Hales Smut wrote:Bridevalley spaniels were about the best I have ever seen. A pitty that Mr Toomey stopt breeding spaniels. Bridevalley and Sprucehill were/are very similar. Sprucehill Alfie was the sire of Meonview Woodlark who was Robinsmoor Frolic's sire. Mr Bateson trained and sold Frolic but also brought Hothead from Ireland to the UK. A friend of mine had Bridevalley Hector a litter brother to Nell, Hotheads mother. Hector was the dog that made me look around in Ireland. The Bridevalley dogs were truly linebred to strong hunting material. I have seen pedigrees with 7 times the foundation bitch in it. We realy could do with them now.
I do not think it's necessary to breed to FTch's. I use the dog that pleases me, FTch or not. I never make compromises in the hunting department. Only fire on fire. I've shot woodcock in West Ireland over my friends dogs wich have the same lines as mine. Going back to strong Monalue hunting stuff. Those dogs hunt glens and slopes in the hardest of cover for woodcock. Not a lot of scent and going strong every day of the season. When you stand in the bottom, they are not affraid to clean out the slope in front of you and get 50/60 metres aways from you. They come back when called. True spaniel work at his best.
If somebody is out there who has dogs with 3/4 lines going back to Hothead, just give a shout. I'll be more than happy to answer.
I had to peek around a bit at pedigrees after reading your post. I'm always a wee bit suspicious when old men speak about old dogs. Often the dogs get better the longer they've been dead, not sure the same goes for old men, i haven't lost any yet but i bet it would fall under the same category.
If you know what you want and think you know what you do, a title is not really needed i suppose. You know the lines, can track them and see when a good combination you believe in will be about.
However, I've been out and about at pickups and hunts enough to know that a lot of those glorified hard hunting dogs owned by people 'never bothering with silly competitions¨often carry a lot of unwanted traits. They might work all day i give you that but... What *i* want is biddable, easily trained hard hunting dogs. In Sweden we call such a thing a tulipanaros but I'm confident it's worth trying for. Hence i DO believe in tests and trials as well as i do believe that the same dog should be able to do honest work out hunting. It's not at all tricky to let your trial dog eat ground and go 50/60 meters, even i managed that as a newbie spaniel owner. It's way too easy, not sure why you glorify that??
Hmm not sure what i wanted to say with my reply really, mostly rambling before getting to the point, sowwy.
I did check pedigrees and it seems we got some nice interesting pups coming on here in Sweden partly from the lines you seem to like. I'll keep an eye on them and come back admitting you were right in a year or two maybe.
http://www.rasdata.nu/springer/stam/6/00006056.htm
Helene
