Why a Llewellin Setter? It's simple, because they are one of the oldest breeds, most reliable, loyal, classiest, natural pointing, retrieving, backing, foot hunting bird dogs alive today. With a strong willingness to please their master.
Why Dashing Bondhu lines? Because as Mr. Llewellin and Mr Humphrey thought after trying all of his best crosses and bloodlines, the Dashing Bondhu Bloodlines are simply the best and are Mr. Llewellin's and Mr. Humphrey's true ideals. Also, by keeping a line pure you get consistency never found when lines are crossed. When lines are mixed, it is impossible to know what line the pups will take after and many times genes just don't match up well and you get duds.
Unlike most pointing breeds and even some Llewellin bloodlines that have been bred to be hyper, hunting far out without any regard for their master, or other dogs, or bred to always hunt right on top of you no matter how open the field of sight. Our Llewellin Setters build an early bond with their master and have a very strong willingness to please their master. This not only makes them extremely easy to train and outstanding natural bird dogs, but also your best friend and awesome life long companion. Yes, they make wonderful companion pets that the whole family will fall in love with. You cannot over spoil a Llewellin Setter, in fact it is a must to make them the best they can be. All our pups are raised up on our farm spending much time in our home as part of our family.
In stead of them running off hunting and you having to hunt for them, they only hunt for you, when you want to go hunting. When hunting they will always keep you in eye shot range. This is what makes them extremely versatile and able to hunt for all kinds of upland game birds in all kinds of terrain. They have also made excellent retrievers when wing shooting doves, or even in water for waterfowl.
Here in central Kentucky, we have all kinds of terrain. We mainly hunt native bob-white quail in flat open and rolling farm lands and need dogs to first range out coursing back and forth across the big open fields, needing to cover a lot of ground, but once a covey has been pointed and then flushed, the quail will fly into the thickest cover they can find, so the same dog needs to immediately adjust to the new conditions and work close in with the hunter. In 37 plus years of bird dog hunting, professionally training, and breeding, I have never seen any other line of bird dog consistently be able to adjust and do this so well as the Llewellin Setters of the pure Dashing Bondhu bloodline.
This also makes them an excellent choice for ruffed grouse in the rough thickets and steep mountains where they must work very close and need extremely good noses. In Eastern Kentucky, we hunt our dogs on the smaller, faster flying Appellation sub-specie of ruffed grouse and the same dogs work well in flat wide open grain country where they will need to cover huge wide open crop fields and prairies for native pheasants, sharp tail grouse and chukar partridge. They simply adjust to the conditions and situations at hand, always keeping you within their eye sight. If they can always see you, you can always see them. There is no need for tacking collar on our Llewellin Setters. Their beautiful high held flashing white flag tails are easily spotted in almost every cover. Even dogs that are heavy ticked always seem to have a lot of white on their tails and are easily seen in cover.
Also, amazingly, our Llewellin Setters intelligence, is so high that they retain the knowledge gained from each experience in the field, such as learning to trail or circle around and cut off to pin down moving birds between them and the hunter. Things like this cannot be taught that quick and must be part of most Dashing Bondhu's inborn instincts. No need of a shock collar, or professional trainer, all they need is to be hunted where there are birds, it's that simple, guaranteed.
Please Beware of imitations!
There are those who call field English Setters, Llewellin Setters to capitalize on the Llewellin's great reputation, but this is WRONG! Unlike English Setter's who still allow Llewellin Setters to be bred into them, the Llewellin Setter is a fully recognized as a completely separate pure unique breed and does NOT allow any out crosses with any other setter breed of any kind including English Setters or Russian Llewellin Setters.
Fact, the English Setters to this day, still allow Llewellin Setters to be bred to them to improve their breed, but the English Setter will never improve the Llewellin Setter so they are NEVER allowed in them. Another fact, history shows that because of the Llewellin Setter's domination in the field, at one time, they were used to improve hunting abilities in all the Setter breeds. These include the Gordon Setter, Irish Red Setter, Irish Red & White Setter, English Setters, Russian Setters and Russian Llewellin Setters, so there is a little Llewellin Setter in all the Setter breeds.
Frequently asked Questions and AnswersQ. How large do your Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setter's get?
A. Our males are about 45-55 pounds, while our females are about 40-45 pounds when they are mature.Q. How long is their life span?
A. Most of our Llewellin Setters live to 14-16 years with proper care and nutrition. Some have been known to live over 20 years.Q. Do your pups really make wonderful house dogs, even in an non-hunting home?
A. Our Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters have been bred as gentlemen's dogs for over 100 years, making them excellent choice for a family companion, they are loyal, loving, and obedient pets. Most of our customers ask us how we house trained our pups at only 6-8 weeks of age. The truth is, we don't, they are just born with a lot of sense and are naturally clean animals and don't want to mess in their homes. They also have a very strong instinct to please their owner's, making them easy to train for just about anything that is canine possible. Though they are natural bird dog's, they don't know they are suppose to be bird dogs and are perfectly happy in a non hunting home, pleasing their owner's daily. This is why we don't limit our puppy sales to hunting homes only and it is important to us that they remain sensible and well behaved gentlemen dogs as well outstanding natural bird dogs.Q. Why is it that you specialize in only the Dashing Bondhu strain of Llewellin Setters and most other kennel's are crossing many strains?
A. Each strain has been bred for different qualities, so when mixing the strains, you will have no idea which qualities the pups will have. Also, some strains have genetic faults that will be carried recessively and will stay hidden by outcrossing, by breeding within one strain, the recessives will surface and can be removed from the bloodline. This assures us that our pups are genetically sound and uniformed litter after litter. Example: if I was to put all red marbles in a jar and reached in the jar blind folded, I could only pull out red marbles, but if I added some black and green marbles, I could pull out red, black, and/or green marbles in each hand full. By keeping the line separate and pure, we know exactly what to expect and will get the same results time after time.Q. What is the differences between the "American Llewellin Setters", the "English Llewellin Setters", the "Irish Llewellin Setters, Belgium Llewellin Setters and the "Russian Llewellin Setters"?
A. The American Llewellin's were developed by early American field trialer's here in America from late 1800's and early 1900 imports coming from Mr. Llewellin's and other English Setter breeder's early test breedings crossing certain bloodlines. Many of those lines were not kept by Mr. Llewellin and were not use in the development of his personal strain (Dashing Bondhu's).The English, Irish, and Belgium Llewellin's lines we have are ALL from Mr. Llewellins personal strain that he himself spent over 50 years developing and named them his Dashing Bondhu's. Llewellin's best and remaining Dashing Bondhu's were inherited by Mr. Humphrey (England) in 1925 and bred by him for another 38 years making 41 foot hunting Field Champions in the process. These were imported to America in the 1960's. The Dashing Bondhu's were also shared with Mr. Humphrey's very close friend Fr. Brannon (Ireland), who bred them there for 30 plus years. They were imported to America in the late 1980's.
Mr. Humphrey and Fr. Brannon also shared them with M.lle Marie Therese a Goes of Belgium who crossed most of them with the old Wind'em lines that Mr. Llewellin, Mr. Humphrey, and Fr. Brannon got rid of, but a few pure Dashing Bondhu's from Belgium were found and imported in the early 1990's and our "Dashing Bondhu Belgium" and Dashing Bondhu Janie have some of these pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines from Belgium in their pedigrees.
Like the American Llewellin's, the Russian Llewellin's were also developed from early imports from Mr. Llewellin and the Russian Llewellin's were not imported to America until the mid-1990's after the cold war ended. The first ones were imported by our friends Al & Drenda King in the mid 1990's. The Russian Llewellin's were very strictly bred, but were also bred for modern shows, making them much larger, heavier bodied with heavy long coats much like the US Show Setters, but unlike the US show setters, the Russian Llewellins still maintain strong pointing and retrieving instincts and had to win both shows and field events to be used for breeding. Unfortunately, it's our opinion that their larger size, heavier coats, and low carriage, made them low on stamina and speed and they were no pure Dashing Bondhu's found in Russia.
Q. I noticed that you are not OFA or CERF Hip Certifying your dogs. Why is that?
A. Kennels who need to hip certify their dogs, do so because they know their line has and can produce genetic hip problems. In over 13 + years of breeding our pure Dashing Bondhu strain of Llewellin Setters, the many that were tested early on never tested positive nor have any of ours produced one single pup who developed a hip problem genetic or other wise. So it is pointless to check a genetically proven bloodline for something that is not there. We support OFA efforts, but unfortunately many kennels use OFA certification to sell pups even though it is much better to purchase a pup from a breeding program without hip or other genetic health problems, then to purchase a pup from one that needs to continually check their bloodlines for genetic problem and produce them often. The truth is, even when both parents are checked and certified, it does not mean it is not carried recessively by them and will not be produced in their pups they sell. Also, many of these kennels use OFA certification as a way to not take responsibility after the sale who do develop hip and other genetic problems, because they use testing as an excuse why they should not be held responsible.Q. Just in case, what kind of guarantee do you have for birth defects or genetic problems if it ever did arise?
A. A 100% Satisfaction Replacement Guarantee on EVERY pup we place. The only health issues that are not guaranteed, are those caused by injury or from lack of proper care after the sale. We have been working with this line since 1996 and so far we have only had one pup with a birth defect that was returned and replaced, praise the Lord!Q. How do your Setter's handle the heat of the deep south?
A. This was the first question I asked when we got interested in Setters, because I thought a dog with long hair would never do well in the heat. Our Llewellin Setter coats are actually not as thick or as long as people think and the dogs acclimated to the south or kept indoors don't get as long a coat. Also, their coats actually work as an insulator from the heat and all I do know is ours have always handled the heat better than any other breed of dog we have owned including top German Shorthair and English pointers. We have also not received one complaint about handling the heat from a single customer and have placed pups in the deep south in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, and in southern California. They also handle the cold better than any dog we have seen, in Alaska, Maine, upstate New York, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Washington state, Oregon, and Canada winters.Q. How do you handle hunting your Setters in briars, thickets, thistle, etc., don't they end up covered in them?
A. Surprisingly, their silky medium coats work as a natural barrier against thorns and thickets. With a little trimming before or after the first hunt to remove any trouble spots and a light spray of a cheap non-stick cooking spray on their under parts, their coats are easily maintained. The dogs even love licking the cooking spray off their coats and remove any and all thistles from their coats during the drive home from our hunting grounds. If all things are equal and I could choose the coat I want on the perfect bird dog, I would choose the coat on our Setter's every time. It protects them from both weather conditions and types of cover with minimal maintenance effort. Not to mention how beautiful they look coursing back and fourth across a field in search of birds, beauty unequaled by any other breed of bird dog.Q. I have never owned or trained a bird dog, so who will train my dog if I get one from you, will I need a professional trainer?
A. No, anyone can train one of our Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters with a little common sense that is. They are "Natural" bird dogs, which means, they will point birds naturally, retrieve birds naturally, and will even back (honor) other pointing dogs naturally. They also are naturally born to want to please their master, so they are very easy to train, because they want to learn and please you. Basically, all you need to do is to take good care of them, direct them a little and take them hunting, that is about it.Q. What kind of equipment will I need to train one of your dogs to hunt birds. Will I need expensive electric dog collars, etc. ?
A. All you will need is a regular dog collar, a tie-out chain, a regular dog leash and a 30 ft check cord which can be made out of some clothesline and a snap. Absolutely NO ELECTRIC COLLARS should be used in training one of our Dashing Bondhu's. In fact, it will most likely do more harm than good.All we do is first leash train them by tying them out on a tie-chain a few days. If you already tie them up on a chain, then you are ahead of the game, if not just tie the pup or dog out. Make sure they cannot tangle and will have plenty of shade and a place to get out of bad weather. Also, provide plenty of water and food for them. After they have been tied a few days, they will basically be leashed trained. Now you can take them for walks on a regular dog leash daily.
Once they are comfertable with the dog leash, you are ready to take the dog hunting with a 30 foot check cord attached. The check cord should be slick without a loop on the end so it will not tangle while the dog is running in the field, brush, or woods. We usually only use the check cord for retrieving, but it can be used at anytime to control them. When they find a bird and naturally point it, you can steady the dog keping the line tight. We recommend having someone else come on their first hunt to do the shooting, so you can pay attention to the dog and so you can flush the bird, they should naturally go to retrieve the bird. When they do, pick up the end of the check cord and call the dog to bring you the bird, when they do, bring up the slack until they bring the bird to your hand. Once the dog is bringing the birds to your hand without you having to guild them to you with the check cord, then the check cord is no longer needed and all is need is more hunting, it's that simple.
All our Llewellin Setters are trained in this simple manner, if they are not natural in every way, they are never used in our breeding program, plain and simple. All our Llewellin Setters are Gun Dog Certified assuring our customers that every dog has been tested and proven in the field.
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.