I believe in the beginning when God finished throwing his cosmic dust around, poking a few holes into his time-warp black hole continuum, he sat back puffed on his cigar and peered into his celestial mirror. HE saw his name tag reversed in the mirror and quixotically spoke out loud, "DOG," and immediately assembled a twisted ladder of newly fashioned Nucleotides called DNA and created his first companion, the DOG!
There comes the time when the alpha canine steps aside and says it's time to begin a search and begin the arduous training for a sporting dog. For us, there is only one breed that will do all we ask of it.
We have trained and owned Irish setters, English Pointers, Brittanies, German Short Hairs, Golden's, and Springer Spaniels from the Hogan Kennels. Presently, we hunt over a magnificent German Wire Hair, clone of a Pointing Griffon and just retired a stunning black lab FC/AFC female so well mannered.
Uncle Frank Hogan, son of Martin Hogan, Dean of the Retriever Trialers, gave my father several labs from a litter intended for John Olin of Winchester fame. He raised and hunted over them and I remember how well they behaved with Illinois corn-field pheasants. We lived in the Fox River Valley near Barrington, Illinois and some of my clearest memories as a young boy were winter sleigh rides around the Hogan Kennels being chase by Frank and Mary Lorenz (Frank's sister and Dave Lorenz's wife) world class springer spaniels and champion Labs.
So there never was second guessing as to breed. Even my wife never thought to question the intensive quest about to begin. She was totally devoted to her German Wirehair, Fe, a bond seldom experienced by this Breed, however she knew this new pup had to be a Black Lab. In mid November the research began. I reviewed all the AKC retriever stats for the last ten years, the field trial news letters, the chat boards and skimmed over the hunt test results. I was stunned how diverse the utility the breed had changed. With the advent of Hunt test, the "Common Man" got into the game of retriever trails normally held for the well heeled and although not as stringent as field trails they were more applicable to real world hunting. As a result, it is almost impossible to find a high quality blood line that was not scooped up before the whelping. You had to be an insider or in the inner circle of the elite Field Trialers to even be considered. Most of the field trial litter that were hot were never advertised and so this quest was a challenge.
A new test was developed for deleterious homozygous recessive single genes yet trainer and breeds were still breeding carriers to carriers trying to get that extra money. Many of the Champion bloodlines used several generation ago that commanded premium stud fees and litter prices were indeed uncovered by the new DNA tests.
We spent numerous hours calling old friends asking for advice on bloodlines. I was looking at litters from Maine to Texas to Tennessee to Wisconsin, over to California, southern Idaho and the breeder egos were as huge as what was being asked of these highly breed wonderful lab.
One evening, a friend told me about a top performing Field Champ that was breed in house. The sire had been to the Nationals in Delaware in 2009 finished the 9th series but had won the total high point award for the year. That consistency was what I was looking for. I call the owner who probably had more top performing dogs in his stable than anyone I've some across. I expected the same ego driven "take it or leave attitude" I had to endure during my last 10 inquires. Instead I found a down to earth gentlemen who enjoyed talking about a wide range of interest. He was a very competitive man but never once did I hear him disparage another field trialer or champion dog unlike all the other owner. I was at ease with this guy and he turned me over to this whelper who also was a accomplished kenneler.
I would have to cut my annual Mexico trip out to get the pup on her 49th day of which I am a believer. The rest will be history
