Our Founder
"I have hunted this breed of birddog since a child back in the 1950’s. Although, like many other young men in those days, I left Kentucky for work in the Chicago steel yards for nearly 20 years only to return in 1967.
From there I became an owner of my first Llewellin setter. Back then, the Bob White Quail and Ruffled Grouse population was never better and my love for the breed had grown stronger.
- Bob Bailey
What is a Llewellin Setter?
Nearly every person that visits our kennel for the first time asks the age-old question: What is a Llewellin Setter?
Most of these people have read one or all of the latest articles published by some of the major magazines in the past decade which cover the history of the Llewellins as early as the mid-1800s,. from the first Laveracks to Purcell Llewellin. With Llewellin the breed adopted the registered name.
Bred To Hunt. Bred to Win.
We breed from only the males and females with the most natural pointing and retrieving ability.
Only the dog with the greatest desire for the bird and love to hunt will pass the grade in our program. You should not have to force a dog to hunt, point and retrieve, it should come naturally. Yes there will always be some form of training for handling, obedience and introduction to the gun in the field, but the desire to be a bird dog must be there!
The amount of litters we breed per year are limited, we don’t run a puppy factory!
All breeding stock is hip x-rayed, DNA’d and registered with The American Field Stud Book.
The Straight Creek Difference
We breed based on training, natural talent, and the best bloodline possible.
We train and kill birds over the dogs, in order to get the best breeders out of the litter. If you do not hunt them you will not know the true characteristics of the dog.
At Straight Creek Kennels, we raise about 1000 quail a year, all for training. We then train dogs September through March. We personally train all the sires and dames that we breed.
Check out our YouTube Channel
Come along with us on some of our hunting adventures and WATCH our Llewellins in action! You'll get more in-depth information from Bob as he explains the breed, how they are trained and the differences in the lineages of his Lllewellins.
