Care to elaborate?
Sure! But this is going to be TL;DR for most.
For context, my dad bought his first Gordon Setter back in 1991 from Norm Sorby at Springset Kennels. Her name was Duchess. I was 8 and had just got my hunters safety card. We hadn’t done a ton of explicit upland hunting before that, as my family came from Addy/Chewelah, where we road sluiced grouse for bird hunting. All this to say my dad did NOT know how to train a ranging pointing dog.
That dog had CRAZY natural talent, was birdy AF, champion bloodlines from the Ladybug lineage. BUT! That dog would range like crazy! The most memorable thing from those years was chasing that dog while she chased wild birds. When the weather turned and it snowed or froze, we dominated. We hunted the North Pasco “Blocks” quite a bit back then in cut corn and asparagus fields (goddamn do I miss those days), and when it snowed or froze that dog could pin roosters to the ground so hard you had to literally kick them out to flush (iykyk). Problem was, the basin never stays snowy or frozen, so we be back to chasing in no time.
She NEVER got the hang of check ins, frequently hunted on her own, “for herself” as my dad likes to say. He paid for training, bought every e-collar, book, VHS, then DVD, and never quite figured out how to rein her in(or any of the setters that came after her). My dad has paid for some of the most well bred Gordons a person could get there hands on and this has been the rule. Rangy as all hell with bird drive to push them far ahead of you unless you’re willing to sprint after them or figure the training route out better.
This always bothered me, but the real reason is the at home temperament. Gordons, and English IMO, are a very ironically co-dependent breed. The thing I remember most was how you could be petting Duchess for hours, after hunting her and grooming her, and if you stopped, she’d budge your arm with her muzzle, and if you ignored her she would whine until you began the petting again. Some people don’t mind, but it annoyed the shit out of me. I had one of my own from a litter of his, and I also had an un registered Brittany mutt that out hunted him by strides. She never pointed, but had this innate flushing ability where she would round birds up and make them flush. I liked that style of hunting and her ability to do it well very much. She was also a treat to train, where the Gordon was a massive pain to train.
All that to say WE STILL HAVE A GORDON! Hahaha, and he is one of my favorite dogs of all time. He was actually with Mo and I on that hunt where we killed our first Roo together. But guess what, my dad is still hollering at him 99% of the time, and he’s 9years old! He only hunts close when he is near exhaustion, literally.
There is nothing more beautiful than that feathered tail pointing straight out in the frost, and you know damn well there is a bird pinned down under that Setters nose. I just think I like the close hunting nature of a Grifff, and I definitely like his home temperament better. He lives to be with me, but also so happy to chill by himself, and often gets too hot cuddling on the couch and he will go lay on the wood floor by himself to cool off.
The obvious reply to this is to say, “well get better at training, stupid!” Which I absolutely agree on, and have myself, but you can’t teach a 64 year old dog new tricks
I have been pouring myself into training for Mo, and it is paying off big dividends. I may never be able to pay for some of the training he had with his Gordon’s, but Mo and I are doing something different. It feels like we are learning each other while I teach him what I can. It’s so fucking amazing.
My dad is vocally jealous of Mos recall ability, and his natural tendency to check in. He may not run birds down, but we’re also not walking passed them either.
