In November
2006 Kim, Trish, Jean and I set off for Italy to attend a
gundog training
course organised by Marieke in conjunction with the Dutch
Bracco Club.
Gianpaolo Poggio, of the del Monte Alago kennel was the instructor.
We stayed in a rural farmhouse, La Vallatta, which is close
to the village of Stella in north west Italy and set off each
morning to watch the continental dogs that were on the course.
Some were total novices and had never hunted a bird before
whereas some dogs were partly trained. It was a joy especially
to watch a young apprehensive dog blossom within a couple
of days to become an ardent hunter, we could all see these
dogs starting to grow with their skills when given the right
opportunity.
At this point I must add that the local ladies, who I guess
were the wives of the huntsmen who joined us, produced fantastic,
hearty, rustic 5 course lunches from a tiny tin shed and a
calor gas burner. Naturally there was plenty of wine to accompany
the meal!
I had
been in contact with Paolo by email for some time before we
visited Italy and he was aware that I was looking for both
a super dog to sire Della’s next litter and also a young
bitch to import bringing new bloodlines to the UK gene pool.
As the days went by we returned to the hunting fields each
day but nothing was said about finding any suitable dogs.
Then on the Saturday morning Paolo said we were to go to a
different area and see how trained dogs worked on a live shoot
– and in the afternoon we could go and see some puppies!
The
day was brilliant; Sodini’s dog worked beautifully and
several birds were shot. After lunch, this time indoors at
a different venue we set off back to Genoa to see the puppies
at the Valpolcevera kennel. The pups turned out to be just
10 days old and gorgeous - although to young for what I was
seeking. Then as the sun went down and you could hardly see
a thing a young, 4 month old, bitch was brought out and stacked
on a garden table to be ‘gone over’ by Paolo.
Paolo pointed out the best features and assured me she was
a lovely youngster. Trouble was we couldn’t really see
so off we all trouped to a local motor repair shop around
the block from the kennel. There poor Isabella was floodlit
between trolley jacks and vehicles for us to see. I was so
undecided & relied on Kim to be objective about this possible
new addition to our family. Izzy got the thumbs up so was
taken back to our room at La Vallatta for the night but we
had to say goodbye the next morning as she was going home
with Marieke to stay as part of the family until her passport
allowed her to come to England.
I can never thank Marieke & Jerone enough for fostering
Izzy along with their other adult dogs AND 3 pups from Isotta’s
last litter who were only weeks different in age from Izzy
- can you imagine 4 pups(plus older dogs) growing up together
in a regular house and garden! A medal is well deserved.
Finally
Isabella came to the UK in August 2007 just a couple of weeks
before she turned 1 year.
