Darwin and his littermates had a special start in that his 13.5 year old sire, Cecil, was able to breed Darwin's dam, Celine, naturally.  This is an impressive accomplishment for any sire in any breed.   Four pups were in the resulting litter.   

 

As with all of the pups we breed, when these pups turned two years of age, I sent out information to each owner explaining how to get their dog's health testing completed and submitted to the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA).  From this litter of four that includes Darwin, the OFA results were all normal with the hips rated as three goods and one excellent.

 

The first litter sired by Darwin was born in August of 2019.   The first OFA results from this litter are Statesman's Bold Venture "Sophie", hips OFA good, elbows OFA normal and Statesman's Brigadier General "Clark" received an OFA rating of excellent for hips and normal elbows.

 

Darwin is birdy and has been started in bird work..   He has a strong scenting ability, which helps him locate the birds.  

Susan has trained many dogs over the years to be shown in conformation, do field work, and do rally work.  Training Darwin in rally has been a joy!  Spectators have watched Darwin competing in rally, and these people have made comments on how happy and biddable Darwin is in the ring.

 

In January 2023 Darwin returned to the rally ring...now at the advanced level.  At the two rally trials, Darwin qualified.  He now needs to qualify one more time to achieve the rally advanced title.  Then the first weekend of May 2023 Darwin qualified with a score of 99 out of 100!   He won his class and is now Ch. Statesman's Let It Be RALLY ADVANCED!

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In the summer of 2022 Darwin and Susan traveled weekly up to Wisconsin to train with a spaniel field trainer who had land and birds and a pond!   In September 2022 Darwin qualified at his first AKC hunting test.   In March 2023 he qualified at the WSSCA hunting test in conjunction with the national specialty.   He will be entered in tests later this year...probably in Georgia.  Four qualifying "legs" are needed to earn a junior hunter title.

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