Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2018 i Gun Dog

We’re having a heat wave, A tropical heat wave, The temperature’s rising, It isn’t surprising… “Heat Wave,” Irving Berlin IT’S MID-JUNE as I write this and for the past month or more, much of the country has been experiencing record-breaking temperatures. I live in Iowa, where we know the summer is going to be hot, but we started hitting the mid-to upper 90s with corresponding high humidity—what Iowans call “state fair weather”—back in May…and the state fair takes place in August. In other words, we’re undergoing one heckuva hot summer here in the Hawkeye State, and many of you probably are, as well. I’m not a meteorologist but if I had to make a prediction, I’d bet the opening days of many of our bird seasons are going to be…

Please send digital images by e-mail to (joseph.genzel@outdoorsg.com), or through online archives, such as dropbox.com or hightail.com; or they may be submitted on disc to: GUN DOG MAGAZINE Attn: Snap Shots 2 News Plaza. 3rd Floor Peoria, IL 61614 • Most modern phones and digital cameras take excellent quality photos, but please make sure your phone or camera is set on the highest quality resolution available—consult your manual. We reserve the right to reject digital images that aren’t high enough in quality to reproduce well in print. • Our minimum size requirements for images are 5" x 3" at 300 dpi, or 1500 pixels by 900 pixels. Again, consult your manual. Submission does not guarantee publication. • And finally...please submit no more than two images, and include your dog’s name,…

EARLY FALL IS a great time to be working on endurance and refreshing learned commands in preparation for the upcoming hunting seasons. I’d like to suggest another project you might add to the training and workout sessions with your dog. That is training your dog to associate a certain cue or command like “Hunt dead” or “Track” with the act and rewards of focusing his attention to ground scent as a means of searching out or following the trail of crippled game. It’s an ongoing process and something we can work on before the season and even during the hunt. Conserving wildlife is one of the more important functions of our gun dogs, and most hunters agree it’s important for their dogs to be able to locate and follow a…

What do you do with a hunting dog that has lost confidence in his ability to find birds? That was the difficult question we faced with Bo, my young Chesapeake Bay retriever, after failure in some overly difficult American Kennel Club hunt tests left him so discouraged he was giving up on simple, single marks. Unless it was a nice white bumper on a mowed green lawn where he could see his objective from more than a hundred yards away, after just a brief, cursory search, his posture and attitude clearly said, “Why bother? I won’t be able to find it anyway.” Then, when he’d fail to find whatever had been thrown for him–bumper or bird–or needed help to find it, his discouragement would deepen even further. How can we…

MANUFACTURER FABARM USA ACTION TYPE Solid frame box-lock, over/under, automatic ejectors, single trigger GAUGE 12 (tested) 3” chamber, also available in 20 and 28 BARRELS 28” listed (sample gun measured 28.25”) vent rib, brass bead CAPACITY 4, magazine plug provided to reduce capacity to 2 CHOKES 5 screw-in, flush-fitting provided: Cylinder to Full OVERALL LENGTH 45.25” WEIGHT 6 lbs, 8 ozs (as tested) TRIGGER Blued steel, 5.5 pounds pull weight SAFETY Non-automatic, on tang STOCK Semi-deluxe Turkish Walnut STOCK DIMENSIONS Length of pull, 14.5 inches, drop 1-38” at comb, 2” at heel, 5/8” soft rubber recoil pad RECEIVER: Ergal 55 steel, nickel-plated with game scene and scrollwork BARREL FINISH: Polished blue ACCESSORIES: Travel case, choke wrench, choke tube case WARRANTY: 5 years MSRP $2,595…

PROBLEM The question for discussion at a meeting of professional obedience trainer/ behavior therapy people two weeks ago was: What is the best method for training a dog? Dog training techniques run the whole gamut from totally permissive, letting the dog decide how to do it on the one end, to doing absolutely everything by the numbers like a recruit in military basic training on the other. Most hunting dog training is in the middle third, swinging toward one end or the other as the dog requires and the owner/handler desires. As a guest and the only one who has trained dogs to be field dogs, I kept my mouth shut for the first half of the discussion, simply listened and tried to weigh the arguments. I spoke up…

Closing in, I could see my dog’s back, rock steady, 15 yards ahead. The lush green grass was too dense to push through, forcing me to approach from a different angle. When I popped into a tiny opening, my dog, Echo, was gone. Pausing, the movement of tall grass caught my eye. As suddenly as it began, the shuttering grass stood still. Inching in for the flush on what I assumed was Echo pushing a bird, she was nowhere to be seen. Seconds later Echo reappeared, this time a few steps to my left. As I moved, she was swallowed up by more tall grass. No doubt the lush river bottom we hunted was overflowing with the scent of valley quail, but I’d never seen her break with such anxiety.…

The evolution of the dog crate is proof of how we view our sporting dogs these days versus just a couple of decades ago. Today’s kennels are almost universally built to nearly bomb-proof standards, and while most are clearly crafted with an eye toward safety, they are also built for comfort. This is because our hunting dogs are far more than just pointers, flusher s and retrievers; they are a part of the family. This means that while they are at home or on the road with us, they deserve proper care and treatment. Fortunately, there are plenty of companies with the same view, and they have churned out some killer products for 2018. GUNNER KENNELS G1 MEDIUM The problem with a lot of the available crates out there is…

DIGGS, my Airedale Terrier, at 3 months, retrieves his first chukar. — Stuart Eavenson, Troy, Michigan BLUE (our 6-month-old Gordon setter pup), SUTTER (a 10-month-old golden retriever) and their buddy were photographed at Lake Washington, Seattle. — Brenda Horat, Seattle, Washington This is BIRDIE, my 1-year-old Labrador retriever and my first gun dog. — Michael Powell, Milton, Florida This is MOLLY B, a black and white GSP. Thanks for such a great magazine! I wish I had a subscription about five dogs ago! — Christopher Reynolds JAZZ, a Llewellyn setter, and CHARLIE, a springer spaniel, hit it off after meeting each other for the first time. Jazz and Charlie live in Colorado and will be in the fields this fall. — Randy Clark, Brighton, Colorado I love this picture of…

TO BE HONEST, it’s amazing that more upland dogs don’t get injured in the field. When I watch a good dog bust through cattails for pheasants or tear through the northwoods in search of a grouse, I’m in awe. They go full bore through a world full of potentially dangerous critters and inanimate objects, and almost always come out unscathed. Unfortunately, every once in a while your dog is going to tangle with a raccoon or a porcupine or run head-long into a barbed-wire fence. An injury might even occur from a tiny weed seed that finds its way into your dog’s eye. Or maybe someone is running a few leg-hold or conibear traps on the public ground you’re hunting? Then there is the reality of nearby traffic, irresponsible hunting…

QUESTION In my area there seem to be lots of raccoons and coyotes and their stools are commonly found by my dogs when we are hunting. How bad is this and what can I do to prevent any problems from my dogs’ contact with wildlife? I don’t think we have had any problems yet. I have two young GWPs. –D ANSWER Coyotes can carry many pathogens that can infect our hunting dogs. Basically all of the internal and external parasites can cross over. Coyotes are a big reservoir for heartworms. Of course these would have to be spread by mosquitoes for the life cycle to continue. The mange or Scabies that coyotes get from mites can infect dogs , but there usually needs to be close contact. Most intestinal…

COULD IT BE the retriever guys know something the pointing dog guys don’t? Judging from the number of spaniels and Labs that I’ve seen which have been trained to heel, they may. But there’s no reason that any dog can’t be trained to heel—pointing dogs, retrievers, your Bichon Frise. It’s an easy command to teach and most dogs pick it up quickly. All you need is a pinch collar or a short length of stiff rope with a sliding loop on one end. You can buy exactly the rope you need from dog supply houses, or you can get what’s called a piggin’ string in most farm and ranch supply centers. For the sake of demonstration, we’ll use the piggin’ string here. Slip the loop of the piggin’ string over…

As the chill of autumn nips the air, it’s time to lean out the dog and shop for a new shotgun. Here you’ll find shotguns to fit ever y pocketbook and ever y style, from side-by-sides and over/ under s to semi autos. Nearly all offer screw-in chokes, but there are traditional guns with fixed chokes too. Many offer stock-adjusting shims to fine-tune the gun to make it shoot where you look. A few 16 gauges are among the more common 12, 20, 28s and .410s. Too, you’ll find increased technology to tame recoil. In some it’s sophisticated recoil dampers, in others a high-tech pad, but most have taken a look at their stocks and crafted them straighter with the aim of reducing recoil. There’s something for everyone here, so…

“OF ALL THE dogs you’ve owned,” my long-time hunting partner Bill asked me, “which do you rate as the best all-around hunter, and which one is your favorite?” As often happens when two old friends are motoring along in a truck full of gear, dogs crated behind them and a long stretch of open road ahead, talk ricochets from one subject to another. Most focus on the destination, past trips, and, especially, hunting dogs: my dogs, your dogs, other dogs; the good, the bad, the ugly. When you have days of driving time, two gabby guys can wander around a maze of verbal trails. “Those are rough choices,” I told him. “I’d have to give considerable thought to the best dog, and picking one that I liked above all others…