Puppy buying mistakes

Not choosing the right breeder.

Do your research and get references. How long have they been breeding? Are they personally familiar with the dogs they’re breeding? For how many generations? Then make an appointment to visit the breeder. Are the kennels clean and the dogs healthy and well cared for? Do the dogs seem happy?

Not picking from the right litter.

Picking the right puppy is easy if you’re picking from the right litter from the right breeder. Like tends to produce like—if the sire and dam aren’t proven on the birds you hunt and in the manner you hunt, odds are that the offspring won’t either. All puppies are cute and it’s difficult to distinguish much among eight-week-old littermates.

Being in a hurry.

Hopefully your dog will live a long life of 10 or more years. It’s far more important to find the puppy that meets your needs rather than one that’s currently available. In fact, the best breeders usually have a waiting list.

Not knowing what you want.

Before you even begin your search, think about what you want. What qualities—such as looks, temperament, hunting ability—are important to you? What birds do you hunt? Do you like a close-working dog or a wide-ranger? Will your puppy live in the house or the kennel?

Choosing a puppy based on price.

Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Good breeders who produce high quality dogs have invested time, effort and finances in doing so. In addition, the initial outlay is virtually inconsequential when compared to the cost of a dog over its lifetime.

Houston’s Blue Zipper on point in Hawaii

A great aspect of our business is the people we meet. Jack and Linda are a wonderful couple who are fortunate enough to live on Maui (by way of Michigan). Last year they were in the market for a started English setter and came to us through a referral.

The rewarding part of our business is matching clients with the right dog. Zipper is a handsome, talented tri-color male out of Northwoods Blue Babe and frozen-semen Houston and bred by Paul Hauge. Jack and Linda bought him early last summer and then left him with us for further training.

Now Zipper, too, is lucky enough to live on Maui where he’s hunted on ringnecked pheasants, francolin and chukars.  

~ Linda

The Peanuts Gang and dogs

Linus comments to Charlie Brown:  “You know what you and Snoopy should do? You should go to an obedience school.”

Snoopy’s cartoon bubble:  “Why should we go to obedience school? He already does everything I want him to.”

~ Charles M. Schulz

I never miss the Peanuts comic strip in the newspaper. Its creator, Charles M. Schulz, died in 2000 but newspapers continue to run old strips……and I continue to read them faithfully.

The characters are wonderful. Charlie Brown is the perennial loser who tangles with kite-eating trees and comments, “I only dread one day at a time.” And who can resist loud-mouthed, selfish, crabby Lucy and her brother Linus, the sweet natured kid who is never without his blanket and believes in the Great Pumpkin?

My favorite character is Snoopy. He’s great whether he’s dancing “The Beagle,” imitating a fierce vulture or playing the World War I flying ace. And how can you not love a dog that lost everything when his dog house burned….but then resolutely replaced his ruined Van Gogh with a Wyeth?

While Charlie Brown can’t win on the baseball diamond or with the little red-haired girl, he has always been Snoopy’s devoted owner.

Several strips featuring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang hang on the bulletin board of our kennel office.

A couple of my favorites:

— A simple one with no talking or cartoon bubbles features Charlie Brown holding an umbrella over Snoopy and his dog dish while Snoopy eats.

— Snoopy is barking during the night in the first frame. Lucy comments, “Listen! Do you think Snoopy sees a burglar?” Charlie Brown replies, “No, that isn’t his ‘Burglar Bark.’ That’s his ‘barking just for the sake of barking’ bark.”

— In a longer Sunday strip, Charlie Brown says, “It’s kind of cold tonight…it shouldn’t be so cold this time of year…I wonder if Snoopy is warm enough…I think I’ll take my sleeping bag out to him…”

Charlie Brown then takes his sleeping bag into the back yard for Snoopy and comments, “I can sleep well myself now, knowing he’s warm.”

The final frame shows Snoopy tucked into an enormous sleeping that hangs off the roof of his dog house and flows onto the ground.

Tracking a grouse dog with bells, beepers and satellites

When I began hunting with grouse dogs in the mid 1970s, the only way to keep track of my dog was by hanging a bell on its collar. I could follow the dog’s movements and actions and, when the dog stopped, so did the bell. But it could be difficult and time consuming to find it on point if the cover was dense (as is most good grouse cover) or my dog was far away (which it was occasionally!).

The next evolution came in the early 1980s when the first electronic beepers were produced. Now I could keep track of my dog while it was hunting and locate it on point. These beepers generally emitted a high-pitched sound in a certain cadence when the dog was moving and another sound and/or cadence when the dog stopped. I couldn’t determine what my dog was doing as well as with a bell but the capability to find it on point was revolutionary.

Since those early beepers, manufacturers have produced numerous units of various sizes, sounds and functions. Beepers have also been combined with ecollars and these units are quite sophisticated. From the ecollar transmitter, the beeper can be turned on and off and the tone or volume can be adjusted.

Then in 2007, another innovation was introduced by Garmin, a leading navigation and communication company. They launched a GPS-enabled dog tracking system called the Astro 220.  I now know exactly my dog’s whereabouts, if it is running or on point and the distance and directions to it.

National Championship

Start of afternoon course.

While training in Tennessee this winter, I took a day to ride a brace of the National Championship held on the Ames Plantation near Grand Junction, Tennessee.

This field trial was been run since 1896 making it one of the oldest in the US.  It is steeped in tradition and formalities.  Only dogs that have met stringent qualifying criteria can compete and they must re-qualify each year. The entries are dominated by pointers but one or two English setters also make the running. The dogs are handled from horseback. The professionalism and capability of the handlers and scouts to show their dogs in the best manner was impressive.

More than 100 riders gathered at the starting point to watch the dogs. The field trial chairman used a loudspeaker to announce the dogs, handlers, scouts and owners of the brace. Representatives from the trial sponsors such as Pro Plan, Eukanuba and Garmin were in attendance and were thanked for their contributions. Rules and conduct for the gallery were reviewed and, finally, the brace was off.

Point!

These dogs are amazing–

•    They are bigger dogs, generally in the 50-lb. range. They have long, powerful strides that carry them easily and efficiently cover the ground.

•    The handlers have put hours and hours into conditioning the dogs specifically for this trial and they are in superb condition.

•    In the course of the 3-hour heat, the dogs will average about 12 miles per hour and cover around 36 miles!

Most people think all-age venues are in big, wide-open terrain. At Ames, though, it’s quite different. There are some open spaces and long edges where a dog can reach but most of the cover is more dense and vast than I imagined. There are many places where a dog can get lost on point, or just plain lost.

I have followed the running of the Nationals for years and it was truly thrilling to finally see the trial for myself.  

Gallery following the trial.

Loblolly pines with lespedeza understory.

A visit to the National Bird Dog Museum

Since Jerry and I have our training site in the heart of bird dog country, we thought it completely appropriate to take a drive to Grand Junction and tour the National Bird Dog Museum.

It’s hard to miss. It’s on the main highway through town and if the multicolor flags don’t grab your attention, a huge bronze depiction of hunter, dogs and a covey rise of quail definitely will. Two statues of retrievers grace the walkway and, farther along , we found a gorgeous sculpture by Bob Wehle of CH Elhew Snakefoot. 

The museum is under the auspices of the nonprofit National Bird Dog Foundation and the same  building also houses the National Retriever Museum, the Field Trial Hall of Fame and the Wildlife Heritage Center. Our timing was good. Within a couple of days, the National Championship would begin at the nearby Ames Plantation and the newest members of the Hall of Fame would be inducted. The place was abuzz!

Joe Cumming

It is both thrilling and a bit humbling to see photographs and paintings of famous dogs and handlers from as far back as the late 1800s. I wasn’t surprised that Jerry could rattle off many of the dog names.

Our venue—cover dog field trials—was represented with a small display. How gratifying for Jerry and me to find CH Blue Streak and CH Houston’s Belle among the placements of the Grand National Grouse & Woodcock Invitational and the Grand National Grouse Championship.

We had to stop one more place before we left Grand Junction. In an unused school building along the main street is the current home of Wilson Dunn’s Sporting Goods. Mr. Dunn, age 92, is still behind the counter and still ringing up sales on his old-fashioned adding machine. We had a blast looking through his training equipment, supplies, clothing and other gear…and even picking out a few to buy.

Er Shelly at Wilson Dunn’s shop

Mr. Dunn then invited us to his personal bird dog shrine in the next room. He was the owner of Dunn’s Fearless Bud, a dog Bob Wehle outcrossed to with excellent results. Wilson sat in his rocking chair and shared some amazing stories about the old days. He spoke proudly of Bud:  “My dog was the last one to win the National Championship with finds on wild birds.”

Ever the salesman, Wilson eyed me up and, in his genteel southern drawl, said, “Honey, you need some chaps? I’ve got some over there that would fit you perfectly—Women’s Tall Slender.”

He was right…and we walked out of his shop with another purchase.

What I’m reading: RGS 50th anniversary magazine

There are those who believe the ruffed grouse is something beyond the ordinary.

 ~  50 Years in the Making—A Brief History of the Ruffed Grouse Society,

RGS 50th Anniversary Commemorative Issue

In honor of their 50th anniversary, The Ruffed Grouse Society recently published a special issue of their magazine. The 142 pages are filled with entertaining and informative articles and are interspersed with beautiful photo essays.

Jerry and I were pleased to see photographs of two dogs out of our breeding. Chip Laughton’s photo essay, Pointer Passion, features the female setter Georgia (page 52), owned by Dana and Robert Bell III of Asheville, North Carolina. Georgia is out of our 2008 breeding of CH Magic’s Rocky Belleboa x Old Glory Bluebelle (Gusty Blue x CH Houston’s Belle).

Chris Mathan’s feature, Photographing Bird Dogs, includes many of her stunning dog photos. Again, among all the pointers is our Northwoods Blue Ox (page 127), a gorgeous orange-and-white setter out of CH Peacedale Duke x Blue Silk. Ox was bred and is owned by us.

On page 73 is another photograph by Chris—this one an exceptional head shot of a quintessential grouse dog, CH Sky Blue Belle, handled by Steve Groy of Pennsylvania. Belle’s story is amazing…and what a talented and worthy champion. Jerry knew her only too well. In 2006, Belle was the top cover dog in the country and won the Michael A. Seminatore Award. All year long, she battled another Belle and just a few points was the difference in the final standings. Finishing second that year was CH Houston’s Belle, owned by Dr. Paul Hauge and handled by Jerry.

Tri-Tronics Upland G3 Beeper

Last fall, Tri-Tronics invited me to field test their new Upland G3 Beeper. I used it for several days of late-November grouse hunting, including one day with a fresh, six-inch snowfall.

Overall, and compared to their previous beeper, the Upland G3 is a vast improvement. (See details below.) Like other Tri-Tronics products, it works with most of their existing ecollar systems. I haven’t used the beeper long enough to evaluate its durability and reliability but, if it’s similar to other products from Tri-Tronics, that won’t be a problem. And while I don’t usually use a run-mode beeper, the Upland G3 may change that.

Features:

• powered by a user replaceable CR123A battery.

• slides onto an existing dog collar.

• has two point-mode settings, single beep or hawk scream, and four run-mode settings, no beep, 1 beep, 2 beeps or 3 beeps.

• made in the U.S.A.

Aspects I liked:

• The biggest improvement is that the beeper, when used with an ecollar, actually stays on the top of the dog’s neck.  

• The tone of the beeper is soft and pleasant and while the volume isn’t adjustable, it doesn’t need to be. The volume is loud enough to be heard at a distance but not too loud when close. I could hear the beeper plainly when more than 300 yards away and hunting in snow. Too, my feeling is that it must be kinder to the dog’s ears.

• The beeper is easy to operate and can be turned on and off remotely.

• The unit is bright orange and is easy to see…especially in dense cover.

• The remote locate feature is one I particularly like.

• The five-second interval between beeps on the run mode seems to be about right. I really like the two-beep run mode as it allows me to read the dog’s direction and speed—very important when I can’t see the dog.

Aspects to improve on:

• Point-mode beep is too frequent at 1 beep/second…and it becomes annoying. I personally don’t like the hawk scream point mode which sounds every five seconds.

• The delay before entering point mode is too short. Currently, if the dog quickly stops to listen for you, urinate or investigate scent, point mode starts. I don’t know yet what happens if a dog is slowly creeping on game. Point mode tends to get hunters excited and I’d rather hear it only for an actual point.

• The remote locate is too complicated. To active it, the transmitter dial must be set to “A” and then any button can be pressed. I’d prefer one-button activation. For instance, if I’m locating a dog on point with the locate feature and the dog bumps the bird as I walk up, I have to set quickly the transmitter dial to the level I need before pressing the stimulation button.

Ruffed grouse snow roost

While Betsy and I were out walking our Labrador retriever May today, we flushed a grouse from its snow roost.

A snow roost is a place grouse fly into without leaving a trail for predators to follow. A grouse also conserves body heat by burying itself in snow. Though there currently isn’t enough soft snow for a grouse to be completely submerged, it can be partly concealed by several inches.   

A grouse flushed from this roost on the south side of some hazel brush next to a birch tree.

Dashaway (1997 – 2010)

…Grieve not,

nor speak of me with tears,

but laugh and talk of me

as if I were beside you…

I loved you so —

‘twas Heaven here with you.

Isla Paschal Richardson

Photo by Ben McKean

Most of the time, Jerry and I called him Dasher. Sometimes it was Dash or Our Dash or, if he did something particularly annoying or naughty, Jerry called him Your Dash.

Physically, Dasher was a specimen. He was liver-and-white with a gorgeous, square muzzle and an even mask. Dasher weighed a solid 58 pounds—the biggest of our bird dogs. He was beautiful in motion. He moved with the strength and power of a thoroughbred but was graceful and light on his feet. Dasher was enjoyable to watch run—not only for his style but because he always seemed to be having so much fun.  

Dasher was intelligent, too, and intuitive and his large, expressive eyes seemed all-knowing. He had his quirks and oddities, like all dogs. We’ll always remember his jerky motion when he noisily lapped water from the water bucket.

Dasher was almost 14 years old and had lived a happy and productive life. For almost two months, he’d been ill with a failing kidney and a fist-sized tumor on his spleen. Like so many proud, strong and stoic dogs we’ve owned before, Dasher would rally from a couple of bad days to eat well, grab a chew toy and trot happily outside for his short walks.

An uncanny Christmas evening

Dasher had endured a tough Christmas day. Food didn’t appeal to him and I couldn’t tempt him with canned dog food, cooked meat or even holiday dog treats. It was difficult for him to get up and go outside, notwithstanding the cold weather. We stoked up the fire and left him to sleep on his thick bed in front of our wood-burning stove.

Not two hours later, Dasher had shuffled to our bedroom door—something he had never done—made enough noise to wake us up and then, because he was so weak, lay down in the hall.

Jerry and I leapt out of bed and carried him back to his bed in front of the fireplace. We brought blankets and pillows. I curled up with Dasher on his bed and Jerry slept beside us on the couch.

Dasher died peacefully the next day.

Dasher’s pedigree

Dasher was out of our first-ever grouse champion, Dance Smartly (Dancer), and a dog campaigned by Jim Tande, CH Brook’s Elhew Ranger. Among his littermates were CH Sidelock’s Rogue Trader, owned by Mitch Stapley from Michigan and RU-CH Dancing Queen, a female that produced Frank LaNasa’s CH Centerpiece, a six-time champion/two-time runner-up champion.

We kept Dasher because he was evenly marked like his dam and seemed most like her in temperament and ability. Just for fun, we continued the reindeer-naming theme.

My Memories

•    When he was a puppy and being worked with the check cord, he’d pick up the end of it and run around with it in his mouth. It was “so cute” but was he really “so smart” because he knew that if he had the end I couldn’t grab it?

•    Dasher had a superior nose. Jerry lost a glove one day while we were working dogs. The next day, just by chance, we worked eight-month-old Dasher on the same trail. He found that glove and proudly bounded by us with it in his mouth.

•    He loved heat. On a hot summer day, he would lie in front of our south-facing glass door…utterly content.

•    Dasher could leap. The fence around our pasture was 5’ high. Instead of waiting for me to open the gate, he raced around the corner of the garage and took that fence in full stride—gracefully launching himself off the ground and clearing the top by several inches.

•    He was a morning dog and earned the name Mr. Perky. We never had to wake him up or prod him to go out. He was always sitting up straight with ears pricked and an eager expression in his eyes.

•    Dasher chewed his way through hundreds of dollars of dog beds. I bought beds from L.L. Bean, Orvis, Cabela’s and Fleet Farm. Finally, last fall, I succumbed to the grandest of beds, a Mud River Homebase. This thing is gorgeous! It is made from 6”-high memory foam and is extremely comfortable. Plus, it’s a whopping 43” long x 30” wide. Dasher loved his bed, guarded it and rarely shared it. Forever it will be known as “Dasher’s bed.”

Jerry’s memories    

•    Dasher had an outstanding nose and was a natural at finding and pointing ruffed grouse, even at a young age. One day I was working him with two other year-old puppies. One by one, the other two came out to the logging trail and hunted on ahead of me. Dash was the last one to catch up. When he was about 75 yards ahead of me, on the same trail the other pups had just gone down, he stopped, turned his head slightly and pointed. I walked up and a grouse flushed noisily and Dash was off in hot pursuit!

•    I remember well (so does Betsy) the day he beat his kennelmate, CH Blue Streak, in a spring grouse trial when he was three years old and Streak was in her prime.

•    Dash had endless stamina and, amazingly, kept himself in excellent shape without any real conditioning.

•    Dash was a member of the guiding team on the day I clocked the highest flush count of my life. I ran him in the middle of the day and he found as many grouse as those that were down during the prime morning and evening hours. When Dash pinned a grouse, we’d follow the beeper. The hunters likened him to a hound—follow the dog to the treed game!

Dasher’s legacy

Dasher was bred just handful of times but left outstanding progeny. Jason Gooding at Goodgoing Kennels bred his female, Moxie, to Dasher twice. Out of that came Goodgoing Hannah Montana, a field trial dog handled by Brett Edstrom, and fabulous hunting dogs owned by Todd Gatz of Ely and Wayne Grayson of Mississippi. Jerry and I have an attractive orange-and-white female, Prancer (remember the reindeer thing?), from a breeding to Fate, Mark Fouts’ extremely talented grouse dog. We plan to breed Prancer to CH Westfall’s Black Ice this year so we’ll have grand-Dashers. (How about a Vixen or a Blitzen?)

Finally…

Jane, my sister-in-law, sent a kind note with the perfect sentiment:  kindred spirit. To some it might seem odd that a dog and a woman could be kindred spirits but that, in a nutshell, is how I feel about Dasher.

And I miss him.