Today, my best "Buddy" and I will celebrate his fifth birthday. Although he is registered with the American Kennel Club as "Dutch Harbor Dutchman", he is affectionately known as just, "Dutch". He was born at Dutch Harbor, Alaska on March 30, 2002. His father being , "Readventure's Artful Dodger" and his mother was, Nibiru's Molly. She graced the magazine cover of a national waterfowl magazine prior to the birth of Dutch. If you are not familiar with this particular breed, they are relatively rare with very few of them being in Alaska. The breed is the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever. Originally, they were bred in England in the 1800's to resemble the Red Fox which were very adapt at "tolling" or luring in ducks to a waiting fox in the bushes.
The "little red dogs" were bred and trained to go though a variety of antics, playing with a stick, or jumping around to attract the attention of the ducks. With their white markings flashing, the ducks would move in closer out of curiosity, only to find the hunter in the blind. Once the bird was down, then the "toller" is sent out to make the retrieve. The breed later migrated to the eastern shores of Canada and picked up the name of Nova Scotia 
Duck Tolling Retriever. The breed is still very popular in this area of Canada.
My adventure with "Dutch" began in September 2001, my wife had acquired a new computer system and asked if I would download a screen saver containing pictures of puppies. I watched the screen saver for a period of time, this one particular puppy kept flashing before my eyes, it was listed as a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever but at that time I had never heard of the breed. I talked to bird hunters, but none of them had ever heard of the breed. It was through the Internet, that I learned of the qualities of this particular breed and each of them matched what I was looking for in a dog. I looked a t a variety of "Toller" kennels on the Internet, most of them in Canada only to discover that they were very strict in who was eligible to purchase a puppy. I filled out so many applications, it was very similar to adopting a child. I got a call from lady that had a kennel in Oregon, I had visited with her on a couple of other occasions, but she did not have a litter due for several months. She called to let me know she had heard about a litter of pups that were due to be born in March at Dutch Harbor. She knew the breeder and both the parents of the litter. I immediately called them to introduce myself and built a friendship that has lasted over the years. They called me the night that Molly had her puppies and from then on we kept in constant contact as to how the puppies were doing. I learned allot about the Tollers from them, their temperament, talent and intelligence. "Molly" had a vocabulary of at least one hundred words that she understood - a fact that I know longer doubt. When it came time to select a puppy, several others flew out to Dutch Harbor to make their selection, I asked Jerry to select the pup for me since he knew what I was looking for. By chance, he selected the pup for me that he would have preferred to keep if he had not had the parents. His s
election was perfect.
By coincidence, "Dutch" was weened from his mother and flew to Anchorage with his sister on my birthday. I met him at the airport, the owner of the second puppy was present and we let them out of the kennel together in the middle of the airport. It was love at first site! The sister he flew in with lives just fifty miles from us and stops by to visit a couple of times each year.
