Girl Power

 By Lynn Dee Galey

Many who know me know my story about the first setter that was my own.  For my 11th birthday my Dad gave me a small collar and said to go put it on my favorite puppy in the setter litter that he had.  It was mine to keep. 

There’s not much energy and passion stronger than a young teen girl about horses, or in my case, dogs. If encouraged and allowed to flourish it can lead to a lifetime hobby or even career. And bias from my own professional career of working with teens, focused activities with animals can help kids safely navigate away from the many dangerous alternatives that will cross their paths. 

So it is with great pleasure that two of the families waiting for my upcoming litters each have a young girl bubbling over with fervor about birddogs. Each closely questions their father’s conversations with me about the dogs and breeding updates. There has been reading and research, purchasing gear, attending banquets (where one won a gun!) and even writing an article for Pheasants Forever. 

I am thrilled that my pups will play a role in shaping hopefully the beginnings of a lifelong passion: whether it be hunting, maybe just dogs, or maybe wildlife conservation.  I love that these fathers are sharing their love for birddogs and hunting and mentoring their daughters in a field that has traditionally not had many women visible. I know that I ran into some sexism barriers within hunting when younger and hope that those will be absent for these daughters or at least that they are also strong enough to forge through. 

Can’t wait til the pups arrive to get these stories started. 

                                 

Toughness

By Lynn Dee Galey

Toughness. An underrated quality in a bird dog. Much of it comes from grit and drive. A lot of it comes from good feet and good, moderate conformation.  All of it is identified only through experience, over and over again. 

Toughness wasn’t really much on the board for me years ago when I was a New England grouse hunter. Hunts were shorter and on soft, moist forest floor. 

But moving to the plains and hunting there 70+ days a year reshaped my focus with my dogs. I watched which dogs had the stamina to hunt every day, harder and longer than others, yet avoid injury. Which dogs would use their teeth to rip Montana cactus balls from their feet vs the dogs who would stop and limp in for help. Which dogs could run on rough rocky ground without boots and which dogs would get footsore. 

I am blessed with wonderful owners for my dogs, many of whom push themselves and their dogs hard from Sept -January.  Dogs who push through the thick, tall, bone dry Kansas grass for pheasant. Dogs who run alongside the owner on mountain bike to hunt chukar slopes all day before biking back to camp. Dogs who learn about desert quail and the endless array of plants and footing there that can end a hunt. Dogs who plow through deep snow to point snow roosted ruffs for their snowshoed owner. Dogs who learn to slip beneath barb wire fences all day long with just a small withers scab.

Those owners and their dogs strongly influence my breeding decisions. Because for owners who passionately hunt many more days than the average hunter, yet have only one or two dogs, a dog who gets tired or injured easily would ruin their season. Hard to measure until truly tested, yet so important.