Bird Dog Mentor: Ray Calkins

Mentors Who Last a Lifetime

by Laura Reeves

Ray and Lynn Calkins, Cascade GWP, were among my very first breed mentors. Back in the mid-‘80s, I acquired my first Wirehair when I was a teenager. She was eventually bred to the Calkins’ first Wirehair, the dog who would be the foundation of their long line of dual champion dogs. The connection has continued through the better part of 35 years.

When mom sent me the bitch who would serve as the foundation for my own line of dogs, she was a daughter of the Calkins’ most successful Dual Champion/National Field Champion.

Ray taught me about pointing dogs and field trials and, along the way, he and Lynn have generously shared their knowledge, their experience and their friendship.

Ray recently retired from his long-running and successful veterinary practice outside of Portland, Oregon. Past president of the GWPCA and a judge of pointing breed field trials, Ray was the 2014 AKC Lifetime Achievement Award winner.

As breeders, the Calkins’ Cascade dogs are extraordinary, as they are represented in the lists of all-time top producing sires of Field Trial, Hunt Test and Conformation dogs. Of the 10 Supreme ROM sires, two are dogs the Calkins’ bred and four more are directly descended from dogs they bred. Of the six Supreme ROM dams, three are direct descendants of the Cascade dogs.