I
have written an "In Memoriam" for Cj. It came to be rather long, 5800 words. I
have used odds and ends from here and there and since I also used, down below,
your last regards to him that you wrote on this list, I feel I have to ask for
your permission to use them before we publish the lot on our website. As soon as
Clements family has time they will also select and send us some photos of him
but we will publish the text already within a couple of days and put the photos
in afterwards. We are also planning that in due course of time collect all the
material, mostly mail to the WGD list, we have from him in a special
"Cj's croner" or something, so that his knowledge can inspire folks for many
years to come or at least until the internet burns down....
Here
below is the very last part of my writings about Cj and the regards from you I
would like to use. If you do not agree please send a private mail.
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In
his last mail, in the late autumn 2008, to the working-gundog-list he again
expressed his great interest in the possibility of an innate and mutual
understanding between dog and man. I think it is reasonable to believe that he
would have loved to dive into an arduous research work to find out about the
very interesting subject. However, in the last sentence he wrote for us it seems
like he gave us a clue that his time was limited and that he would soon face the
final curtain.
November
2008
There
are many interactions between people and dogs that I don't understand. How
does a dog 'know' that we are in a good mood or when we are happy? I'm
well aware of a number of cues that signal to a dog that a human is upset or
angry but I've missed some (but not all) of the signals signifying happiness to
dogs. I have studied many instances of canine misinterpretation of human
behaviours since they shed light on how dogs come to correctly understand human
body language and auditory signals. Some of this is training related
learning (not training itself) but much is simply absorbed from
social contact but precisely how is speculative at best. I am
certain that much of what dogs "understand" about human behaviour isn't learned
but is quite probably innate, I am equally
certain that some of what humans
"understand" about dogs is also innate but it's enormously difficult to separate
innate stuff from learned stuff. Correlating age-distributed behaviours of
dogs with age
distributed behaviours of humans takes a lot of time and
plenty of notebooks to document. I don't think I have enough time to come
to any solid overall conclusions in this area.
Cj
Now Clement has left us and there is no way
for Maud and me and the other list members to express our sorrow in words. To
Maud and me he was kind of a father who tried to guide us in the right direction
with our dogs. Sometimes he went more scientific than we with our level of
education could handle and a few times there were different opinions that I
strongly believe derived from the different lineage of dogs, with perhaps very
different inclination for cooperation with humans, we had with our dogs from
both sides of the Atlantic ocean. He was a good man to argue with. Indeed, he
taught me how to argue in a sensible way and to abstain from doing so if I had
nothing sensible to say. Whatever, the knowledge he gave us about understanding
dogs is invaluable and we shall preserve it just as dearly as the memory of him.
Thank you Clement and happy hunting to you
and your dogs! Maud & Torsti
His son James:
Yes, I think you are correct that he took far more with him
than he left for us, but he did leave us with what we really need to succeed
with our dogs - the insight to stop and think about what your dog is telling
you. I also know he strongly felt that too many of us sportsmen forget to have
fun with our dogs while hunting and forget to relax and work as a team. James
Walton
Just a few last regards from the other list
members:
-Waidmannsdank CJ, for sharing your unique insights with us
all. Craig
-I WILL miss him - he challenged and led me to discover so
much knowledge about dogs!
RIP my friend. May there always be good dogs and
enough hard flying grouse where
ever you go from here. Jere
-He was a fountain of knowledge,
had a wry sense of humour and above all a real love for his hunting, fishing and
gundogs. The last chapter of an enthralling book has come to an end. What
are we going to read now? Marg
-
How very sad. Cj was one of the original participants of this list. He always
had interesting posts, which made you "think" about the process. We will miss
you Cj. tc
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Torsti