About BDC

Founded in 1995, The National Bird Dog Challenge Association (N.B.D.C.A.) was formed by local Iowa game farm owners to provide their members an opportunity to draw to an end the grillroom debate of who in fact owned “the best upland hunting dog”. That year 23 competitors attended their inaugural championship and the game was started.

By the year 2000 word had spread and 50 tournaments were needed to meet the growing popularity of the game. 650 members joined the N.B.D.C.A. and attempted to qualify for the National Championship where that year 220 competitive runs were scheduled. In 2003 Dan and Beckie Sojka purchased the organization and embarked on an aggressive growth campaign that included a qualifying point system to allow accurate recordings of dog and competitor. This enabled them to best track competitor’s performance at various qualifying competitions. In doing such, Regions were created and a system of control was in place that identified the game’s best players. The reception was overwhelming and soon they were able to implement benchmarks and titles that would insure a player’s legacy in the sport - dog and human alike. A Champions Club Dog Registry was formed, World Rankings for both Dog and Competitor created and The Hall of Fame recognizing a dog’s lifetime achievements was born.

Shortly, thereafter, Dan realized another dream. The game’s popularity and growing reputation among upland game hunters created even greater opportunity for visibility and recognition for the competitors. A national television audience had become bored with its limited exposure to quality hunting programs. Dominated by big game hunts that often featured exclusive game in regions only accessible to those of wealth; a yearning existed for the common hunter. Specifically, upland game hunters had little if any opportunity to pass their off seasons watching programs that showcased their passion.

No more. Today, The Bird Dog Challenge Series (BDC) is broadcast on The Outdoor Channel, anchoring their Thursday Night Flights segment. Achieving an impressive Nielsen Rating, it has been monumentally successful in a short amount of time. True to his past, Dan has continued to enhance the quality of programming and successfully provided competitors and casual dog owners a format to enjoy watching dog and hunter compete while performing the activity so dear to their heart. Sponsors have relied on this program to reach their selective and scrutinizing audience with tremendous success. Cabelas, Kalispel Case Line, Polaris and others value the opportunity to be associated with The BDC.

The BDC today has a data base of members that exceeds 5,200. It conducts 125 annual competitions in multiple states. At these competitions, over 5,000 braces are run and this year’s National Championship will conduct over 630 of them.

We are proud of our past and look forward to our future. We will continue to look for opportunities to enhance our existing product and achieve growth organically. It will forever be our intent to allow upland game hunter’s the opportunity to evaluate their dog against the best regardless of breed and pedigree in a format that is as objective as permissible thus, creating an effective platform for sponsors to reach their customers who include but are not limited to our player’s and the viewers of our program.

Welcome to the BDC, we encourage you to Get into the Game.
Dan Sojka