Old School

Three dog-training greats who inspired a nation

Some years ago I read an interview with Red Auerbach, the legendary Boston Celtics coach. It was during Michael Jordan's heyday, and Auerbach was weary of hearing Jordan canonized as the greatest player ever. What nearly made him chew through his cigar, though, was the implication that his Celtics teams would have been hard-pressed to run with Jordan's Bulls. "Why does everybody think this game was invented yesterday?" he fumed. You could ask the same question about the gundog game. As much as we like to believe that we honor its traditions, we let an appalling amount of history, like gold dust in a Klondike saloon, fall through the cracks.

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