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Quite recently I read about an elkhound which never pegs game, no matter
how stupidly the game behaves but as the dog will only retrieve
furred quarry and steadfastly eschews feather, perhaps a natural
aversion to feather,rather rather than honourable behaviour
explains it's unwillingness to peg pheasants.
I have been around the shooting and gundog scene rather longer
than most. I judged my first spaniel trial in 1960 and my first
trial in mainland Britain in 1963.
I have two role models, a springer and a cocker, which were
superb examples of dogs which were perfect at scent discrimination.
The springer was the bitch Breckonhill Brando, born 1954,
who was line bred to F.T.Ch Sarkie O'Vara through mating the
first post-war Championship winner (1947) to her grandson,
Breckonhill Buddie. Brando never pegged. I picked-up in the l950's
at the Irnam Estate, near Bourne, Lincolnshire and there was one
drive where a covert was driven into open country. The pheasants,
which were mostly wild, had no inhibitions regarding facing open
fields as their objectives were some thick hedges and rough
ditches. After a drive, I would work Brando along a drain and she
would poke out bird after bird with her nose, then every now and
then, she would dive in hard and bring out a wounded bird that
might have only one pellet in it. She knew exactly what to do.
I mated her to Conygree Simon but I was after tremendous drive
and style, not honourable behaviour. Nevertheless,a famous son of
this union, Hales Smut, although a very hot hunter, never pegged
in his life and when rabbitting on white grass, would dig his
nose in under seated rabbits and root them out. Interestingly,
neither Brando or Smut had rabbit pen training, a medium whereby
you can teach scent discrimination if you know what you are doing
so it seems mother and son were natural non-peggers. Conygree
Simon was capable of pegging and he pegged a hare in the 1957
Spaniel Championship and his owner, Lord Biddulph made an awful
noise making him release but he was under the great Joe Greatorex
who threw him out but nowadays standards have slipped and some
handlers get away with murder.
My other role model is the cocker bitch F.T.Ch Jet of Elan. She
ran under me in the first mainland trial I judged in 1963,
at Nantyr, eight miles from home. Jet was handled by her owner,
Commander Collard and under me, had very heavy green bracken to
contend with which had been laid by rain and gales.
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by Keith Erlandson