Fetch Finatic

This was my father's English Setter Field Trial dog. Typically these dog are not retrievers, they are used to flush birds out of their hiding space. This one, however, was a useless hunting dog; all she wanted to do was fetch. Given her fetching nature though, my dad did try to teach her to retrieve, but the first (and only) time she had a bird in her mouth, she dropped it, spit out the feathers and brought my dad a stick.

But, when the game was fetch, I have never seen a more persistent, athletic dog -- she was truly a fetch fanatic. In this shot, the ball was thrown over the wall. You can't tell by this shot, but there is a sharp drop off to the right, she had about a 6' drop before landing this jump (which she did many times a day).

Taken in 1981 with a Honeywell Pentax Sportmatic.