Versatile dogs

[Gumboot]

All I'd have to do is shoot 1 squirrel...and birds would be completely forgotten.

[ness]

Boy, I hear you on that. Here’s my two locking onto a rabbit. 

Invisible Fence right there at the wall. Every critter in the neighborhood knows the dogs can’t get in there. 😄

[fishinwrench]

My dad trained high-powered pointer bird dogs. The lowly field mouse was his worst enemy.  I can't count the number of tears I shed while the ol'man kicked the lungs out of our dogs for running field mice and accidentally busting a covey of quail.  There were times when I wanted to take a fence post to his head.   

[snagged in outlet 3]

My buddy has two Brittany's and they are well trained.  We were at my family farm a couple years ago chasing one of the last couple covey's left.  The dogs were going nuts and all birdy but they wouldn't hold a point.  We beat around in the bushes and nothin.....  We backed out and I look up and the covey was in the tree above us.  I've never seen that before.

[fishinwrench]

28 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

My buddy has two Brittany's and they are well trained.  We were at my family farm a couple years ago chasing one of the last couple covey's left.  The dogs were going nuts and all birdy but they wouldn't hold a point.  We beat around in the bushes and nothin.....  We backed out and I look up and the covey was in the tree above us.  I've never seen that before.

Who was the first one to help them out of the tree with an ounce of 7 1/2's ?  😊

Dad had a liver/white female (Lindy) that would snatch one out of the air 8 out of 10 times on a covey rise.   I bet SHE woulda found them tree huggers. 🤟  That female doggy could launch herself 8 feet off the ground. No exaggeration.  The birds would bust and then a dog would fly through the air.

Now you've got me wanting to dig out the old poloroids.

[Quillback]

13 minutes ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

My buddy has two Brittany's and they are well trained.  We were at my family farm a couple years ago chasing one of the last couple covey's left.  The dogs were going nuts and all birdy but they wouldn't hold a point.  We beat around in the bushes and nothin.....  We backed out and I look up and the covey was in the tree above us.  I've never seen that before.

I was grouse hunting in Washington state, for spruce grouse, which was usually a futile effort, but the season opened for grouse before the other upland birds opened.  Out strolling through the woods, dog started circling and sniffing around the base of a big spruce tree, didn't see any birds, no points so I thought he was probably sniffing some varmint.  Finally got him out of there, walk away abut 30 yards and hear that loud noise game birds make when they are flying and watch a couple of grouse fly out of the top of that tree.

Another time a group of us were walking across a recently mowed hayfield to get to another spot, my dog locked on a small clump of dried grass, I walked over there thinking, yeah right - got about a foot away and a hen pheasant jumped out of there, I was looking right at her and never saw her.

I learned to trust that dog.  Sometimes he'd give you a false point, but if he got locked on something there was a good chance there was a bird there.

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

25 years ago that place was filthy with birds.  Old timers said the birds died off when they quit running coyotes with dogs and horses.  Now we only get a covey or two in 350 plus acres.

[fishinwrench]

12 minutes ago, Quillback said:

 

I learned to trust that dog.  Sometimes he'd give you a false point, but if he got locked on something there was a good chance there was a bird there.

When that tail stops quivering the fun is about to happen.  

[Quillback]

5 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

25 years ago that place was filthy with birds.  Old timers said the birds died off when they quit running coyotes with dogs and horses.  Now we only a covey or two in 350 acres plus acres.

They are practically extinct around here.  They are creating a bunch of quail habitat on the Pea Ridge battlefield, but you can't hunt there.  

 

Edit:  Pea Ridge battlefield not Prairie Grove.

[Gumboot]

To be fair, they'll find a bird too.