Overlooked treasure

Here's an analysis of 87 dog breeds and their respective popularity and rating.  The author gathered data from AKC regarding registrations ("popularity") and other features about each dog breed and came up with a score.  Then he arranged the analytical results to determine whether a breed's popularity was justified.  The east and west quadrants reflect the overall desireability score (from low to high) and the north and south quadrants show the current popularity of dogs.  The WSS, circled in red, is in the desireable, yet inexplicably unpopular category.

You can draw a vertical line from the WSS and hit the other spaniels, indicating similar scores with regard to intelligence, cost, longevity, ailments, grooming, and appetite, but the other spaniels are in the northern quadrant, indicating that they are priced out and popular.  The Brittany is a bit further to the right, possibly due to lower costs and less grooming needs.

The data are available in the cloud here.  The graphic is available here.

    HT: Vox.com

Memories from our first Master leg

Heading to the water blind after success in the field and on the hunt-dead.

Burge training

I would not have traded the training time at Burge Plantation for the world.  It made all of the difference for a dog that would sit on a sucker bird and return on a "leave it" command.  It was a stressful number of days for Larsen, however, and that may have contributed to his near meltdown on Sunday.

However, I am convinced that we would not have gotten to that point without the practice time.

There is a balance between screwing the dog down and easing up on the pressure.

Here, Larsen enjoys a warm bed on a cold and sleeting February night between his work sessions in the field.

Boy was that hard (part 2, the water)

Ah, the water.

I sent Larsen for the blind.  He tentatively entered the muck, and circled.  I pushed him as hard as I could: "back!" "back!".  Larsen went into the water, verred to the end of the pond, nosed around, and popped a volunteer chukar.  All this time, I had been hacking at the whistle and yelling "back!".

He played with the bird, and brought it back.

We were sent to the back of the line to re-try the blind.

Upon our return, there was more hacking, and more "backing".  Very annoying to both of us.  Larsen ran off some tweety birds, then returned to the peninsula at top speed to pick up his bird.  Back he came, with a pretty messy retrieve.

Upon the water mark, he went out, then did not return directly to me.  He went to the nearby peninsula to take the land route back.  He went over to the area where he had rousted the volunteer, looking for another, then went into the water, swam to an island of grass, nosed around, picked up his bird, went ashore put his paw on the bird, plucked, then picked it up, and returned it to me for yet another fumbling handoff.

By this time man and beast were at the ends of their respective ropes.  I had hacked myself out, and he had peed in the grass to display his displeasure with my actions.  It was a battle of wills with two tired and irritated participants.  Larsen and I earned that ribbon in the sense of knowing now that we must return to the fun and camaraderie of the hunt.  

Boy, was that hard

Larsen and I got a fourth Master Hunter leg at the Boykin Spaniel test in Cheraw, SC on Sunday.  The test was very hard for us and taught us some lessons.   On land, I erred by hacking Larsen away from birds on the periphery, past the gunners.  I was under the impression that the dog was to hunt (basically) gun-to-gun.

Susan W., one of the judges told me that she said birds were planted beyond the guns.  I was not listening.  "I know," she said.  I was instead trying to tune out the noise judges sometimes make and focus entirely on my dog.  I guess I missed something.

Larsen obeyed my calls and did not flush those birds, but because of mistake #1, I was hacking him a lot.

Larsen sat on a sucker bird.  He bounced, but he sat.  This had been our first sucker bird in a long time and there was no telling what he might do, but he sat, and returned after my "leave it" command.

Larsen had a patented long retrieve.  I did not pip once.  He was sent for a fallen bird 60+ yards out.  He took off, did a big circle on one side (wrong wind side) of the bird, then trotted to the other side and did a big circle, identified the scent, and made the retrieve.  The handoff to me was a little sloppy, but it got the job done.

On hunt-dead, Larsen first went to the basket of birds.  He returned to me upon my pip, and shifted into a joyful full-out run on my "back" command.  He missed the bird, so I sat him.  As he sat (about 30 yards out), he looked over his shoulder, obviously scenting the bird about 20 yards behind him.  I simply let him go, and he went directly to the bird and brought it back.

Water work was coming up.