Category: Dogs in general
by Jeremy Criscoe Everyone has probably heard the statement, “My 6-month-old dog picked up six birds this year!†Or, “My 8-month-old dog started out great this year, but now he/she isn’t getting into the water and seems shaky around guns.†This is quite common. Hunting young pups always turns into too much of a good […]
by Jay If you get on our Facebook page, you may have seen that I recently (finally) picked a breeder for a Lab – which is also the first dog I’ll have with kids in the house, and my first real hunting dog. As you know if you’ve ever been through this process, finding a […]
First, this doesn’t seem to be an epidemic, not even a local one. Second, regardless of your feelings about trapping, trappers are good people – if sometimes odd. (This means you Dan! Lol.) But let’s face it: Any beloved hunting dog or non-hunting pet – and they are all beloved – killed by accident is […]
I (Jay) had never seen nor head of a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever until the 2011 Pheasant Fest last winter. In fact, when the guy I was talking to about the dog told me, I thought he was yanking my chain. Who in their right mind would give anything that long a name? And […]
Not too long ago, seemed like anytime anyone said “stem cells” they’d either get a microphone shoved in their face or something thrown at ’em. But outside of that realm of political football, things have advanced – apparently to the point of a 1-day procedure that sounds like it’ll give old hunting dogs a few […]
The always reliable (meaning good) Chad Love of Field & Stream blog and Quail Unlimited blog fame semi-recently raised a similar question in a brief post. Riffing on it here because we think it’s an interesting, appropriate but possibly unrealistic topic. Meaning: 1. We’ve actually talked about this in the field, wishing we had a […]
Good article at gundogmag.com, worth a full read. Here are a few highlights that stood out for us, either paraphrased or quoted. > In training, your dog works harder than you do. So watch out when the temp gets 65 degrees for pointers, and 70 for retrievers. Be especially careful if a dog is out […]
In his will, a friend of ours has specified that he wants to be cremated, his ashes “loaded into shotshells and given to my duck hunting buddies, so I can keep on killing them winged bastards.” Do you love this guy or what! Well, now that’s possible with a new Alabama company named Holy Smoke. […]
Recently, Purina (Nestle) scientist Brian Zanghi, Ph.D. posted an interesting but loooooooooong article with some tips about keeping an older dog going longer in the field. Give you a hint: no pizza or beer…. Seriously, it’s worth a full read if you have an older dog, and even if yours don’t qualify as old yet. […]
Well…sorta! Check out the cover of its latest fall 2011 hunting catalog. Not sure if everyone got this cover or just the bird-heads or what, but it’s cool. No secret that we’re huge fans of Bean upland gear, and gotta say that we found a few must-haves/wanna-tries in this catalog. We’ll be testing out the […]
In the current era of “remote control” of hunting dogs – not that there’s anything wrong with that – could it be that an even better way is…your face? That was the subject of an intriguing post by Wingshooting USA host Scott Linden. Excerpts: > Think about what dogs see, especially from any distance. Not […]
We like to hunt. To us that means getting out there and walking (hard), seeing some birds fly, putting some of them on the ground. That’s equally true whether we’re hunting without a dog or over a dog. As we say in Serious Grouse Hunting, Book 1, a dog is only as good as where […]
by Jay Brendan has a Lab pup, so he’s cast his dog vote. Me, I’m still undecided. My head’s spinning with all the breeds, all the recommendations, all the just plain love this or that hunter has for this or that dog. Today I had a long, very educational conversation with grouse dog master Dick […]
Would you? Probably not, unless maybe it was the only one you had and the birds were daring you to get out of the truck and hunt. How about pink brush pants? No? Well then, how about hunting with a poodle?
And which dog is better… by Larry Rich, a fellow Serious bird hunter Over the years I’ve seen, heard and at times been lucky enough to intercept a grouse in a variety of situations, and over quite a few different dogs. Employing a little empathy and reasoning, I’ve come to have an opinion on how […]
A recent post on the Pheasants Forever website quotes Steve Smith, head editor of Pointing Dog Journal and Retriever Journal, as saying the following to the question of “if you could have only one” dog: “If your idea of a good time is a German shorthair pointing, relocating, pointing, relocating all the way down a […]
Grouse man of letters Burton Spiller said in one of his books that a good grouse dog must run with its head held high. We remembered that passage recently when looking at a recent article in a Wisconsin newspaper, which read in part: > Some bird dogs can detect the very subtle scent of [birds] […]
How many things do you remember from college? Maybe not much, especially if it was at night with some suds in hand…. Yet it was on just such a night something happened that I (Jay) do remember – and, in fact, several of us remember it well enough to quote from. It was an off-the-cuff […]
I (Jay) am as expert about dogs as I am about astrophysics – which is to say, I don’t know much. But I’m learning as fast as I can. And since I’m in the market for a dog – or dogs plural if my kids have their way – I’ve read a bunch about the […]
What Dog(s) Am I Getting? One thing I didn’t expect to learn so much about Pheasant Fest was dogs.
Just read this article on hunting ruffies in MN this year. So much of it, while well-intentioned, is wrong. Here goes: > The good news is, counts were up 34 percent this spring in parts of northern Minnesota. Counts remained stable in southern Minnesota. This COULD mean that there’s more easy birds (young ones) early […]
Lessons from 2012 Maine-NH Hunt
Don’t know if we’ve fully recovered yet from our not-quite-a-week of hunting Maine and New Hampshire for ruffies and woodies. We all actually bailed 2 days early, having put in 5 consecutive days instead of our usual 7. Felt like wimps about it, but hey, we were BEAT…from 5 days of the most brutal hunting […]
No Grouse Comeback in SW Penn?
Sounds like ruffed grouse will never be as much a part of the landscape of southern Pennsylvania as they once will. “Never” sounds ominous. Permanent. But that’s the conclusion of an article by Bob Frye in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Why should you care if you don’t live or hunt in PA? Reasons: > Pennsylvania is […]
Hey: All Ruffies Drum Differently!
Did you know that? Not until now…. This info won’t help us hunting, but it’s interesting – and makes sense. Here’s more, from newscientist.com: Male ruffed grouse are the first animals known to make unique non-vocal sounds. Humans and many other animals, particularly birds, can be identified by their voices. But no one had looked […]
Ran across this quote from an article about Iowa’s pheasant count: > “I haven’t even gone pheasant hunting the last couple of years because the birds just weren’t there,†said Tim Wolf, a 61-year-old bank president who lives in Waukee. YES THEY WERE! They most definitely were there. Maybe not like this… > “But I’ve […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Across the Pond Bird Follies, Vids
Ah the UK, the land that gave the world 17 pieces of silverware on the table, animal rights and other questionable stuff. Okay, it wasn’t all bad – that’s where our bird hunting came from too. But it’s different here…or there, depending on your perspective. Here’s some recent bird news plus some interesting vids. Katie […]
Do Congress, Tea Party Hate Pheasants?
We make it a point to try not to get suckered by political hoo-ha, so that’s not what this is about. We ran across a blog post on the Discovery-owned treehugger.com titled “Why Does Congress Hate Pheasants?” and a related one, “Do Tea Party, Heritage Foundation Oppose Hunting?” Interesting stuff, written by the same gent, […]
Quail, the most beleaguered of our beloved gamebirds, is getting a helping hand in Kansas. Or rather, a bigger helping hand. The state just announced that it’s “launching a new quail restoration initiative aimed at making a difference in declining bobwhite quail populations at a landscape level.” Here’s more: > Includes the designation of two […]
Worms and Birds: What Else Don’t We Know?
Believe we’ve talked about this at least once, but a recent Wall Street Journal article on the plight of Texas quail got us thinking about it again. Here’s the applicable stuff: …Rolling Hills Quail Research Ranch, a 4,700-acre spread an hour west of Abilene. Last month, researchers there found that the levels of parasitic worms […]
Top 10 Reasons To Go to Phez Fest
Pheasants/Quail Forever’s Pheasant Fest/Quail Classic is coming up soon at KC, MO (see info in right column), and just in case you’re thinking it’s too far or whatever, here are the Top 10 – really just 10 of many – reasons to go. We’re doing it Letterman-style, 10 to 1. 10. What else are you […]
Lone Star Outdoor news recently carried an article on a speech given by Dr. Dale Rollins of the Rolling Plains Quail Research Ranch near Rotan, Texas. Seems that a major threat to quail, at least in the Lone Star state, may be an eyeball worm. News to us! Highlights: > Especially mysterious were the continued […]
