It started in the early 1960s when Parl’s oldest daughter finally rebelled at retrieving birds on the family dove shoot. The solution was to get a bird dog. So Heidi, a German Shorthaired Pointer, joined the family. There were no pointing dog trials in Arizona in the early sixties, but Parl joined a newly formed retriever club. Heidi did well in the puppy and derby stakes but here desire to hunt was a detriment against straight line retrieving.
Bill West, a professional handler, Forrest Cooper, owner of a game preserve, and Parl formed the original Arizona Bird Dog Club in order to be able to compete with their dogs. Subsequently, Parl helped form the Desert and Southern Arizona German Shorthaired Pointer Clubs. In order to bring more exposure to bird dogs in the state, Parl was the guiding light in organizing Region 12 of the Amateur Field Trial Clubs of America and was a regional trustee for several years. Subsequently, he helped form the NGSPA Region 12 Association, the National Chukar Association and was a charter member of the NGSPA Chukar Association.
Parl has served in all capacities at local field trials from bird planter to judge. He has served as Field Trial Chairman for both the German Shorthaired Pointer Club of America (AKC) and the National German Shorthaired Pointer Association (American Field). Parl was elected for one term as vice president of the GSPCA and served fifteen years as the Western representative on the Board of Directors. With the NGSPA, he served fifteen years on the Board of Trustees and three of those he served as president of the organization. For five years he was a member of both boards with a committed goal to establish complementary relations between the two organizations. For a number of years his wife, Shirley, served as hospitality chair for the GSPCA National Championships, and both she and Parl were awarded Honorary Life Memberships in the GSPCA. Parl is also the recipient of the Dave McGinnis award from the NGSPA.
With fifteen bird dogs Parl has earned 26 field titles most of these out of his Lars Kennel breeding. Lars TKO won the GSPCA National Futurity in 1982; Lars Agnes V Rusdelite was the GSPCA Amateur Gun Dog Champion in 1988 and 1989, won the GSPCA National Gun Dog Championship in 1990, and was runner up in the NGSPA Amateur Shooting Dog Championship in 1990. Lars Kandu Quails was the GSPCA National Open Gun Dog of the Year in 1993, and both Lars Kandu Quails and Lars Anges V Rusdelite were multiple NGSPA hour championship winners.