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How many times in life are we the first to accomplish anything? I’d wager for most of us the answer is never. Not because we’re a bunch of failures, but because so many frontiers have been conquered and so many man-made goals have been achieved. Sure, we could take part in some silly Guinness record-setting feat, a local bar holds such events, but I’m talking about truly being the first to accomplish something special.
I have a friend who accomplished such a feat this summer. Amy Gauthier took her Irish Setter, Augie, through the rigorous challenges of NAVHDA, and together they made Augie the FIRST ever Irish Setter Versatile Champion. Now for those of you unfamiliar with NAVHDA, trust me when I say that this is no small feat. I know a number of very accomplished trainers, with multiple, highly-successful NAVHDA tested dogs who would give just about anything to have a Versatile Champion to their credit.
Amy has finally put together a website to showcase her wonderful dogs, click on Augie to visit the site:
We are very excited to announce that Janeen at Smartdog’s Weblog has bestowed upon us the prestigious honor of a Superior Scribbler Award. For those of you who haven’t checked out the Smartdog site it should definitely be added to your favorites. Janeen’s site was one of the first blogs I started checking out regularly and find it a continued source of excellent information and writing. Without further ado:
In accepting this highest honor there are a few rules that we must keep in the spirit of the award. These include:
- Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
- Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
- Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
- Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post
and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we’ll be able to
keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor! - Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.
Now that we have dispensed with the formalities of the award, in no particular order, I’d like to name my five scribblers:
- Dr. Shawn Waymett’s Setter Feathers and Grouse Tales–Birddogdoc Chronicles BLOG. Shawn has pointing dogs, an English Cocker and may be the only veterinarian I know that gets to hunt more days than me. He shares some great information and spectacular pictures from his adventures. We’ve talked about getting together for the last two years, and after seeing some of his pictures from this year I have to try to make it out there.
- Next up is Strideaway a site devoted to the great sport of American Field Trials. The content of the site features articles, stories, photography and so much more.
- Stepping away from dog specific sites, but keeping in the outdoors is Matt Crawford’s Vermont Field Journal. I’ve never met Matt outside of the internet’s hunting bulletin boards and email. I enjoy his writings (both internet and print) and while the Vermont Field Journal may have a regional ring to it, I would recommend checking it out.
- From north of the border, is ChiendogBlog. Taking from Craig’s tagline: “Random, vaguely relevant thoughts of a dog nut with too many cameras.”….hey I may resemble that statement. I’d be completely remiss if I didn’t also share a link to Craig’s photography site HERE.
- And last, but certainly not least on my bloggie list is a site that features some great pictures of dogs and western bird hunting with links to other blogs that feature dogs and western bird hunting: Brad McCardle’s site For Love of Dogs and Birds. I always thought that I lived in paradise here in South Dakota, but after my trip through Montana early this fall, I have to concede that it is Brad that is living in paradise.
I saw this information posted on a hunting forum and thought I’d share it with you. I worked in the pet food industry during the last major set of recalls and can assure you these should be taken very seriously:
Mars Petcare US Issues Voluntary Recall of Everson, PA Plant Dry Pet Food Product due to Potential Salmonella Contamination
Franklin, Tennessee (September 12, 2008)—Today, Mars Petcare USannounced a voluntary recall of products manufactured at its Everson,
Pennsylvania facility. The pet food is being voluntarily recalled
because of potential contamination with Salmonella serotype Schwarzengrund. This voluntary recall only affects the United States.
To read the entire release, including affected products CLICK HERE
The new site has been up for a week, and I hope many of you have had a chance to take a look around. I welcome any feedback and suggestions you might have to improve the site or subjects, questions or cases you’d like to see discussed. For those of you who haven’t been to the new site, I thought I’d point out some of the new and exciting features.
Probably the most exciting new component for me is the Podcast section of the site. Currently we have three audio podcasts available. Our plan for the audio podcasts is to initially have two new podcasts available each month. The centerpiece of these shows will be the interviews, which will be in an alternating format. One episode each month will feature a veterinary/canine health topic and the second episode will be someone from the dog or hunting industry. As often as possible we will also be conducting product giveaways in conjunction with theses podcasts.
With this month’s shows we feature an interview with tick-borne disease expert, Dr. Matt Eberts. This is the first in a two-part interview with Dr. Eberts. In part one we discussed Lyme disease and anaplasmosis, particularly the diseases and the diagnosis of each. In part two we will look in-depth at the treatment and prevention of both. With these interviews Merial has graciously donated boxes of Frontline to be given away with each episode. With the first episode we will be giving away three boxes to our listeners.
Our other episode this month features an interview with Bryan Griggs from Mud River Dog Products. The folks at Mud River have an incredible line of products for our working dogs. We discuss the interesting history of the company and its current product line. Bryan graciously donated a number of products to be given away next month.
There are a number of ways to download or subscribe to the podcasts, including through the iTunes store. For more information on the podcasts visit the Audio Podcast Page.
Some of the other exciting new features include:
- Case of the Month - this will replace the case of the week we had here on the blog. Instead of taking a quick look at a subject from the week, we will have a lengthy discussion on a particular issue. The first feature will be a summary of the numerous migrating plant awns that I featured here on the blog. I will still feature occasional cases on the blog, but for in-depth discussion they will now be on the website.
- Product Reviews - the product reviews are somewhat self-explanatory. My goal with these is to give you some good equipment recommendations on stuff I use. I’m rough on gear and like stuff I can really use, and my hope is to be able to give you some real experiences with the stuff I take a look at.
- Book Reviews - again somewhat self-explanatory and many of the current ones have been taken from past newsletter issues. We are now an Amazon associate, and so when appropriate, you can access the books for purchase directly from our site.
- Photo Gallery - we struggled on how we would bring this over from the old site. Our current plan is to only feature pictures that we feel exhibit our best work on the photography front. This has been an area of great growth and interest for me over the last few years and instead of sharing all of our images we’ll just bring you our best.
- Ask the Vet - New and improved with more categories to make searching for old subjects and questions much easier. More frequent posting updates. We will be adding at least a question a week, which will be teased on the hompage and answered on the Ask the Vet page. Each month the old questions will be placed in the archive.
- Still to Come - Once we get the kinks (sound issues, features, etc.) worked out for the audio podcasts we are going to be stepping into the arena of video podcasts. These will be short features on subjects that are best illustrated with visual aids. In addition we are in the process of reworking the newsletter to bring a format that fits with the features of the new site.
Thank you very much for hanging in there through the change, we hope you find the new site worth the wait.
Sincerely,
The Gundogdoc
Because of our struggles with the loss of Emma, I promised Chrissy that we would be a two-dog household for quite a while. Anyone who knows me knows that promise was destined to be broken, because truth be told, we are just a dog household…no qualifying numbers needed.
I have always been fascinated with spaniels. It probably started years ago when Dave Carty frequently had articles in Gun Dog that featured his hunts with his springer. Most fascinating to me were the waterfowl hunts and how this upland dog could truly do it all. I have had the pleasure of hunting over some fine springers and am fortunate to count among my friends the folks at PineShadows in Brainerd, one of the best springer kennels in the country. Unfortunately I also have had the displeasure of seeing a number of surly examples of the breed in practice. In addition, the ear and skin problems just left me thinking the breed was not for me. Enter the Field-Bred English Cocker Spaniel. The more I researched the cockers, the more I felt this breed may be the perfect fit and compliment to my two setters. While definitely not a goose dog, the cockers too are a do-it-all breed just in a smaller, sometimes more entertaining package.
This spring I attended a cocker field trial and was sold. Thoughout the years I have attended countless dog events and this was the first that I could have left with any of the dogs and been completely happy. Prior to the trial the wheels had been set in motion to find a breeder and my efforts were doubled after the trial.
Chrissy and I made a trip to North Dakota to visit Glencoe Kennels and knew we had found the breeders we would be getting our next dog from. Unfortunately they had only one litter planned and a few people on their waiting list. Thinking it wasn’t meant to be I was put on the list of another very good breeder in the upper Midwest. As fate would have it, on our 10th wedding anniversary, I received an email that the pups at Glencoe had been born and that there was a little female for us. I was excited and nervous beyond belief.
Two long months passed before I was able to travel north to retrieve the little bundle. I took a few days off to spend some time observing Paul’s training methods. It was an unbelievable couple of days, and Paul and his methods will certainly be something we revisit on the site in the not-to-distant future. I had a great weekend and immediately fell in love with the little white female pup we’d eventually bring home.
How can you not melt when you see a face like this:
From the first day, I knew she was going to be a smart one. I have loved working with the setters; however, I truly believe I am a multiple dog type guy. While I love the free-ranging spirit of the setters I also love working with a dog like you experience with the retrievers and spaniels. She has been a quick learner from the get-go:
And whle we have started some play training, at the end of the day she is still just a cute little puppy, tuckerd out from picking on the bigger dogs in the house:
I’m looking forward to bringing you the adventures of this new site and new pup. In days to come I’ll discuss the changes we’ve made to the site, the direction we are going and other opportunities. Right now though I have to get a little puppy outside…I really hate housetraining new pups.
For years we have promised a site relaunch with better content and services. We are still in the early stages of working out the headaches of the server transfer but the new site is live…and I believe all addresses are currently active. The blog may also survive but I won’t know until later this morning. If it makes the transfer it will also get a new look and feel. Once everything is in order I’ll take you on a tour.
Also, I realize the homepage has a new pup with no introduction. I will introduce you to Lily later today.
For now take the new site for a spin:
I apologize for the absence of posts over the last two weeks. We have been working overtime on the site redesign, and it appears we are near completion. If the server switch goes smoothly we should have the new site up sometime this weekend. As I mentioned previously there may be a 24-48 hour delay, with both sites being down during the transition. One issue we may encounter is the loss of the current blog when we switch. I am getting conflicting reports from my hosting company on that front. If you check back and the blog is gone please check the homepage Gundogdoc.com because it likely means the new site is up.
Just as a teaser, we will have three podcasts available on the new site, two of them will feature some very generous product giveaways. Thank you for sticking with us during this time, and I look forward to your feedback on the new site and what we can do to continually improve the services we offer.
I apologize for the sporadic nature of my posting over the last two weeks. The hosting company we use has been having problems with the BLOG portion of my site due to the fact my site is hosted on an “old” server. Thankfully our relaunch of the site, only a few short weeks away, will coincide with a migration to a more modern server with better BLOG-hosting capabilities.
My intentions are to continue to post with the same schedule I have used since the launch of the BLOG; however, some days I am unable to access the site (i.e. Monday’s Ask the Vet and Wednesday’s News this week). I apologize for the slight interruption in consistency but please stick with us as we undergo this transition over the next couple of weeks and I promise the new site will deliver content light years beyond the current.
Thanks,
Joe
An exciting new website was launched this month, Strideaway.com. The website is sure to offer a unique insight to the sport of field trialing by providing information on this great American tradition from the unique perspectives of the top dog trainers, judges, competitors, photographers and veterinary health professionals from all parts of the country.
There are a number of dog- and hunting-related “discussion” boards on the internet, but nothing quite like Strideaway. In my mind what places this site at the head of the class is that you will know the qualifications of the person authoring the post when it is made. While wonderful resources in their own right, the numerous discussion board-type sites are essentially unpoliced and rampant with internet experts who oftentimes boldly post at a whim with no basis in the poster’s knowledge or personal experience. Now, this isn’t to say that you will always agree wtih the content of the entries at Strideaway; however, at the end of the day you’ll be able to evaluate what is being said against the expertise and the experience of the person making the post. A truly unique and exciting method in this internet age and a move forward for a sport that has arguably been reluctant to embrace change.
To borrow from the site’s introduction page:
“Strideaway is an online publication dedicated to
and promoting the great sport of American Field Trials and the dogs
that compete in them. The objective is to present the voices and ideas
of experienced trainers, handlers, breeders and other knowledgable
participants whether they are involved with All Age or Shooting Dogs,
horseback or walking trials with particular emphasis on wild bird
trials and the dogs that compete in them. We will be adding interviews,
articles, stories and quotes on a regular basis and hope to provide an
expanding source of information relevant to field trials.”
To learn more visit the site here: STRIDEAWAY.COM
The AKC Humane fund, in conjunction with Pfizer Animal Health, has launched a website to help battle canine obesity. I’d love to tell you that while obesity is a problem in the general population, it isn’t with sporting dogs, but that would be a lie. I’m continually amazed at the number of overweight dogs that come in to the practice with owners who insist they are a top-notch hunting dog. I often cringe in disbelief, as I can only imagine these overweight, out-of-shape dogs suffering from heat stroke early in the season and an ACL injury down the road.
I often bring up that these hunting dogs are athletes in the truest sense of the word, and as such, they need to be kept in optimum shape year round, not just during hunting season. If your hunting partner has a problem battling the bulge check out the site at:
StopCanineObesity.com