I do not hide the fact that, last June 1st, when I reached my parents' home, in the Casella di Bibbiena, my mother, looking out the window, told me, with a touched tone "Ace is dead", I burst into tears, like a baby in swaddling clothes.
Asso, male breton spaniel, was born in May 1998 from Dik, my first dog, x Elly dei Tre Monti; from a very young age, he demonstrated his important qualities: sense of the wild, good nose, firm solidity, great resistance, action and looking beyond the note, for what is required of a foreign continental; initially, he sinned in the carryover, a dowry he acquired at the age of three. I still remember the excellent opinion expressed on Asso, at one year of age, by the dog-lover judge Antonio Sanchini, on the occasion of an amateur practical hunting test on freed partridges, where he ranked first in his category. At the end of the report on the trial, the judge added: "good subject, which, I am sure, will give great satisfaction to this young hunter". So it was and this is why I felt the duty and pleasure, from the bottom of my heart, to write what you read for my Ace.
Satisfaction, as I said, on partridges and pheasants; great satisfactions on the woodcock, where Ace was a great teacher for me, teaching me Himself to hunt the noble queen of the woods.
I remember in this regard, his first stop, after various previous occasions of exploitation on this wild, admitted at the age of one and a half years.
Since then the woodcock has been your, or rather ours, great passion, a passion that I shared for a decade with my father Giuseppe and my uncle Carlo, following Asso, an excellent woodcock, in our Tuscan-Romagna Apennines: if you decided to scout a area, it was enough, comfortably, to proceed on this or that path; Ace, however connected to whoever led it, ranged over a wide terrain, as already mentioned, beyond the note of a foreign continental, more as befits an Englishman; be sure, if in the area there was the presence of a woodcock, He would find it and, if pan-fried or moved away before the arrival of the handler or, in case of shooting difficulties, due to the thick vegetation, He, the great Ace, he found her again. And he found it again in a short time and then…. He found it again, and once again, until the right opportunity came; this is the woodcock dog: good deed, good search, good connection, solidity in the firm, great resistance and great sense of the wild !!!
For me, who am a born traditionalist, a strong supporter of local proverbs, accepting the saying that in the life of a woodcock you have only one true auxiliary for hunting woodcock, believe, is really hard, especially when you have already benefited from it. ; and therefore, I hope as soon as possible to deny this motto, even if, to date, some years have passed since Asso no longer accompanies me on the hunt, given the age, I hunted with dogs much inferior to him in this hunting practice.
I cried for him and I am proud of it, I cry now that I am writing this, because, if it is permissible and legitimate to cry for the loss of a dog who has shared your same passion for years and sacrificed himself for you, his essential point reference, it is even more right to cry for my Ace, a dog who gave me unforgettable days and taught me the noble art of hunting woodcock.
Jacob Piantini
AN ENALCACCIA PT
PROVINCIAL SECTION OF AREZZO