I’ve had two bird dog lives.\u00a0 From 1968 to 1979 I was a horseback red setter man.\u00a0 I was fortunate to work closely with Ned LeGrande, the person who brought the red setter back from bird dog obscurity by concentrating on improving the genes of the dogs through creative breeding.\u00a0\u00a0Through Ned I\u00a0became more than fascinated with trying to breed better red setter bird dogs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During this period I was fortunate to be the breeder of\u00a0three first place winners of the National Red Setter Futurity.\u00a0 Double P Rae and Double P Mike were owned by Conrad and Meta Plevnic and my own male Red Hot.\u00a0 There were\u00a0a number of other red setters we bred who placed in this event.\u00a0 I was also honored to serve as the Futurity Secretary.\u00a0 I came to believe that futurity-aged dogs are at a point in their development and training where\u00a0one can see the natural qualities that\u00a0arise from breeding most clearly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 1980 when I moved to the woods of PA, I switched from red setters to cover dog English setters.\u00a0 My first dog was Wire.\u00a0 I knew that breeding counted in getting a winner and I went to what I considered the best female of the day, 3x Ch. Ghost’s Star.\u00a0 When Dick Brenneman and I formed our cover dog partnership in 1981, \u00a0he took Wire and won consistently, eventually winning PA Grouse Dog of the Year.\u00a0 I had two careers at the time–professor of Marketing at Bloomsburg U. and owner of\u00a0a medium-sized evergreeen nursery and large tree farm.\u00a0\u00a0 Having to stick relatively close to home (also two elementary-aged kids), I gravitated naturally to the breeding and young dog development side of the partnership.\u00a0 This fit right in with my experience in searching the country to creatively breed better\u00a0red setters.<\/p>\n
At this point I secretly set a goal to match the record I’d set as a red setter breeder by breeding three first place cover dog futurity winners.\u00a0 In the 1980s a son of Wire x Meteor’s Express Train, Harmony Hills Duke owned by Everett Skehan, won the Grouse Futurity.\u00a0 Then in the early 90’s another offpsring of Wire x\u00a0Buffalo Run Kate,\u00a0Star’s Misty Ghost, won the Grouse Futurity for Rob Frame.\u00a0 I thought the\u00a0three 1st as cover dog breeder goal was in reach but it took years later and a number of near misses (Full Tilt–2nd the Grouse Futurity, Hard Call–2nd the Grouse Futurity, and Aim High–second the International Cover Dog Futurity).\u00a0 Finally in October, 2011–31 years after the start–Mike Spotts took our setter male, All In, sired by Ch. Lilley Hills’\u00a0Secret Stash x our Ch. Full Tilt, \u00a0to Canada and won the North American Woodcock Futurity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course many others share in most anything accomplished in bird dogs.\u00a0\u00a0 Dick and Helen Brenneman are the best partners one could hope for.\u00a0 Dick is listed as the co-breeder of most of these winners we have bred.\u00a0 Their input into breeding\u00a0has been\u00a0invaluable–they know more about \u00a0cover dog setters from witnessing their hunting than any amateurs in the history of the breed.\u00a0 Mike Spotts for taking All In along to Canada.\u00a0 Dave Hughes and Ryan Frame for giving us solid breeding advice for years.\u00a0 We always ask and often act directly\u00a0on their advice.\u00a0 Dave and Ryan\u00a0need also to be thanked for their assistance in developing our winning dogs.\u00a0 Finally the other\u00a0owners of futurity winners, Conrad and Meta Plevnic, Everett Skehan (deceased) and Rob Frame.<\/p>\n
It’s\u00a0fascinating to decide on breedings. \u00a0 Scanning through the list of available winning stud\u00a0dogs, \u00a0both living and deceased.\u00a0\u00a0 Finding out as much as possible about their key genetic qualities.\u00a0 There’s no substitute for seeing the potential sires\u00a0hunting \u00a0first hand.\u00a0 Objectively figuring out the strength and weaknesses of the\u00a0potential dam and then matching her with the best choice stud.\u00a0\u00a0 And then working with the pups and giving them every favorable opportunity to develop to their fullest.\u00a0 Nothing is more fun\u00a0for me than working pups and seeing in the exeptional few their gene combinations work together to create a thrilling bird dog performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve had two bird dog lives.\u00a0 From 1968 to 1979 I was a horseback red setter man.\u00a0 I was fortunate to work closely with Ned LeGrande, the person who brought the red setter back from bird dog obscurity by concentrating on improving the genes of the dogs through creative breeding.\u00a0\u00a0Through Ned I\u00a0became more than fascinated…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions\/754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coverdogsetters.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}