The Gordon Setter is loyal to the hunt and devoted to his family.
Ask Tom Davidson about hunting with Gordon Setters, and he’ll say it’s a team sport — equal parts owner and dog. Then he’ll tell you about the time that Jake, then 7 years old, moved from team member to team leader.
“I was pheasant hunting with friends, and we were working roadside ditches looking for birds,” says Davidson, who trains, hunts, and competes in hunt tests with Gordons in Union Grove, Wis. “We’d put in multiple eight-hour days, and as we reached the end of a long ditch, I was thinking I was tired and had had enough for the day,” he says. “At that moment, Jake jumped up out of the ditch, looked me in the eye, sat down on the edge of the road, and refused to work anymore.”
Appreciative of Jake’s intellect and the rapport between them, Davidson took her advice and headed back to the car. “Jake was reading me, taking care of her master,” he says. “She sensed that I was tired, and she was right.”
Want to read the full story? Pick up the November 2006 issue of DOG FANCY today.