According to the weather people it’s going to rain for most of this week. That means no dog training. The older dogs may have been getting bored with the retrieving, anyway. The younger pups aren’t bored with the pigeons but may be with the other, heel, whoa, hold and give.
Sally on wild quail.
Luke pointing a pigeon.
Tur Bo on point.
Several years ago, a friend brought a young dog over to work it on my pigeons. After I hid some birds in release traps he turned the young setter loose. It pointed the first bird and I noticed that although the dog wasn’t moving the guy would say, “whoa” then a few seconds later another, “whoa”. The dog wasn’t moving but each time he said, “whoa” the young dog wagged it’s tail.
I asked why he was saying whoa and he said so the dog wouldn’t move. If the dog ever goes on point on the other side of a hedge row or over a hill, where he can’t see him, who is going to say “whoa” to him then.
A dog, when it goes on point, is totally concentrated on the bird. If you say anything to it, it breaks the dogs concentration. I try to not say anything when my dogs go on point and I don’t say anything in a backing situation, if the dog that’s still moving can see the other dog. If you have to whoa your dog into a back, who is going to do it if they aren’t in your sight.
I was hunting with a couple of guys, that I knew but I had never hunted with before. One of my dogs went on point and as we went in one of the guys started saying, “whoa, whoa” to my dogs. I never said anything the first time but at the next point he did the same thing. I said, “please don’t talk to my dogs”. He was shocked. “You don’t say whoa to your dogs”. I said, “he wasn’t moving”.
The other guy said, “he’s nicer than a guy I was hunting with was when I gave his dog an order. He hit me in the belly with his gun butt then said, don’t talk to my dogs”. Someone else thinks the way I do.
I sometimes watch bird hunting on television. My wife, June, doesn’t watch but she does, sometimes, count how many times the host of the show says, “whoa”. It’s not uncommon for them to say, “whoa” 8 or 10 times on one point.
Beware The Guy With A Whistle
A friend took up quail hunting at an advanced age, probably, because I talked about it so much. He bought a dog and I think the guy threw in the whistle. He said the dog was whistle broke but I couldn’t tell it was broke to anything. The dog would point birds but this was before GPS collars and we may not have been in the same area code with him.
But because the dog was supposed to be whistle broke every time, my friend’s left foot hit the ground he blew the whistle. The dog never had to check back. He knew exactly where my friend was.
Tur Bo honoring Luke.
I ran a couple of pups in a walking field trial. They were both derbies and they ran back to back. The first guy I ran with blew his whistle constantly. The pup I ran against him didn’t know what to do. She wasn’t whistle broke but she kept coming back. His dog was used to the whistle and never paid any attention to him.
It was only a thirty minute heat. I put that dog up and got my other out. As we lined up to turn them loose the other guy, not the same guy, said, “oh, shoot, I forgot my whistle”. I said, “good”. One of the judges looked at me and said, “the other guy did blow his whistle a lot, didn’t he”? The second pup ran better than my first but they placed her third because of the guy with the whistle, I think.
That is pretty much my experience with people who have a dog and a whistle. If you asked the guy with a whistle, each time he blew it, what he wanted, most of the time he wouldn’t know.
Now a good thing about whistles. If your dogs are trained with a whistle, they can hear them farther than just your voice, especially on real windy days. And older dogs are like old men. They loose their hearing as they get older.
When Lucky got older he couldn’t hear very well but I still took him just to let him hunt for a little while. He had paid his dues and deserved to be taken. I turned him out in Oklahoma once and he was gone. I had not paid attention to where he had gone. This time I had just let him out to do his business. When I missed him I got a whistle out and blew it. In just a few minutes he showed up. So I started carrying it when ever I turned him loose.
Sally on point. Luke is on point in the woods 20 yards in front of her. She can’t see him.
This last season, also in Oklahoma, I tried something different. I had a GPS on Luke and he got turned around. By the time I got back to the truck he was about a mile away from me. I was hunting a big state owned area. I drove as close as I could get to him. Still over a half mile from him. I blew the horn on the truck. I had never done that for any dog but Luke came straight to me. Dogs are smart.
Walking In On A Point
I have seen some guys trying to shuffle in to flush the birds with their gun shouldered and sliding both feet so they can stay in their shooting stance. The shot in the gun is moving at 800+ miles per hour. It will go fast enough to catch the bird. You have plenty of time.
I’ve also seen guys almost tip toe in to flush. The dog sees them and wants to help. If you go in kicking every thing in sight the dog rears back instead of going forward. He knows with that much commotion the bird is coming out.
The best way I know to have a quail knock your hat off, when they are flushed, is to try to drive them in a direction they don’t want to go. Sometimes quail fly in a direction I want them to but it’s usually when they already wanted to go there.
I don’t know how many times I’ve had people say, when a dog is in thick cover on point, I will circle around and drive them to you. I can count on one hand how many times it actually worked. Usually, I get no shot. For me, it’s better to both just pass the dog and take your chances.
Upcoming Litter
The last of March, June and I took Sally to Snyder Texas to breed her to Bruce Sooter’s frozen semen son of Hof Ch. Tekoa Mountain Sunrise, Rip. Rip and Sally both share a grandfather. On both of their mother’s side, their grandfather is Tekoa Mountain Outrage, who is a son of Hick’s Rising Sun. Hick’s Rising Sun is a son of Tekoa Mountain Sunrise.
Sally’s grandfather on her sire’s side is two time National Champion Shadow Oak Bo. Her mother was a granddaughter to Grouse Ridge Reroy. These line bred puppies will have some royal blood coursing through their veins.
The pedigree on the puppies that Sally will have around the first of June.
Mann pointing a chukar.
Sally on wild quail.