This morning I realized I missed meeting Professor Raymond Coppinger by an inch. When I was attending some classes at Hampshire College (Massachusetts), he was on sabbatical. Unfortunately, I was not able to go back there on the following semester but, by coming back to Italy, I had the opportunity to meet and become friends with an equally gifted scholar. His name is Mario Canton and no, he does not research on dog behaviour, his favourite topic is dog conformation, analyzed under a scientific perspective. Mario is indeed a very humble person and he often claims “he has not discovered anything”, he has only put things together. It might be, but he made a huge amount of technical knowledge available to the average dog lover, quite an achievement!
Mario published his first book in 2004, after more than 35 years of research. I remember being the one proofreading it in the bathroom, checking for any possible typos and bugging him about 1) adding images and 2) having the book translated into English. The book “Cani e Razze Canine” (Dogs and Dog Breeds) has already had three improved editions since 2004, but it is still without images and without an English translation. Mario justifies himself stating that 1)images will make the book too expensive and 2) English speakers already have plenty of scientific literature about dogs in their own language. Both his statements are true, but Mario forgets his greatest merit: having condensed an incredible amount of literature in one book (a huge book indeed! ) and having re-written it in a way it is now easier to understand.
I am firmly convinced he should get a good translator and a good publisher abroad, the whole world could benefit from his writings. As for now, only one of his books is available in English and, today, I am telling you more about it. It is a small book about the Afghan Hound and it is based on the slides he showed during the Afghan Hound World Congress held in 2014. Whereas I think Afghan Hounds to be incredibly beautiful, I am not into the breed and I think most of my readers are not as well. So why am I reviewing the book
(Paper edition available as well (it is published by Crepaldi Editore)
First of all, it is Mario’s only book available in English and, most important, he analyzes the breed according to the most modern knowledge about dog conformation and movement. I think he could and should do the same with other breeds – beginning from the English Setter of course! And I also think any dog lovers interested in a working breed can learn much from this tiny book. I am embedding a small gallery featuring some of the contents. (In case you can’t see the Google Books gallery below, click here)
If you like what you see, consider purchasing the book or encourage him to publish more books in English!
How to fill out the questionnaire
Unfortunately we need you to fill out a questionnaire for each dog and, unfortunately, we are also very interested in those of you who own and handle many dogs. The questionnaire was created ONLY for dogs used for shooting or competing in field trials (pointing dogs, spaniels and retrievers). These dogs must be purebred and have a pedigree. If your gundog is a pet, or a show dog, I am sorry but he cannot be included in our sample. The questionnaire might seem long at a first sight, but you can fill it out in a few minutes. We decided to have only a few compulsory questions, to make you feel at ease: you can skip the questions that do not apply to your situation, or that you do not feel comfortable about. Remember, however, that the questionnaire can be as anonymous as you like, and all your answers will be stored respecting the laws on personal privacy and will not be passed on to other people. The more details you will be giving us, though, the more you will help this research and my dissertation, I will therefore appreciate detailed and honest answers. Please specify the units of measure in open questions (year, months, hours…). An e-mail address, whereas not compulsory, is equally appreciated in case we need any clarifications concerning your answers. We also need an e-mail if you wish to be included in the drawn for the prizes we are giving away. For those who prefer working on a printed version of the questionnaire, a pdf file can be downloaded, printed, given to those who do not have any internet access and then emailed back to us.
If you wish to receive a feedback about the outcomes of this survey, please let us know: we will send you a report at the end of the project!
We will also be grateful if you could give visibility to the project by sharing or forwarding these pages, or the questionnaire link, to anyone who could be interested or otherwise able to help us in this research.
Dogs & Country augura a tutti i suoi lettori Buon Natale e uno splendido 2017.
Prima di scrivere questo paragrafo, io (Rossella) ho fatto una breve ricerca su perché Natale è Natale, e su perché viene celebrato proprio il 25 dicembre. Una festività simile al Natale esisteva molto prima che i cristiani trasformassero quella data nella loro giornata più importante. Quindi, nel pieno rispetto di ogni fede religiosa, sono arrivata a trarre alcune mie conclusioni. Penso che questa giornata speciale, fissata alla fine di dicembre, abbia molteplici significati e scopi. Credo, per esempio, che serva a rallegrare le persone durante i bui mesi dell’inverno; a celebrare l’imminente risveglio della natura, e a dare un senso di chiusura prima dell’inizio del nuovo anno. A Natale si dimenticano le cose più concrete e ci si guarda dentro, a volte ci si intristisce, ci si domanda quali siano le speranze, le necessità, i desideri eccetera. Pensate alla storia delle lettere a Babbo Natale: si insegna ai bambini a scrivere lettere in cui elencare i giocattoli tanto desiderati. Quando arriva il Natale, gli adulti sono spinti sullo stesso sentiero che li induce a pensare ai propri sogni. Sto dicendo che anche gli adulti scrivono a Babbo Natale? Esatto, lo fanno in segreto, nella loro mente, non lo ammetteranno mai!
Grazie ancora, lettore, perché ci leggi e apprezzi i nostri scritti. Mantieni la calma se le giornate si dovessero fare un po’ tese e abbraccia il tuo cane, perché lui ti vuole felice.
Con la speranza che le tue festività siano piene di gioia e risate.
So this is Christmas…
Dogs & Country wants to wish all its readers Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2017.
Before writing this paragraph, I (Rossella) did a short research on why Christmas is Christmas, and why it is celebrated on Dec 25th. “Something like Christmas” existed long before Christians transformed the day in their most important holiday. So, while respecting any religious views, I came up to my own conclusion: I think that this special day placed at the end of December has many purposes and multiple meanings. I think, for example, that it is meant to cheer up people during the dark months of winter; to celebrate the incoming awakening of nature and to provide some sort of closure before the new year starts. Christmas is the moment you forget about the most mundane things and start thinking about yourself, you might feel sad and question which are your hopes, your wishes and so on. Think about whole Santa Claus thing: children are told to write a letter to Santa in which they ask for those much desired toys. Around Christmas time, adults are dragged along the same path and are forced to think about their dreams. So, do adults also write letters to Santa? They will never admit but they surely do, the thing is kept well secret in their minds.
So thank you for reading and liking us, keep calm if things get hectic and hug your dog, he (or she) wants you to be happy!
May your winter holidays be full of happiness and laughter.
UNCAA – ST. Hubert Academy Field Trial
UNCAA – Accademia di S. Uberto Pointing Dogs Trial
Last June I was invited to a trial organized by the UNCAA (National Union of Appennines and Alps Hunters) – ST. Hubert Academy, but the trial was later cancelled and re-scheduled for September. The grounds and the birds changed as well, the trial was going to be held at the Ruino Estate, on the highest hills of Oltrepo’ Pavese , and the dogs were going to be assessed on grey partridges, no longer on quails Those who know me, are well aware of how much I love Ruino as I spent about eight years regularly shooting and handling English Setters there. Ruino’s grounds are perfect for pointing dogs, and they are wide and open enough to make any dogs belonging to a British pointing breed happy.
Ruino – Villa Alta
In the e-mail I received, there were only a few details on the trial. It was created specifically for those associated to the UNCAA-St. Hubert Academy, nevertheless it was open to everyone. As I did not know what was going to happen exactly, I forwarded the invitation only to a few people, next time I will be more generous!
By choosing to be there, I gathered more details. The trial was open to all the pointing dogs, and most of the competitors were HPRs, you will soon understand why. Dogs were requested to behave like in a ENCI/FCI official trial but, big difference, eliminating any dogs was not on the menu. Major or eliminating faults were going to be written down but, in some cases, especially if the dog was a young one, the judge could decide to let him continue his run, in order to assess his natural qualities. The trial’s aim, indeed, was not to nominate a winner but to see, assess and describe each dog natural qualities. At the end of the trial, each dog was going to receive a written evaluation (like it is done in any FCI trials) and a score. Scoring had German hunting trials as a model, this explains why we had so many German HPRs competing, some of which had already been tested at VJP, HZP. VGP, German Puppy Derby and Solms). As you might see looking at the evaluation form, natural qualities were considered very important( Ferma = Point; Cerca, impegno, passione, avidità, movimento e stile = Quartering, dedication, passion, avidity, movement and style; Correttezza del cane e collegamento con il conduttore = Obedience/training and connection/cooperation with the handler).
Perdix perdix (Grey Partridge)
Organizers were expecting 10-15 dogs to compete but 25 showed up: The dogs had different ages (many were around one year old) and very different backgrounds and training. There were some experienced dogs who regularly attend trials and dogs, without formal training, which are used for rough shooting exclusively. According to the judge Ivan Torchio (whose mentor had been Giacomo Griziotti), all the dogs, including the best one, need to explore the ground with more “logic”. He explained the difference between exploring the ground during a “quail” trial (dog should quarter very regularly (left/right), in a very geometric pattern and not miss any ground) and during a “wild bird” trial (the dog has more freedom but still….) and concluded saying that all the dogs he saw need to be refined under this aspect. Some dogs proved to be highly skilled and perfectly trained, they waited for the handler on point, roaded on command without being touched, remained steady, dropped and came back when asked to and so on…) others were wilder, some of them were very young and some others paid for their handler’s lack of skills. Several humans, indeed, made awful mistakes: a man roaded and produced in behalf of his dog (then he-the man – literally ran after the bird….); another one insisted on making the bird fly by beating the ground; some kept yelling at the dog… A few handlers asked if they could keep a collar and a check cord on the dog for safety purposes, or if they could pick up the dog before the bird flushed: they were given permission to do so but, of course, this was taken into account in the final evaluation. Silent and “professional” handling, instead, though not compulsory, was appreciated. Two pups wanted to enter the trial as well and they were asked to find a planted quail while on a check cord. They both found it and the GWP was so careful and concentrated that she remained steady to wing, without having ever been trained for that.
Briony
The grounds were those typical of the High Appennines, alfalfa fields, furrow fields, bushes and so on. It was very hot, late in the morning we reached temperatures above 30 degrees, wind was weak and kept changing its direction making the dogs’ job very difficult. Each dog was given ample opportunities to find birds, but a few failed and some, given the difficult conditions, eventually bumped into birds. The organizers plan to have this trial again next summer as it is a very nice way to keep an eye on the most experienced dogs, and to introduce shooters and pet owners to trials.
Briony did very well. She found a grey partridge and a quail. Produced nicely and remained steady. She got the highest possible score and the judge wrote that her run was at the highest levels for quartering, speed and use of the ground/wind… He would have liked more refined castings (left and right) and that obedience could be more automatic (indeed it was me telling him that she dropped the second time I whistled, not the first!). He concluded saying that she is an extremely high quality dog.
Handlers Opinions:
Sara Orlandi (GSP): This was the second trial organized by the Accademia di St. Uberto that I attended. The previous one was the 24 hours deer tracking trial (FCI recognized) organized in Cecima, this time we are in Ruino… another wonderful place! It was great to see my dog working which such a determination and then receive such a positive written critique by “The Professor” Ivan Torchio! We later had a very tasty lunch with much game and we share opinions on dogs while eating all together. I am likely to show up again at the next trial!
Daniele Malacalza (Spinone Italiano): I felt at ease, people were nice, friendly and funny. Ivan proved to be exremely skilled, more than I expected. Dogs were evaluated differntly than they use to be during ordinary trials.
Note: St.Hubert Academy does not take its name after ST.Hubert type trials (as some misunderstood). It is school (hence the name academy) which organizes classes on shooting (including woodcock counting), stalking, deer tracking, hound handling, wildlife management and game keeping through Italy. Classes are open to everybody wishing to gain expertise in these fields, some of the classes offer certification which are officially recognized by the Italian government and by several EU countries.
