Humphrey

Cathy V. can't pick favorites, but I can.  Humphrey is my wingman.  Humpers is the dog that blazed the path that I'm on with Larsen.  I saw Cathy's (and Humphrey's) frustrations first hand as she taught the dog to be steady to wing and shot.  It's a trail I'm on now, and when I'm down, I can think about how Cathy and Humphrey perservered.

Humphrey is a thinking dog.  He wants to please Cathy, sure, but if he can do it by improving on her instruction, he'll go for his own bright idea every time.  Sometimes he earned a good yelling at.  During his training, he'd get upset and crunch those birds - - not out of spite or meanness, since those are completely foreign concepts to Humphrey - - but out of insecurity and confusion.  Now that he knows what he has to do, he treats the birds as gently as babes.

The biggest transformation was in his confident, powerful, rolling gait in the field.  The dog has the best nose around.  He knows what to do, and it shows in his confident step.

Cathy carefully monitors his ailing hip, and each day afield is blessing for her and that special dog.

Cathy and Humphrey move toward the line.  

Humphrey hangs with the gallery at the ESS AKC Hunt Test (2/24/2013).