I hunted with an old friend in Arizona before Christmas. The Quail Hunter has been something of a long-distance mentor over the years, guiding me through the process of training my own bird dogs.
That mentorship, however, has been as laissez-faire as the way we both run our dogs. I learned from the Quail Hunter by watching him hunt his own dogs. He runs Brittanys, and when I say “runs,” I mean it. The Quail Hunter lets Charlie and Moose cover as much country as they like, relying on their lock-solid pointing and his ability to then go find them to fill his vest.
For years the Quail Hunter didn’t use electronics, but recently he broke down and collared up his dogs with GPS trackers. He now includes a handheld receiver in his vest that tells him when the dogs stop moving, how far out they are, and in what direction. There were plenty of times where his dogs were beyond sight when they found birds. After a brisk walk the GPS led us right to where the dogs were on point.
I learned from the Quail Hunter not to fuss too much insisting on perfect behavior for my dogs. We’ve both found that if you get a dog from the right line, with a real desire for the hunt, your primary job as a trainer is to get them on birds — wild birds — as often as possible.
From there, you let instincts take over.
My setter Doll is a bit of a late bloomer. I attribute a lot of that to the moves, and lack of continuity in the household during her early years, along with the death of my older setter Jack a few years ago. She mourned the lost of that buddy while continued household disruption meant I’ve been hesitant to add another dog. Things have settled down however, so I hope to add a pup in 2016.
It was also the fun of hunting over a pack of dogs that has me ready to add to the household. Doll has been coming on the last few seasons anyway, but the experience of running with the Quail Hunter’s Brittanys allowed her to learn and grow. Charlie and Moose are Arizona dogs, so they hunt Mearns quail in the southern part of the state often. On the first day we hunted it appeared Doll was a bit confused by the presence of the two smaller, faster Brits, but she quickly began to figure out the birds, in part by following the more experienced noses in the pack.
By the end of the day she was backing, a skill I’d never trained her for. Backing is when a bird dog goes on point, not because it has located birds, but because it sees other dogs on point. It’s pretty important when your running dogs in a pack. If your dog won’t honor points and ends up busting coveys, invites for future hunts may be scarce.
One of the great things about chasing birds with the Quail Hunter is that he has nearly limitless patience for the foibles of inexperienced dogs. Before Doll started backing, he encouraged me to let her move in on his pointing Brittanys so she could get a good whiff of scent. Then I whoaed her up and she got a good look at the flush when we stepped in.
Eventually we went chasing after one of those long distance GPS points and walked up on all three dogs strung out in a patch of tall grass, statuesque, with noses pointing to the covey.
I don’t think I cursed even a little that I blew that shot. The light bulb had come on for Doll, and we were sharing the day with an old friend I don’t get to see nearly enough.
That’s too bad, because it’s always a good day when we hunt together.