Essays from the Edge

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Companion Derby Award

In Honor of

William Harnden Foster

Awarded Annually to the Top Dog In Grouse and Woodcock Trials

Answer: That there were more dual dogs back then, but there still were not many. Some that were dual dogs were shown on bench compared to a Llewellin standard, which called for a dog "forty to fifty-five pounds, for bitches thirty-five to fifty pounds" noting that "the most useful setters, as a rule" are midway between the extremes mentioned." The height at the shoulders "should be about twenty-two to twenty-three inches at the shoulder in dogs, and twenty-one to twenty-two in bitches." Under the section for "Color and Markings" it reads "color is a matter of fancy, and too much stress should not be laid upon it."

Question #2: "That by 1907, the the split between field and show factions had not yet occurred. (Note: That is a split between these factions occurred is not in question. FitzGerald says that the split occurred sometime around WWI. Taylor asserts that it happened sometime after George Ryman was getting started in English in 1907 or 1916. The timing of that split is important since both claim the overwhelming dominance of setters in that era is a function of their dual nature."

Answer: Writing in his 1904 book The Sporting Dog, Joseph Graham writes, "There has been a conflict, sometimes bitter between those who would adhere to strictly to English ideals and standards and those who would press into recognition the American changes." He continues "English setter men have conducted the factional contest most sharply." He indicates that the split came: "Soon after the introduction of bench shows" He writes that "Twice a club has been organized to formulate a new written standard. The first was organized fifteen years ago, the second in 1900-1901. The conservative side has been upheld by Messrs. John Davidson…. And other judges. Usually the Westminster Kennel Club has alternated from year to year in selecting its English setter judges, to give each side a chance to illustrate what it means by type."

And 3) That, before the show/field split, setters were more like dual dogs of 2005 than field trial dogs of 2005 in terms of looks and size.

The story that actually emerges from the sources cited is that both field trials and dogs shows started in 1874 in America and both were a few years catching on. Some dogs from 1874 to the turn of the century were shown on the bench and also field trialed but many others were not. In short order, two things happened: First off, it was clear that Llewellin setter was distinguishing itself by its field prowess and the so called Laverack’s were much more successful on the bench. There were two types with limited crossover, almost from the beginning. By 1900 there were two distinct standards in print, one being followed by practical folks and one by show folks. There were also dog shows and judges that adhered to the "Llewellin standard" and these groups were not, by and large, those that evolved into the bench show dogs of today. To the extent that there was bench success, it came from these practical standards judged by field men.

Over the years, the gap widened but it is the bench dog and the Ryman that separated themselves. The emphasis on coat and Belton markings and a progressive increase in size are the two most notable features. Most of the early dogs, including Gladstone, Count Noble, Mohawk II, Lady’s Count Gladstone had body patches and would be considered too small by today’s Ryman or AKC Show setter breeder. Indeed, according to Mrs. Ellen Ryman, who I personally interviewed, had any of the above dogs been born at Ryman kennels, they would have been culled (killed) at birth because that is how George Ryman dealt with dogs with body patches.

That the size of show dogs was considerably smaller in the 19th century than a Ryman or a show dog today is easily discernible from the literature. Joseph Graham writes in 1904 of a "Mr. Dager of Toledo, Ohio, who bought two puppies, Cincinnatus and Toledo Blade…" Graham notes that "Both of these dogs were white-black-tan and of superior bench type." Graham writes, "Cincinnatus was not highly regarded by field trial men, but was placed in good company. On the bench Cincinnatus quickly won a championship." Graham continues, "He was rather flat in chest and weak in back ribs, but was otherwise good and a remarkably fine specimen among large dogs." According to measurements taken at at the time, Cincinnatus was 23 ¾ at the shoulders. That a dog of that height was considered ‘large’ should give fanciers of both Ryman setter and show setters of today pause. And if Graham considers Cincinnatus "large," he also describes what he considers of a dog of medium size writing, "I have never hesitated in calling the nearest to faultless among dogs of the general Laverack type." He writes "She was a blue Belton, weighing forty-five pounds…" If 45 pounds was considered "medium sized," what was considered ‘small?’ I couldn’t find a place where Graham specifically attaches a height or weight to a dog he considers ‘small.’ But we can infer that it must be smaller than 45 pounds. Graham does describe a dog called Paul Gladstone as "small" but who at somewhere under 45 pounds nevertheless was "almost unchallenged on the bench for two or three years."

All of this is pertinent to this discussion since since the Ryman Standard calls for a setter 60 to 75 pounds and the Current show standards calls for a setter of at least 25 inches at the shoulders. Though both VitzGerald and Taylor claim that field trial dogs evolved from a ‘dual’ dog into a different sort of animal, the written standards for both the Ryman Setter as cited by Taylor and the standard for show setters as appears in the "The Complete Dog Book," the AKC’s official publication, show that it, in fact it was show dogs that evolved into a significantly bigger setter than a dual dog circa 1890 to 2000. Indeed, John Taylor calls Gladstone "small," and compared to his beloved Ryman Setters, Gladstone, at 50 pounds, must seem so. But records show that Gladstone was one of the bigger among noted show AND trial dogs of his era.

But Gimme A Passionate Bird Finder

When someone has an opinion that is very much against the grain sometime it is better just to keep it to himself. Probably I should exercise my right to remain silent.

Nevertheless, at great risk to my credibility, I am here and now, NOT going to remain silent and am instead going to go firmly against the grain: There are in fact several situations that if they occurred in a field trial today, a great many, if not every, judge would not hesitate but to order up the dog involved up. Not me.

My opinion, for what it’s worth (not much), simply differs greatly from the mainstream in these situations. The overused cliché tells us "judging is subjective," we understand and accept that different judges will see and interpret things differently from others. Of course, when the judges DO see it differently from us, we often get upset. "What the heck were THEY looking at!" we grumble. Apparently, judges are allowed to see things differently… but not TOO differently. But some of us do see things very differently. Here are those situations where I go against the flow and will NOT pick up the dog if I were judging:

Situation 1:

Situation number 1: At a planted bird quail trial (it has happened at wild bird trials too), a dog is pointing and the bird flies at the dog. Without leaving the spot, the dog shags the bird like an outfielder (or tries to). OR, the bird is wet or cannot fly and makes the mistake of running right into the dog and literally, into the jaws of death.

Situation #2: A dog is hunting his merry way along when a grouse or a woodcock happens to come flying by, perhaps the gallery moved it; maybe the other dog moved it , or a deer, whatever, but dog in questions sees, turns with it, watches it land, works over in that direction and points it.

Situation #3: A dog is pointing, and the handler, after flushing considerably, intensively, and extensively, decides, much against his wishes, to relocate the dog. The dog is tapped on the head, or whistled up. The dog moves up hard and, after taking several step forward, a tight sitting woodcock flushes in its face and the dog stops in its tracks.

None of these actions would get the dog hooked with me judging. Before you call a loony bin to have me hauled off allow me to explain: We are, or should be, breeding BIRD DOGS, dogs with an INTENSE DESIRE AND DRIVE TO FIND AND POINT BIRDS. That desire to find birds is what takes a dog through briar paths, over rocks, and up hills, and to the birds.

Once upon a time dogs that ‘sought the easy footing’ were not even considered for placement. Dogs that made an error on game, particularly an error of passion, were still favored over ‘errorless mediocrity’ as they called it. It is quite an education to read old American Fields and read about dogs chasing birds that were not automatically picked up and, if they were still the best dogs overall… they won.

By contrast, blinking, avoiding or being afraid of a bird, was the unforgivable sin. From the summary of the 1953 National Championship book (William F. Brown and Nash Buckingham) comes the following apt description of this passion that a trial dog should possess, "but since the days of of Colonel Arthur Merriam, with remembrances of Manitoba Rap and others, it has always been demanded that fire, drive, hunting zeal, and unquenchable determination to find birds be reflected in the work of the dog." Nothing in the passage mentions complete steadiness. A dog that didn’t LOVE to hunt birds was the one that was NOT considered.

Then things began to change. Dogs that chased a bird were no longer considered; they were ordered up and removed from the competition. Dogs that ran the paths and avoided cover, and generally were not hunting hard, by contrast, were NOT ordered up. Some of them, by golly have even been placed over the years. Not that judges WANTED to place dogs that were not hunting hard, but lots of judges have a hard time judging what is termed ‘application.’ Even when a judge DOES recognize a lackluster hunting effort, sometime there is little choice but to place the dog as it is sometimes the case where there are not many "clean" dogs to choose from.

'Clean' has become the name of the game. It is my contention that ‘no movement on birds’ has, in the minds of most field trial judges today, replaced the various manifestations of blinking as the most serious fault that a bird dog can exhibit. And after surpassing blinking, the trend toward motionlessness on game has continued right along: Dogs that didn’t chase, but moved just a little began to be ordered up. And Nowadays, in many circles, DOGS THAT EVEN TURN TO MARK A BIRDS FLIGHT are ordered up.

When we arrived at the point where, under many judges, a dog could not win if it budged even the slightest bit at flush or shot, even to mark a bird, many thought that the trend would have run its natural course. After all, dog that doesn’t move at all, by nature, can’t move any less. Right?

Wrong. In many places now if a dog wiggles its tail or drops its tail AFTER the bird is gone, there are judges that won’t use it. Then, in many circuits the ‘no movement’ trend moved from all-age dogs to spring derbies and then to fall derbies. It’s not much of a joke to imagine a dog being ordered up someday for 'blinking’ not because it avoided a bird, but because the movement of its eyelids was considered excessive. But then, even if your dog stands like a statue before, during and after the flush, doesn't move an eyelash, shows absolutely no inclination at all to go with the bird... your still not clear. If after your dog is released to go on hunting, your dog goes in the direction that the bird flew, it is called by many a "delayed chase" and will more often than not get you on the hook. Remember, however, that hunters follow up birds, have their dogs to mark and retrieve or point dead, and for much of field trial history pointing the coveys and having the dogs mark and work the singles was part of what a trial dog should do. Trying to mark and rework a bird was never a deadly sin until the label 'delayed chase' was put on it...'

Path runners and other wussies still are running merrily along and there less and less people who even recognize them for what they are. Moreover, if I have a dog that lacks either nose or concentration and bumps 1 out of every 4 birds, my chances of winning with that dog are greatly increased these days if he is NOT a good bird finder. If he finds lots of birds he is going to get ordered up every trial. If he finds 3 or less he’s got a shot at winning. Moreover, a dog obsessed with finding birds will sometimes fulfill that obsession and fall victim to what both hunters (for whom we trialers are allegedly providing breeding stock for) and most trialers of yesteryear would find sad if it weren't so comical: "the judges said they didn't place him because he found too many birds" or "he hunted too much."

The point is that bird dog wussies are often tolerated because they are clean, and squeaky clean is the rage. The problem is that sometimes a dog is clean because it doesn't find as many birds, and thus has less opportunity to screw up, and, to put it directly, if a dog doesn’t care as much about birds he doesn’t want to chase as much and so is much easier to keep steady. An intense bird hunting, bird crazy dog is going to have the opposite problems which work against him under modern trial expectations. Nevertheless in an effort to save the bird crazy dog I am forgiving in errors of passion at least in the situations mentioned above:

Situation number 1revisited: At a planted bird quail trial (it is happened at wild bird trials too), a dog is pointing and the bird flies directly at the dog. Without leaving the spot, the dog shags the bird like an outfielder ( or tries to, snaps at it etc.). OR, the bird is wet or cannot fly and makes the mistake of running right into the dog and literally, into the jaws of death.

In my opinion a good bird dog is going to want that bird BAAAD. If a bird flies at him, or runs at his feet, he is going to try to grab it. If he doesn’t want to grab it, I am a bit suspicious that he might be afraid of that bird. If you 'ooh and aaawww' when a dog avoids a bird and ducks from a flying bird, remember what word is used to designate a dog avoids and ducks away from a bird.

Situation #2: A dog is hunting his merry way along when a grouse or a woodcock happens to come flying by, perhaps the gallery moved it; maybe the other dog moved it , or a deer, whatever, but the dog in questions sees it, turns with it, watches it land, works over in that direction and points it.

I have no problem with this at all. The thought of a dog seeing a bird land, going over and pointing it, just doesn’t seem sinister or evil. Rather it indicates a like a good, smart bird dog to me. He didn't knock that bird, nor was chasing it wildly through the woods. And there is a name for a dog that knows a bird is there but does not want to work it and point it.

Situation #3: A dog is pointing, and the handler, after flushing considerably, intensively, and extensively, decides, much against his wishes, to relocate the dog. The dog is tapped on the head, or whistled up. The dog moves up hard and, after taking several steps forward, a tight sitting woodcock flushes in its face and the dog stops in its tracks.

While I would certainly not consider this tremendous work, it would certainly not be grounds to order a dog up with me judging. Also there is interpretation here. A dog tapped on might see his opportunity to root a out and chase a bird and if he puts his head down and bores forward and looks merely like he is trying to make the bird airborne, even I have a problem with that. I am rather talking about a dog moving up hard, but flushing a bird unintentionally. I would certainly much rather see a dog move up hard, than tiptoe about like he is trying to locate a rattlesnake, even if he rushes in a bit too hard and moves the bird. William F. Brown’s definition of ‘class’ is one that must be kept in mind: "To define the term, ‘class’ connotes the ability to do at great speed and with unusual accuracy what the average can do only slowly and under particularly favorable circumstances." You may say that bumping the bird does not display the 'unusual accuracy' required of Brown's definition, but then, a dog that does it slow cannot possibly be class dog, and an error of passion is still favorable over errorless mediocrity no matter how you slice it. And there is a name for a dog that tiptoes around half-scared when he thinks there is a bird in the area. (Hint 1: it's the same word as for the dog that ducks from a flying bird and the same word that applies to a dog that knows there is a bird and does not want to go over and point it. Hint 2: the word begins with a B.

The Purina Top Coverdog of the Year Award

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Essays from the Edge