Mr. Dean I would say part of what you said is true and to a certain extent many would be in violent agreement to your statement. That's almost like saying all plane crashes are caused by human error.

A lot of it is because owner/trainers fail to connect with each dog and learn its personalities, traits, disposition and yes that falls in category of flaw in how a dog is trained and for certain reasons. Seen many a dog ruined from too much training, lack of training, and flat out wrong training.

However they aren't machines and they are all a little different. Contrary to that have also seen certain dogs do things or develop habits all on their own.

There is a great story about River Oaks Corky, one of the greatest field trial labradors in history of the sport. Early in his training he had lots of eagerness, anxiety and aggressive approach in retrieves and one day developed a whine when being sent. It was all his and hard to break. They did teach him to be quiet and had command for it. Without fail early on if they did not give quiet command he would whine. Many years went by and won just about everything and he never really whined much and it was infrequent. Finals of large trial handler forgot/neglected/did not think he would do it, and did not give quiet command before sending, but sure enough he let out a whine on the final retrieve. Some dogs just own things in spite of what anything they are taught or not taught.

Time for an update...Grayson is about 8 months old now and he's grown to a solid 50 - 55 pounds. He behaves and minds well but still has trouble with distractions.

The last photo is as I found him after he had moved up ahead of me and out of sight during one of our walks. His nose was going strong so I assume he was acting on scent, but he was locked fairly solid. He held well as I approached and I tried to get him to at least extend his tail. While he remained staunch otherwise, he would not hold his tail up.

I am hoping to get him on live birds over the next month or so. Maybe a good whiff of scent from a close-by game bird will excite him enough to get that tail raised.

Great pictures Ted!

It looks like he will be as big as his maternal grand sire Coronation’s Earl who was about 60+ lbs.

Ted, when he’s on point make him “steady” and lift his tail manually and sharply rap the underside of his tail while repeating “Steady”. It’s a learning process for a lot of young dogs.

I can see by that first picture that he has a great fun-loving attitude.

One of his sisters has those all black ears too.



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Coronation Kennels/ Twombly setters
 

We had a brace of littermate males purchased by a doctor in penn. He brought them for Obedience and Bird training last summer, as a team they would stalk a sight bird with the lead dog crawling and the backing dog in full hi head point. They self taught this. Both these dogs are from Burdock of Coronation Breeding. Ted pm me your ph # so we can help with heeling. Graysons sisters are developing nicely retrieving to hand from land and water. :bigbye::bigbye:

Thanks Dean, I was wondering if the tail thing was strictly instinctive or if some sort of training can reinforce it. Thanks for the suggestion. He certainly loves to have fun with people and he is always in a playful mood. Still very much a puppy. Here he is at fishing camp...keeping an eye on what was happening out on the dock.

Tail or no tail.... That is one handsome Setter !!!!!

Ted - each dog has it's own personality and training requirements. A setter isn't always a high-tailed pointing dog and if that's what you want from him, he will need your encouragement and your praise when he pleases you - he will always try to please you.

Grace still needs reminders to hold her tail up especially early on in each successive bird season and on our walks and runs when she freezes on a "stink sparrow" or mourning dove or robin. At those times I 'steady' her and walk up beside her, hold her tail in the position I want it in and rap the underside of it as I say "Tail up! - Tail up!" She will hold her tail up after that.





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Hi Dean - thanks again for the advice. Not too concerned about getting what I want from Grayson as far as style goes; it's last on the list, really, of my concerns. That said, everybody loves to see a working dog doing its work with style and for me a stylish point in the grouse woods is special. So I will do what I can to encourage it. Holding his tail out or up...either would be fine with me. He does it at times so I know he can.

Twombly setters
 

My Grandad Earl Twombly said when asked about tail positioning,
" I'm much more interested in what the front end is doing."
We can all agree on that!:bigbye:

Wish I’d known him Legh.





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