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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Dog trainer, breeder left legacy with “Mahoney setters”

Gene Mahoney of Medical Lake with his English setter, I’m Dick Too. The dog was inducted into the National Shoot to Retrieve Association Hall of Fame in 2002. (Rich Landers / The Spokesman-Review)

It’s not uncommon when I’m hunting, working or walking my dog to have an onlooker say, “Is that a Mahoney setter?”

The term is used in this region to describe handsome, birdy English setters that run like the wind, skid to stone-still, tail-high points on birds, and come home to add welcome grace to the family room.

Spokane-area setter breeder and trainer Gene Mahoney died on April 25 at the age of 78, but not before he spread the happiness of fine bird dogs to hunters and families far and wide.

He will be interred on Thursday at 11:15 a.m. in an military ceremony at the Veterans Cemetery at Medical Lake.

When he came to work in the recreation program at Fairchild Air Force Base in 1975, Mahoney bought a German short-haired pointer for a hunting partner, says Peggy Mahoney, his wife of 52 years.

“He went out to a dog trail near Four Lakes and got hooked,” she said. “We bred our shorthair a couple times, then Gene stared training to support the habit. Pretty soon, I was grooming dogs for clients. It was a family deal.”

Mahoney always liked hunting dogs, but he never fell in love with one until he trained an English setter named Lady.

“We were able to buy her from the owner down the road, and Gene took her all the way to runner-up in the national Shoot to Retrieve Championships,” she said.

Next he trained and campaigned one of her pups, Whiskey Lady Delight who quickly stood out in the crowd and marched on to win the nationals.

Gene wasn’t one and done. The next Mahoney setter to win the national championship was I’m Dick Too, a radar-like bird finder with panda-black eye patches immortalized in the National Shoot to Retrieve Association Hall of Fame.

Dickie, as Mahoney called him, sired many litters of pups.

“We never bred willy-nilly or without a list of people who wanted the puppies,” Peggy said.

The Landers family was on one of those lists and Dickie is the father of our tri-color setter, Dickens. I’ve told everyone who would listen for 13 years that he’s the best hunting dog-family dog I’ve partnered up with for the field.

“We’ve heard that a lot,” Peggy said.

“Gene became very competitive in Shoot to Retrieve,” she said. “The first time he went to nationals was with one of his German shorthairs. He drove east in a little station wagon with Gailen Carothers and they both tied for last place.

“The West didn’t get much respect from the Eastern dog handlers, and Gene and Gailen didn’t change any minds that year. But Gene told them, ‘I’ll be back.’ And he did, in a big way.”

–Rich Landers