Most history of the Llewellin Setter breed, has always been written about the development of the "American" Llewellin Setter strains and not about the strain that continued to be developed in England by Sir. Richard Purcell Llewellin, Esq. himself and by William Humphrey and several of the greatest Setter breeders in England and Ireland at the time who helped preserve the Dashing Bondhu strain of Llewellin's Setters. 

In the USA. their existence had been a well kept secret for nearly 30 years being only known by just an elite group of professional people, like doctors and lawyers. Even so, they always demanded almost double what the American Llewellin Setter strains demand which should had been a clue to me and are always considered the best of the best by those who know them.  

So we thought it was long over due that someone let the public know their great history, set the record straight, and write on their personal development and accomplishments of these great Welsh and Irish breeders and their personal great strain they developed and perfected over most of their lives, known as Sir. Richard Llewellin's personal "Dashing Bondhu" strain of Llewellin's Setters. If any dog should carry the Llewellin name, it is these who should.

We are the first person to write a history about the "Dashing Bondhu" also incorrectly called the "Humphrey" strain by some, against Willaim Humphrey's wishes. It has taken over 20 years of research obtaining info from "Mr. Humphrey Manuscript" as well as contacts connected with his son William Humphrey Jr. and his grandson Chris Sorenson. As well as Al and Drenda King, historians and authors of "The Llewellin Setter History" hard bound book. 

Unfortunately, since we published the "Dashing Bondhu History" on our site, some others have attempted to write their twisted version, even though they never contacted those above or could have read the Manuscript that contradicts much what they have written. Not sure they even own any pure Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters today, so it is likely an attempt to rewrite history. 

Misinformation seems to be the intentional NORM on the so called "Llewellin Setters Online" website. Al King told me the web site owner was a fraud. Al hired him as a professional dog trainer and he didn't even have a clue and basically wanted Al to train him. So please don't trust anything you read on that website, especially about the Dashing Bondhu strain's history. 

Al and Drenda King inherited all their Setters directly from the last breeder's who kept their strains pure, the many American strains and the pure Dashing Bondhu strain. Our goal is to continue to preserve the Dashing Bondhu strain in the pure form and not change them in any way.  The American Llewellin is the Cadillac of English Setters and the Dashing Bondhu's are the ROLLS ROYCE of  Llewellin Setters.

We will be refining and editing as more information becomes available to me. Please excuse the unedited roughness at times and lengthiness of this draft that might also repeat info as it is collected from different sources and added until we have reformed the true and accurate history.

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The Dashing Bondhu bloodlines are Sir. Richard Purcell Llewellin, Esq. (1840-1925) personal bloodlines that he personally created and in their words, "developed and perfected them himself for over 50 years". He even personally named them his "Dashing Bondhu" Setters and they remained his personal bloodline until his death in 1925.

Ironically, the truth is, Sir. Llewellin had very little to do with the development of the "American strains" of "Llewellin Setters" and DID NOT want his name used on them. That is right, let me state it again to be clear, "Sir.. Llewellin DID NOT want his personal name "Llewellin" used on the dogs he and others had sent to America", because he was NOT satisfied with them.

Many thought that Sir. Llewellin did not want his name credited for them because he was a humble man, which was somewhat true, but the facts are that he didn't want his name used on the American Llewellin strains and felt they were only a cross of other strains and NOT his personal strain that he had developed and deserved credit for. In fact, he knew that several English breeder's were crossing the Laverack, Duke, and Rhoebe Setters long before he ever did. It was not his idea even to do so and many of those dogs imported were from these other English breeder's and were later registered in the US as Llewellin Setters and used to develop the "American Llewellin strains", which Sir. Llewellin had NO part in breeding, raising, or selecting them in any way. In fact, even the few dogs he did send to America early on, were his test breeding in search for the best Field Setter.

The only real part Sir. Llewellin had to do with the American strains was in making a few crosses using his personal outstanding Laverack Field Champion Setters with Mr. Barclay Field's "Duke" and Mr. Thomas Statter's "Rhoebe" Setters himself, and offered their offspring to North American sportsmen. These early "test breedings" of Sir. Llewellin were first imported to North America by Mr. L. H. Smith and their development was continued in North America, but not by Sir. Llewellin who was seeking more consistent field setters than those produced in that manner.

This is why many early American writers and American Field trialer's recognized the fact that Sir. Llewellin had very little to do with the early American Llewellin imports, so much so that US breeders proclaimed the Llewellin Setter an "American breed"  because American breeder's had a major roll in their development, not Sir. Llewellin. In fact, many of the dogs used in their development never did come from Sir. Llewellin, but from other English breeder's who continued  to make those crosses of the three strains to sell to the States, years after Sir. Llewellin. Keep in mind, these were not the same, because the Laverack dogs used were not the best of Laverack's. 

Some feel a better name choice might have been the "Field Setter" as Sir. Llewellin suggested or "American Field Setter" and to leave Sir. Llewellin's personal name available for Sir. Llewellin to use as he seen fit. Of course the name was already well known and respected, so it sold pups. American English Setter breeder's started to proclaim all their dogs as Llewellin's, even if not a drop of the blood was in them. This is why those with the real thing, petitioned American Field, 'FDSB' to recognize their Setters with only the Laverack, Duke, and Rhoebe blood as a Llewellin strain of English Setter and in 1902 they got the special recognition. 

This is now all in the past and the dogs are called and registered what they are today, but one has to wonder if Sir. Llewellin wanted to reserve his personal name for his own personal strain now known as his Dashing Bondhu's. No strain or dog deserved more to be called a  "Llewellin's Setter" then the pure Dashing Bondhu Setter he developed for over 50 years of his life.

The American Llewellin Setter lines were basically named after and developed from famous individual dog's that were imported from England and then line bred so the same dog would show up in a pedigree numerous times, in hopes of forming a line of dogs resembling the original dog it was named after.

The first recognized American lines were known as the "Blizzard" line with American breeder's later developing lines like "Gladstone", "Tony'O", "Roycelle", and "Bomber", just to name a few of the many now recognized strains of today that Sir. Llewellin had little or nothing to do with their development as he discontinued using those bloodlines that they originally came from even before the 1900's. The King's had these pure strains and kept them pure for over 40 years. They had many dogs with all Blizzard, all Roycelle, all Gladstone, etc., 5 generation pedigrees. Sadly, they could not keep them all and had to combine some of them. They combined only those who originated from the other, but most people breeding them in FDSB, are just crossing all the strains, without any rime or reason, resulting in spreading recessive genetic disorders like hip dysplasia, etc.. 

Keep in mind that Sir. Llewellin, started sending Setters from these test breeding's, very early on to America and many other locations around the world, as most English breeders considered the Duke and Rhoebe Setter "scrub Setters" and not high class enough for English gentlemen. But they soon dominated the field trails where ever they were and it became common knowledge that they were not what he considered his best Setters nor did they completely satisfy him. He proclaimed these first Setters "were outstanding some days, but on other days he wanted to shoot them", so he continued searching for the very BEST Setter's for his own PERSONAL breeding program instead of breeding further down the generations and using the Setter's he had.

Sir. Llewellin was a man of great means and would have been considered a multimillionaire in today's standards. Though he was a well educated man and had a law degree, there is no record of him ever being employed or having a business and Setters were his life's passion. He was a Lord and owned much land, which was farmed. He did manage them, and had investments in many banks. Back then no one put their money in one bank as they were not insured.

He was very well known in the Setter world and for paying and refusing, great sums of money in the Setter world to obtain or own the very best individual Field Setters that could be found.

Master Llewellin working with "Dash II" The Beginning of the Dashing Bondhu Strain.

I am NOT insinuating that Mr. Llewellin's early exports were culls or undesirables to most people, even though it is reported that Mr. Llewellin said that the ones he sent were his culls. Quite the contrary, Mr. Llewellin (photos above) early culling process was well known and had a reputation to only allow exceptional specimens to reach maturity and leave his kennel. But common sense tells us that being a very wealthy man with very high standards and goals, he would have kept the very best specimens for himself no matter what the price he was offered. I don't think anyone would try or can dispute that fact.

Many of the early American breeder's seem to over look the fact about their early dogs and that the ones that they had received directly from Sir Llewellin were just the beginning of Llewellin's personal "pursuit of excellence" and that he had not yet found the right cross to satisfy himself and to develop his own personal strain of superior "Field Setter's" as he called them. It was not until 1878 that he started what became, known as his personal program of the "Dashing" line and then soon named his "Dashing Bondhu" line and caused him to discontinue all other breedings he had made.

You may be asking yourself, what made the "Dashing Bondhu" lines so unique and superior over all the other early Llewellin and English Setters that were sent to America and developed by American breeders and else where?

William Humphrey

(Go to Humphrey's BIO page)

In William Humphrey's own words from his personal manuscript explains it best, to quote him "This brings us to the 2nd MOST IMPORTANT EVENT of the Llewellin Setter history in ENGLAND, the introduction of John Armstrong's Field Trial Champion "Fd.Ch.Ch. Armstrong's Dash II". He was bred by Edward Armstrong and was black, white and tan (still the most common color in Dashing Bondhu's today), whelped in 1874 and was by "Fd.Ch.Ch. Laverack's Blue Prince" and out of Fd.Ch. Armstrong's old "Kate", who was by "FdCh Ch. Laverack's Dash II" out of "FdCh. Barclay Field's Kate", sister to "FdCh. Barclay Field's Duke". The late Mr. George Brewis purchased the great "Fd.Ch. Ch. Armstrong's Dash II" from John Armstrong in 1876 and sold him to Mr. Llewellin after his last appearance at field trials in 1878 for the highest price ever paid for any setter at the time. The sum is said to be equal to about $70,000.00 today.  Mr. Llewellin valued this dog so highly, and was determined to have him at whatever cost. This dog, and his "FdCh. Ch. Countess Bear" and other "Countess bred" Fd.Ch. bitches were what Llewellin claimed as his "Dashing" bloodline."

"FdCh. Ch. Armstrong's Dash II" Mr. Llewellin purchased him in 1878 for the highest price ever paid for any setter at the time. He was bred to "Fd.Ch. Ch. Countess Bear" and produced the great "Fd.Ch.Ch. Dashing Bondhu" the beginning of Llewellin's personal "Dashing Bondhu" strain which he personally developed for over 47 years.

"FdCh. Ch. Countess Bear" (Laverack's) Was bred to "FdCh. Ch. Armstrong's Dash II" to produce the great  "FdCh.Ch. Dashing Bondhu" the beginning of Llewellin's personal "Dashing Bondhu" strain he personally bred for 47+ years.

"FdCh.Ch. Armstrong's Dash III" Full younger brother to "FdCh. Ch. Armstrong's Dash II". Once Mr. Llewellin knew the greatness of Dash II, he purchased a full brother and full sister of him, both FdCh. Ch.. These were also used in the Dashing Bondhu early development and not used in the American strains development.

"FdCh.Ch. Countess" (Laverack's) Mother of "Fd.Ch.Ch. Countess Bear" and mother of other dams out of Countess where bred to Armstrong's Dash II and their offspring were known as Mr. Llewellin's Dashing  Bondhu Setters.

Edward Laverack dedicated his book "The Setter" to Sir Richard Purcell Llewellin, Esq. Edward Laverack's dedication was written as follows...

To
R. LL. PURCELL LLEWELLIN, Esq.
of Tergwynt, Letterstone, Pembrokeshhire, South Wales,
WHO HAS ENDEAVOURED, AND IS STILL ENDEAVOURING
BY SPARING NEITHER EXPENSE NOR TROUBLE,
TO BRING TO PERFECTION THE 'SETTER',
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED
BY HIS SINCERE FRIEND AND ADMIRER,
EDWARD LAVERACK.

It is clear Laverack thought very highly of Sir Llewellin and what he did to improve the Setter. As one can see from the pedigree above, the "Dashing Bondhu" strain was/is 75-90% Laverack bloodlines with 10-25% Kate's /Duke's bloodlines, resulting in the best looking field Setters EVER developed, the "Dashing Bondhu" Llewellin Setters.

Before the addition of the great "Fd.Ch.Ch. Armstrong's Dash II" in 1878, Mr. Llewellin and other UK Breeders had introduced the "Duke" bloodline by siring "Duke" on "Laverack" females with good, but mixed results, but "Fd.Ch.Ch. Armstrong's Dash II", introduced the same bloodline by using Laverack sires bred to "Fd.Ch. Armstrong's Kate" (Duke's full sister), who produced Fd Ch Armstrong's Old "Kate" who was again bred to a Laverack sire "Fd Ch Ch Laverack's Blue Prince" to produce "Fd Ch Ch Armstrong'sDash II", beginning of the Dashing family, who Llewellin soon realized were far superior over all his earlier attempts of crossing these bloodlines. Mr. Llewellin then bred "Fd Ch Armstrong's Dash II" to Fd Ch Ch Countess Bear who produced the great Field Champion Champion "Dashing Bondhu" Bondhu is Welsh for "Heart of Oak", the beginning of the great Dashing Bondhu family. Mr. Llewellin called all offspring using Fd Ch Armstrong's Dash II bred to all Countess dams as the Bondhu line, while calling offspring of Fd Ch Armstrong's Dash II bred to his other outstanding females as Dashing only. Of course with "Fd Ch Dashing Bondhu" being sired by "Fd Ch Armstrong's Dash II" it makes all Bondhu's of the Dashing family as well. So in reality, all Bondhu's have Dashing and are Dashing Bondhu, but not all Dashing's were Bondhu and were just called Dashing at the time. 

Keeping in mind that breeding history has shown that it is not uncommon when crossing bloodlines to find superior results of offspring out of females of say line "A" bred with males of line "B", over offspring produced from breeding males of line "A" bred with females of line "B". Mr. Llewellin clearly found  this was the case with breeding "Fd Ch Barclay Field's Kate" (Duke's litter mate sister) to Fd Ch Laverack males instead of breeding "Fd Ch Barclay Field's Duke" (Kate's litter mate brother) to Fd Ch Laverack females. Mr. Llewellin was clearly not satisfied with his breeding program prior to 1878 of that bloodline that had "Fd Ch Barclay Field's Duke", "Statter's Rhoebe", and did not have "Fd Ch Barclay Field's Kate" in their pedigrees. History shows us that Mr. Llewellin did not start breeding forward (down generations) until he purchased "Fd.Ch. Armstrong's Dash II" and continued the pure Dashing Bondhu line until his death in 1925 having made countless Field and Dual Champions.

Historical quote of the "Dashing" Bloodlines

"Kate, the sister of Duke (sire of Dan), was also crossed with the Laverack,  She is the ancestor of the dogs whose names have the prefix "Dashing," as "Dashing Bondhu," "Dashing Berwyn,"  (J.C. Higgins, The Century Company, Vol. 31, Issue #1, Nov. 1885)

Though I agree the earlier imported Llewellin Setters were great field dogs compared to what was available at that time, which was proven in the American field trails, they were known not to be consistent in the field. According to Mr. Llewellin, they would do exceptional field work some days but were an embarrassment on other days. They were also known to be hard headed, hyper, and not easy to train, more common traits found in some American Llewellin and many English Setters today.

Unlike the American Llewellin's, the Dashing Bondhu bloodlines were bred as English gentlemen foot hunting gun dogs for nearly 100 years before being imported to the United States and have been bred in the US for another 50 years in the same manner. No horse back, big running trail Setters.

I personally, have yet to see any line of any breed surpass the natural born scenting abilities, pointing, backing, retrieving, natural hunting instincts, high intelligence level, and most of all, have the strong willingness to please as the pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines. They are also the most genetically sound bloodlines found in any breed dog. This is why after 35 years of professionally training, owning, and breeding hundreds of bird and hunting dogs of almost all verities and strains, we are dedicated to preserving these pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines of Llewellin Setters here at Mountain View Kennel.

William Humphrey holding his Golden Eagle Circa with one hand. "Falconer and dog breeder Extraordinaire".

The following quotations are from Mr. William Humphrey manuscripts "Sporting Press, 1876: "Armstrong's Dash II" is rather more than three quarters Laverack blood, whilst his grand dam, "Kate" was own sister to Mr. Barclay Field's "Duke". Since I (Humphrey) have been cognizant of this fact, as there used to be a mystery about "Kate", the reason why I (Humphrey) have mentioned these facts about this dog's breeding is that the grossest injustice had been done to Mr. Llewellin by Mr. A F Hochwalt, author of "Pointers and Setters of America". How any man, much less a person of so high a press reporting standard as Mr. Hochwalt, can level such gross, unfounded charges against any person? No writer could have written with a more jealous, bitter, poisoned pen. Not only are his statements utterly untrue, but so are many other references in his book equally so. As I (Humphrey) have pointed out, that at the time when this dog's correct breeding was given 1876 the dog was neither owned nor bred from by Mr. Llewellin."

""Armstrong's Dash II" was owned by the late Mr. George Brewis, one of the finest sportsmen in this (England) or any other country. Mr. Brewis' "Armstrong's Daisy" is sister to "Armstrong's Dash II" and was a field trial winner, and when bred to the Laverack dog "Tam O'Shanter" was the dam of champion "Sir Alister"". They were also the parents of "Platt's Wild Rose", bench and field trial winner.

"Armstrong's Dash III" was whelped in 1876 and is brother to "Armstrong's Dash II". He was also owned by Mr. Llewellin, who later sold him to America. He was a field trial winner in both countries. He is the sire of Lord Downe's "Sam III", who was out of Hollin's "Silk II" who was a field trial winner. He is also the sire of Hartley's "Phyllis". The first breeding that Mr. Llewellin made with "Armstrong's Dash II" was with his "Countess Bear".

From this breeding came his field trial champion "Dashing Bondhu", the first of Llewellin's "Bondhu" family who was an outstanding field trial producing sire. His "Dashing Beauty" was sister to this dog, and was a field trial winner, the same year, a further son of "Dash II" and his "Countess Moll", "Dashing Monarch", he was a field trial winner in America.

In 1881 Mr. Llewellin again won the Kennel Club Derby with his "Dashing Ditto"' a daughter of "Dash II" out of his "Rifle". She was a daughter of "Dan" and "Nellie". In the following year he again established a record for the winning of the Kennel Club Derby Stake by having four puppies left in for the final, namely "Rebel Wind'Em", "Sidney Bondhu", "Star Bondhu" and "Sable Bondhu". He withdrew the three former and allowed "Sable Bondhu" to meet the winning pointer for the best of both breeds. "Sable Bondhu" was declared the winner, with "Star Bondhu", "Sidney Bondhu", "Sable Bondhu" and "Rebel Wind'Em" as dividing first and second setter Kennel Club Derby. These "Bondhu" puppies were by his field champion "Dashing Bondhu" and out of his champion "Novel;", daughter of "Dan" and "Nellie".

In the following year 1883 Llewellin again won this Blue Ribbon Stake for the fourth time, three years in succession. This time the winner was "Dashing Clinker", son of "Dash II" and his "Countess Rose", a daughter of "Count Wind'Em", and his "Norna". A further daughter of this breeding, "Dashing Novice" was second at the National. The last dog that he exhibited on the show bench was "Pet Bondhu" 1882.

The following is some of the achievements of the Llewellin setters, which were personally bred by Mr. Llewellin: dual champion "Count Wind'Em", field trial champion "Dashing Bondhu", American field trial champion Adam's "Drake" and field trial champion "Daphne D". He also owned field trial champion "Dan". field trial champion "Armstrong's Dash II", dual champion "Countess", field trial champion "Sam" and champion "Prince", whilst he bred and owned champion "Remus", champion "Novel", champion "Phantom", champion "Princess", champion "Puzzle", also "Laurel", "Countess Moll", "Nora", "Norna", "Stafford", "Pride of the South", "Paris", "Gladstone", "Count Noble", "Leicester", "Lincoln", Bergundthal's "Rake" and "Druid".

Famous writer Mr. L. H. Smith, who had several personal visits and field outings with Mr. Llewellin and his dogs, recalled one outing in 1894 stating "I was very favorably impressed with one young dog "Dashing Bondhu II". He was almost a duplicate of old Dan....It struck me as being remarkable that , after continuous breeding in the same strain, a dog should come so much like that famous sire. There was also a lat of six, all of one litter and about 18 months old. Excepting one, which was larger than the rest, they where a very even lot." He continues in another writing "I was at Mr. Llewellin's place in May, 1894, and saw his dogs run on partridges, and in August I shot over them on the grouse mores in whales. His dogs are in no way inferior to the dogs I first saw with him in 1873." It was very evident that Mr. Llewellin had the very best and continue to maintain superior field Setters over the years.

When the official registration of the dogs began in England, Mr. Llewellin realized the importance of "Armstrong's Dash II" was to his breeding program and wanted to make sure these lines that he personally developed would be recognized and kept separately from all of the other earlier Llewellin lines that were being developed by others. This is why he started to use the name Dashing in honor of the great "Armstrong's Dash II" and "Bondhu" (in Welsh "heart of oak") in honor of the phenomenal field champion and producer "Dashing Bondhu" who was out of "Armstrong's Dash II" and the great field champion "Countess Bear". It was in their honor that Mr. Llewellin started to call their decedents "Dashing Bondhu" giving them a unique name reserved only for his personal line.

It is interesting to note that the importance of keeping the "Dashing Bondhu" lines as pure and separated from other Llewellin English Setter lines was not only realized by Llewellin and other English and Irish breeders at the time, but was also recognized by the first dog Registry in history the Kennel Club. They considered the Dashing Bondhu line so different, unique, and worth preserving pure that the "European rule" mandated that when a component of the Dashing Bondhu (aka Scinn Amach and Horsford) is mated with any other component, the offspring cannot carry the name Dashing Bondhu. This gave Llewellins personal Dashing Bondhu bloodline a distinction from all other English Setter lines in England, long before, but much in the same way that FDSB later made a broader distinction for Llewellin Setter lines from other English Setter lines here in the states in 1902.

These are the same practices we use here at Mountain View Kennel. In stead of exploiting the dogs to promote our kennel name like many kennels do when they find a great line of dogs, we continue to honor Mr. Llewellin, as Mr. Humphrey did and continue to use "Dashing and Bondhu" as part of our dogs names. All of our Llewellin Setter's have "Dashing Bondhu" or "Bondhu" as part of their name.

Examples: the Gun Dog Certified 100% pure Dashing Bondhu Setters we have owned are GDC Dashing Blaze Bondhu, GDC Dashing Bondhu Ringo, GDC Dashing Bondhu Hank, GDC Dashing Bondhu Princess, GDC Dashing Bondhu Chess, GDC Dashing Bondhu CountOrtho, GDC Dashing Bondhu Blaze, GDC Dashing Bondhu Freckles, GDC Dashing Bondhu Babe, GDC Dashing Bondhu Henrietta, GDC Dashing Missy Bondhu, GDC Dashing Bondhu Belgium, GDC Dashing Bondhu Tonette, GDC Dashing Bondhu DutChess, GDC Dashing Bondhu Ashly, GDC Dashing Bondhu Ringold, GDC Dashing Bondhu Count, GDC Dashing Bondhu Countess, GDC Dashing Bondhu Miss, GDC Dashing Bondhu Tonia, GDC Dashing Bondhu Hank II, GDC Dashing Bondhu Toni, GDC Dashing Bondhu HanksRingo, GDC Dashing Bondhu CountOrtho II, GDC Dashing Bondhu Nell, GDC Dashing Bondhu Cora, GDC Dashing Bondhu Silk, GDC Dashing Bondhu Satin, GDC Dashing Bondhu Silkette, GDC Dashing Bondhu Jane, GDC Dashing Bondhu Lady, GDC Dashing Bondhu Janie, GDC Dashing Bondhu Janette, GDC Dashing Bondhu Pride, GDC Dashing Bondhu Othoette, GDC Dashing Bondhu Odett, GDC Bondhu Champ, GDC Dashing Bondhu King, etc., and still counting. We only switch the names around, because so many names were already taken with Dashing first and Bondhu third, so we now use Bondhu in the second position allowing us the liberty to repeat names used long ago. Example, "Dashing John Bondhu" would be a completely different dog from "Dashing Bondhu John", but at one glance of our dogs names, you can tell they are of purest Dashing Bondhu bloodlines.

The only dogs that don't have both Dashing Bondhu in their registered name, are dogs we purchased as adults that had already registered names that could not be changed, like Irish Bondhu Chess, Hank's Champ Bondhu, IrishKing Ashly Bondhu, IrishKing Bondhu Lady, and IrishKing Bliss Bondhu.

Dashing Swan Bondhu, bred by Mr. Humphrey in the early 1960's. Note the similarity to our dogs today, even his high held head and tail.

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Dashing Bondhu's
Come to America ! Here is the break down of breeder's who had a roll in their development prior to and after their importation to America.

Persons Name	Country	Time Frame	Name used in Pedigrees
Edward Laverack (Creator of the English Setter Breed & Friend of Mr. Llewellin)	England	Mid- late 1800's	Laverack's (His last best Field Champions were used by Sir. Llewellin to create the Dashing Bondhu Llewellin's Setters)
Edward Armstrong (Breeder of FdCh Armstrong's Dash II & Dash III and others)	England	1870's	Armstrong's (Foundation of the Dashing bloodline)
Sir Richard Purcell Llewellin, Esq. (Creator of the "Dashing Bondhu" Llewellin Setters)	England	1870 - 1925	Dashing Bondhu (100% Llewellin's Setters)
Mr. Law Turner (Close Friends of R. Llewellin, continued the pure "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines and left his dogs to William Humphrey)	England	Early 1900's	Dashing Bondhu (100% Llewellin's Setters)
Mr. Hartley (Close Friends of R. Llewellin, continued the pure "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines and left his dogs to William Humphrey)	England, UK	Early 1900's	Dashing Bondhu (100% Llewellin's Setters)
William Humphrey, Esq. (Close Friend of R. Llewellin, inherited the pure "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines from Mr. Llewellin, Mr. Turner, and Mr. Hartley)	England. UK	1925 - 1963	Horsford & Dashing Bondhu
Cris Sorenson  (Humphrey's Grandson who inherited the his grand fathers pure Dashing Bondhu Setters and exported them to the USA, Ireland, and Belgium)	England	1963-67	Dashing Bondhu
Father James Brannon (Close Friend of W. Humphrey and Marie Therese a Goes)	Ireland	1950's-1988	Scinn Amach, Machad, & Cloncurragh (99.99% pure Humphrey with .001% traced back to R. Llewellin =100% Dashing Bondhu)
Trevor Wostenholm (Friend of both Humphrey & Fr. Brannon)	South Africa	N/A	Dashing Bondhu (produced some pure, some out-crossed with Blizzard line imported from USA)
Marie Therese a Goes (Close Friend of W. Humphrey and Fr. Brannon)	Belgium	Passed away in 1994	Dashing Bondhu (some pure, but most were mainly out-crossed with Wind'Em her main breeding program)
Derry Argue (Breeder of Eng. Pointers & Setters)	Scotland, UK	Sold Out of Setters in 2006	Advie (had some pure, most were out-crossed with American bloodlines) "Advie Indy" only pure Dashing Bondhu left from his kennel,  Argue got them from Fr. Brannon.
Dr. Everett C. Bickers	Indiana, USA	1960's	Bicker's (Main imports from Fr. Brannon's, later crossed his with American bloodlines)
Dr. Stephenson (Breeder and first importer of 100% Pure Humphrey Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters.)	Fayetteville,  Arkansas, USA	1960's-80's	Dashing Bondhu (imported from Cris Sorenson, Grandson of Humphrey)
Dick and Gaylon Biggs	Paragould,   Arkansas, USA	1960'-90's	Bigg's (imported Dashing Bondhu from W. Humphrey's grandson Cris Sorenson, and Fr. Brannon. Count, Scinn Amach, Glenowlen, Assrah.)
H. T. Helms	Jacksonville, Arkansas USA	1960'-90's	Dashing Bondhu (imported from Cris Sorenson, Grandson of Humphrey)
Mr. Grant	Texas, USA	1960'-80's	Dashing Bondhu (From Dr. Stephenson, Dick Biggs)
Mr. Hunt	Texas, USA	1960'-80's	Dashing Bondhu (From Dr. Stephenson, Dick Biggs)
Vincent Gigcoli	New York, USA	1960's	Dashing Bondhu (imported directly from Cris Sorenson, Grandson of Humphrey and sold them to Al King)
Bill Hanzlicek	Kansas, USA	1970's-90's	Dashing Bondhu (From Dr. Stephenson, Dick Biggs)
Glen Roark	Indiana, USA	1970's-90's	Dashing Bondhu & Roark's (From Dr. Bickers, Dick Biggs & Imported from Chris Sorenson,  Trevor Wostenholm & later started crossing them with Wind'Em and then Am. lines, he started the phrase "Humphrey Setters")
Al & Drenda King of King's Llewellin Kennel Top Llewellin Setter Breeder of purest bloodlines of all recognized Llewellin Setter bloodlines, the many American strains and the pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines. Al's  health issues and his passing on Oct. 14th, 2011 had forced the sale of all their Russian and American lines and most of their top Bondhu's, but they held onto the pure Dashing Bondhu's and the only remaining pure strain remaining left in the world. The many American strains have all been out-crossed with one another.	Arkansas, USA	1960's-Present Alfred O. King Sr. 1945-2011 Drenda King	Dashing Bondhu (1st from Vincent Gigcoli (New York, imported from Cris Soreson) Dr. Stephenson, Biggs, Grant, Hunt, & Hanzlicek), IrishKing (Dr. Bickers), ScottKing (Advie) & BelgiumKing (Marie Therese a Goes) (Kept many pure, and also crossed with Am lines.) Sold out of all American bloodlines in 2011 and almost all Dashing Bondhu's in 2013.
Michael & Marie Bloodgood of Mountain View Kennel, LLC.  (Saved the pure Humphrey bred Setters from extinction. Purchased all available pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines from Al & Drenda King, before Al's passing. Mike & Marie are Breeder's of ONLY the purest Dashing Bondhu's Llewellin's Setters from England, Ireland, & Belgium without any American bloodlines added) The largest kennel of pure 100% Humphrey bred Llewellin Setters and the LARGEST "Llewellin Setter Kennel" today without any American bloodlines.	Bonnieville, Kentucky, USA	1996-Present	100% Dashing Bondhu (100% Humphrey),  Irish Bondhu (99.99% Humphrey) Belgium Bondhu (100% Humphrey with Belgium origins) NO American Bloodlines!

Of course the first Dashing Bondhu's imported to North America were directly from Mr. Llewellin himself, but these early imports were few and far between and all were out-crossed to help in the developing of the American Llewellin Setters. Of course Mr. Llewellin was critical of his strain being crossed with the American strains and was viciously attacked by American breeder's and writer's for that. Unfortunately, it was not until after Mr. Llewellin's death that many realized that Llewellin was right and started to breed his strain (Dashing Bondhu) pure. Sadly, with Al King's passing, no breeders are breeding any of the pure American strains including the Dashing Bondhu strain, resulting in no pure, genetically sound strains remaining in FDSB registry today, especially R. Llewellin's personal  pure Dashing Bondhu strain. All pure Dashing Bondhu and any remaining pure American strains are only available in the IPDBA registry today.

William Humphrey exported pure Dashing Bondhu's through the 1950's and early 60's and unfortunately still many were quickly out-crossed with the American Llewellin bloodlines once again. It was not until the mid-1960's, after Humphrey's death when the Dashing Bondhu's were being imported from Humphrey's grand son, Cris Sorenson, by Dr. Stephenson , Dick Biggs and Dr. Everett E. Bickers who imported the majority of these pure lines into the US. These breeders bred from the dominant William Humphrey's Dashing Bondhu line descending directly back to R.L. Purcell Llewellin himself.

Wm. Humphrey's grandson, Chris Sorenson was the last known owner of the original Humphrey/Llewellin  Dashing Bondhu's Kennel in England. Sadly, he no longer has any of them today and now has an animal transport service there. 

Alfred & Drenda King got their Dashing Bondhu's from these and other fine gentlemen in the 1960's and 70's and they were kept 100% Humphrey Dashing Bondhu until Al introduced the great "IrishKing Bondhu Ashly" in the 1989 from Dr. Everett E. Bickers. Ashly was bred to several hundred Llewellin Setters, many of the pure Humphrey Dashing Bondhu's with phenomenal success, producing many outstanding "Natural" foot hunting bird dogs, with exceptional ability like "Hank" aka Henry PrinceOf Pause, fame of OLN's #1 sporting show, "Hunting with Hank". Some call the line the "Hank" line, but it's the Ashly (Irish Bondhu) line through and through. In fact, OLN's "Dash" (Hank's son) is a DOUBLE Bred Ashly (out of a son and daughter of Ashly). 

We, Mike & Marie Bloodgood of Mountain View Kennel plan to continue to breed back to the pure Humphrey Dashing Bondhu's for many generations to come.

We, also intend to maintain the lines from Humphrey's dear friend for many years, Father Bannon from Ireland, Machad, Scinn Amach [pure Dashing Bondhu] & Cloncurragh Kennel names, by using the IrishKing Bondhu Ashly bloodlines and breeding them with the pure Humphrey's that the King's proved equally successful and we are now the largest kennel of not only 100% pure Llewellin Setters, but pure 100% Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters.

Another line that Ashly carries in his pedigree includes Setters from South Africa owned by Trevor Wostenholm who got outstanding  pure Dashing Bondhu's directly from Wm. Humphrey's and Fr. Brannon. Only down side is that he might have added a cross of the Blizzard imported from the USA to Africa a long, long time ago, but no one seems to know for a fact. But even if true, that would put it back about 8 generations in any of the IrishKing lines today and would be of little consequence today as it would be 10 or more generations back in our Setter pups we offer. 

AKC accepts a complete out-cross of another breed only 5 generation removed. I know this from working on the AKC Irish Setter project in the 1970's. The old English breeders like Humphrey back then considered 7 generations enough to completely remove an out-cross. So, at ten generations the pup would have .10% influence, which is 1/10th of 1% and would no longer be considered having any genes left in our pups today. This means if even a mutt was bred to a pure dog they believe they could be bred out within those generations. I personally think 10 generations would convince me everything is gone, especially with careful selection. See chart of influence below... 

AKC, FDSB, CKC, requires 5 or more generations or 1 out of 32 dogs in a pedigree.
UK Kennel Club requires 7 or more generations or 1out of 128 dogs in a pedigree.
IPDBA requires 10 or more generations or 1 out of 1,024 dogs in a pedigree.

Since AKC/FDSB requires only 1 out of 32 dogs and IPDBA requires 1 out of 1,024 dogs, it proves that IPDBA dogs are held to 32 times higher standards then dogs in AKC/FDSB and that IPDBA has purer bred dogs. Not to mention the many dozens of false registered dogs being bred today in FDSB from Bob Baily's Straight Creek Kennel, or the Wind'Em (“D’Hurlain Pré.”) dogs still being allowed in FDSB pedigrees,. but totally banned from registration in IPDBA. The scary part about the Wind'Em (“D’Hurlain Pré.”) bloodline, it seems the bad genetic continues for dozens of generations of out-crossing with a genetically clean pure Dashing Bondhu dogs. Not sure the bad genetics can ever be removed in their case.

Generations	Number of Dogs in generation	% of influence of each dog in gen.
1st	2	50.00%
2nd	4	25.00%
3rd	8	12.50%
4th	16	6.25%
5th	32	3.13%
6th	64	1.56%
7th	128	.78%
8th	256	.39%
9th	512	.20%
10th	1,024	.10%
11th	2,048	.05%
12th	4,096	.025%
13th	8,192	.0125%
14th	16.384	.0063%
15th	32,768	.0032%

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Father James Bannon

A rare photo of Fr. James Brannon in 1974 with his Dashing Bondhu's in Ireland. Look at the similarity to our Irish bred Dashing Bondhu Llewellin's Setters today, like our IrishKing Lady Bondhu, IrishKing Ashly Bondhu, or even Dashing Bondhu Hank and Dashing Bondhu Chess!

It should be noted that Humphrey, had shared many of his Dashing Bondhu bloodlines with a Catholic Priest and very close friend, Father James Bannon of Scinn Amach kennel in Ireland. Fr. Bannon's pedigrees were basically 95% of the same pure Humphrey Dashing Bondhu bloodlines with only about 5% of his best old Wind'Em, Clonclurragh, and Machad which are also believed to be at least 90+% of the Dashing bloodline. Resulting in Fr. Brannon's Scinn Amach kennel in Ireland averaging  about 99.995% Dashing Bondhu (like Machad Ambassador) and when bred to 100% Humphrey females, the offspring are about 99.998% (like Irishking Bondhu Ashley) and then about 99.999% (like Henry Princeof Pause "HANK") and then 100% Dashing Bondhu in just three generations with pure Humphrey females.

I have recently found out from family friends of William Humphrey Jr. that Mr. Humphrey's and Fr. Brannon's friendship were much closer than originally thought. It seems it was not uncommon for them to switch homes with one another for a couple of months each summer and work, train, and evaluate each others Setters. This would mean that they had a much closer first hand knowledge of each other's Setters and breeding interaction between their kennels, making them virtually the same.

This is why we can say that all our Llewellin Setters are pure Dashing Bondhu today. Basically, they cannot be any purer Dashing Bondhu then that, but keep in mind that individual dogs still have different genes carried down for generations. So even though Llewellin, Humphrey, and Fr. Bannon's Setter's were of the same exact heritage, every dog carried different ancestry genes making them very useful for maintaining genetic health while still maintaining strong consistency in quality, health, and performance.

Fr. Brannon's Setters are believed to be the second purest "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines available in the world. These Irish bloodlines were imported to America in 1988 and proved to also be natural outstanding bird dogs.

The 1988 Irish imported "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines proved to be the perfect answer to keeping the Humphrey "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines as pure as possible, without breeding them too close. They made it possible to breed the great Humphrey's pure "Dashing Bondhu" imported English bloodlines of the 1960's with Fr. Brannon's "Dashing Bondhu" imported Irish bloodlines of 1988.

Hall of Fame GDC Henry PrinceOf Pause aka "Hank" Star of OLN's "Hunting with Hank" Prints and DVD's are available at HWH website.

 What would result by crossing these two outstanding  "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines? Many OUTSTANDING bird dogs. Two perfect examples are Outdoor Life Network's famous "Hank" registered name Henry PrinceOf Pause , from OLN's TV series, "Hunting with Hank", and Hank's son Dash" registered name Hank’s Dashing Bondhu photo below left, who later stared in OLN's TV Series "Upland Days with Dash and Dez"

Hall of Fame GDC Hank's Dashing Bondhu aka "Dash" of OLN's "Upland Days with Dash" Prints and DVD's available at HWH website!

These two great dogs are not only all out of the SAME exact combination of pure "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines that we specialize in, but "Hank" is also the grand sire and great grand sire of our own outstanding stud "Dashing Bondhu Hank" and outstanding females "Dashing Bondhu Chess" ,"Dashing Bondhu Princess", "Dashing Missy Bondhu", and the DOUBLE Grand sire of our Dashing Bondhu Henrietta. We also own a direct son of "Dash" named  " Hank's Bondhu Champ" which also makes him a grandson of "Hank" as well. "Hank" and "Dash" are perfect examples of what is produced when combining the Humphrey's "Dashing Bondhu" imports with Fr. Brannon's (Irish) "Dashing Bondhu" imports that we specialize in. If you have not been able to see these great representatives of the pure "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines in action when they were on the Out Door Life Network , you can order many of the high class productions of "Hunting with Hank" and "Upland Days with Dash and Dez" episodes on tape and DVD from HWH web site for a very reasonable priced.

To see how our pure Dashing Bondhu Setters typically hunt, here are some FREE Online youtube.com videos of "Upland Days with Dash"

Pheasant Hunting: Part 1 of 3 ,   Part 2 of 3 , &  Part 3 of 3 .
Chukar Hunting: Part 1 of 2 , & Part 2 of 2 .
Himalayan Snow Cock Hunting: Part 1 of 3 , Part 2 of 3 , & Part 3 of 3 .
Woodcock Hunt: Short Clip 

 Basically,   "Hank's" grand sire "Machad Ambassador" was imported from Scotland or Ireland and was originally estimated as 50% Fr. Brannon's and 50% Humphrey and he was bred to a pure Humphrey female producing Hank's sire "H/F Irishking Bondhu Ashley", who was 25% Fr. Bannon's Irish and 75% pure Humphrey's "Dashing Bondhu's" and "Hank's" dam "Dashing Janette Bondhu" was 100% Humphrey's English "Dashing Bondhu" breeding. This makes " Hank" 87.5% Humphrey and 12.5% Fr. Brannon's "Dashing Bondhu". "Hank's" son "Dash" was produce by breeding "Hank" to "Dashing Miss Bondhu" a female that was also 87.5% Humphrey and 12.5% Fr. Brannon's "Dashing Bondhu". Also, "Hank's Ringo Bondhu", who is 93.75% Humphrey and 6.25% Fr. Brannon and is the sire to several of our Setters and he was produced by breeding OLN's "Hank" to "Dashing Chess Bondhu" a pure Humphrey's "Dashing Bondhu" female who was also full litter mate sister to our great "Dashing Blaze Bondhu" and is why you will find "Dashing Chess Bondhu" in our pedigrees numerous times in an effort to preserve as much of that great litter of pure Humphrey "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines as possible in our breeding program. This makes the Setters out of them 96.87% Humphrey and only 3.13% Fr. Brannon. Remember Fr. Brannon's, are 95+% Humphrey bred also.

In fact, after many years of research we now realize "Machad Ambassador" bloodlines are 99.9% pure Humphrey, which means our Fr. Brannon bloodlines today would be considers genetically pure Humphrey by most registries and historians, but to honor Fr, Brannon 30+ years of breeding after Humphrey's passing, we continue to show the percentage in our Setters.

Unfortunately, not all kennels that had bred the pure Dashing Bondhu line named all their dogs using Dashing and/or Bondhu as parts of their names, so it needs to be noted that Horsford, Scinn Amach, Count, Otho, Awrose, Irish Bondhu, IrishKing Bondhu, ScottKing Bondhu, Hank's Bondhu, BelgiumKing and Tennessee Whiskey are also names used in pure "Dashing Bondhu" pedigrees. 

Unfortunately, to confuse matters, some people have used Wind'Em in names in pedigrees without any or very little Wind'Em in them and the same has been done in regards to using the Bondhu name was used in Setters with little or no Bondhu in them. The only way to know for sure is to check pedigrees all the way back and is just what we have done with all our Setters before we purchased them.

Last but not least, the pure Dashing Bondhu's imported from Belgium from Madam Marie Therese a Goes, who also was a very dear friend of Wm. Humphrey's and Fr. Brannon who they gave her all their Wind'Em's and many of their outstanding pure Humphrey's Dashing Bondhu's. Fortunately, we were able to obtain some pure Humphrey Dashing Bondhu's bloodlines that she had later in years that have been bred to pure Humphrey's and Fr. Brannon's (IrishKing's) now without any of the Wind'Em blood she had. We are not sure if she too was finally getting out of the Wind'Em's because of all their genetic problems, or she was preserving a line of pure Humphrey Dashing Bondhu's to continue using as an out-cross for them, but what ever the reason, we have preserved only the pure Humphrey Belgium line in our program through Dashing Bondhu Janie, Dashing Bondhu Bell, Dashing Bondhu Silk, Dashing Bondhu Whisky, Dashing Bondhu Whiskette. and their offspring.

The aging Mr. Humphrey and his grandson Chris Sorenson exported several outstanding "Dashing Bondhu's" to America in the 1960's. Most were imported by Dr. Stephenson. It is these imports that are the direct ancestors of our pure "Humphrey Dashing Bondhu" Llewellin Setter's here at Mountain View Kennel. In fact, because of spreading out the generations 8-10 years apart, several of our Llewellin Setters are still only 4 or 5 generations removed from the original 1960's English imports, that came directly from Humphrey and his grandson Chris Sorenson, who no longer has any.

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When we tried several Llewellin Setter bloodlines in search of the best we came across our first pure "Dashing Bondhu" dog and we named her "Dashing Blaze Bondhu" (1996-2007). We purchased her from King Llewellin Setter Kennel as a puppy. In over 35 years of owning and training some of the best bird dogs in the world, including some National Champions, Blaze was without a doubt the most natural and most outstanding bird dog we had ever been blessed to hunt over. Blaze was a complete born natural and never broke a point, never missed a retrieve, and backed every dog she ever hunted with, naturally. She would not only honor their points, but also their retrieves as well, a common trait in all our Dashing Bondhu's today. Even though she was only 4 months of age when her first quail season started, she pointed and retrieved over two hundred native wild Kentucky quail her first season. She continued year after year to prove she was the most outstanding bird dog we had ever seen and was never hunted on any game bird preserves, just plain ole' privately owned Kentucky and Georgia farm land with wild covey's of native Bob-white quail and a few Woodcock here and their, that she naturally pointed and retrieved equally well.

Blaze was pure 100% Humphrey "Dashing Bondhu" breeding, meaning all the dogs in her pedigree traced back to Humphrey's and Llewellin's personal kennel. She was produced by Al & Drenda King and was out of Dashing Ringold Bondhu and Dashing Whitette Bondhu that also proved to be a phenomenal breeding of the most natural bird dog pups I have ever seen or could imagine. This was a true testaments to Llewellin's, Humphrey's, and the King's outstanding breeding programs.

It has taken us several years to secure the Dashing Bondhu dogs we have today, especially those that are pure Humphrey bred, like our Dashing Blaze Bondhu was. They are our Dashing Bondhu Ringo, Dashing Bondhu CountOrtho, Dashing Bondhu Rosie, Dashing Bondhu Silk, Dashing Bondhu Silkette, Dashing Bondhu Royal, Dashing Bondhu Ringold, Dashing Bondhu Countess, Dashing Bondhu Whiskey, Dashing Bondhu Whiskette and their offspring so far. Though they had allowed the last pure Humphrey bloodlines to almost become extinct, it would have been impossible for us to have saved them from extinction without Al and Drenda King's help, dedication and long friendship.

We feel hands down that the pure "Dashing Bondhu" Llewellin Setter's are the most natural hunters, pointers, backers, retrievers, with the greatest scenting ability, and are of the highest intelligence, and most important of all maintain a strong willingness to please their master. In fact, I have yet to find a better pointer of all pointing breeds, a better retriever of all retrieving breeds, or any dog breed smarter or easier to train, or as loyal a companion and house pet as a pure "Dashing Bondhu" Llewellin Setter .

Probably credited to the higher amount of Laverick blood, they are also one of the most if not the most beautiful of all the Llewellin Setter strains developed, while still maintaining a medium frame and medium coat required in good field setters.

The development of the Dashing Bondhu's that we have today were no easy feat and their natural greatness should be of no surprise. Mr. Llewellin spent over 50 years developing them under the strictest selection and Mr. Humphrey spent another 38 years perfecting them in England as well as Fr. Brannon in Ireland, who also spent over 30 years breeding them and working with Humphrey. No other strain can claim this history nor can be called "Llewellin's favorite personal strain" nor are more deserving of the name "Llewellin Setter" or like we like to say "Llewellin's Setters".

I guess we feel the same way Llewellin, Humphrey, Fr. Brannon did, that these lines are simply the very best of the best bred Setters in the world. In fact, they are the only breed or line of dog that I have ever found that was in NO need of ANY improvements. All the pure Dashing Bondhu Setters we have owned or produced were and are totally genetically sound, without any genetic, health, or temperament problems. They are easily naturally bred, making wonderful mothers, raising nice healthy litters, generation after generation.

I take no credit for their superior development, I am only interested in using our many years of breeding experience and genetic knowledge to recognize the very best from the rest and to select the very best to preserve this amazing natural strain of true "Llewellin's" Setters.

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Marie Thérèse à Goës

Marie Thérèse à Goës in 1948 Falconer Extraordinaire 1930-1998

It should be noted that some dogs of pure Dashing Bondhu, before and after Mr. Humphrey's passing also went to his very close friend Marie Thérèse à Goës in Belgium.

The à Goës family traces back to olden times in Longueville, east of Brussels. Very similar family history to Mr. Humphrey's heritage in England, long being associated with Falconry and of family history serving the Royal families in Belgian as Falconers.

Marie visited England quite often when she was a young woman, especially right after World War II. She visited and stayed with the Humphrey family at Lake Cottage many times and enjoyed talking and hunting falcons with Mr. Humphrey and his Setters. They were also close friends of Ronald Stevens a very well known and important English falconer of his time who wrote many excellent books on falconry.

Ronald Stevens, Falconer  Extraordinaire and Author, with his Falcon and his pure Humphrey Dashing Bondhu Setter, while hunting at Humphrey's Lake Cottage. Ron was a close friend of William Humphrey and Marie Thérèse à Goës.  Note, how much his Setter looks like our Setters today, especially GDC Dashing Bondhu Hank. I believe this photo was taken in 1938, just 13 years after Humphrey inherited Sir Llewellin's Kennel of dogs and shows how little these Setters have changed in 80 years.

Marie Thérèse à Goës had acquired some special skills in Falconry which made her very popular in the falconry world. She was the first falconer to figure out away to temporarily pin/glue flight feathers back into a falcon's wing when lost while hunting, allowing the bird to hunt the rest of the day.

She became close friends with the Humphrey family and she and Mr. Humphrey shared their knowledge of falconry and often hunted together around the British Isles and on Humphrey's estate. Humphrey shared some of his early Llewellin Setters bloodlines with her before he had inherited the pure Dashing Bondhu's, these had a lot of Wind'Em in them and upon his death she also received some pure Dashing Bondhu and these dogs were taken to Belgium to be added to her kennel which Marie kept the "Dashing Bondhu" name on those dogs without any Wind'Em . She named those with the Wind'Em bloodline, “D’Hurlain Pré.” In French that means “The Meadows of Hurlain” the area next to her home.

Unlike William Humphrey and Fr. Brannon, Marie Thérèse used the pure pure Dashing Bondhu Setters as an out-cross  with her "Wind'Em" (90+% Bondhu) bloodlines that she had obtained from them many years earlier. It was reported that Mr. Llewellin and Mr. Humphrey had discarded the Wind'Em line from their programs because of many genetic problems they possessed. Marie used the pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines from Mr. Humphrey as an out-crosses in an effort to stop the genetic problems from surfacing in her Wind'Em program and it worked with some success, except the Wind'Em were still carriers of genetic disorders and cannot be line bred without problems often arising. Even today, adding any of the Wind'Em bloodlines from her kennel to a Llewellin kennel could have devastating consequences to the breeds future in FDSB. The bloodlines has been banned from IPDBA registration because of known inherited genetic disorders, like deafness, blindness, and major hip disorders. Many of her late Wind'Em imports from her kennel were found to be carriers of ALL THREE genetic disorders. Only her pure Dashing Bondhu Setters that were imported proved to be clean of all genetic disorders and was why she used them as an out-cross to keep those recessive genes from coming to light.

Amazingly, no matter how many times she out-crossed the Wind'Em (90+% Dashing Bondhu) with pure 100% genetically clean Dashing Bondhu Setters, it only kept the genetic problems from surfacing and did not get rid of them and HER Wind'Em bloodlines even 40 years later and today have many problems repressively, especially hip dysplasia, deafness, and blindness, even produced in the same pup and litter and out-crossing must be continued or the recessive genetic problems will surface once again and again.

Kieth Smith (Lynn Hill Kennel) and Al King (King Llewellins) imported some Setters with the Wind'Em bloodlines and when Al bred them together to check them, they not only failed, they produced deaf, blind, and major hip dysplasia in the same pups and litter, so Al fixed them and placed them into pet homes.  These were brothers and sisters of Kieth Smith's "Count Gladstone Wind'Em D'Hurlain Pre" stud, that Lynn Hill promoted and bred them for many years, spreading these genetics throughout the breed in FDSB. Only after importing these dogs did Kieth become a very strong opponent against line or inbreeding of any kind, even though Mr. Laverack, Mr. Llewellin, Mr. Humphrey,  Fr. Brannon. and Al King were great advocates for line and in-breeding their strain to make sure their genetics continued to remain clean and and would have NEVER had agreed with him.

Out-crossing to hide disorders only hides the disorders while the disorders are spreading throughout the breed unknowingly to unsuspected breeders, many of them new to breeding, until all become carriers. This is the reason why so many dog breeds today have so many genetic disorders and some can no longer even produce a healthy litter today.

In fact, the only way one can make be sure their line is clean of all genetic faults is through line and some  inbreeding to test the bloodlines, just like Al King did all his life. If one cannot simply breed a son to his mother or a daughter to her sire and not produce a litter of fat healthy pups, then they are all carriers and should all be removed from the breed, plain and simple. It's unfortunate in my opinion that some put profit a head of the welfare of the breed. Just because something is IMPORTED, does not make it BETTER or SAFE to introduce to your breeding program or to the breed here in the USA. I realize he wanted to preserve Marie Thérèse à Goës, Wind'Em “D’Hurlain Pré.” bloodline, but once it was found that they were carriers of at least three major genetic disorders, the dogs should have never been used for breeding, especially, under the disguise of out-crossing them. Al King did the RIGHT thing and removed the imported dogs from the breed, just like Mr. Llewellin, Mr. Humphrey, and Fr. Brannon did many years earlier, giving the Wind'Em's to Marie Thérèse à Goës. Bottom line, if you care about the breed, or want to get a healthy Setter, stay away from dogs with any pup with a dog with having part of it's name "D'Hurlain Pre"in it's pedigree or even further back as it has proven to never loss it's potency to produce genetic disorders. The Setters with the D'Hurlain are the dogs with the bad Wind'Em genes in them. Even if you find another pedigrees with any Wind'Em in them there are no genetic testing available yet for any of them. Even with the failed checking for Hip Dysplasia, which should always be a red flag to buyer's, that the dogs are likely carrying genetic problems recessively and their bloodlines need constant testing or why the need to test all their dogs. They also fail to mention that the certification does not prove their dogs are not carriers and that they are likely to pass it on to their offspring of their bloodlines are known carriers and why it has become an epidemic in many breeds and kennels today.  The current testing for most genetic disorders, does no more than make sure the dog bred does not show the problem and does not have a thing to do with if they are carriers or not. Some with excellent hips have produced more hip problems in their pups then those with poor hips. They have been testing hips for over 40 years now and hip dysplasia is more of a problem in more breeds today than ever before, testing has not done much to get rid of the problem. It is basically gives both breeders and customers a FALSE sense of security as the odds have actually increased with testing instead of curbing the problems.

The worst part about this is that many Llewellin breeder's who don't know what they are actually doing, think adding new blood and mixing bloodlines and adding the more recent imported Wind'Em bloodline to their Llewellin Setters, unwittingly are adding all the genetic faults to their kennel and the Llewellin breed and even the English Setter breed. This is the problem with the idea that continued out-crossing makes better dogs, it actually collects all the genetic faults and adds them to their program. Eventually, they will surface as we see in almost all breeds today, that were line-bred years ago without genetic problems, but today is almost impossible to find any clean lines. This is already happening in many Llewellin Kennels today.

I don't mean her any disrespect, as a Falconer she was one of the best in the world, but it's my personal opinion as a Supreme Grand Master dog breeder, Marie Thérèse à Goës as a dog breeder is probably responsible for continuing the most genetically faulted strain of dogs ever developed. The Wind'Em's were clearly the culls of Mr. Llewellin and Mr. Humphrey and Fr. Brannon and are the main source of many genetic problems found in the Llewellin Setter breed today.  They may have been outstanding bird dogs, but they all got rid of them because of their many genetic disorders.

It's my opinion that the Wind'Em should have been discontinued and she should have only bred pure Dashing Bondhu's. I can only assume she continued the Wind'Ems to stop people from breeding them. If you purchased a pair from her and bred them, the offspring would have major genetic problems. The King's did just that and got blind, deaf, and major hip problems in the same litters, Al told me that the “D’Hurlain Pré.” Wind'Ems were the only strain of Llewellin Setters they discontinued breeding because of major genetic problems.

Marie Thérèse à Goës rule was breeding a pure Dashing Bondhu to a pure Dashing Bondhu produced pure Dashing Bondhu and when breeding a Wind'Em with a pure Dashing Bondhu produced a Wind'Em "D'Hurlain", no matter how many times they were bred to Dashing Bondhu, they still carried the three disorders. It is believed Marie Thérèse à Goës continued the Wind'Em with Dashing Bondhu breeding's, so no one who purchased them could raise healthy litters breeding them both together, basically giving her the monopoly of them and forcing customers to continue to purchase them from her.

Fortunately, we have been able to locate a pure Dashing Bondhu's line imported from Marie Thérèse à Goës kennel in Belgium that kept pure 100% Humphrey Dashing Bondhu's without any Wind'Em added. They were originally imported directly from her close friend William Humphrey, to use for a new out-crosses when ever she needed them for her “D’Hurlain Pré.” Wind'Em's. Fortunately, she named her Setters with Wind'Em in them as “D’Hurlain Pré.” in part their name and those without any as Dashing Bondhu's, so they are/were easily recognized.

Dashing Remus Bondhu was imported from Marie Thérèse à Goës Belgium to the USA in the 1990's. Our Dashing Bondhu Janie, Dashing Bondhu Silk, Dashing Bondhu Bell, and many dogs out of them have this rare pure Dashing Bondhu bloodline in their pedigrees. They are 100% pure Humphrey bred Dashing Bondhu without ANY Wind'Em blood what so ever and are as fine a dog as anyone could ask for and are proven genetically sound without any recessive problems. 

Mr. Trevor Wostenholms

Last but not least, Mr. Humphrey also sent several of his pure Dashing Bondhu's to South Africa to the kennel of Mr. Trevor Wostenholms. Little is know about them, except that they were exceptional dogs and he kept the Dashing Bondhu name on his dogs, but sometimes crossed them with American Blizzard lines he imported from the US, so we do not have any of his later bloodlines in our kennel.

It is unfortunately, that in most registries including FDSB here in the United States, the "Dashing Bondhu" name is not reserved for just Llewellin Setters of pure or high percentage "Dashing Bondhu" breeding and a breeder can use it as part of a name even if the dog has no "Dashing Bondhu" in their pedigree. So buyer's beware and read all pedigrees at least five generations back very carefully in order to expose the impostors. This is why we show 5 generations on all our dogs we use for breeding showing you 6 generations of every pup we offer. We actually check all our dogs all the way back at least ten or more generations until we find that every vine is checked back to Setters of pure Dashing Bondhu origins. Many pedigrees of Setters will have some Bondhu names when little to none is actually in the dogs true background. They know the Bondhu name is special and try to capitalize by using it.

We were once considering a dog that had a five generation pedigree of all dogs names having Dashing Bondhu in them. We were surprised to find out in a tenth generation that he was actually 25% American Llewellin with Blizzard, Gladstone, and Bomber dogs on his dam's side. Needless to say, we passed on him.

Derry Argue

Derry Argue's, Advie kennel in Scotland is also one that comes to mind. Many people think the Advie bloodline are pure Dashing Bondhu, unfortunately, 99% of the Advie pedigrees trace back far enough showing American lines and/or much of the Wind'Em line. This is why we do not have any Advie bloodlines in our kennel. Also, it should be noted that Derry Argue has always favored his English Pointer's over his Setters and has discontinued his Setter breeding program many years ago. 

Interesting enough, Derry Argue is thought to of been an owner of Machad Ambassador, before he was shipped to the USA. Machad Ambassador was IrisKing's Bondhu Ashly's (OLN Hank's sire) sire, but he was 50% Fr. Brannon and 50% Humphrey in breeding without any Adive Setters in his pedigree. As far as we know, "Advie Indy" is the only "Advie" bred dog that was pure Dashing Bondhu, mainly from Fr. Brannon's bloodlines. His bloodline would only be allowed in our kennel, if he was bred to a pure Dashing Bondhu female. All the other Advie dogs we have researched, have had some American out-crosses and would not be allowed in our program.

It is not clear if Machad Ambassador was ever trained or owned by Derry Argue as an adult, or if he was pick of the litter by Fr. Brannon for stud service and trained and owned by Brannon as his name indicates. We hope to someday solve this mystery. Derry Argue is an interesting chap to say the least and is not always forth coming with information, especially when speaking to Americans. Like Marie he too has a dislike for American breeder's. To be honest, I can understand why.

In America, most breeding of bird dogs are done by Field Trailer's, to make Field Champions and it does not take long for the dogs to become independent and high strong, to suit the Field Trail rules, even though most are then sold to foot hunters without a satisfaction guarantee. I have no problem with the big running Field Trail Pointers, but why must every breed or strain that comes to the US, be change to suit the big running horse back trails and then be advertised to foot hunters and sometimes pet homes. So many of these dogs end up in animal shelters and/or put down, because they are not suited for the foot hunter or as pets.    

Warning!

There are also a few Setters of VERY questionable pedigree within the Llewellin Setter world, meaning their authenticity is very much in question. I know of some English Setter kennels in America that became Llewellin Setter kennels in what seemed over night without even changing their dogs. Because of FDSB poor litter registration policies for many years, actually allowing breeders to hand write (manufacture) individual puppy papers without limitation when ever they wanted them for even adult dogs without actually registering their litter and even allowing some to do this for generations back. This allowed dog traders to go many generations back, after dogs and owner's had passed away, so no one would be able to prove their dogs were fakes. In my opinion, it seemed that FDSB policies back then were if no one could prove them wrong, they were OK. This opened the door for people to profit by purchasing English Setters litters and registering them as Llewellin Setter litters that could be sold for two-five times what English Setter pups sold for.

Unfortunately, some breeder had taken advantage of FDSB easy registration policies in the past, allowing breeder's to simply hand write papers at will for almost 100 years. In fact, I'm sorry to say, the "Straight Creek" (Bob Baily's) lines are highly questionable pedigrees and have been totally banned from registration in IPDBA. This breeder alone puts in question over one one third of FDSB registered Llewellin Setters and it is very doubtful that any of dogs with them can be trusted as pure Llewellin Setters, never mind of the pure Bondhu/Count bloodlines as has been advertise. This unfortunately includes many FDSB pedigrees with ANY dogs with Straight Creek in their name or, Dashing Iron Cody, Dashing Iron Buster, Count Toby, and ALL their many decedents of many names being commonly used in FDSB Llewellin Setter kennels today. In fact, IPDBA has been turning away 2 out of 3 FDSB transfer applications because the Straight Creek was found in their FDSB pedigrees. 

When we met Straight Creek owner Bob Baily many years ago, he told me to my face when I asked him if he knew of any Llewellin Setters around, he responded no and that he thought "the Llewellin Setters were extinct" and that he had good English Setters (field trail type) for sale, but a few years later, his kennel changed from an English Setter Kennel to all Llewellin Setter Kennel using the same dogs and he started to advertise that he had been breeding his Llewellin Setter strain for 35+ years. Funny, that his neighbors and even close friends tell the same story as we do. Seems it has been very profitable to purchase whole litters of English Setter pups out the the local papers for $100-$200 each and sell them for $500.00+ each as Llewellin Setter pups. This was supposedly done for many years, that many of his local English Setter breeders would raise pups for them to miss-register.

The Lord only knows how many were done this way. Even a Llewellin Setter he named Roadside, was named that because he found it on the roadside. We know of several people who said he purchased their English Setter pups (with and without registration, he didn't care) to sell them as Llewellin Setters. So buyer MUST beware and so must the Llewellin BREED!

It's my opinion,  the sadist part of this is that FDSB forced out the majority of breeders who kept the strains pure and bred for FOOT HUNTING BIRD DOGS and are left with a bunch of kennel hybridizing strains mixing every genetic problem found in the breed and with known false pedigrees today. Sure they are making horse back Field Champions, but at what cost to the breed. I have never understood, why people need to put a title on their dog I own the best dogs I have EVER owned today and not one is a "Field Champion". In fact, most Field Champions are worthless as foot hunting gun dogs. Eventually, when all these dogs will become related and the genetic problems will be in both sire and dam and they will start having tons of genetic problems, just like what is happening in most other breeds today!

Even the most oldest and noted Llewellin experts of our time will not accept setters with "Straight Creek" pedigrees. The King's removed it from their kennel once they learned of the problems. This is why Straight Creek bloodlines are NOT allowed to transfer over to IPDBA registry, but continue in many kennel's boasting as breeding 'Bondhu" bloodlines. They are no more of Bondhu breeding than my big toe. Some how they got around the new DNA ordeal by telling FDSB they were no longer in business, but all the while they continued to advertise their dogs in the Pointer Journal. What good is DNA now anyway? Anyone, can prove the parents of a dog, but no one can prove the parents or the dogs pedigrees are pure. 

In fact, I have seen stated on some Llewellin Setter websites that their "dogs are DNA proven to be pure Llewellin Setters". I didn't know to laugh or cry at such a stupid statement. Another dumb and false statement is that only FDSB registered Llewellin Setters are Llewellin Setters. WRONG again, a Llewellin Setter is a Llewellin Setter no matter where it is registered or if registered at ALL. Actually, FDSB only recognizes the Llewellin Setter as a strain within the English Setter breed and NOT even a BREED at all and has encouraged crossing them with English Setters. IPDBA recognizes them as a BREED, completely unique and separate from the English Setter breed and does not encourage crossing ANY breeds. So one could argue that IPDBA is the true "Llewellin Setter breed registry". Even the people who are credited with saving the Llewellin Setter from extinction and wrote the History of the Llewellin Setter, totally agrees with everything I have stated here and have registered ALL their Setters with IPDBA and has NOTHING to do with FDSB.

NO one can prove a Setter is a Pure Llewellin Setter with DNA testing, simply because there are no DNA samples of dogs even just a few generations back, never mind all the way back to the Setters that Mr. Llewellin owned. DNA parenting, ONLY proves the dog is out of the parents and cannot prove the parents purity or even if they are out of their parents without their parents DNA and so on. DNA cannot even separate English Setters from Llewellin Setters. So don't believe everything you read without doing your own research.

At Mountain View Kennel, we will use ONLY the absolute BEST "IPDBA" registered Llewellin Setters that are PROVEN Natural with the most highly trusted pedigrees. So if you don't see certain kennel names in our pedigrees that you may see advertising their dogs are of the old Count, Otho and/or Bondhu bloodlines, there is a very good reason why they are not in ours.

By the way, the original Count and Otho were pure Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters. There really are no such bloodlines as Count, Otho or even Hank bloodlines, they were pure Dashing Bondhu's. Also, one cannot bring back a bloodline, the dogs either have them in their pedigrees or don't. I guess if you make up your pedigrees with Count or Otho in them, you might think you are bringing them back, but of course you are not. 

When Mr. Humphrey's Dashing Bondhu's were imported to North America in the 1960's, most American and Canadian breeders simply out crossed most of them with their "American Llewellin" blood lines and even with many English Setters to improve their programs or to be used as an out-cross to hide genetic problems. This practice continues today in most kennels. In fact the pure Llewellin Setter breed was seriously endangered for many years and it was not until the 1990's when they once again started to find great popularity.

Much of the Llewellin Setter's rebirth in the 1990's can be accredited to hunters having smaller area's available to hunt. This required hunters to find dogs that handle better and hunt closer. The big running Field trial in FDSB has ruined most foot hunting breeds. Not to mention FDSB's many attempts to consolidate the two breeds and end the recognition of Llewellin Setters, would have put an end to the breed, if not for the King's fighting them for years. Also, the internet helped educate the hunters and the public of the Llewellin Setter's great hunting abilities as well as how they make wonderful loving pets that the whole family can enjoy all year long. But I think all would agree that OLN #1 sporting show "Hunting with Hank" showed the world a living example of what a pure Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setter, can and will do for their master, resulting in promoting all Llewellin Setter's in a good light. 

I find it interesting how many Llewellin Setters have Bondhu used in their name, many without the bloodline in their background, so they are using it to exploit the name and mislead the public. I just found a female on a webpage with Bondhu in her name and she had no Bondhu in her 5 generation pedigree. The other odd thing is that Dashing is the line of FdCh. Armstrong's Dash II who changed the direction of Llewellin's personal breeding program, Bondhu was just a good son of his and not a new line, so I think it shows that many who use Bondhu in their dogs names, don't understand or know the history of the bloodline and are just trying to exploit it. So please beware of fakes.

King Llewellin Kennel

Alfred O. King, Sr.

March 21, 1945 - October 14, 2011

Our dear friends Al and Drenda King need to be given FULL credit for keeping ALL the Llewellin Setter strains as pure as possible and genetically strong since the 1960's. Including Llewellin's personal pure Dashing Bondhu strain. They purchased their first breeding pair of 100% Humphrey bred Llewellin Setters in 1967 from Vincent Gigcoli in New York, who had imported and then trained the pair from Chris Sorenson (William Humphrey's grandson) who inherited Humphrey's Kennel in 1963. These dogs were Dashing Jesshue Bondhu and Dashing Swon Bondhu and are found many times in our pedigrees today. Alfred knew right away that they were very special and had insured the pair with Lloyds of London! After all Al knew he had just purchased his first pair of pure Dashing Bondhu Setters originally from Mr. Llewellin's personal program for 50 years and Mr. Humphrey's program for 38 years. Chris Sorenson invited the King's to come stay at Humphrey's Lake Cottage, but 9/11 interrupted their trip.

They got their second breeding pair of pure Humphrey's from Mr. Hunt in Texas, they were  Dashing Count Bondhu and Dashing Kay Bondhu and continued seeking other direct descendants from the 70's and 80's of  imported from Humphrey's grandson Chris Sorenson, without any American out-crosses in them. Dr. Stephenson of Fayetteville, Arkansas, H. T. Helms in Jacksonville, Arkansas and Dick and Gaylon Biggs, from Paragould, Arkansas had also several direct imports from Chris Sorenson and were visited by him.

Gathering all these put Dashing Bondhu imports together, Al and Drenda, established their program of pure Humphey Dashing Bondhu bloodlines, having as many as half their Kennel being of pure Dashing Bondhu and all the many other American bloodlines were the other half of their large kennel.

Later they purchased the great IrishKing Bondhu Ashley from Dr. E. C. Bickers who imported bloodlines from Fr. Brannon's stock from Ireland.

If not for the King's so many pure breeding programs and collecting all the remaining dogs who carried them, there would not be any pure Llewellin Setters left in the world today. Any kennel who says different, simply does not know their facts or their dogs History. Were there other Llewellin Setters breeders, yes, but none could have kept their programs going without the King's program, plan and simple. All the other Dashing Bondhu kennel eventually crossed them with some American blood and the King's were the ONLY Kennel with pure Dashing Bondhu, or even the pure American strains.

That includes the pure Humphrey's and Fr. Brannon's pure Dashing Bondhu lines imported since the 1960's and for producing "Henry PrinceOf Pause", aka "Hank" and his son "Hank's Dashing Bondhu", aka "Dash". The King's kept the Humphrey line 100% pure for over 30 years and only added Fr. Brannon's imports and kept them pure for another 25+ years. The King's were entrusted the many pure lines, by those who either developed them or where the only breeder's of them left.

Dez Young with "Hank" Hall of Fame GDC Henry PrinceOf Pause "Hunting with Hank" fame.

"Dash" Hall of Fame GDC Hank's Dashing Bondhu "Upland Days with Dash" fame.

If not for the King's, and for them not being entrusted with the pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines, there would have been no "Hunting with Hank" or "Upland Days with Dash" on OLN, because without them there would not of been "Hank" or "Dash". Only with the King's help, we have been able to build our strong breeding program of the purest known Dashing Bondhu bloodlines found anywhere in the world, making them available again today in the purest form and only 4-5 generations away from the original Humphrey and Fr. Brannon imports.

To see how pure Dashing Bondhu Setters typically hunt, here are some links to FREE Online youtube videos of "Upland Days with Dash"

Pheasant Hunting: Part 1 of 3 ,   Part 2 of 3 , &  Part 3 of 3 .
Chukar Hunting: Part 1 of 2 , & Part 2 of 2 .
Himalayan Snow Cock Hunting: Part 1 of 3 , Part 2 of 3 , & Part 3 of 3 .
Woodcock Hunt: Short Clip

The "Llewellin" Distinction

Also, if not for the King's the "Llewellin" distinction in FDSB would have been abolished many years ago by the owner of FDSB, who tried many times to eliminate the separate distinction because in his words, "FDSB did not profit enough from the Llewellin's" because they did not come to their big running no-shoot field trials. Bottom line, if not for the King's mass mailing everyone they sold pups to and asking them to contact FDSB to keep the "Llewellin" distinction in place, there would not still be any distinction for them. The King's were a thorn in FDSB owner's side and explains the accusations against them by the owner, without a shred of evidence , but not to worry, now that FDSB is making half the DNA fees and owns the DNA rights from every Llewellin Setter pup within FDSB, the owner can no longer complain that the Llewellin's are not making enough money for him.  Wonder what breed will be next to require DNA testing in FDSB, or do they only still not trust their Llewellin Setter breeders?

Unfortunately, because the King's would not speak ill about anyone's bloodlines or promote one bloodline over another, most people didn't realize what FDSB owner was doing to them and the differences in Llewellin bloodlines and how rare Hank's bloodlines (Dashing Bondhu) in the pure form actually were becoming and still are today. Many people who watched OLN, later purchased FDSB "Llewellin Setters", to only find out they were NOTHING like Hank or Dash. Some pedigrees may appear to have a bunch of Dashing Bondhu descendants, or even have Hank in them, but when looking back in their pedigrees, out crosses of Wind'Em, and the American bloodlines are very evident and these dogs like in Europe, should not be named, considered, or referred to as Dashing Bondhu or Bondhu. Even one outcross of another bloodline introduce way back, would introduce genetic or other inherited problems and differences not found in pure Dashing Bondhu bloodlines.

The Humphrey Llewellin's (Horsford Dashing, Horsford Count & Countess, Dashing Bondhu's) dogs were known to be bold but easy to handle, "a true gentleman's dog". They are superior natural foot hunting dogs. Because they were imported much later on, they were not influenced by the big running FDSB American Field trails, requiring horses to keep up with them, shock collars to control them or tacking collars to locate them. Dogs that require pro training and high tech equipment, produce pups that also require it. They destroyed many dog breeds and many strains within breeds, including some Llewellin Setter strains in my opinion. This is continuing today. If their Setters are as good as they say, then why not give the same Life-Time guarantees we do?

Another thing to keep in mind, is that most historians feel about the early American Llewellin and English Setter's today, is that they suffer from much paper hanging (switching of papers) and many believe that some breeders added some Pointer blood to make their dogs hunt farther and wider so they could compete in the big running field trails judged from horse back. That also added independents and no willingness to please their owner's. I am sorry to say, that it seems the longer that they were bred here in the USA, the much better chance of having been influenced by the big running trails, false pedigrees attached to them or dogs with incorrect pedigrees would be introduced. Having dogs DNA'ed today will never undo what was done in the past and is why these later imports and keeping their strain pure is so very important. There is NO good reason to out-cross them with other strains, except to improve the another strain, but that still makes no sense, since the out-cross will never be equal to the pure strain and the best way to improve one's kennel, would be to simply stop breeding other strains and just bred pure Dashing Bondhu's.

Even the North American Llewellin Breeders' Assoc. 'NALBA' is running horse back trials today. This made the Straight Creek (big running "English Setters") now registered as FDSB Llewellin Setters do well. They could not win in the regular FDSB trails against all breeds, but can do well in horse back Field trails limited to true Llewellin Setters that are foot hunting dogs. Unfortunately, many Llewellin Kennels are adding the Straight Creek blood in the dogs and making the same mistakes that many American breeder's have in the past with all good gun dogs by bred for a very hyper, wide ranging, more independent Setters that is ruining them as foot hunting bird dogs and loving, loyal family companions. I have already seen websites promoting force training and that will not offer their Llewellin Setter pups to pet homes. It is just as important to the breed that they be man's best friends as outstanding natural bird dogs in the field, the both go hand in hand for a true gentleman's pleasure bird dog. That is what the American Field trail breeder's do is ruin breeds for anything but Field Trails. They are and have done as much damage to the hunting breeds as the AKC show breeder's did. Many English Setters today cannot be kept around small children and are so full of genetic problems, it is almost impossible to find a healthy litter of them. 

Because of the lack of breeding for American field trails, the Dashing Bondhu Llewellin's Setters are recognized for being less high strong and very highly intelligent, thinking before they act, with outstanding scenting, natural strong pointing and 2nd to no other breed retrieving abilities, making them the best choice for foot hunting upland game birds as well as wonderful life long family companions and loyal pets. They are the perfect example of "Mans best friend", because of their strong willingness to please.

I have been totally shocked to watch programs on TV where a pointer is hunted with a retriever who walks behind the hunter to just retrieve downed birds that the pointer locates and points. This shows where the direction and caliber of the other pointing breeds are headed when they need help in hunting upland game birds and also shows the poor searching ability of the retriever. What is amazing is how fast they have changed. It was only a few years ago when FDSB bowed to the anti-hunting and animal right's groups and no longer allows shoot to kill field trials. This means the Field Champions today have never been tested as a hunting dog, pointing, retrieving to hand, and backing. Also, even so called Grouse trails have been conducted using pen raised quail and have seen dogs who could not smell past 5 feet away from a bird become Grouse Field Champions, because 99% of all Field trails are put on pen raised quail.

I have also owned top retrievers and can tell you first hand, as waterfowl retrievers they are tops in their field, but for retrieving upland game birds, our Llewellin Setter's are second to none and can and do make excellent retriever's of waterfowl as well. In fact in England, mixed bags of waterfowl, grouse and pheasants are very common. In America, many of our Dashing Bondhu's are being used to retrieve waterfowl, dove, and pigeon as well as pointing and retrieving all types of upland game birds for shooters.

We must also keep in mind that the selection was very different in America and even within each kennel. They each have their own style, appearance, and temperament and is what makes them each recognized as a unique line. Everyone has different tastes, hence different lines were developed. In fact at one point the American lines became so recognizably different from Mr. Llewellin's own personal dogs that some American writers claimed them as an "American breed" and believe it or not, they even questioned if Mr. Llewellin's last dogs (Dashing Bondhu's) should be considered Llewellin Setters or not?

There is no doubt that Mr. Llewellin's Setter's were superior to all other bird dogs right from the start and the addition of Fd Ch Armstrong's Dash II at great expense to his breeding program in 1878 was the missing link Mr. Llewellin was looking for. He discarded many his previous breedings, meaning the Dashing Bondhu bloodlines became separate from all other strains. There is no "Rhoebe" blood in any pure Dashing Bondhu and you will very little "Duke" in their pedigree, much more of his littermate sister 'Kate" was used. So all you will find is the best "Laverack" Setters and "Kate" in Dashing Bondhu pedigrees, with very little any "Duke" and NO "Rhoebe" as used in the American lines. You also will not find ANY 'Kate" in pure American strains, so there are major differences between the American lines and the pure Dashing Bondhu line right from it's beginnings.

Because of the Dashing Bondhu's greatness, Llewellin's personal Dashing Bondhu pure lines were continued by William Humphrey who was regarded one of the world's best dog breeders of his time. Also, Humphrey's grandson Chris Sorenson and the great Irish breeder Father James Bannon who bred them for 30 plus more years. The Humphrey Dashing Bondhu's were imported by Dr. Stephenson to the USA and were then preserved by Al & Drenda King for 33+ years, and by Mike & Marie Bloodgood since 1996 at Mountain View Llewellin Kennel. Their pedigrees have not been influenced by dozens of breeder's like many of the American Llewellin Setters. The number of pure Dashing Bondhu breeder's in the past 140 years can be counted on one hand. Our only regret is that we did not find these great natural Setters earlier in our lives and that we didn't start attempting to preserve them sooner, when many more were still available.

"FdCh. Ch. Armstrong's Dash II" around 1874

Hank's Ringo Bondhu 2008

A perfect example how similar the Dashing Bondhu's are today compared with the original "FdCh. Ch. Armstrong's Dash II" and Hank's Ringo Bondhu, 134 years later and just as good if not better bird dogs today as well. Can there be any doubt that Hank's Ringo Bondhu is pure Dashing Bondhu? By the way, Hank's Ringo Bondhu, is out of OLN's "Hank" and Dashing Chess Bondhu (our Blaze's littermate) and is the sire of our Hank, Chess, Henrietta, Missy, and Odette as well as the Great Grand sire of our Freckles, Babe, and some others. I believe Hank's Ringo Bondhu, will go down as one of the top studs of our life time. Not just because of his great sire, but because of is outstanding dam and all the great pups he has sired.

As you can see the Dashing Bondhu's are the cream of the crop, Mr. Llewellin's personal strain, developed and perfected by him and close friend William Humphrey and they have been, are, and always will be considered a great asset to any breeding, hunting program, or pet home. You can see many kennels advertising their Setters having some Bondhu, Dashing Bondhu, Hank, or Count blood in their dogs. They brag about having a little of these bloodlines in their Setters and know their reputation is the BEST in the world. Our point is, if a little Dashing Bondhu is worth bragging about, think what they would say if they owned a pure bred Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setter.  Bottom line, if you can find any better bred pure Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters out of proven Gun Dog Certified hunting parents anywhere else in the world than at Mountain View Kennel, buy them!

Praise the Lord, with the help of the good Lord, we have over many years of hard work and sacrifice, been able to finally say we have preserved and saved the pure Humphrey Llewellin Setter strain (100% Mr. Llewellin's personal Dashing Bondhu Setters) from extinction and we are now the largest kennel of pure Humphrey bred Llewellin Setters in the world!

Misinformation about Dashing Bondhu's

Unfortunately, jealousy and politics always seems to plague great dogs and their breeder's. There seems to be a personal vendetta against the King's, our kennel and IPDBA on some Llewellin websites, with some FDSB supporters, especially by "Ernie Hardman" who was hired by the King's many years ago and fired for being dishonest about his past experience.  He has since held a personal vendetta againt the King's and built a website presenting himself as an authority on the Llewellin Setter and with the help of others have used the web-site and Llewellin message boards with others to bash the King's and spread untruths about them, the Llewellin breed, IPDBA, and even my art work. He continues to spread untruths about the IPDBA registry even after being sent a cease and disease letter with the facts from the IPDBA attorney.  Mr. Hardman clearly wants to continue to mislead the public, with false statements.


Hardman's website now is trying to change history by claiming that Mr. Llewellin did not develop the Dashing Bondhu bloodlines on his website stating. "Mr. Humphrey not Mr. Llewellin developed the modern Dashing Bondhu. Mr. Humphrey developed the Dashing Bondhu line by crossing the Mr. Law Turner's mostly Laverack dogs with Mr. Hartley's dogs and Mr. Llewellin's Wind'Ems. "


Anyone, would simply just have to read Mr. Humphrey's Manuscript to know this is a complete falsehood. Mr. Llewellin purchased FdCh.Ch. Armstrong's Dash II and bred them to his FdCh.Ch. Laverack females and started naming all his offspring "Dashing"  and when he was bred to FdCh.Ch. Laverack's Countess Bear, they produced "FdCh.Ch. Dashing Bondhu" and Mr. Llewellin started naming all  offspring from Countess females with "Dashing" and "Bondhu" in their name. Even if you don't count the three years of breeding Laverack's Setters and selecting those bloodlines like "Dan", he bred FdCh.Ch. Armstrong's Dash II bloodlines from 1878 up until his death in 1925, a total of 47 years and making dozens of Field Champions and show Champions with them, to many to list here.


Since it was 47 years of the Dashing Bondhu bloodlines fully developed and proven a countless foot hunting Field Trails, before Mr. Humphrey inherited all of Mr. Llewellin's "Dashing Bondhu" Setters. By the way Mr. Humphrey's Manuscript says he also inherited Setters with "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines from Mr. Turner and Mr. Hartley, and ONLY used their pure "Dashing Bondhu" originating from Mr. Llewellin's kennel.


In ALL of Mr. Humphrey writings including his manuscript, he ALWAYS gave FULL credit for the "Dashing Bondhu" Setters to Mr. Llewellin and ONLY to Mr. Llewellin.  Mr. Llewellin named his dogs "Dashing"and "Bondhu" 47 years before Mr. Humphrey inherited or even many year before he knew him and in Humphrey's own words at the time, quote he was"following in Llewellin's foot steps in every way possible", clearly stating he was going to continue breeding them the way Llewellin wanted them bred, not the way he wanted.


Some may say Mr. Humphrey continued to improve the "Dashing Bondhu" bloodline, but that could be said about anyone who produces great "Dashing Bondhu" pups in the past 50 plus years since Mr. Humphrey's passing, but "NO WAY can ANYONE get away with saying Mr. Llewellin didn't develop the "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines we have today"and there is no way to prove if any improvement was made, since they were the WORLD'S BEST Setters when Llewellin owned them for 47 years, Humphrey for 38 years, Dr. Stephenson 30 years , King's over 25+ years, and at Mountain View Kennel for 17+ years.

The ONLY reason anyone would try to remove Mr. Llewellin from the development of his Dashing Bondhu bloodline, is to attempt to put them on an equal with their American Llewellin strains, but the facts are the facts and the history cannot be changed whither they like it or not. 

It has also been stated on some websites, that on Mr. Llewellin's passing in 1925, "Mr. Humphrey purchased only 12 dogs from Mr. Llewellin's kennel keeper and he purchased 30-40 Setters from America. I assume this was written to some how mislead the public that the American Llewellin strains had a major roll in the development of even Humphrey's Dashing Bondhu program or that Llewellin's remaining dogs were not of higher quality, or not of pure descent.

Quite the contrary was true, Mr. Humphrey's own unedited personal manuscript clearly states that "Llewellin's kennel keeper was instructed to give him (Mr. William Humphrey) ALL his last remaining dogs". In fact, the facts have been completely turned around, it was that he inherited about 40 of Llewellin's remaining dogs and purchased only a few dogs back from America over many years and to our knowledge, all  were dogs originally produced by Mr. Humphrey or Mr. Llewellin himself and he was simply importing their own dogs back to England. Also, Mr. Humphrey stated that he "Sold all of the Llewellin Setters that he had been breeding for many years, so he could continue Mr. Llewellin's pure Dashing Bondhu's the same way Mr. Llewellin wanted", thus giving Mr. Llewellin all the credit for them even to his death in 1925. He NEVER added any American bloodlines, nothing but 100% pure Dashing Bondhu were used.

They were not importing American lines to breed to their dogs as this would NOT be the way Mr. Llewellin would have wanted them bred. He was quoted many times as saying he kept Mr. Llewellin's Dashing Bondhu's pure and bred the way Llewellin wanted. Also, if he would have out-crossed them in anyway, they would not of been able to be registered as Dashing Bondhu in their name, because of the unique Kennel Club mandated rule's would have not allowed it. I hope this put and end to these lies.

Why would Llewellin and Humphrey need to buy back dogs from time to time? Keep in mind that distemper vaccines had not yet been developed, so Llewellin and Humphrey would many times place dogs with other kennels outside of the UK, knowing that if distemper caused major loses in there area, they could purchase their dogs back, even if it meant spending twice what they received for them. So when you read that they imported some Setters back from the States, it must be acknowledged that they were simply getting dogs they had sold to the states in the first place and because of some dogs being lost to distemper, they needed to purchase some of of them back, many times paying twice what they received.

I don't know how this rumor started, but the Dashing Bondhu line was never the "result of Mr. Humphrey combining his Llewellins from Mr. Llewellin's stock with "American Llewellins". This would have been an impossible feat since Mr. Llewellin had himself created the Dashing Bondhu line in 1878, some 47 years before his death and entrusting them to Mr. Humphrey in 1925.

The truth of the matter is, Mr. Humphrey was so highly a respected friend of Mr. Llewellin as well as other top Llewellin Setters breeders like Mr. H. C. Heartly who without question had the finest kennel of both Llewellin Dashing Bondhu's in the world and Mr. Laws Turner who also had Llewellin's Dashing Bondhu Setters. Both of these famous Setter breeders entrusted Mr. Humphrey with ALL their remaining Dashing Bondhu Setters on their passing as well.

It was only their pure Dashing Bondhu Setters from all these great men that Mr. Humphrey fancied for 38 years and with the help of his grandson Chris Sorenson, and close friend Fr. Brannon of Ireland, continued breeding, preserving, improving, developing, and some would say perfecting the "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines and in Humphrey's words, quote "following in Llewellin's foot steps in every way possible".

Mr. Humphrey  personally finished 41 Field Champions (over one a year) in the process until his own passing in 1963. Many feel that Mr. Humphrey not only preserved Mr. Llewellin's outstanding pure "Dashing Bondhu" bloodlines continuing  in refining and furthering their development. This was the reason why Mr. Humphrey was labeled "the King of the Bondhu's" and inspired the book "King of the Bondhu's". His Llewellin Setters were considered the greatest natural field Setters in the world and still are by many of us today. Some have even resorted to calling them "Humphrey Setters"because of the great dogs they got from his program, but since the Dashing Bondhu's were famous and dominated the early Field Trails when Mr. Llewellin had them, it is difficult to tell if Humphrey actually improved them or simply preserved them as he found them. What we do know is that Humphrey said Llewellin's Dashing Bondhu's were the best when he got them and they continued to be the best with Humphrey and are still considered to be the best today. 

In fact, we are proud to say that we have been in personal contact with close current friends of William Humphrey Jr's family and a historian who is writing BIO's on William Humphrey Jr. who became a US citizen and was a War World II hero and with friends of Fr. Bannon who all have contacted us and were glad to see our accounts of them. They all have provided much info and verified and/or approved much our accounts that we have on our website. 

Now Available!  20 year Commemorative Edition!       This edition is full of new info excluded all the first edition and now includes the King's History with Llewellin Setters, their family and their Dashing Bondhu's. We were honored when Drenda asked us to write a personal comment on Al's contribution to the Llewellin Setter breed and his love of his fellow man. We loved Al and he is deeply missed.

Book Hard Cover Available at Amazon for $29.95 Click on image for link.

DVDs See pure "Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setters" and an ancestor of our Setters in action. "Hunting With Hank" Episodes. Click on image for Amazon link!
All Episodes of Season 1  $24.95	All Episodes of Season 2  $24.95
All Episodes of Season 3  $49.95	All Episodes of Season 4  $49.95
All Episodes of Season 5  $49.95	All Episodes of Season 6  $49.95

DVDs "Dash in the Uplands" pure "Dashing Bondhu Llewellin Setter" and another ancestor in many of our Setters. Click on image to Amazon Link!

All Episodes of Season 1  $49.95

All Episodes of Season 2  $49.95

All Episodes of  Season 3  $49.95