This is in memory of my good buddy Jimmy
He is gone but not forgotten.
This is TK's Bullet Buddy's Revenge or better known at home as "Jimmy".
Jimmy descends from the famous champion bloodline Nolan's Last Bullet, (Bull) and Windswept Ridges EJ.
Jimmy descends from the famous champion bloodline Nolan's Last Bullet, (Bull) and Windswept Ridges EJ.
Well here’s a write up about a very special dog I lost. I got this dog when I lost another special one named Buddy. My first Brittany I got in 2002. He was shot right between the eye by some idiot that lived around me. Laid him on the side of the road trying to make it look like someone hit him. It was my daughter’s birthday and we just got back from buying her a new bike. He did not come when I whistled, and he always came running when I whistled. Her and I went to look for him and did. She just stood there in the road crying her eyes out. I got him shortly after she was born, kind of for her. I about found out who did it. Then I got to thinking that then I would know where they lived and may have wanted revenge. So I let it go. So from one devastation to another.
I looked hard and far to find the right dog to replace him. I ended up contacting Noland Huffman, and he did not have one but his good friend and VET had one male left. I contacted Gary Ramsey and we talked about the pup. He was keeping one for his son-in-law and the other was mine. I left it up to him to pick. He had a real hard time picking one for his son-in-law because they were very similar. He picked the one with more color for his son-in-law as he likes more color. He frankly said to me that I may have gotten the better dog, but he could not choose one over the other.
Well his name was TK’s Bullet Buddy’s Revenge, (call name Jimmy after my dad) he was a hell of a dog. Grew up in the house with the family. I did not get started with him for birds till he was about 3.5 years old. Sent him off to Anderson gun dogs for training as I really did not have the time to dedicate to it. It cost me quite a bit but wanted him started right and had little experience training a trial dog. I have trained some good hunting dogs years ago, but wanted better for him then me. I also started doing shows with him. He was a dam nice looking dog.
Started out competing in NSTRA and shows. Took him for his second show to San Antonio with my daughter. It is a big show for Brittanys. Met some nice people and some… well not so much nice people. Being new to it I got a lot of questions from other competitors. Mainly about his bloodline being from a field line, rather than more of a show line. I tell them and I get the Oh,, he’s a field dog... if you want a good show dog you should breed him to so and sos dogs then you might get one after a few try’s. Well and other comments about field trial dogs.
I was new at it and so was he. So neither of us, Jimmy or I really know what or how to do shows right. Just watched, listened, and practiced a little. There was like 26 or 30 dogs in the competition. It was a major show. Still some nice folks with dogs that did both field and show. Well we went in the ring a few times and at the end I had this judge guy that said congratulation and handed me a ribbon. I asked what that was for. He said “your won” so he won best of breed! Second show he was in. So a good future for him there. A few of the other folks congratulated me and shook my hand smiling and giggling some. As we looked at the others that had made comments about my field line. The look and disgust on their faces was priceless. My field dog whooped up on all the show line dogs. I actually felt bad and helped one of the old lady that made the most rude comments to me about my field dog. I helped pack up and load her car as she was struggling a bit with it.
When taking the pictures with the judge I said to him that it was a heck of a surprise to me that he won being his second show. He looked me straight in the eye and said you have a hell of a dog there. Good luck with him. He has a lot of potential. He was 2 points away from his show champion title when I lost him.
Wow I am getting long winded.
Ok for the more exciting stuff. Field trialing. I will try to shorten it up some. Just giving you the background on the dog and what he meant to me.
We started NSTRA. Being brand new to it I needed guidance. The people in Loan Star Region are very nice and very willing to help out. They also have some of the best dogs in NSTRA. A very tough region to compete in due to how good the dogs are. Ok watched, listened and learned as I went along. They now have a mentoring program, but did not 3 years ago when I started. I did ride along with judges, talked to and watched others. Made my fair share of mistakes and mot a clue on handling. I was new and my dog was new and not fully developed. What fun… working with some of the guys getting Jimmy better, and myself as well along the way. Very helpful bunch of guys. Still kicked my but in the field but watched Jimmy and I develop. We luckily started getting some placements later in the year. It was not from me. It was from Jimmy.
He saved me points many times. He was learning the game faster than I was. I was also not such a good shot and missed many birds. The judges started telling me after a flush and me missing. To stay there he will probably save you again. Cause once I leave the spot of the flush and shot. No points for the retrieve. Jimmy would always run it down and bring me the uninjured live bird, a little damp from his mouth. I started hearing people tell me that he was developing good and they are watching Jimmy and I.
Even Jimmy started getting frustrated in me missing the birds. Of course there are the safety birds. He would still get them and bring them to me for the full retrieve. He still ran the ones I missed down, but started a few times, staring at me and setting the bird down 10 feet from me. It seemed like he knew weather it mattered or not. Like he kept track of the trial and knew if we had a chance to place. Now and then would retrieve it and give it to or set it down by the judge, or set it down in the ATV the judge was in. Jimmy is telling me that if I can’t start shooting better, come get it yourself. You fetch it up… Well I started shooting better and he was happier.
We did make it to the regionals that first year actually made it to 8th place out of all the great dogs in LSR. He got beat out by the little French Brittany that went on to win the regional trial for that year. Darn little thing did not work very far out, but just went along and found the birds like she had a map of where they were. Just slowly picked them out one by one. At least we got to the back faster than she did. So we got a few but not enough to beat her out. I lost Jimmy in-between seasons. I signed up for the next years trials and they noticed I did not put Jimmy down as one of my dogs. so they asked me “what about Jimmy” I then let them know what had happened. I then got several emails about it. The next year I saw the guy that won the regional after knocking me out at another trial. We were just talking about things and the regional as I congratulated him for winning. He said that he had money on Jimmy to win. So he actually bought my dog in the auction to win with the others. He asked me about Jimmy. I let him know and he was very unhappy about it. He stated that he and some others have been watching him develop the whole last season. Thought he was the dog to beat this year as he was a real threat to them all despite the handler.
Anyway he was a heck of a dog and I was building the reputation of my kennel off him. He was a star and my best friend and he knew it.
Well onto what happened.
This is what I think happened to start this horrible day for me.
Monday early morning 5/12/14 I had my last Llewellin pup shipping out to the new owner. As it is about 1 ½- 2 hours’ drive for me to the airport. Loaded up a dog box in the car to put the pup in for shipping. I think he saw that and thought , “what the heck… you’re going to work with some birds or hunting without me??!!” what else would I be doing that early in the morning right? I work from home fulltime. But this is one day on a consulting gig I was on at that time I went into the companies office. After all I was driving by there on my way to the airport and back. So thought I would show my face that day.
A rainy Monday night 5/12 when I got home from work I found Jimmy had gotten hit and killed on the road in front of my house by some inconsiderate driver. He got out of the back during the day sometime after 10 AM when we were gone, and it was not easy. He went very out of his way to do it. Pulling off a 10’ 2X6 that was attached with screws to the bottom of my Tack room. Dug into the hard packed dirt enough to get under the wall into the Tack room. Then squeezed himself through the cat door. I have gone to great effort and expense to keep them safe and secure. He spent time running around the yard and in the back yard as I say where he jumped over the divider from my carport to the patio.
One of the saddest things is, he was still warm. If I had not stopped at the house in Nevada to get my carpet shampooer, I probably would have been home before it happened (still kicking myself for that). My son was coming out to the house the next day anyhow bringing it with him. But as I was close to the house I thought I would help him out and just bring it myself.
We are not on a busy road at all at our rural location. Dogs of all kinds run around here from irresponsible owners just standing in the road, chasing cars, killing cats, and bugging my dogs, and nothing seems to happen to them.
We were devastated. He was doing so well in show and field, and had such great potential. He was defiantly a one of a kind dog, my star, and my good buddy. Very sad time for me at the time and still is. Still trying to replace him but know I never will.
I had gotten another male pup a few weeks before Jimmy was taken from me (Jack). He has great potential and already won in two puppy shows, one very big one. He is a natural in the field on birds as well. He already finds, points and retrieves birds with no training at 5 months old now.
I lost him in a freak accident as well. Jack was named after my Uncle. So I had Jimmy after my dad and Jack my dad’s brother that hunted with us when we were young. So Jim and Jack would be out hunting again together but now represented by dogs as both of them have passed away now.
At that time he was my only good competing dog. I wanted to keep competing the next year, and did not want to start from scratch.
So not to put all my eggs in one basket again. I have acquired several more dogs. Now have 17 dogs.
I got another great bloodline started and very good field dog from a professional trainer in Northern Kansas his name is Peanut. He was one of his personal dogs. He did not run big enough for him for horseback trials. But great for NSTRA. He was young but when I got him at 13 months, however he was already a successful field guide dog for several hunters on lots of birds. He is the hardest hunting dog I know and others have said that as well to me when they watch him run and hunt.
I had picked up a few along the way from great lines. One from the same breeder Gary Ramsey that I got Jimmy from and he is from very similar lines and my most constant dog and becoming a star himself.
But with now 7 solid competing dogs with 3 at trainers right now. 4 more pups to start this year between 8 weeks to 9 months old now, with 3 more pups on the way. One is 3 weeks old now and 2 not whelped yet but will be in the next few weeks. I need to stop adding dogs and will after this batch.
I could go on and on. Time to stop.
I looked hard and far to find the right dog to replace him. I ended up contacting Noland Huffman, and he did not have one but his good friend and VET had one male left. I contacted Gary Ramsey and we talked about the pup. He was keeping one for his son-in-law and the other was mine. I left it up to him to pick. He had a real hard time picking one for his son-in-law because they were very similar. He picked the one with more color for his son-in-law as he likes more color. He frankly said to me that I may have gotten the better dog, but he could not choose one over the other.
Well his name was TK’s Bullet Buddy’s Revenge, (call name Jimmy after my dad) he was a hell of a dog. Grew up in the house with the family. I did not get started with him for birds till he was about 3.5 years old. Sent him off to Anderson gun dogs for training as I really did not have the time to dedicate to it. It cost me quite a bit but wanted him started right and had little experience training a trial dog. I have trained some good hunting dogs years ago, but wanted better for him then me. I also started doing shows with him. He was a dam nice looking dog.
Started out competing in NSTRA and shows. Took him for his second show to San Antonio with my daughter. It is a big show for Brittanys. Met some nice people and some… well not so much nice people. Being new to it I got a lot of questions from other competitors. Mainly about his bloodline being from a field line, rather than more of a show line. I tell them and I get the Oh,, he’s a field dog... if you want a good show dog you should breed him to so and sos dogs then you might get one after a few try’s. Well and other comments about field trial dogs.
I was new at it and so was he. So neither of us, Jimmy or I really know what or how to do shows right. Just watched, listened, and practiced a little. There was like 26 or 30 dogs in the competition. It was a major show. Still some nice folks with dogs that did both field and show. Well we went in the ring a few times and at the end I had this judge guy that said congratulation and handed me a ribbon. I asked what that was for. He said “your won” so he won best of breed! Second show he was in. So a good future for him there. A few of the other folks congratulated me and shook my hand smiling and giggling some. As we looked at the others that had made comments about my field line. The look and disgust on their faces was priceless. My field dog whooped up on all the show line dogs. I actually felt bad and helped one of the old lady that made the most rude comments to me about my field dog. I helped pack up and load her car as she was struggling a bit with it.
When taking the pictures with the judge I said to him that it was a heck of a surprise to me that he won being his second show. He looked me straight in the eye and said you have a hell of a dog there. Good luck with him. He has a lot of potential. He was 2 points away from his show champion title when I lost him.
Wow I am getting long winded.
Ok for the more exciting stuff. Field trialing. I will try to shorten it up some. Just giving you the background on the dog and what he meant to me.
We started NSTRA. Being brand new to it I needed guidance. The people in Loan Star Region are very nice and very willing to help out. They also have some of the best dogs in NSTRA. A very tough region to compete in due to how good the dogs are. Ok watched, listened and learned as I went along. They now have a mentoring program, but did not 3 years ago when I started. I did ride along with judges, talked to and watched others. Made my fair share of mistakes and mot a clue on handling. I was new and my dog was new and not fully developed. What fun… working with some of the guys getting Jimmy better, and myself as well along the way. Very helpful bunch of guys. Still kicked my but in the field but watched Jimmy and I develop. We luckily started getting some placements later in the year. It was not from me. It was from Jimmy.
He saved me points many times. He was learning the game faster than I was. I was also not such a good shot and missed many birds. The judges started telling me after a flush and me missing. To stay there he will probably save you again. Cause once I leave the spot of the flush and shot. No points for the retrieve. Jimmy would always run it down and bring me the uninjured live bird, a little damp from his mouth. I started hearing people tell me that he was developing good and they are watching Jimmy and I.
Even Jimmy started getting frustrated in me missing the birds. Of course there are the safety birds. He would still get them and bring them to me for the full retrieve. He still ran the ones I missed down, but started a few times, staring at me and setting the bird down 10 feet from me. It seemed like he knew weather it mattered or not. Like he kept track of the trial and knew if we had a chance to place. Now and then would retrieve it and give it to or set it down by the judge, or set it down in the ATV the judge was in. Jimmy is telling me that if I can’t start shooting better, come get it yourself. You fetch it up… Well I started shooting better and he was happier.
We did make it to the regionals that first year actually made it to 8th place out of all the great dogs in LSR. He got beat out by the little French Brittany that went on to win the regional trial for that year. Darn little thing did not work very far out, but just went along and found the birds like she had a map of where they were. Just slowly picked them out one by one. At least we got to the back faster than she did. So we got a few but not enough to beat her out. I lost Jimmy in-between seasons. I signed up for the next years trials and they noticed I did not put Jimmy down as one of my dogs. so they asked me “what about Jimmy” I then let them know what had happened. I then got several emails about it. The next year I saw the guy that won the regional after knocking me out at another trial. We were just talking about things and the regional as I congratulated him for winning. He said that he had money on Jimmy to win. So he actually bought my dog in the auction to win with the others. He asked me about Jimmy. I let him know and he was very unhappy about it. He stated that he and some others have been watching him develop the whole last season. Thought he was the dog to beat this year as he was a real threat to them all despite the handler.
Anyway he was a heck of a dog and I was building the reputation of my kennel off him. He was a star and my best friend and he knew it.
Well onto what happened.
This is what I think happened to start this horrible day for me.
Monday early morning 5/12/14 I had my last Llewellin pup shipping out to the new owner. As it is about 1 ½- 2 hours’ drive for me to the airport. Loaded up a dog box in the car to put the pup in for shipping. I think he saw that and thought , “what the heck… you’re going to work with some birds or hunting without me??!!” what else would I be doing that early in the morning right? I work from home fulltime. But this is one day on a consulting gig I was on at that time I went into the companies office. After all I was driving by there on my way to the airport and back. So thought I would show my face that day.
A rainy Monday night 5/12 when I got home from work I found Jimmy had gotten hit and killed on the road in front of my house by some inconsiderate driver. He got out of the back during the day sometime after 10 AM when we were gone, and it was not easy. He went very out of his way to do it. Pulling off a 10’ 2X6 that was attached with screws to the bottom of my Tack room. Dug into the hard packed dirt enough to get under the wall into the Tack room. Then squeezed himself through the cat door. I have gone to great effort and expense to keep them safe and secure. He spent time running around the yard and in the back yard as I say where he jumped over the divider from my carport to the patio.
One of the saddest things is, he was still warm. If I had not stopped at the house in Nevada to get my carpet shampooer, I probably would have been home before it happened (still kicking myself for that). My son was coming out to the house the next day anyhow bringing it with him. But as I was close to the house I thought I would help him out and just bring it myself.
We are not on a busy road at all at our rural location. Dogs of all kinds run around here from irresponsible owners just standing in the road, chasing cars, killing cats, and bugging my dogs, and nothing seems to happen to them.
We were devastated. He was doing so well in show and field, and had such great potential. He was defiantly a one of a kind dog, my star, and my good buddy. Very sad time for me at the time and still is. Still trying to replace him but know I never will.
I had gotten another male pup a few weeks before Jimmy was taken from me (Jack). He has great potential and already won in two puppy shows, one very big one. He is a natural in the field on birds as well. He already finds, points and retrieves birds with no training at 5 months old now.
I lost him in a freak accident as well. Jack was named after my Uncle. So I had Jimmy after my dad and Jack my dad’s brother that hunted with us when we were young. So Jim and Jack would be out hunting again together but now represented by dogs as both of them have passed away now.
At that time he was my only good competing dog. I wanted to keep competing the next year, and did not want to start from scratch.
So not to put all my eggs in one basket again. I have acquired several more dogs. Now have 17 dogs.
I got another great bloodline started and very good field dog from a professional trainer in Northern Kansas his name is Peanut. He was one of his personal dogs. He did not run big enough for him for horseback trials. But great for NSTRA. He was young but when I got him at 13 months, however he was already a successful field guide dog for several hunters on lots of birds. He is the hardest hunting dog I know and others have said that as well to me when they watch him run and hunt.
I had picked up a few along the way from great lines. One from the same breeder Gary Ramsey that I got Jimmy from and he is from very similar lines and my most constant dog and becoming a star himself.
But with now 7 solid competing dogs with 3 at trainers right now. 4 more pups to start this year between 8 weeks to 9 months old now, with 3 more pups on the way. One is 3 weeks old now and 2 not whelped yet but will be in the next few weeks. I need to stop adding dogs and will after this batch.
I could go on and on. Time to stop.
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