Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i Gun Dog

SHIFTING POSITIONS TO lie flat on my sleeping pad, I attempted to ease my throbbing back. Every muscle in my body ached. Wriggling an arm free from my mummy bag, I reached for my tired retriever, Lincoln, who lay beside me in the small two-person tent. As I ran my hand down his soft fur, he lifted his head from his own sleeping pad, looked at me with weary eyes, and laid his head back down. “I feel ya, Linc,” I thought. We were camped on a mountain in Colorado with a couple of friends and their bird dogs. Early the previous day, we had left basecamp to begin an epic adventure to hunt above 12,000 feet for ptarmigan. Although the small, white mountain birds are few and far between…

MOST OF GUN DOG’S readers are probably quite familiar with Realtree camouflage. Whether it’s from past experience in the turkey woods, deer stand, or duck blind, Realtree has been a camouflage and outdoor-clothing powerhouse for decades. What you might not know about the company, however, is that they are successful in the pet product space as well. This is due in no small part to EuroCan Pet Product’s, Chris Ruben. Ruben, who hails from Texas and is a dog lover through and through, has been in the pet-treat business for going on three decades now. His introduction to the industry came via a chance encounter while bartending at the Radisson Suites in Arlington, Texas, 30 years ago. While pouring drinks for hotel guests, Ruben was asked to attend a…

WHEN DOGS HIT the field, they are focused and driven by a natural desire to find game, and often work through injury with little or no outward sign of something bothering them. It is our responsibility as handlers to check for any lacerations, sore muscles, torn paw pads, etc. and treat them immediately. Along with obvious open wounds, there are other hidden dangers that could affect our bird dogs that we must be vigilant of—the grass awn. THE BARBED PLANT SEED An awn goes by many names including foxtails, cheat grass, mean seeds, and more. An awn is an appendage that grows from the ear of plants such as barley, rye, and many types of wild-growing grasses. This part of the plant is a hairy and bristle-like casing around the…

WINCHESTER SX4 The new 20-gauge Winchester SX4 semiauto puts all the features of the 12-gauge X4 into a smaller package. It gives you the same proven, soft-recoiling gas system, as well as an oversized bolt handle, bolt release, and safety button. The gun has a smaller pistol grip, and comes with spacers to adjust the stock length to fit any size hunter. $940 winchesterguns.com BERETTA A400 XTREME PLUS Beretta’s top-of-the-line waterfowl gun, the A400 Xtreme Plus, now comes in enough camo patterns to blend in anywhere. You can buy it in Mossy Oak Bottomland, Realtree Timber and MAX-5, True Timber DRT, and even white Kryptek Wraith for spring snow geese. Like all A400s, it will run forever between cleanings and offers a recoil-reducing Kick-Off system that really works. It also…

Patrick Flanagan, owner of Border to Border Outfitters, is a Minnesota resident who has structured his life to guide upland hunters from the ruffed grouse habitats in the northern region of his home state all the way to southern Arizona, where he specializes in desert quail. He’s a wealth of information when it comes to what a dog needs to be able to do in Mearns territory, and he doesn’t sugarcoat anything. “When it comes to Mearns quail, I like white German shorthairs that can run distance,” Flanagan said. “My dogs are free to do what they want out there, so long as they have been cured of false points, which are common with Mearns considering their primary method of finding food is to dig up nuts, tubers, and seeds.…

This is our English setter and best friend, KIP. He just turned one in April, and lives in Michigan. This is a photo of him totally wiped out after a long, tiring day of chasing birds and chipmunks in the Virginia mountains! — Maddie Erdman, Royal Oak, MI GUNNER is a three-year-old, female black Lab and a Senior Hunt Test Champion owned by Southern Pro Kennel. — Austin Renfrow, Rock Springs, GA This is DRAKE—our five-month-old German wirehaired pointing griffon. He is such a standard for the breed of a loving, intelligent hunting dog, and we are so happy that we kept up the search to find him! — Hannah Sargent, Cedar Rapids, IA PHOTO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES • Please make sure your phone or camera is set on the highest…

1 WILEY X SAINT A pair of safety glasses can do two things: Keep your eyes protected from hazards in the field, and enhance your view to better see flushing birds. The Saint from Wiley X features Shatterproof Selenite Polycarbonate lenses that meet MIL ballistic standards. Go with the three-lens kit to easily switch out lenses depending on your hunting scenario. The clear lenses provide maximum light transmission, smoke grey helps reduce glare, and the light rust enhances lowlight situations. $95; wileyx.com 2 LOWA Z-8S GTX If you’re looking for a high-shafted boot for ankle support but don’t want to sacrifice weight, then consider the LOWA Z-8S GTX. At just over 3 lbs. per pair, the Z-8 GTX gives hunters the comfort of a hiking boot paired with the stability…

A LOT OF the bird-dog focus during the preseason is centered on physical conditioning. We want our retrievers to enter dove and duck season, and later a litany of upland seasons, in peak physical shape. This is a good goal, but it shouldn’t be the only thing you work on with your dog. Steadiness should be a priority as well. In fact, I’d say that the number-one issue most bird dogs have is with breaking. This can be annoying during certain upland hunts, but devolve into something infuriating during dove or waterfowl hunts where a dog is expected to stay until he’s sent. What’s worse is that a dog that is prone to breaking might also invite a correction while he’s doing what he thinks he is supposed to do,…

All-natural, limited-ingredient treats are tough to beat for hunting dogs, which is why Realtree Naturals are an excellent choice for treat-training, or simply rewarding upland and waterfowl dogs. Naturals are slow-roasted or wood-smoked to create healthy, tasty treats that provide hard-working dogs with what they need—instead of something they simply want. Choose from a variety of options including Chicken Links, Duck Shots, Turducken Blend, Pork Moon Bones, Reel Cod Skin Bites, and many others. $13–$22; realtreepets.com…

PROBLEM I recently read three dog articles dealing with the axiom—Form Follows Function. Actually, two had form following function, and one had function following form. I recall this concept being aired in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the early days of NAVHDA by a few newcomers to the novel to America’s testing system. So, it appears to be one of those things about dogs cycling every 30 to 50 years. In dogs, is it form that follows function, or function that follows form? DISCUSSION The catch phrase, “Form ever follows function,” was coined by the modernist architect Louis Sullivan in the last century. His basic idea was that a structure was designed and built, so its form best suited the function it was to serve. The American architect…

LITTLE SKYLARK WAS having control problems. This was first, and emphatically, pointed out to me by one of my hunting buddies shortly after we flushed a brood of blue grouse. Skylark had stopped, located the birds, and jumped right into the middle of them. My buddy watched her do it. I’d spent the two previous summers putting Skylark through her paces. She was tiny for an English pointer, then barely 37 pounds soaking wet. But, she was exactly the kind of dog I’d been looking for—quick and stylish. I’d had no out-of-the-ordinary problems with her, nothing like what I’d experienced with some of the dogs I’d trained over the years. Yes, she was a bit headstrong, but turn that around and sometimes it can work in a dog’s favor. So,…

AFTER MY YEARS as a professional flushing dog trainer, what I have come to see, and employ with far greater awareness and appreciation, is the opportunity for one drill to help teach or reinforce multiple desirable skills in a flushing dog. Perhaps my favorite among such drills is the one we use to practice marking—although in effect, it teaches far more than just that. In simple terms, marking is the practice of a dog visually noting where a fallen target has landed. For the purpose of this article, marking is performed by a dog at heel or hup when that dog visually recognizes where that target has landed spatially (left to right, close to far), and can then prove that the mark was properly assessed by making a hard, straight-line…

O I’VE BEEN FORTUNATE to hunt plenty of species of upland birds throughout the U.S. and abroad, but until this past winter I’d never had the chance to pursue Mearns quail. That all changed when my wife, Tina, and I booked a guided trip with Border to Border Outfitters in southern Arizona to see what it was all about. It took about a half-day of hiking through the broken, arid terrain to realize that hunting Mearns is unlike any other upland opportunity. The desert environment, while beautiful in its own way, is a raw, challenging place for hunters and dogs. A pointer that is tasked with coursing the rocky, cactus-strewn hillsides has to be well conditioned to not only the terrain, but also the heat. Another consideration is that where…

BORED WITH HUNTING near home? Always dreamed of heading west and hiking miles of rolling prairie behind your dog in search of wild birds in new and extraordinary places? Well, your dreams can easily become reality. All you need is 10 days of vacation, a map, a good truck, maybe a buddy to tag along with you, and a desire for adventure. I had all of the above when I hunted these states in the past, and loved every minute of it. So much so that I’m willing to share this game plan with you! Plan to start in late-October, when pheasant and quail seasons are open. But don’t plan on hunting just those two species. We’re adding sharp-tailed grouse, greater prairie chickens, and ruffed grouse to your game bag.…