Oh, man, thank you so much for all of the information. Your recommendation of Bob Farris or someone from the Breeders Alliance is spot on - Over the last few years, I've been on his website so many times reading about his adventures and enjoying all of the pics of the fantastic dogs. I remember for a time, a Cedarwoods dog was the "tee retriever" after kickoffs of Boise State back when they were a power!
Besides all of the outstanding working skills of the breed, I was really captured when Bob described how the neighbor kids frequently asked if his main breeding bitch could spend the night at their house on the weekends. He said the kids loved her so much, and her temperament was so cooperative, the parents were always happy to have the dog for a "sleepover."
I'm just hoping I can get a dog aboard before I get too damned old - turn 65 this year, and have too many things going on right now to add a pup. (Both parents passed recently, and we have a house in Nebraska to empty out and decide to rent or sell, estate business, etc.). But that won't last forever. One of our future plans is to possibly locate and purchase a home in Spokane WA - we have some relatives there, one of whom is a 10 year old nephew whose dad passed away from cancer a couple years agoe, and who needs someone to take him hunting and fishing. Like to join the local NAVHDA group and possibly find some training partners or a trainer locally also. So I was thinking of parlaying the move with the purchase of a pup that would be good for chasing some birds up in that area, as well as retrieving ducks and geese from any of the numerous creeks, rivers or lakes around. Renting a house or a room in pheasant country in South Dakota from September - December has been a dream of mine also. Sadly, after a 20 + year drought, there are hardly any quail left in the desert in Az. And I'm not sure I'd even want to subject a dog with any kind of coat to the 100+ days over 110 degrees some summers here of late.
Your pup has a bunch of Cedarwoods blood in her, and several VC's! I'm sure she is fantastic - but it's also interesting that it's hard to even know what you want in a dog until you get one and work with it for a few years. I grew up with labs - we had a lease of about a mile of the Platte River near Bayard, NE for several years when I was in high school at Scottsbluff, and our best lab literally retrieved thousands from the river, sometimes with huge chunks of ice floating in it. After moving to AZ in 1980, I found desert quail hunting here, and there were few trips when we didn't get limits of 15 each. I bought and trained a Brittany pup from a backyard breeders - her genes actually allowed her to be a really good dog.
I could go on and on, too, but I'll spare you!
Thank you so much for your very informative response - I may shoot you a message here and there when I have a question that comes to mind. Meanwhile, I have a Facebook account primarily to see pics of dogs - there are a couple of groups of working pudelpointers - one is international - and I really, really enjoy some of the pics and videos of the dogs. It's unbelievable watching some of those young dogs with search patterns developing at 6-8 months, and rock solid points. The dogs just seem so damned happy, too, to be out doing what they love.
Thanks again, and GO BIG RED!
. Thanks so much for tossing out the “Cedarwoods affiliated” kennels. Bob is leaving quite a legacy of great gun dogs that are decent citizens, too. Being semi-retired now,I have a dog around me nearly 24/7. The dog’s with me running in to Home Depot, stopping for a coffee, wherever. That partnership is just really important to me. Actually the main reason I want to get back into hunting again is then I’ll need a dog to share it with. Oh, and shed (antler) hunting - that’s a spring time activity that I enjoy, another excuse to be out in nature.
