1987-2003
(Ch. Mariden’s I’m Dignified CD x Touchwood’s Brocade CD, TD)
Bred by Lynn Hall, Touchwood
As Gusty had been retired from any competition and was never bred, I was ready to start over. I inquired with Lynn Hall, Gusty’s breeder, as to what she had coming up. I was hoping for a liver roan, but alas, only blues resulted. Not wanting to wait, we took Toga, a blue roan boy, and never regretted it.
I acquired Toga shortly after we were married. I wanted a dog to work with to get me back in circulation, one that was a do-it-all —show, obedience, and field — and that’s exactly what he was.
Toga was a delightful dog to live with. He possessed a strong desire to please and thoroughly enjoyed work, learned fast and was extremely bright, loved everyone, was outgoing and resilient and funny. He used to key into anything he did that made us laugh or get our attention, and turning somersaults in the living room and swinging his training dummy by the tab, whacking it on the ground and letting it fly across the room topped his repertoire.
Toga set me up for unrealistic expectations when it came to show bred English Cockers. He had talent, biddability and drive that at the time I did not realize was not commonplace. Other than some simple obedience and, later a little bit of control training, he received no formal field training. He learned about birds by chasing gulls and sandpipers at the beach and learned to swim in Long Island Sound. Everything came naturally with him. As a puppy he was an enthusiastic and ambitious retriever, picking up anything he could get his little mouth on, the bigger the better, and bringing it to me or parading it around for all to see and admire. He was particularly fond of picking up unusually long pieces of driftwood and trotting along the beach with it, whacking ankles as he went.
He also learned very quickly that he was a chick magnet and played that card at every opportunity!
At 4 ½ months he flushed his first game bird (quail) to the gun, marked, and retrieved to hand on both land and water. He earned his WD at barely 6 months of age, only his fourth time under the gun.
Toga spent many, many hours hunting when he was in his prime, about 10 hours a week, some weeks. We hunted state land and also joined the Wallingford CT Rod and Gun club while we lived in Milford. We had ample public hunting areas near home when we made the move to Colchester. He last hunted just shy of his 14th birthday. He lived to 16 ½.
Toga has the distinction of being the first English Cocker to earn a championship with the States Kennel Club in 1989.
He was piloted to his final AKC CH major by noted handler Barbara Heckerman.
In 2000 he was noted as being one of 58 English Cockers recognized for breed Versatility at that time. Versatility recognition requires that the dog be titled in Conformation, Field, and either Obedience, Agility, or Tracking.
Toga was used only a couple times for breeding. His breeding to Belinda vom Turkiskamp gave us “Spam” (Woodwyn’s Foreign Policy, JH, SH, MH, CD, NA, NAJ, WD/WDX, CGC) and Gusty II (so named because she looked so much like my first dog) who was sent back to Germany with her mother and in turn was the dam of our Ch. Beauty-Madonna vom Ehrhornsgrund, MH, RA, NAJ, NJP, WDX, ECM, bred by Marie-Luise Hoberg. Mia in turn produced enough titled offspring to be awarded the English Cocker of Merit designation.
