Gun Dog Magazine is the best magazine for hunting enthusiasts who are owners of retrieving breeds. Each issue is guaranteed to be filled with useful information devoted to you, your dog and the sport of upland bird and waterfowl hunters.
“I JUST LOVE old dogs like that,” said the fisherman as he gestured toward white-muzzled Molly, my senior Irish setter, out at the lake where we’d gone for our usual early morning ramble. “They know the ropes so you don’t have to tell them anything, and they’re just comfortable to have around.” That was quite a few years ago—well over a decade, at least—and Molly was about 10 or 12 at the time, but the fisherman’s words have always stuck with me. Old dogs are comfortable to have around, and that’s a big part of their appeal. They may not be able to hunt as hard or as long as they did in their prime, but most of us are willing to cut them some slack because, as the fisherman…
Once again it’s time to send us photos of your sporting breed puppy for possible use in our spring 2017 issue. If you have a youngster you’d like to show off, here’s your chance. But hurry, as deadline for submission is Friday, December 9. Email your images to: joseph.genzel@outdoorsg.com. Minimum size requirements for magazine reproduction are 5x3 at 300 dpi or 1,500 pixels by 900 pixels. Also, try to get as close to your puppy as possible—don’t shoot your photos when you’re standing on your deck and your pup is at the far end of your back yard, in other words. When you email us your pics—and please, no more than one or two per contributor, as we can’t download and file more than that—be sure to include a brief…
Keep Those Claws Reading “On Thin Ice” made me shiver in sympathy for the dogs and men featured, brrrrr! I was surprised not to see the recommendation to retain dewclaws for dogs that would be exposed to such conditions. Quartermoon Retrievers has a wonderful link to illustrate the plus side of not removing the dewclaws, allowing the dog to gain better grip on the rim of the ice hole. Well worth a view and it will make you think twice about removing them. Moira Floyd Webster Plantation, ME One of a Kind I recently had to euthanize Fergus, my beautiful Irish red & white setter, after a cancerous mass on his spleen suddenly ruptured. Last Saturday he was running around like a nut, and an hour later he was lying…
This is NELLIE, my 3-year-old French Brittany, posing with wild pheasants taken near the Tucannon River in southeast Washington State. — Brian Jokela, Deer Park, WA KIMBER is our 1-/2-year-old English springer spaniel and this was her first full season of hunting roosters. My wife Amanda and I are both Army veterans so we thought it was fitting to take a picture with the U.S. flag in the background. — Chedric Phillips, Menoken, ND JACK, our 3-year-old male vizsla, is an AKC conformation champion and a bird-finding machine. Jack is currently working on his AKC field champion title and is a great companion gun dog. — Will and Lisa Garrett, Gainesville, GA LUTGARDE , our Labrador, retrieving a quail. She’s proven herself as an astute bird dog…does a grid search…
CONSERVATION CHAMPIONS You already knew Shadow Grass Blades was one of the best waterfowl patterns out there, only now you’ll see a subtle inclusion of the familiar DU duck head as the two have become partners in conservation. Now hunters can stay hidden and enhance habitat when they purchase the camo. Mossy Oak also has its own kennel (mossyoakkennels.com), which specializes in breeding and training British Labs for duck and upland hunters interested in acquiring a pup with champion bloodlines. mossyoak.com RETRIEVE IT RIGHT Designed with a soft scent-injectable body and hard free-swinging head, the DeadFowl Trainer encourages retrievers to pick up dead birds properly, and if they shake, the head smacks ’em in the jowls. The DFT is available in a variety of waterfowl and upland bird species. deadfowltrainer.com…
DO YOU REALLY need to train a pointing dog? After all, they all point instinctively and some are natural retrievers, right? Why not just let nature take its course? You can go that route and some people do, and perhaps not coincidentally these are rarely people I enjoy hunting with. But let’s talk first about how the “hand’s off ” theory of dog training may have begun. Here’s my two cents’ worth: it’s easy. Let’s face it; not having to actually do anything with your dog absolves you of responsibility for its behavior, at least in theory. What’s more, there will be no more long afternoons spent slogging pigeons from one spot to the next or throwing heavy bumpers. No more e-collars, training benches, silly whistles or leads. You just…
