A few of Deacon and Ghillie from their last 2015 hunt

[Mike of the Mountain]

A few of Deacon and Ghillie from their last joint hunt before New Year. Deacon is on R&R since 12/28 due to throwing up blood. Seems like his stomach is not handling the mild aspirin doses I give him when he has a hard hunt and is gimpy afterward.

[Jim Cloninger]

Mike, your Deacon is a beautiful dog. Is there an age difference between Deacon and Ghillie? Are they equally as good hunters?
Jim

[Mike of the Mountain]

Thanks Jim. Deacon is 7 and Ghillie is 3. Both are great hunters and actually have two different styles that complement each other. Funny thing is we never taught them to retrieve. All I wanted was good noses to find the birds and then find them again when they dropped. Ken Alexander (breeder) told us to hunt Ghillie by himself in his first year. We did and from the first chuckar, he retrieved on his own!! His second year we hunted them together. The first pheasant dropped and Ghillie brought it to hand. Deacon must have decided he'd have none of that and since then has retrieved almost every bird he could!! It was funny watching that dynamic develop. They are both wired to hunt and it is a joy working with them. BTW, Deacon is 100% Decoverly and Ghillie is 50% Decoverly and 50% Rhy's (first litter from the GHR Consortium).