For a few weeks now, my cousin has been thinking of putting his German Spanial (AKA Wachtelhund, Deutscher Wachtelhund, German Quail Dog) down due to an incurable, and very serious allergy. The allergy has resulted in skin and fur problems, and an almost cronic ear infection. She was trained to track moose, and was a promising dog had it not been for her problems.

Yesterday I got the phone call where he told me that after some serious thought on the subject, he decided to put Delga down, for both her own good, and for their own sake. Delga was never going to get better, and it was better to do it now when she was 1 1/2 years then put her thru misery for several more.

As he wanted to do it in an environment where Delga would have a "happy ending", he asked if I could come with him and his wife up to their country house where we could create a "hunting situation" for her. I drove up in the rain a bit before him, dug a decent grave for her, and collected some large moss covered flat rocks to put on top.
When they arrived with Delga, his wife took a moose leg (frozen from last season) to create a track for her to follow. After doing this a few time, and some goodbye hugs, my cousin knelt down with the moose leg in his hand a couple of meters away while Delga was told to sit. Thus, all her focus was on him and the mooseleg she expected to receive shortly, and was wagging her tail. I stood right behind her and put an end to her short life with a suppressed 22LR pistol shot thru her brain, down and from behind. She was dead before she hit the ground, and died happy looking at her owner and the juicy mooseleg.

After a while of more sad goodbyes, she was carried over, and gently lowered into the grave which had a layer of green pine branches covering the dirt. More pine branches were put over her, and the grave was filled with dirt before topping it off with the moss coverd rocks. Kind of looked like a miny Viking grave, which in a way was fitting.

Although for the best, it was a sad day.

Erik