My interest in developing Irish setters has not been built upon a singular inspirational moment but has been built-upon friendship with many dogs over a significant amount of time. My early childhood included sharing adventures with two collies, first Mac and then Tavy (short for McTavish), and several dogs that were owned by my buddies including a black lab named Peppy and a 3-legged boxer named Duke. We all played together around the neighborhoods near Ellsworth, Ohio. Both the neighborhood kids, and our dogs were completely “off-leash” and built forts together, explored the nearby creeks, lakes, and other points of interest and generally were having a grand time outdoors. My comfort and enjoyment of dogs began while being a young kid.
In 1976, while attending college, I acquired an Irish Setter from Betty Crawford (Shannon’s Major Jamison). His call name was Major, and he became one of the many dogs that became part in the Shannon clan. Major attended the last four years of architecture school going frequently to class and regularly to Studio. He also had many notable adventures on both field trips for school, and road trips with friends. I grew-up near Mrs. Crawford in Ellsworth, OH and stopped quarterly to see her on my returns home. We had some wonderful conversations; I would update her on Major’s adventures, and she would share similar tales of his siblings. I also got to interact with her house dogs and sometimes a few new additions. Through our visits, Mrs. Crawford mentored me with a classical foundation to appreciate Irish setters. As a first step, she provided me with a really good dog. Back in the 70’s Irish setters were everywhere, spawned by the movie Big Red and other factors, they became overbred and most of them were not very good quality. Major was athletic, handsome, and had the essence of the Irish setter personality. In parks, on campus, around the Cities and towns, if other Irish setters were present, Major was often majestic by comparison. Mrs. Crawford advised that the quality of her dogs improved when she introduced Knockross O’Boy to her lineage. The dam of Major’s sire (Shannon’s O’boy) was extensively Knockcross. Major’s dam (Shannon’s Pixie) also had Knockcross scattered back several generations.
Irish setters make friends easily and Major had plenty of them in studio, around campus, and in several neighborhoods after graduation. He lived to be fourteen, and when he was around 9 years old, we got a female (Shauna), Briarwood’s Shauna O’Shannon from Mrs. Crawford (bred by Diane Goff) while living in Dallas. Shauna was my first female Irish setter and had a couple points in the show ring when we acquired her. She was a real sweetie and gentle with our young sons.
When we were planning our move-back to Ohio from Texas, I asked my father if he would like to have Shauna temporarily while we transitioned between places to live. My dad loved dogs and Shauna enjoyed his large property. After a few months as we unpacked our belongings, I called my father to advise we were coming for Shauna and he said, “maybe she could just stay here?” She stayed with my mom and dad and lived to be thirteen.
When we moved back to Ohio from Texas, we settled in a rural area with acreage, and I wanted a dog with more horsepower for the farm. Recommended by a friend that trained dogs in the military and was involved in law enforcement, we acquired a German shepherd from a breeder of work-quality dogs in Michigan. One description of a German shepherd I heard that was, “A German shepherd isn’t number 1 at anything, but they are number 2 at everything.”
Joey was a fabulous dog and became a great companion of the family and our friends. On the farm, chickens and quail could walk between his legs and he could care less. That wasn’t the case with unwanted predators and stray animals. From my view, one of the magical qualities of German shepherds is that once they learn their purpose, they will repeat a learned objective over-and-over. That is not the case with Irish setters, they like to do things a few times, then check with you asking, “Why repeat something we have already done.” Near the end of Joey’s life, the ever-kindling passion for an Irish setter began smoldering to flame and I began looking for a show quality Irish setter.
At the time due to a nearly nine-year gap, I did not have the benefit of knowing any of the Irish setter breeders and incorrectly assumed Mrs. Crawford had long since passed away as her house had been vacated for some time. Left to my own devices, finding a breeder that was going to have puppies took some time. Eventually, through a referral I went to look at some puppies and found one . . . we named him Rylee.