And so the fun continues!!

[Southpaw]

Yep good times and btw Coach Bryant was a big time bird hunter in his day after the football season was over, but he would sneak in a few hunts between Thanksgiving and Christmas later on in his career.

Grew up with setters and brittanies and hope your new pup turns out to be a good one. You will have to believe me on this one but if I were you I would this early summer introduce that puppy to water and swimming. Was around a lot of good bird dogs like pointers and setters but best bird dog we ever had was an English setter that came from a breeder in Jasper, Alabama which was in coal country. He could find em and hold em better than any dog I have ever seen, and it was a trait that he passed to several litters he sired and we saw a lot of his offspring work over the years. Dog was a consummate bird pointing professional and very mild mannered and almost timid around others, but molest his point and he would light into an offending dog before you could get to him. I hate to say it but he had alot of Bryant qualities, he made other dogs around him better.

His only downfall was that he never learned to swim as a young dog and he also had a physiology problem for swimming. He was such an athlete that his muscle mass made him look like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of bird dogs but he only weighed about 50 lbs. Our hunting stomping ground was a around a big creek bottom with soybean fields with the hills above. We would walk the field edges and catch the coveys that always flew down into thick cover along the creek. We would hunt the singles and without fail a few times a year we would shoot one that land in the creek and old Rip would not hesitate and go charging after it. He always got the bird but as soon as he lost momentum in that deep creek that back end would sink and we would have to go get him if water was to deep for him to touch bottom and it seems to me that was always the case. That dang creek was deep and some places over 20 feet deep. Its hard to believe but all dogs can't swim but they can learn it if introduced at early age. Old Rip never did learn. He was good for about 20 feet in straight line but if he had to change direction back in deep water it was go time to go get him and that dang creek had all kind of strainers and dead falls in it. Btw which was great for wood ducks.

I used to think after about the umpteenth time we had to go wade in after him that he wanted us to get wet. Every time we hauled him out he either had this appreciative grin or shit eating grin and it was dang hard to tell, but that damn dog could not swim very good and never had a fear of the water. We made a point afterwards that every new puppy we got, that dog would know how to swim.

One day need to commission a painting of the day my dad had to crawl down a tree head first to snag Rip that got hung up in tree branches of that deep creek, we thought he was goner for sure for this time but dad crawled out there and was able to grab him by scruff of the neck and because his feet was above his head that was all he could do. A buddy of his had to crawl along the tree so dad could pass Rip to him. It was a sight and Rip never did let go of that bird and once they got Rip on the log he shook water on them walked over top of them and brought the bird to me that I just so happened to be walking up in time to see the spectacle. Gawd I wish we had cell phones with cameras back then.