For helping in saving the Llewellin Setter breed from extinction and for preserving these and almost all other Llewellin Setter bloodlines in their original pure forms. NO ONE has done more to preserve the Llewellin Setters in America than them. Special Thank You to Al & Drenda King
of King's Llewellin Kennel!It is amazing to me how so many breeders can forget those responsible for saving the Llewellin Setter breed now that they are once again becoming highly popular. Al and Drenda, are truly the King's of the Llewellin Setter breed. If not for their dedication and many years of sacrifices in preserving each Llewellin line in their original pure form, no one would have the pure Llewellin Setter gene pools we see today and it would be impossible for anyone to maintain a genetically healthy pure Llewellin Setter Kennel today.
It is unfortunate that there are always people who have to put other breeder's down in order to make themselves feel important. These hypocrites will slander breeder's while continuing to use dogs in their breeding programs that would not even be here if not for the person they are slandering. I guess there should be no surprise since the same exact thing was done to Mr. Llewellin and many other outstanding dog breeders throughout history.
The facts are, it would be next to impossible to find any quality, genetically sound Llewellin Setter pedigrees that did not have dogs that the King's had bred and produced. I am sorry to say, that if all the Llewellin Setter's were removed that the King's had anything to do with, there would be NOTHING LEFT!! In fact, just like with Humphrey, the largest majority of great Llewellin Setter breeder's of our time have intrusted Al & Drenda King with their dogs on their passing.
It is also sad that a registry dictated by one owner who wants to end the Llewellin breed existence would harass a kennel to leave their registry for years and then when they do, they attempt to hurt them personally by claiming that they left because they were banned from registration. I personally believe it's a free country and with today's technical advances there are registries designed to improve the breeds not just keep records and everyone should be free to register their dogs with the registry of their choice.
Without the King's there would never of been "Hunting with Hank" or "Upland Days with Dash" possible, because there would be no great "Hank" or "Dash" to make the great shows nor the many other great dogs that have brought the breeds popularity back to the top. In fact pedigrees show that 99% of all Llewellin Setters in the US would not be here if not for the King's.
Marie and I have personally known Al & Drenda for over a dozen years, have been to their home and kennel numerous times, spending several hours and days with them talking meticulously about each line and how hard they work to keep each line and each individual dogs unique genes preserved for the future of the breed.
We have not found more honest, fair, understanding, and God fearing people. They are GOOD PEOPLE who love their Lord, family, and the Llewellin Setter breed and deserve our gratitude for all they have and continue to do for the Llewellin Setter breed!
Marie and Drenda in 2008 
Mike and Al in 2008
Can you find the Llewellin pup in the picture?
"Hank" of "Hunting with Hank" with his "breeder" Al King.
American & Russian Llewellin's
It should be noted that though I am not a breeder of the early American Llewellin imports and the newer imported Russian Llewellin Setters, preferring to own, hunt, and breed Llewellin's and Humphrey's personal pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines. I am not knocking those dedicated to breeding those other Llewellin bloodlines. In fact, I have owned and hunted almost all the Llewellin strains over the years and ALL made bird dogs, even better than most other pointing breeds I have trained or owned. It was our experience that the American Llewellins we tried needed more training and were a little head strong, compared to the pure Dashing Bondhu gentlemen type dogs.
We must all keep in mind that the selection were very different by America breeders as well as by Russian breeders. Each line has their very own unique style, appearance, and temperament and is what makes them each a recognized unique line. Everyone has different tastes and ideas of what makes a good bird dog, hence different lines were developed. In fact at one point the American lines became so recognizably different from Mr. Llewellin's own personal dogs that some American writers claimed the Llewellin Setter an American breed and believe it or not, they even questioned if Mr. Llewellin's personal Dashing Bondhu line should be recognized as a Llewellin Setter or not?
There is no doubt that Mr. Llewellin's early Setter's were superior to all other bird dogs right from the start and his breeding program continued to improve and he continued to perfect his dogs all the way up until his passing in 1925. His personal Dashing Bondhu lines that he bred for 50 years, continued with Mr. Humphrey and Humphrey's grandson Chris Sorenson for 38+ years, and Father Bannon for 30 more years, and later with Al & Drenda King for another 40 plus years, and continued here at Mountain View Kennel since 1996.
Because the Russian Llewellin Setters were bred so differently from all other Llewellin Setter's, they are recognized as their own unique breed in the International Progressive Dog Breeders' Alliance all breed registry and the "Russian Llewellin" bloodlines are not allowed in the "Llewellin Setter" breed.
They have the perfect size tattooing equipment for young Setter pups. We tattoo and microchip all our Llewellin Setters at 5 weeks of age. We recommend the green roll-on ink that will make clear easy to read tattoo in a puppies ear that will grow with the dog but will still remain easy to read as an adult. Tattoo set is available online at www.bassequipment.com
Tattoo Equipment from
Bass Rabbit Supply CompanyWe recommend Avid Micro Chips that you can purchase directly from Avid online at wwww.avidmicrochip.com and can be purchased by breeder's for as low as $7.00 each registered to you. All Breeder's should micro-chip their pups for identification. Don't let registries or vet's rob you blind.
Micro chipping your Setter pups.
Though the Llewellin Setter had dominated the early foot hunting type Field Trails around the world for nearly a century, so much so that in my opinion, the FDSB rules had to be changed in America so the pointer could win, it is my opinion that Field Trails of today do not help in making a breed better for the foot or pleasure hunter at all. In fact they have proven to do much harm to the hunting breeds.Examples of this can be easily found in all types of Field Trails.
1. The bird dog field trails caused them to run wide and wild with little regard of the hunter, requiring horses to keep up with them and tracking equipment to find them. Even the gun dog trails, have both hunters and dogs running as fast as they can to shot as many birds as fast as they can. Many Grouse Trials are conducted using stocked quail, resulting in many Grouse Champions titles being awarded to dogs who never pointed a grouse in competition.
This is not the way pleasure or foot hunter hunts, nor the way I want to hunt. Resulting in wide and deep ranging dogs passing over most cover until they run into a bird by mistake. Also, with FDSB now bowing to the animal rights groups banning all shoot to kill trails, how can any dog be put to a true test? Not to mention having to force train them to do what they should have been bred to do in the first place.
2. The Beagle field trails, caused the dogs to become so slow on track barking 30 plus times on a single track before moving to the next track, that the track would turn too cold to run and they would lose the track before they could bring the rabbit around to the gun. These were known as walky talkies by hunters and became totally worthless as hunting dogs. Also, now with the newer Gun Dog Beagle trials they have already gone to the other extreme and
have them running too fast pushing 90% of the game to hole instead of bringing them around to the gun. Resulting in Beagles that don't know how to jump a rabbit on their own or having the sense to find a rabbit on their own.3. The Tree hound Night hunts, resulted in wide ranging, disregard of their owner's and requiring expensive tracking collars to locate the dogs many miles from the hunter. Not to mention the need for shocking collars to shock their dogs for everything from trash running, tree fighting with each other, and even just to come when called. Hunter's spend more time hunting for their dogs, then hunting for game. Resulting in dogs that hunt straight out and deep, passing a lot of game until they run into one by mistake. The hound breeds have been so ruined that the cur breeds are now the coon and squirrel hunters first choice, but even some cur strains are already falling to the same demise from competition.
I trained bird dogs professionally for the Field trails for a number of years through the mid 1970's and also bred, trained, and competed with field trail Beagles in the late 1970's and early 1980's and trained and competed with tree dogs for over 30 years and was very successful filling walls and boxes of hundreds of ribbons, plaques, and trophies. I have even judged all three types of trails and I finally realized that trails did little if anything in helping to develop the quality of the dogs for the real hunter. In fact, competition left it's mark on every dog that was entered in trails and it was not a positive mark. I also realized that with less than 1% of the worlds hunting dogs ever being entered in a Field Trail, it was very unlikely that any of the best dogs in the world would even attend, making the titles I received meaning very little.
Needless to say, titles from these types of trials no longer mean much in the whole scheme of things and I believe do more harm to the dogs, to the breed, and sport then if they were only pleasure hunted their whole lives.
Here is an example how many breeders breed today: Now we made Field Champion Super Duper that required so much force training and is completely a man made dog and would be worthless if not for skilled trainers, slick handler's, and the almighty shock and/tracking collars. He might have won everything under the sun, he has little chance of ever producing any natural pups, and most of his offspring will need the same force training, slick handler's, etc., as Super Duper did to make them a "Field Champion". But Ole' Super Duper is a Field Champion and that title will sell puppies, so he will be studded to any female that will stand and produce hundreds of pups annually for his owner, making lots of money, until the public realizes what they have and the breeder needs to find a new Super Duper to start all over again.
Even though many of his pups won't ever be worth a lick as natural hunting dogs, they too will be used as breeder's in kennels because they are out of Ole' Field Ch. Super Duper. How many times have you heard a breeder say, "She is not a very good dog, but she is out of so and so"? Unfortunately, 90% of breeder's think this way and still think they are good dog breeder's and are some how helping the breed. Well, they are NOT!
If a dog requires force training of any kind, the dog should NEVER be considered for Breeding PERIOD! Only the most NATURAL dogs with the high degree of NATURAL ability, should be even considered. A well bred dog will produce a high percentage of it's self! So if it requires shock collars, tracking equipment, force training, it will produce the same. The Bird dog world is full of breeder's breeding man made dogs, that are producing pups that will require the same. As a professional trainer, I trained a Beagle to point solid, retrieve to hand, and even back another dog on point. In fact she was easier to train then most of the high dollar pedigreed bird dogs we trained back then.
Once we realized that the jug heads that we trained were being used to win titles to stud kennels and sell high dollar puppies to the public, we quit professional training, because we could not take part in the farce.
I find it interesting that most of the bird dog breeder's advertising today are also professional trainer's or are using or recommending professional trainer's on their websites. A good professional trainer can make a bird dog out of a dog from the dog pound. They will glad fully sell you a pup out of two un-natural bird dogs, so you will bring the pup back and pay them to train their dog. Hey, first you pay for the pup, then you pay them to train the pup, how great is that. How about breeding dogs that don't require professional training, you might have to pay a little more for the pup, but in the long run, how much will you save and how better off will the pup, breed, and world will be. How many natural bird dogs will require rescue or adoption? I'd say none!
Gun Dog Certification! Now, certification is a bird of a different color, please excuse the pun :) The International Progressive Dog Breeders' Alliance 'IPDBA' has had a certification program for many hunting breeds since 1996 and the Certification program has proven to work exceptionally well, eliminating the jealousy between owners, all the politics, and all of the usual problems associated with competition events, except a sure un-bias way to prove to the public your dogs are proven hunting dogs.
Gun Dog Certification assures the buyer that the breeder is testing and proving each dog in their kennel. Not breeding just on a dogs bloodline or because it is out of Ole' Super Duper, but because the dogs are of a high standards and a proven hunter.
With Gun Dog Certification, it does not matter who you are, who you know, where you live, style of the dog you hunt, the quantity of game in your area, or the type of upland birds you hunt. It is very affordable and does not require the time it takes to campaign a dog nationally. This also makes it's benefits available to all dog owner's around the world, instead of just being available to roughly 1-2% of larger wealthier kennel owners who usually pay handlers and professional trainers to attend competition events weekly and live where many Field trails are held. It also eliminates your dog exposure to strange dogs, that might fight, growl, or even pass on diseases, professional and slick handlers winning the dogs titles, instead of being based completely on the dogs ability.
It's really very simple, all pointing breeds are required to send a clear un-edited video copy (VHS or DVD) showing the dog search (hunt), holding point, being shot over and retrieving to hand, and backing (honoring another pointing dog) with only a $25 inspection fee. Gun Dog Certification is a way to prove each individual dog has the instinct and abilities of a Gun Dog to pass it on to their offspring. It is easy to know which dogs are Gun Dog Certified by their IPDBA titles "GDC" and being highlighted in red by simply looking at an IPDBA pedigree. Eventually, it will be easy to see which kennels are simply puppy mills, pumping as many puppies out as possible, from those kennels that are serious in improving and preserving their breeds natural hunting abilities, intelligence, and trainability. In fact kennel's who breed natural easy trainable dogs will easily certify their dogs, but those kennels who breed dogs that must be force trained generation after generation are not likely to do Gun Dog Certification. In fact they are less likely to even register their dogs with IPDBA so they don't look like the only ones who are not certifying their dogs.
Even if you are just seeking a family companion, Gun Dog Certifications assures you that the pups parents are handled and hunted and have the ability, intelligence, temperament, and trainability consistent with the breeds reputation. Not just someone's unwanted dogs found in the local newspaper because of poor house training or temperament problems and living their lives in a puppy factory. Believe me that is where the puppy mills find their cheap breeding stock, sold in local newspapers because they can't be house trained or have a bad temperament but can produce registered puppies.
Also, keep an eye out for puppies that are advertised as Continental Kennel Club 'CKC' registered. It is my opinion that CKC is a catch all registry with the lowest registration requirements and it's my opinion that they will register anything with four legs, even if it is a cross breed. They should never be confuse with the Canadian Kennel Club, aka CKC who are a well respected registry around the world.
Don't get me wrong, not every dog that is Gun Dog Certified should be used for breeding, a breeder still needs to only breed the very best of the best by only selecting the most natural and intelligent dogs of the best breedings. The only way a breeder can do that is to personally raise and train each and ever pup themselves and evaluate each ones progress as an individual.
Well bred dogs, especially a genetic dominant dog will reproduce their kind and if they are duds, then duds are what they will produce, but if they are outstanding "Natural" dogs of excellent temperament, then that is what they will produce. So testing and evaluating each and every dog is a MUST!
The only exception I can see is if the only dogs available out of a certain pedigree are dogs that never been hunted and are to old to train. But care MUST be taken to make SURE the pups out of them are as HIGH QUALITY as those who are out of tested and certified dog's. If they are not, completely remove that dog's line from you breeding program. Anything, that is not a step forward, should not be continued.
Mountain View Kennel and
Gun Dog Certification!Mountain View Kennel is the FIRST bird dog Kennel to pledged to breed IPDBA "Gun Dog Certified" dogs in their breeding program, meaning a dog must first be inspected and certified on upland game birds to search (hunt), point, steady when shot over, retrieve to hand, and back (honor) another dog. This assures all our customers that the pups with parents that are "Gun Dog Certified" are not just brood females bred just to sell puppies.
Also, please note that NOT every Gun Dog Certified dog should be used for breeding, because they were simply not "Naturals" and good enough. Only the best, most natural, pure Dashing Bondhu Setters with a very strong willingness to please their master will ever be used in our breeding program, assuring our customer's the same quality of gun dogs we own and raise generation after generation. The only exception will be if we purchase an older untrained dog of exceptional breeding. Of course they will not be advertised as being Gun Dog Certified.
To learn more about IPDBA and it's Gun Dog Certification program, please follow the link to Llewellin Setter Registration below.
Please Note!
In 1996, the "Llewellin Setters" and the "Russian Llewellin Setters" were finally totally recognized and registered as completely unique separate breeds by the International Progressive Dog Breeders' Alliance 'IPDBA' (International All-Breed Registry and Breeders' Alliance). IPDBA was the first International Dog Registry to do this.
In 1996 our Dashing Blaze Bondhu was the FIRST Llewellin Setter to be officially registered as a fully recognized "Llewellin Setter" and not as a strain of English Setter like those that have been registered since 1902 in Field Dog Stud Book and are still today.
Mountain View Kennel was also the first Llewellin Kennel to register it's kennel name with IPDBA. OLN's TV stars Hank and Dash are both IPDBA registered "Llewellin Setters". Mountain View Kennel, King's Llewellin Kennel, as well as many other top Llewellin Kennels are now EXCLUSIVELY registering their kennels and great dogs with IPDBA in an effort to preserve and improve them. In fact thousands of new Llewellin Setters are added to the IPDBA data base each year, creating the largest "Llewellin Setter" breed data base in the world!
The NATIONAL LLEWELLIN SETTER ASSOC. is the oldest Llewellin Setter organization in the world and is the official Llewellin Setter Breed Charter of IPDBA. IPDBA recognizes over 500 pure bred dog breeds internationally making it the largest all breed International dog registry in the world.
IPDBA has the strictest registration policies of all registries in the world and the only registry that requires all Setter breeds including the Llewellin, Russian Llewellin, English, Gordon, Irish Red Setter, and Irish Red & White Setters to all have microchips, tattoo, and three color photos to be registered. This assures the identity of each dog and makes it nearly impossible to switch papers with other dogs. DNA parenting, OFA (Hips) certification are also options and are recorded on the registration papers for no extra fee.
When you read in publications and websites claiming a Llewellin Setter is just a line of English Setter and not a separate breed, they DON'T know what they are talking about. The Llewellin Setter was recognized as a separate line in 1902, long before many other breeds have come into existence and in 1996 where officially recognized as a unique individual breed of it's own. Even though there are Setter breeds like English Setters that continue to allow Llewellin Setters to be bred into them to improve there breed, the Llewellin Setter does NOT allow ANY Out-crossing with ANY other breed and is recognized as a totally separate unique breed of their own.
NOTICE!
All our Llewellin Setters are permanently identified with registered AVID® microchips,
Tattooed, and are DNA swabbed for
genetic identification.
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All documents, photographs and graphics are Copyright © 1996-2009
Mountain View Kennel. Background of Dashing Blaze Bondhu, pure Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setter dedicated in her loving memory.
