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.