Cover of Starter Barks

It's not Rolling Stone.

Larsen is in the pictures on the top row.

Why this picture is worth looking at again

This photo is beautiful in its own right, reminiscent of an oil painting.  Aki took the picture in early December in middle Georgia during the waning afternoon hours of a hunt test.

Larsen has come ashore after a water retrieve, the last event of the day.  The broom straw and pine provide a soft, abstract background.  Water from the wet dog glitters in the afternoon's light.  A catchlight in Larsen's eye brings him to life and attracts you to the warm, loving look on face, despite being partly obscured by the bird.  It's not unusual for a spaniel to let the bird's wing cover his nose.   He gets bird scent with every breath.  Larsen's eyes and tilt of his head show that he is retrieving because he loves me.  The wing over his nose tells him that the bird is his.  Larsen's face has a touch of grey.  He will be 8 in March.  This is a dog that knows what he is doing.  There is a confident set in his body that belies the soft look in his face.  Larsen's tail is up and cocked slightly to his right, in keeping with his trot, like a metronome.  The confident gait is shown in the backward sweep of his left forefoot. His eyes may be loving, but that tail and stride displays his feeling of pride in his work.

In the upland dog world, a hunt test is a singular activity.  The finding and capture of game calls forth centuries of breed characteristics.  You can look at this picture and go back a 100 or more years and see another Welsh Springer in another place and time bringing a perfect end to a perfect day.

Let's try it again

Well, ok, if you insist, but only if you are steady to the flush.

The safest place afield

A canny chukar lands on Bill's shoulders and perches like a parrot on a pirate at last Sunday's ESS Hunt Test.  Bill later said he was willing to take one for the team if it would have helped Blew, Lois M's AWS.

Sunday morning

From Saturday morning until Sunday morning, we were enveloped in a cloud from a huge front that had dumped snow across the Plains and midwest and swirled into the south.  The wet and chill produced a mysterious air to the morning.

Judge Susan approaches as Bill, Al, and David prepare for the day's events. 


John and Bronwyn hold a skull session. 

Cathy and Frank fill bird bags as the fog begins to burn off. 

On guard

Surveying his domain.

Hot weekend

Larsen preferred the cool house to the warm porch on this first weekend of summer, but he also wanted to keep tabs on all of the action.

Fat puppies

Puppies & photo by Donna Wesseman.

The icing on the cake

 

 Benneson's bakery, closed for the night, with a pallet of frosting.  Lazy Susans for turning cakes are on the table in the middle-ground.

The ride home

Larsen after a day of training.

Scenes from the English Springer Spaniel Hunt Test

It was cold in the mornings. It was windy on Saturday. Sunday warmed as the day progressed because the bluster was gone. The birds were big and physical, which is what you want for a Hunt Test. Birds that get up and fly. Hopes and anxieties ran high, as they always do. The dogs were affected by all of this as well. Though some slept in peaceful oblivion while waiting their turns, others keened or pawed at their kennels from the sights, smells, sounds, and vibrancy of the day.

Here are a few scenes, courtesy of Gary Depp of In-Motion Photos.

Graham heads for home.

Marilyn and Graham review the field.

Graham on the hunt.

Spike breaks cover.

Spike zeros in.

Moses brings one in.

Moses gets back to work.

Moses and Tim take a breather after Moses' fifth and final leg of his Master Hunter title quest.

Your move

Tatum by Susan W.

Snow day

Aki and Larsen have some fun shoveling icy snow from the driveway.
 

Larsen supervises Aki's snow removal.

 Time for a break.

Hero shots

After practice last Sunday, we took some photos of the dogs holding the beautiful male pheasant that Cathy brought for practice with Zelda and Humphrey.  For us, it was staged, and just fun at the end of a successful day.  For a spaniel, nothing in life is ever really staged. 

Graham concentrates on the pheasant.

Cloudland Canyon

Cloudland Canyon is in the northwest corner of Georgia next to the Tennessee and Alabama borders.  You reach it via Chattanooga.  We drove to Chattanooga on Friday and hiked the West Rim and a few other trails on Saturday.  A fun time, although some places on the rim walk you really need to leash up a curious spaniel. 

Morning at the No-Tell Motel.

Larsen waits for the rest of our party.

Rim Trail at Cloudland Canyon.

Frank and Larsen check out the view from the souvenir stand.

Change, but all is the same

Larsen at 2 months.

Larsen at 3.6 years.

Great Lakes springtime

Two reasons that Larsen is at Pocataligo Kennels:  It's a wonderful chance to carefully and fundamentally build his understanding of how to hunt with me.  And, second, I'm traveling.

I happen to be in the beautiful, leafy Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, home of the Northwestern University Wildcats.

I took a little walk this afternoon, stopped by the Jewell grocery store, and returned to get some work done.  Take a look.  The lush part of spring has arrived in the upper mid-west.

St. Mary's.

Tulips in elegant decay.

Lake Michigan glimmers and the lindens have survived another winter.

The towers of down- town Chicago loom on the horizon.

Lilac in fragrant bloom.

Atlanta Dogwood Festival

We were too tired from our busy week to attend the ADF in Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta, so we scoped out some dogwood trees of our own.  Here are a few intrepid little trees that try their best to soften some of the pretty rough edges around Chamblee. 

Saturday morning

Larsen enjoys his morning walk. (click photo to enlarge)







Aki and Larsen played with the fetch dummy in the rolling ocean last night, resulting in a calm, sweet dog for Saturday morning's sunrise coffee run.

Road trip

Chance and Larsen prepare for a road trip.

An unexpected joy of getting our first Welsh Springer Spaniel has been meeting any number of enthusiasts for showing, hunting, rally, obedience, and just palling around with these engaging dogs.

Recently, Statesman's Tiz Now Tiz Then ("Chance") stopped by for an overnight visit.  I had to give Larsen a lesson or two on hospitality.  After some huffing and puffing, the dogs settled down nicely for the night. Larsen slept right along side of little Chance, pressed up against the mesh of Chance's wire crate. What makes these dogs tick?

On Wednesday, we headed for the beach with the dogs. We took a brief detour to drop Chance off at Kim Parkman's Pocotaligo Kennels, as Kim extended a helping hand to Chance's owner MaryAnne while MaryAnne attended to some family matters.

Pocotaligo Kennels does a great job with training and maintaining the dogs, but it is melancholy, for the human, to leave behind a happy little spaniel.

Aki and Chance stretch at a roadside stop.

The boys tussle over water rights.

 


Kim Parkman's Pocotaligo Kennels provides a noisy welcome for all of us.

Kamp Kimmy.








Chance gets to know his neighbors.








It's tough to leave behind a happy little spaniel.