performance amazed her. He had suddenly turned on and was breathtaking. We figured the sight of a number of other dogs and people reminded him of going out with the shooting parties and fired him up. Scud never looked back after that. "He said the shooting side of hunting had become secondary to the pleasure he got from working his dog. I knew exactly how he felt." Later that year Scud won his first National Amateur title. It was a big surprise, as I never expected a dog to really hit his American potential until he had been there for at least 12 months. To win a National title inside a year of leaving the U.K. is most unusual. I don't know if any other dog has done this or not. The following year I remember Talbot telling me Janet had phoned to say Scud had won the Canadian National. A few weeks later another call was received to say Scud had won his second National Amateur. Somehow it almost seemed an anti climax to me when we heard Scud had won the Open National, although I considered it the most prestigious title of the three. I seemed to know and expect he was going to do it. It was a most remarkable feat of consistent excellence by both Scud and Janet. Certainly Scud and Janet must go down as one of the all time great teams in American Springer history. Had Scud gone to someone else, I believe his story could well have been much different. I did not see Scud as any more talented than a number of other top dogs that went as trial dogs from Saighton kennels. Many of which did also have very successful trial careers. One factor for success with the Saighton dogs in American trials I always felt was to get the right dog to the right handler. The decision to send Scud to Janet was probably one of the best decisions ever made in that regard. Laddie never made it as a trial dog. Initially when he arrived in the States he looked very good, but most unexpectedly developed a faulty flush. He had been one of the hardest flushing dogs I ever had. It was one of my greatest disappointments for him to fail as a trial dog. He was sold on as gundog. A few years on we received a letter out of the blue from the man who ended up with Laddie. He said he had never had a Springer and soon realised he better learn how to handle Laddie. Someone taught him what he needed to know. He said Laddie was the most amazing working dog. Laddie had gained an area wide reputation for exceptional performance. He said that he continuously got invitations to go hunting with complete strangers because they had heard what a fantastic working dog he had. He said the shooting side of hunting had become secondary to the pleasure he got from working his dog. I knew exactly how he felt. Saighton's Saga Saga was also sold as a gun dog. His new owner came to Presaddfed from the States. We went rough shooting one morning to show him how Saga worked. It seemed every situation imaginable to test a working Springer occurred during that morning. Marked and blind retrieves on both fur and feather both on land and water. Saga handled every situation brilliantly. He capped the morning off when a pheasant he flushed landed in an open wheat stubble field with a slightly tipped wing. The pheasant was running so fast when I sent Saga after it that he didn't seem to make any headway to catch up running as fast as he could. The pheasant made it to a small gully with light rough cover. Saga got to the gully and started tracking. A few minutes later he appeared a couple hundred yards away with the pheasant in his mouth. He delivered it without a feather missing. I got a tremendous thrill from Saga's performance. Some how I don't think his new owner really appreciated how well Saga had done that morning. He soon found out what a good dog he had when he started to hunt with him. Although Scud was the only dog in the litter to be successful in trials I've always considered this litter to be one of the best litters produced during my 14 years at Saighton kennels. We bred Seeker to Sophie a number times afterwards, but never got a litter quite like this first one. Scout also went on to produced an excellent litter out of a Dinas Dewi bitch, which had been sired by Stinger's Image. Solomon and Samson were produced who were very successful trial dogs on the West Coast. I believe Samson was the U.S.A.'s top winning open dog sometime in the mid 80's and placed Page 4 | Spaniel Journal | Next Page | Previous Page |