02/18/2024
Influence of Elhew Breeding on Quilted Arrow Pointers
By Dr. Tom Rakow - Minnesota, USA
RockDove.com
Looking back, I did not know what I had in my first pointer. Although I had always admired the old paintings of pointers and setters, I’m not sure I had ever actually seen either in person.
My dad was a Wisconsin dairy farmer and a passionate racc**n hunter. We raised bluetick c**nhounds. Normally we had 10-16 dogs which - besides the c**n hounds - included: a fox dog, a rabbit dog, a squirrel dog or two, a cow dog, and a terrier we used for flushing pheasants.
When I was 13 or 14 a friend of my older brother gave me a long-tailed German shorthair pointer. That fall we saw a ringed-neck rooster in the pasture. My dad grabbed a long rope and got the German short hair. I grabbed an old 12 gauge double barrel.
Dad led the shorthair to the high grass where the rooster was crouched. That liver and white GSP lifted his front paw in a classic fashion, stretched his nose forward, and froze like a beautiful statue with a long tail. Suddenly the rooster busted. Boom!
Although it has now been more than a half-century, that beautiful sight is still strongly etched in my mind. Like I said - when we bought our first pointer I didn’t know how truly fortunate I was. In 2001 our family dog had died. There was an ad in the paper for pointer puppies. It seems that few people in Minnesota where I live (including myself) knew what an American-bred English pointer was. I am still learning. I am not an expert. (Note - where I live the term pointer often conjures up a GSP in many people’s minds.)
Although I had trained c**n dogs - I really didn’t know if I could actually train a bird dog. I expressed my concern to a longtime friend who had a Brittany. And, although he always sent his dogs off to have them professionally trained, he said, “I think 75 percent of it is in them - you just have to worry about the other 25 percent.” As an impoverished pastor of a small church and having four young daughters - sending the dog off for training was not an option for us.
I found a used book in which the experienced trainer and writer warned, “Never hunt pheasants with a pointer!” Well, there wasn’t much else to hunt where I lived. I also got some tips for training from video tapes.
This black and white pointer grew and matured. She had a pleasing profile, was very stylish, a natural retriever, honored naturally, and loved water. Until then I had never heard of Hall of Fame Champion Guard Rail or of the Elhew breeding. However, in her pedigree Guard Rail appeared five times, Elhew Strike twice, and others such as: Paladin’s Royal Legacy, Elhew Italy, and Elhew Huckatuck were included.
We called this first female Cookie, but after seeing her on point I decided that her legal name would be “Divine Arrow.” I picked that name because, to this day, whenever I see one of my pointers on point I can’t help but recognize centuries of selective breeding - of which I am an undeserving beneficiary. However, I also see the invisible hand of God. For me a pointer on point is like an arrow pointing to the Creator who ultimately stands behind such beauty(see Romans 1:20). Since then all of our pointers have had “Arrow” in their legal name (e.g Polished Arrow, Bent Arrow, Lost Arrow, Onyx Arrow, Lone Arrow, Platinum Arrow, Ivory Arrow, etc.). Divine Arrow has served as the primary foundation for both our breeding and naming. I pick the legal name, and my wife or kids have picked the call names.
All of our pointers purposely have Guard Rail somewhere in their pedigree. Breeders I have used are: Harris Kennels in Kansas (Guard Rail Spirit), and Caladen Kennels in TN (Caladen’s Storm Trooper). Since that first pup in 2001, we have only purchased two pointers - a male from Stony Kennels in Iowa with Elhew breeding influenced by Nitro Kennels (which is no longer functioning). More recently we purchased a granddaughter of Guard Rail from Harris Kennels in Kansas. (She is out of of the late Guard Rail’s Hawk.)
I am grateful to the various breeders who have in one way or another helped perpetuate the Elhew (and in particular Guard Rail) blood. In his book Snakefoot: The Making of a Champion, the late Bob Wehle evidently regarded Guard Rail as a product of his Elhew breeding. Wehle states, “Guard Rail wasn’t an outcross for he had so much Elhew blood in his pedigree. He was used because he had already proven his great prepotency*” (p.71, Snakefoot). Wehle obviously recognized Guard Rail’s significant contribution to his breeding program in that he also dedicated a page of his fine book to include Guard Rail’s pedigree (p. 45, Snakefoot).
Mark Wendling of Superior Pointers: Fine Bird Dogs (www.superiorpointers.com) explains on his web page titled Elhew Outcrosses: Epilogue, “A decade after the highly successful breedings to Red Water Rex, Bob Wehle would make his two most consequential outcrosses. In 1984, Elhew Italy X Elhew Huckatuck daughter, Elhew Roundabout was bred to six time champion, Guard Rail. Mr. Wehle considered Guard Rail, a great grandson of Elhew Jungle and Elhew White Cloud, ‘the most important sire of the last fifty years’. This outcross produced the ‘blue hen’, Elhew Kiwi, who would play a pivotal role in the Elhew breeding program. Elhew Brass, winner of the 1987 National Shooting Dog Futurity and the maternal grandsire of National Shooting Dog Champion, Elhew Snakefoot, was a product of this union.”
Craig Doherty of Wild Apple Kennels https://wildapplekennel.com/2019/02/guard-rail/ has written an excellent and informative article about Guard Rail. This gives a great summary of his career, successful offspring, and unfortunate death. Craig points out that Guard Rail’s owner was a type of pioneer for frozen canine semen. He states, “Fortunately for the bird dog and field trial world, Gene Casale was an early adopter of semen collection and storage.”
This forethought of Guard Rail’s owner has personally proved a blessing to me. Considering that Guard Rail has been gone since 1984, I feel especially blessed to have his blood in all of our dogs. I currently have three granddaughters of Guard Rail from three different sons (Guard Rail Spirit, Caladen’s Storm Trooper, and Guard Rail’s Hawk). I also have a great grandson and a great granddaughter of Guard Rail. Our male Chosen Elhew Arrow also has Guard Rail listed in his pedigree.
Our dogs have all been family dogs. They are not only passionate hunters, have great noses, are highly intelligent, great communicators, love to please, are sensitive, have been - and continue to be - used in various public seminars and presentations. A male from one of our breedings who is a great grandson of Guard Rail recently received the Trick Dog Grand Champion Title. He is only the 4th pointer to do this and he and his owner Lisa Yax Sayers accomplished it before he turned a year old.
I have always been a foot hunter, and have found my dogs quickly adapt to the type of cover or terrain I am hunting. This is true whether hunting woodcock, pheasants, or quail. Although sometimes a dog (it seems especially males) may want to push beyond my desired range, generally they are a pleasure to hunt with.
One of my biggest hunting thrills is seeing one of my dogs go on point and then observe another one or two honor that point. I sometimes get more excited about the backing than I do the point.
I hope to have dogs with the Guard Rail/Elhew blood for the rest of my life. I thank God for the privilege of owning them - and living in a country where I can freely hunt them.
In fact, I have asked my wife Beth to allow at least one of my dogs to serve as a honorary pall bearer at my funeral when that time comes. She hasn’t promised anything - yet. But I am hoping!
*Webster defines prepotency as “unusual ability of an individual or strain to transmit its characteristics to offspring because of homozygosity for numerous dominant genes.”
Guard Rail Posted on February 6, 2019February 6, 2019 Gene and Guard Rail Guard Rail was already dead, when I started going to field trials about 25 years ago. He had died tragically on December 26, 1984 in an accident on Interstate 95 in Woodbridge, Virginia as his owner Gene Casale and Truman Cowl...
