I recently got some old photographs digitalized so I thought I'd post up a few old dog pix.
This is Redg from the early 70's. My first real bird dog.
Living in the desert back then, we only had Dove and a few scattered Quail to hunt and neither one of us knew what we were doing anyway but we made the best of it and taught each other allot along the way.
Riley,,,, the best dog a man could ever hope to own.
I had moved to the high desert by that time and had a bigger variety of birds to hunt. He was a pretty good hand with Chuckar/Pheasant and retrieved Waterfowl better than any dog I ever saw. Several times I saw him make retrieves that I was sure he'd run out of gas and drown before making it back.
He was a fighting sumbitch but all in all the best dog I ever owned.
Shorty,,,, one of Riley's off spring. He wasn't half the hunting dog his old man was but good enough and the most easy handling, obedient dog ever.
He died of cancer about six years ago at nine years old. Way to young.
Shorty babysitting Pete.
Poor Shorty's ears and jowls were in pretty rough shape the first six months of Pete's life.
Pete's twelve now. I ran him in amature field trials for a few years where he won a shoe box full of ribbons but was far from champion material. Once I lost interest in the trials (and the associated ego's) and eased up on him a bit he turned out to a hell of a meat dog. Handles Chuckar and Pheasant as good as any I've seen, is as honest as the day is long, and is rock solid on point. And I mean go back to the truck, have a beer, and come back and flush the bird solid.
He's got arthritis in one shoulder real bad but he literally lives to hunt so hopefully he'll make it a few more seasons before becoming a permanent fixture under the wood stove which he's pretty close to being now. Ha
I've had/have other dogs and they're all special in one way or the other but these are a few of the old stand outs from the 35mm days so I thought I'd wax nostalgic.
Thanks for looking.