Welcome to our Junior’s Activity Corner !

My name is Caiden Thompson, some of you may know who I am and others probably don’t. I am 11 years old and live in Washington State with my parents. I have grown up with Welsh Springers and English Springers, my parents met because of dogs so they are a huge part of our lives.. 

Ihave been very lucky growing up because I have my parents to help and support me with all things dog, my mom with grooming and dog shows as well as 4-H and my dad helps with the hunt stuff as well as taking me out to work with the Western Washington English Springer Spaniel Club. I  have shown in AKC Rally, Junior Showmanship, the breed ring,I have run 2 dogs in AKC hunt tests and I am in my 3rd year in the 4-H dog project and am a teen leader this year, even though I am not really a teenager yet. 

This past year knowing Lola, my Welsh Springer Spaniel,  was getting older and wouldn’t be able to be my juniors dog forever I told my parents I wanted a Gordon Setter to show. One night while I was doing my nightly reading for my ELA class I picked up a book I found in my mom’s dog stuff. The book is the National Geographic Book Of Dogs Man’s Best Friend.  It is an old book but I am glad I found it! When I saw the picture done by Walter A. Weber of the Gordon Setter I fell in love with the look of the breed. I started researching the breed on my own and they quickly made their way to the top of my lists of favorite breeds. My mom made me do a lot more research about the breed when I announced that I wanted a Gordon. I read everything I could get my hands on about the breed. I was also looking at Cardigan Corgis because of our goats, but my heart lies with sporting breeds.

After all the research I still wanted a Gordon so one night while I was at a friend's house my mom reached out to the PNW Gordon Club so I could actually go and meet a couple of Gordons. Mr and Mrs Gordon invited us to their house and I got to meet Dragan. Guess what, yes they are bigger than my Welshies and I am not a very big person but I still wanted one. After that I got a chance to meet with Mr Reed and his girl Bunty. It was cold and snowy and I loved every minute of watching her follow her nose and work on the baseball field. 

I watched videos of Westminster and looked at pictures of past National winners and I started putting together a list of kennels that had dogs I liked. I wanted to have a dog that could still work in the field but that I could also show. This was very important to me! Next I looked up catalogs to get the dogs names so I could look up the kennels where they came from and I put together a list of breeders to contact. I didn't know but my mom emailed them all and warned them they would be getting an email from me and letting them know that my parents supported me in getting a different breed. I started emailing breeders and I got extremely lucky to find a breeder who had puppies and was willing to work with me! Brier came home in February and I was given a chance to have a beautiful puppy who is growing into the dog of my dream!