post #200

I happened to notice that this post was scheduled to be #200 -- and so got thrown off by trying to come up with something suitably momentous to write about. And then I realised that I was just procrastinating. Here are a few announcements:

1) Mike Spies at Living with Bird-dogs invited me to be a contributor to his blog -- which was very flattering. For my first post there, I wrote a review of legendary trainer, Dave Walker's, book The Bird-dog Training Manual. In a world of gun-dog training books that take a little-from-here and a little-from-there, Dave's book is a great example of what is possible with a consistent, incremental method.

2) Last week, I wrote my first letters to my Assembly representatives and State Senators -- and so far, those efforts look like they paid off. Here in New York, there was an attempt to rush Assembly Bill 11509 via an off-the-floor meeting to get it through before the assembly took off for their summer recess. (The bill essentially sought to eliminate 'hobby breeders' and require full breeder registration of anyone with four or more intact female dogs.) While there was sufficient concern raised to merit no consideration of AB 11509 for the 2008 legislative session, its companion Senate Bill 8546 is still languishing with the senate's Rules Committee. I am all for increased enforcement of existing legislation, but I get nervous about new regulations that create additional pressures to spay dogs soon after six months of age to avoid prosecution -- because it limits responsible breeders' choices, breeders who largely understand that breeding a dam before she is two years old is irresponsible, and as has been recently published here and here in the Journal of the AVMA because individual dog's long-term health outweighs overall population control.

I encourage folks to subscribe to the e-mail alerts from either the American Sporting Dog Alliance or the US Sportsmen's Alliance. Goofy stuff doesn't just happen in California.

3) In happier news, Craig Koshyk has a new Weimaraner puppy, Henri. Inspired by the beautiful pictures Craig has of his new 'pocket rocket,' here are a couple from Jozsi's first days here in the Bronx.

4) My sister-in-law is back from her visit to eastern Mongolia, to the Planet Dornod, where she saw a bunch of friends from her sojourn in Choibalsan as a Peace Corps volunteer. She has some great pics up on her blog.

Me and Mr. Enthusiasm will be heading up to the Connecticut Valley Vizsla Club hunting dog stake on Sunday. We'll see if he can put all that energy to good use. Momo will be lounging with his mother.