Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010 - 23

careful stewardship, but there was no gain without a good deal of pain. During the 1980s, the Alexanders decided to go “all in” with the setters. Ken left his mental health career, putting the retirement funds he and Nita had accumulated into the business George Ryman began. He also returned to Ryman’s original breeding patterns, spending much of the decade cleaning up issues malingering from the Calkinses’ last years with the kennel, when genetic isolation, line-breeding and selecting for larger-than-Ryman-standard dogs created health problems. This period was a roller coaster of “magnificent highs and very deep lows,” Alexander said. The lows included a parvovirus outbreak, when he and Nita maintained a continuous vigil, changing intra-venous drip bags on 23 sick dogs every two hours; and the disintegration of his relationship with the Calkinses, particularly after George Bird Evans declared DeCoverly the Ryman line “heir” in 1990, which angered the Calkinses. Technically, no kennels publicly received the Calkinses’ blessing as the continuation of the line. Yet they “blessed” three different operations, each in its own time — Sumner’s in 1975; DeCoverly in 1978; and, during the 1990s, the Calkinses mentored Lee and Sheila Stelrekcht, interested in beginning their own smallerscale Ryman-blooded breeding program, Bold Return Kennels. The highs were living the upland shooting life, being with the setters full-time. Also during the 1980s, Alexander sold a started setter named Smokey to WilkesBarre businessman Bill Sordoni. Smokey cemented a deep friendship between Sordoni and Alexander, and eventually led to their partnering to take the kennel into the 21st century. Together, during the mid-1990s, they built an unparalleled 20,000-square-foot kennel, devoted to the health and happiness of the setters, with enough space for the breeding program to perpetuate the FEBRUARY 2010 line. By the late 1990s, the DeCoverly setter came into its own. Alexander’s work on canine health paid off in tight hips, strong healthy dogs mirroring Ryman’s original 1907 standard. Also, Sordoni’s son, “Young” Bill, became the kennel’s business manager, leading the kennel into the future with an award-winning website, a custom records database and other innovations. Today, the Ryman-type English setter, at more than 100 years old, is the oldest continually-bred line of gun dog in North America, exceeding by 30 years even Bob Wehle’s famous Elhew pointers — arguably America’s most recognized gun dog product. Most gun dog kennels, including the commercial variety, experience problems in just a few years. This represents the revolution part of this story. Discussing the line’s 100th anniversary, Alexander and both Sordonis pointed out how there are no shortcuts, how time improves the kennel. Of the 20,000 English setters the Ryman line has produced since 1907, Alexander has been part of nearly 6,000 — a tremendous body of knowledge. DeCoverly maintains the largest pool of direct Ryman blood, and its adherence to Ryman’s breeding practices and standards cannot be diminished. Alexander has improved the line, especially by returning it to Ryman’s original breeding pattern. Today, as in George Ryman’s time, the Ryman setter remains the grouse hunter’s gold standard, one of a very few lines of English setters to retain bloodlines that incorporate both form and function. These dogs are exquisite examples of what an English setter should be — beautiful, bird-savvy, brown-eyed souls who enrich the lives of those they touch a thousand-fold with tears and laughter. George Ryman would be proud.

Pennsylvania Game News - February 2010

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