National Grasslands
Tur Bo in front Dolly in back
Oklahoma National Grassland quail
Yesterday the weather was pretty nice but I didn’t work dogs. I went to a good friend and quail hunting buddy, Paul Haass, funeral. Today the high is supposed to be 18 degrees and with the exception of one day the next 7 days are supposed to be similar. Not fit for man or dog but I think about dogs and hunting most days. These are some of the things I think about.
I watch bird hunting shows on television. The dogs go on point, several hunters walk in and they are all saying, “whoa, whoa, whoa.” Usually, the dog isn’t moving. Every time some one says something to the dog it breaks his concentration. A fellow brought a young dog over to my place to work it on my pigeons and when it pointed it was really rigid. The fellow would walk in and as he went in front of the dog he would say, “whoa”. The dog would wag it’s tail then get rigid again. The fellow would say, “whoa” and the dog would wag, then get rigid.
I asked him why he was saying whoa and he said he didn’t want his dog to move. I told him the dog was wagging every time he said whoa. I talked him into trying it without saying anything and the dog didn’t wag but the big thing is, it didn’t move either. I would bet that the next time the dog pointed, after it left my place, he said whoa several times when he walked in. Sometimes habits are hard to break.
I guide at Bird Fever in Richmond, Missouri occasionally. I have both dogs I’m using that day on leashes. When we get to the field we are going to hunt I whoa the dogs, take the leashes off, give my safety talk, have the hunters load their guns then release the dogs with an okay. The dogs usually wait for the okay. Rarely I have to say whoa more than once. Not often, but sometimes I have hunters that want to say whoa to my dogs as they walk in. I let them get by with it the first time, hoping they will notice that I don’t say anything as we walk in. If they do it again I explain to them that I don’t talk to my dogs when they are on point. Some of the people are surprised that I don’t say anything but my dogs sometimes point 400 yards ahead of me. If I had to whoa them, how loud would I have to shout, so they would hear me.
If the dog points then moves and you say whoa, then the dog moves again and you say whoa, the dog doesn’t know whoa. Occasionally one of my dogs will point then start to move. At that time I will say whoa, one time. If it moves again, it’s disobeying a command. At that time the dog is picked up and put back no matter if the bird flushes or not. I say whoa when I put him on the ground then make him stand for a while. If the next time he moves again, I shake him as I’m putting him back. I may shake him 2 or 3 times but I only say whoa 1 time when I put him back on the ground. Yelling whoa a bunch of times when you are close to the dog will make them cower. You can shake them several times but it won’t make them cower. If they do it again, I put them up and redo the yard work. This is the way I train my dogs, if you have a different method and it works for you stick with it.
I’m babysitting a friends dog. She, my friend, not the dog, had back surgery so I have her rescue dog in my kennel. It’s a little brown mongrel that she bought at the pound. Around my kennels, I have a big pen I turn my dogs into each day as I clean kennels. About a week into my babysitting job I turned all of the dogs into the big pen and Maggie got out. She didn’t try to go anywhere but she wouldn’t come to me. All of my leashes were in my truck so I came to the house to get one. She came with me but stayed out of reach. I got the leash and started back to the kennel. She went just ahead of me and went right into the big pen. I shut the gate on the big pen and went into her kennel, leaving the gate open. I always get her to jump on the house and pet her for a while so I sat on the corner of her house and called her. She came into her kennel and jumped onto the house. I petted her.
For about 4 or 5 days I would turn all of the rest of the dogs out but not her. Today, I turned her out with the rest of the dogs and she didn’t even try to get out. Is she cured of getting out? I don’t know. I will only have her for a few more days but I will continue to let her out unless she escapes again.
Nothing makes you think about the past more than going to a friends funeral. I got to thinking about a dog a good friend of mine, Dennis Garrison, had a lot of years ago. Dennis had a nice little female that he had a litter of pups out of. He kept one and I got one, also. My pup came on pretty fast but Dennis had several dogs so he didn’t hunt his pup that he called Spot-tail. The first time he took him was a really cold day with a strong wind. We got into some quail and after the shooting looked for Spot-tail. He was no where around. When we got back to the truck he was in his box. We figured he was gun shy.
Dennis left him home for quite a while but he loved to point a quail wing. He pointed with a high head and tail. Really a classy dog. Dennis decided to try him again and this time it was a nicer day. Spot-tail hunted all day and the gun didn’t bother him at all. We decided he was a fair weather hunter.
Spot-tail made a real good bird dog but when he pointed he would just stop. When Dennis would get home Spot-tail would go to where he had a quail wing on a rod and point with a lot of style. Sometime when we were hunting Dennis would indicate Spot-tail and say, “is that dog on point.” I’d say, “hell, I don’t know. He’s your dog.” We had a lot of fun hunting Spot-tail.
With the weather like it is this month thinking about dogs and hunting may be all I get done. There are some ads interspersed in these posts. If you see anything that interests you, please, click on them. I make a few cents each time someone clicks an ad. A few more clicks might keep me on the road reporting on more public hunting this fall.