Our first bird dog was Deacon Blue (yes, named after the Steely Dan tune). He taught us about hunting birds. Pheasant, chukar, grouse, mudbat, he would find them all. He never retrieved until we hunted him with Ghillie the first time. First bird went out and a buddy dropped it. Ghillie picked it up and began his retrieve. Deacon took the bird from him and brought it to hand! From that bird on, if he got to the bird first he retrieved it. He didn't take birds from other dog's retrieves either. Got him as an eight or nine week old pup. Ken Alexander picked him him out from one of his Decoverly litters. Ken also did the training sessions with us. Deacon was our longest lived dog making it to 10 1/2 years. I miss him terribly. He'll always be my boy.

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TAZ has been gone for about 15 years. 90 pound male GSP. A great hunting partner and home guard dog. Wife insisted we install security system after he departed.

Gosh what a pretty head...on the dog, not the guy.:rotf:

Mike, you definitely have had a string of beautiful setters.

An interesting thread. This is my first dog. Her name was Brenna and we found her at the pound. I knew nothing about upland hunting at the time. The pound called her a doberman mix, but my wife insisted it was a Gordon Setter. She was probably 4 months old when we got her. We had no training and just hunted together. She was ok as a bird dog, but was great as a family dog. She traveled with us from CO to CA to Ok to VA. She hunted in CO, KS, OK, ND, and PA. This pic is one of our better days in the OK panhandle when birds were easy to find. Hunted Pheasant, Bobs, Blue (scaled), Valley and Mountain quail with her.

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Ken

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Dug around a bit for some old pics. Here’s TAZ on the hunt. Always fun to watch. Not too many GSPs with tail intact. He was a rescue. Folks who had him could not manage the boundless energy. Took me a while but eventually we were a team.

Another pic foundhttps://parkerguns.org/forums/pictur...ictureid=13833

My first bird dog, Prairie Sage, was a fireball. She was from horseback trial breeding and was a covey dog extraordinaire. She was a willful dog, and would nip me after a retrieve just to say, "I'm doing this on my terms." She hated to back another dog and would hide behind a bush when her bracemate went on point. She could find birds and placed in field trials against white dogs, much to the chagrin of their handlers. She was a great bird dog and found lots of birds in her day, especially quail. I could keep up with her back then. Oh, to be young again.

My first Springer Belle. She was an incredibly classy bitch and a stone cold killer in the field. Our family hunted rabbits with beagles when I was growing because the pheasant population in NW OHIO had largely disappeared by mid 60’s when I started hunting. Belle and I made about 10-12 trips to South Dakota from about 2000 to 2010. She was an amazing pheasant dog and we won many tournament hunting trials over the years. This picture was after a big group had a great day near Plankington, SD. I’ve had great dogs since, and still do but I sure miss that old girl. [/ATTACH]

Did you get into AKC Field trials? I gunned a number of trials in Ohio. If so, I may have shot over your dog. Hope I did her proud

We never ran any AKC trials. We started by running judged trials called "Hunter Trials" with an organization of clubs predominantly SW of Cleveland then moved on to the larger organizations like the BDC and UFTA. I got my Springers from a fellow named Karlovek near Columbia Station, OH. I think he's still breeding and running dogs in the AKC.

Wow, That's a LOT of grouse.