell’s farm near Spivey. “My goal this year is, yup, I’m going to win it.”

The field trials will take place at the Jack Mull farm in Rice County and Kansas Clays and Hunts near Moundridge.

“This is kind of the big prize, the one that everyone looks forward to every year,” said Bramwell, who is president of the English Springer Spaniel breed association. “They want to see if they can’t make their dog a national champion.”

English springer spaniels are judged on how well they find, flush and retrieve birds, as well as obey their masters’ commands. Dogs are eliminated throughout the week.

The trials are to continue at least through Wednesday, or until a national champion is chosen.

Knibbs has won the Canadian National title twice and has placed in the U.S. national. He also has the United States’ high-point dog, a springer spaniel named Jasper.

He knows he’ll be up against “the best dogs in the country.”

Bramwell himself will be running two dogs in the trials, a hobby he and his wife, Patricia, started in the late 1980s.