History of Hawkwise Brittanys
From the outset we wanted to breed dogs to work with the birds of prey. It had to be sensible and trustworthy around our hawks, falcons and owls - in short it had to be hawk-wise. However for Steve, coming from a dog breeding family himself, it was clear that this would never be enough. He was always going to look for excellence in every aspect of behaviour, conformation and performance. It was inevitable that this would be the start of a breeding programme that - 9 generations on - is still going. Bred unapologetically for hawking the Hawkwise kennel name has come to mean much more. Our journey has been in a number of identifiable stages.
The start of a working relationship - based on mutual trust - for this pup and the young Sparrowhawk she will be working with
Our first Brittany, Nem, was
working from 8 months old and was shown just once, at the Brittany Club Open Show in 1988. She won 2 classes and ended up as Reserve Best Bitch to her mother. As she neared retirement, on the advice of Mike and Pauline Beavan, she was mated to Rosevale Dominic
and produced 6 bitch puppies. Of these Hawkwise In the Brambles (pet name Villain) was kept. She was worked in tandem with her mother and eventually carried the baton by herself. Like Nem she was a truly dedicated worker and won many new admirers for the breed, her rich sable colour (mahogany with black tips to her ears), giving them a "burnt toast" look. Despite this being 'an unrecognised colour' she was shown once, winning a good novice class at the Brittany Club Open Show.
From professional falconers: One, who hawked over Villain on several occasions, said, "I've five dogs in my kennels but there's always space for that bitch if you want to sell her."
Another, well-known for the excellence of his German smooth-haired pointers, "That's the best Brittany I've ever seen work."
Villain worked until she was 11 years old and had 2 litters, the first - to the Beavan's Ch T'Chao de l'Hospitalier at Brittyhill, produced 6 pups. There was only one bitch, which was the exact replica of its mother, and Steve thought it would be confusing to work two such identical girls together. He therefore opted to keep a dog, a fairly bold decision as there were few Brittany dogs that displayed the biddable nature that he was seeking. Careful selection resulted in "Trouble" (Hawkwise Highlander) being kept. A boldly marked sable like his mother he was so pretty that several people commented that he would "never be a working dog". He was quick to prove them wrong. Going up to Scotland for a five-month hawking season, it was intended to let him run behind Villain for an hour a day "to educate his nose". However an injury to her left him carrying the burden of being a full-time hawking dog - working in front of clients - at the tender age of 5 months. This put an old head on his shoulders and gave him more experience, before his first birthday, than most dogs get in a lifetime.
Villain with her first litter - Hawkwise Highlander is the dark brown pup in the centre
Stage 1: Are our Brittanys good enough? 1st, 2nd & 3rd generations.
The Brittany is a dual-purpose dog - being capable of working long hours over any sort of terrain, and complying with the breed standard for conformation and movement. Nem and Villain proved their robustness and enthusiasm - as our extensive hawking grounds provided every terrain from water meadows to mountain crags, and tested them to the limit. Where looks were concerned both had failings. Nem was much too small (a fairly common fault with Brittany bitches) while Villain, who was a bit taller, was sable coloured, which is not a recognised colour in the show ring. However, in Trouble we had produced a good-looking, correctly constructed dog with tremendous working ability. There was certainly room for improvement but we had confidence in our stock as working dogs.
Stage 2. Trouble and his legacy
- the 4th generation.
For the first time we had produced a genuine dual-purpose, home-bred Brittany. He was not campaigned much in the show ring, nor at Field Trials and Working Tests, but he still became well-recognised and was used quite extensively at stud. All of a sudden the Hawkwise name was appearing in the top (sire's) half of Brittany pedigrees.
Trouble continued to develop an increasing range of skills, and always displayed that indefinable quality of "game sense". This convinced Steve that his dog was of a type that should be more widely recognised. In consequence Trouble was entered for his first show and qualified for Crufts. Sadly this leading showcase for the dog industry takes place in early March, when Trouble had just finished 5 months in Scotland. He was very fit but 'skinny' compared to the other dogs there - and out of control with excitement! Mortified by this disaster Steve attended the local ringcraft classes, and duly entered Trouble for the Brittany Club's next open show. To his astonishment Trouble went Best in Show under Mick Young - himself a Brittany breeder. This success was followed up by coming Best of Breed at the National Gundogs and a few weeks later getting a Reserve Challenge Certificate at Bournemouth Championship Show. This was to prove a lucky venue for them as the following year Trouble won his only Challenge Certificate there under Marion Reeves.
Trouble's two careers - on the left, pointing game in Perthshire - and, right, at Crufts
Trouble's first litter of 5 was to a well-bred, 'poaching' bitch from Coventry and, to further develop his reputation as a sire, Steve was fortunate to be offered a young, black roan bitch, Challowmoon Ukrainie at Hawkwise. In total she had 3 litters with Trouble, as well as joining him in the hawking field (see photo on left). One daughter, (Hawkwise Bedouine over Gefni) became the first Brittany to compete at championship level agility - followed later by her own daughter!
In all he was to sire 97 pups from 14 litters - most of whom went to falconry homes. Several were themselves bred from but we kept no direct sons or daughters ourselves.
One breeder, selling to a distant falconry home, told the inquirer that the mother was from the Hawkwise line. Before this the would-be purchaser had been dithering about having to travel so far to look at the pups. Instantly he said "Don't worry. If it's Hawkwise - the cheque is in the post!"
Stage 3: Establishing a line - the 5th generation
One dog does not make a dynasty and, with outside bitches being mated to Trouble, there were a lot of pups which brought other breeding into the mix. Happily their sire's influence remained clearly visible, in their appearance, temperament and working ability. However this influence will be halved with each subsequent generation, unless you bring back related stock into your pedigrees. This is called line-breeding and is an attempt to slow down the gradual erosion of your foundation dog's legacy. By tracking the best litters, and the best individuals from them, we could eventually try to re-introduce Hawkwise genes - while quite possibly acquiring other desirable qualities too.
Our first step in this was to buy back a grand-daughter of Trouble, bred from Hawkwise Witchcraft (a Trouble x Ukrainie daughter). This was Broadwing Corn Dolly and our intention was to eventually mate her, or perhaps a daughter from her, to the now veteran dog. Her father came from a line of working Brittanys that keeps persisting in Brittany bloodlines.
Dual-purpose again - Broadwing Corn Dolly at Hawkwise working in Perthshire, and winning her class at Crufts.
Corn Dolly introduced a lot of white into our line of working dogs which greatly improved their visibility in cover. She achieved show success, winning her class at Crufts on two successive years, thus continuing our commitment to producing genuine dual purpose Brittanys. She was bred from twice, the first time to an out and out working dog called Golden Future (seen below and related to her own father) and the second to Ch Dag of Skinfaxi, himself a direct son of Hawkwise Highlander (aka Trouble). This second litter was a successful first test mating to see if our line was sufficiently robust and free of problems to withstand line-breeding - happily it was!
Golden Future was worked in a team of 4 Brittanys, with 2 brothers and his father, on a North Yorkshire grouse moor
Stage 4: taking the 6th generation into the shooting field
From Corn Dolly's first litter, by Golden Future, Steve chose "Scoundrel" (aka Hawkwise Fair Copy) as his next working dog. Although he was now scaling down his falconry business Scoundrel accompanied him to Scotland, for two seasons, before he finally 'hung up his glove' in 2013. Rather than waste such a young dog's talents, Steve had decided from the outset that she would be the first he would work to the gun - a new departure for them both.
The biggest difference was that, for the first time, retrieving became part of Scoundrel's skill-set. Fortunately she took to this well as a puppy, as the pictures below show.
In 2011, at 14 months old, Scoundrel was entered in both the Puppy and Novice Stakes at the Brittany Club's Working Test. In the Novice Test the first exercise consisted of quartering/hunting an area of woodland - and then stopping on gunfire (something both dog and handler were ignorant of) before being sent to retrieve a dummy. The whole routine carried a possible 60 points and Scoundrel got them all! Unfortunately the second exercise was a blind retrieve - another mystery. This time she got within a couple of yards of the hidden dummy but, in view of her inexperience, was kindly given a second chance from halfway - for half marks. Out of these remaining 10 points she then scored 8. In the end she came a very creditable 2nd - by just one point behind the winner. In the Puppy Stakes she took 3rd place.
After this pleasing debut the pair only ran once more in a Novice Test, when in a very large entry Scoundrel came 3rd. She had proved she was competitive - but only with canvas dummies.
In her 3rd working season Steve and Scoundrel started to beat on a local shoot, but chances to retrieve shot game were few and far between. She slowly got more experience, but showed great reluctance to pick up dead birds - or to retrieve runners. It took another year before she became confident at this but, eventually, her increasing experience meant she became the 'go to' dog on this and other shoots - and became very well respected and trusted by local gamekeepers. With foolhardy confidence Steve entered a few trials, but with little success. Their only accolade was when Scoundrel won 'the Guns Pick' at one Novice Trial. Working in the beating line, and occasionally picking up, is not conducive to trialling success and Steve has chosen to concentrate on the former - as it is more fun.
With regard to a show career it is unfortunate that Scoundrel has too long a nose. Apart from this she is otherwise a good specimen and has three times been graded 'Excellent' by visiting French judges. Unfortunately judging always starts at the head, and the first thing a judge sees is the nose - so no point in entering shows. However the nose is great for finding birds and picking them up!
The 7th generation
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By now other breeders were producing 7th generation Hawkwise pups - or at any rate our kennel name was cropping up in their pedigrees. Apart from Scoundrel's descendants her brother Hawkwise Fleche d'Or sired a litter in Scotland, and a half sister, Hawkwise Happy Feet, was bred from twice too. In all there were now about 450 Brittanys with a dash of our breeding running through them.
Scoundrel really excelled at being a mother. She whelped her pups effortlessly and fed them abundantly. Her first brood were sired by Ch Dag of Skinfaxi (son of Hawkwise Highlander and previously test-mated to Scoundrel's mother). He was a black roan dog and the resulting 9 pups were a 'liquorice allsorts' litter, with a black roan, a tricolour and 7 orange/whites. Pleasingly the owner of Ch Dag at Skinfaxi chose to have a bitch puppy instead of a stud fee. This bitch, Hawkwise Iduna, subsequently won 2 Challenge Certificates (at her first and only shows) and graded up to Open Field Trial level. A litter sister, Hawkwise Inayah over Gefni, has been graded at Spring Pointing Tests, is a regular worker on local shoots and has had one litter to date. Full brother Hawkwise Iceman has been used once at stud so far - to a hawking bitch from the East Midlands.
Sadly Ch Dag of Skinfaxi died at much too young an age, followed shortly afterwards by Hawkwise Highlander himself. So we sought a similarly bred dog to sire Scoundrel's next litter. This time we used Pouilly Fume, another Highlander son, but one who has never been anything but a pet. These 12 pups were the best litter of Brittanys we have produced to date. They were extremely level and of the type we wanted to breed.
Feeding twelve pups at once can be a complicated business! Hawkwise Land Agent is the right hand pup at the middle dish!
Despite having the choice of six bitches we ended up keeping a dog puppy, Hawkwise Land Agent. 'Toby' voted himself on to the team by sheer personality and his evident desire to communicate and please. Thank goodness he sold himself so well, he is a wonderful working dog who 'never tells a lie', and is also extremely handsome. He is the first male we have kept since his grandfather, and is expected to become as important to our plans.
Visit the Hawkwise Stud Dogs page on the menu to learn more about him. Hawkwise Land Agent's stud career has taken off very successfully, and we are thrilled by the quality of his offspring.
The future of Hawkwise Brittanys is looking good. His full sister, Hawkwise Land Girl, produced a huge litter of 12 in 2018, keeping to the family tradition as her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother have all had litters of this size. Another sister, Hawkwise Lorelei, produced a single pup in 2020.
Scoundrel has not only been a superlative brood bitch, but also a charming and reliable companion in the shooting field. She has done much to establish Brittanys as well-accepted working dogs on our local shoots, and has passed this working ability on to her pups. Unusually we are planning, at some future date, to line-breed back to her (It is usually stud dogs that this is done with). To create diversity of choice, her third litter was to a totally unrelated dog, Rochus Huxley. This means that we have added genetic variety to the mix. Huxley has had a good show career, but we were drawn to him primarily because of his working ability and sound temperament.
Unexpectedly Steve's partner, Sue Connolly, after 20+ years of treating the Brittanys as pets, suddenly decided to have one herself - and chose Hawkwise Nugget from this litter. So far they have had four very successful seasons working together and, in 2019, Nugget produced 5 bitch and 2 dog pups to Pouilly Fume. By the autumn several had made their appearance on Facebook, already demonstrating their hunting and pointing skills! Their quality justified this mating being repeated in 2021, with a further 2 dogs and 8 bitches arriving in mid-summer, and mostly going to working homes. At least one bitch from Nugget's first litter is expected to be bred from in 2022.
In our quest for good working stock Hawkwise Nugget's 3rd litter was to stalking/rough shooting dog Najac Dream (Dual Champion Tournesol Heriot at Bryantscroft x Lilymoorland Gina). This litter resulted in 11 pups being born (2 bitches and 9 dogs). Najac Dream's mother is full sister to Lilymoorland Gracie (who has been twice mated to Hawkwise Land Agent - see Amber Scout and Arya Albatross below) so we know this side of the pedigree works well with our Hawkwise lines. Najac's father's record, in trials and the show ring, speaks for itself.
This 8th generation now numbers 83 and is steadily getting bigger!
Stage 5: The 9th generation began with 9 pups from the mating of Amber Scout (a Hawkwise Land Agent daughter) to Gefni Ingrained (a grandson of Hawkwise Highlander). Meanwhile her litter sister, Arya Albatross, contributed a litter of 8 and has recently whelped a further 7 pups. A daughter of Hawkwise Land Girl, confusingly named Oliver Palterton, produced a further 4 pups. Another Land Girl daughter, Heathcott Doe Ava, has just produced 7 bitches and 2 dogs to Kentwone Eastern Flame. Amber Scout has added another 7 pups, this time to Sh. Ch. Rochus Moet, one of whom is going back to the father's home kennel where she will eventually be bred from.
Kentwone Eastern Flame (Hawkwise Land Agent x Kentixen Starry Eyes) has just been advertised at stud (see Hawkwise Dogs at Stud page) and his first litter to Heathcott Doe Ava (Hunterscliffe Capitaine x Hawkwise Land Girl), has recently been whelped and produced 7 bitches and 2 dogs. 9th generation now numbers 50!
Sadly, with Hawkwise Nugget's 3rd litter, we have come to the end of our breeding programme. Advancing age has forced us to recognise that we should not 'run on' another puppy. However the continued success, of the Hawkwise dogs we have taken so much care in producing, ensures that their bloodline will continue to prosper. Following the careers of their many descendants means we will not lose touch with these happy, willing and talented working Brittanys. Here's to them!
At the Brittany Club's 2023 Working Day we had an unexpected and successful Hawkwise reunion. Arriving with 13 year old H. Fair Copy, and her offspring H. Nugget and H. Land Agent (eventual winner of the Advanced Retrieve Trophy from Gefni Mile a Minute - a grandson of Fair Copy through his mother H. Inayah over Gefni). Land Agent's daughter, Freya's Spirit of Adventure, and sons Kentwone Eastern Flame and Kentwone Western King represented him in the TAN - all doing well. Equally impressive were two, 6 month old Nugget sons, H. Unsung Hero (a very close 2nd in the TAN and qualifying for his Deep Water Retrieve) and H. Usual Suspect who also gained his TAN certificate. Another regular competitor was Jassendue Liquorish, who is a grandson of H. Higlander through his father Ch Dag of Skinfaxi.