Chris was offered to me as a gift by Mrs Liz Skov (Skau) the current holder of the OksbyPrefix and a daughter of A.P. Anderson a founder member of the Danish Pointer Club. It took all of five seconds to say Yes!. Unfortunately our Danish Brethren don’t vaccinate against Kennel Cough as a matter of course and I suppose it really should have been no surprise that he picked it up in the quarantine kennel when he arrived in England. So amongst all the other problems he had to deal with, strange, thought I would like to think friendly people, an even stranger language and a whole different training regime, at least in the detail, the big dog had a lot to contend with. I don’t think Chris would be in the state he is now if it hadn’t been for the involvement of #2 son Ross. He has put a lot of effort into Chris and has achieved more with the big dog than I ever though possible having seen how the Danes run and handle their dogs. Ross has Chris right on the button and now that I have had him to Yorkshire I know just how well he can handle grouse.
Chris has produced puppies to several bitches in Denmark and one of these has just become a Dual Champion, Alex Nissen’s pointer dog Astrup’s Dirty Dancer, and if things have gone according to plan Roxy should be in pup to him and due to whelp 24th February 2009.
The recent (N0v. ‘08) trip to Yorkshire and a few days shooting have made a big difference to Chris. The one day I was able to take him out last season showed that he worked extremely well for the gun. His shooting this season has confirmed this but it isn’t that Chris has been taught anything other than he can expect work that excites him to be happening around me. He has pointed grouse, pheasant, woodcock and snipe but the latter can be a bit of a hit an miss affair, but he wouldn’t be unique in that. So far I have shot pheasant and woodcock over Chris but up tp now the illusive point, shoot retrieve scenario has eluded us, but then Saturday is another day. I don’t know if I will ever eradicate Chris’ tendency to put in a “Danish” one every now and then. He is six years old and has been raised and worked under a slightly different ethos but if I don’t it won’t be for lack of trying.
July ‘09
Chris is a different dog. I presume it’s the effects of the shooting but this year he is nearly an automated dog. Take the lead off and let him go, and boy can he go. It worries me slightly that Chris suffers from Big Dog Syndrome (He looks slow because he is big) but where he is relatively calm on the lead he’s all go off it. I’m hoping for big things at the pheasant stakes but I know he’ll do the job if he gets a go at a grouse.
August ‘09.
Chris gained his first award in an Irish trial, second place in the Irish Pointer Club’s Open Stake, 15th August 2009. The next day, 16th, he had three full but blank runs in the Confined Stake and he was only slightly jaded at the end of the third run. He has come a long way.
