Fenlander ®

Myrtle x Mongke....not very flattering conformations, the bitch on the right the better. They lacked the spark, stamp and working abilities I was looking for.

Unfortunately, in searching for new blood from an old English Springer line, I was under the illusion or rather I romanced there would be enough old gene pool still in it to work from. Growing up as pups they didn't seem too bad, even if a bit cloddy. They certainly didn't have the snipey heads and short legs of the field trial strains. They were quite biddable, trainable in a not too manic way. They developed though to be not particularly athletic or motivated with retarded prey drive and instinct. The working had been bred out for show traits, selectively breeding for excessive fur and loose skin to simulate a well developed and rounded chest, extra long ears and feathering. This disappointing litter with Myrtle and Monkee proved there was going to be a lot of work to be done with this springer blood. Cloddy, ungainly and a somewhat poor conformation convinced me to go no further down this path.

So a fresh concept of a splash of wirehair pointer for the coat and Brittany blood for the bobtail is the direction I am to pursue. The challenge is in being able to breed back a uniform conformation with strong bone, wide chest and head, at the same time keeping the height/range down a bit as I found that as glorious and useful dogs such as Dolly and Herbert are, they cover the ground too fast like an English pointer, andneed excessive whistle control to keep them within gunshot range, for my style of shooting.