Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2024 från Gun Dog

ONE OF MY favorite departments in GUN DOG is the last page we call Tales Gone By. The column is always dedicated to a dog, living or gone too soon. The dog can be a hunting dog, or just a beloved family dog, it doesn’t matter. Dogs are unique, and my only requirement for the story is I want you to feel as if you know the dog, even if you have never scratched its ear or hunted behind it. The column is meant to evoke emotion, whether that be in the form of extreme pride, misty eyes, or bouts of uncontrollable laughter—all of which our dogs are known to pull from us. The love you have for your dogs tends to bring out your inner Hemmingway—some of you write…

EUKANUBA SENIOR LARGE BREED DRY DOG FOOD This senior large breed dry dog food from Eukanuba contains a diet created specifically for mature dogs seven years and older. This diet is formulated with optimal amount of fats and carbohydrates to help maintain your older dog’s energy levels. The diet helps keep your senior dog’s joints and muscles limber with glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate. DHA and antioxidants help to support healthy brain function, while Eukanuba 3D DentaDefense reduces tartar buildup to keep their teeth and gums healthy. This diet also provides immune system support to help strengthen your dog's natural defenses. $87 (30 lbs.); eukanuba.com MOUTHFUL OF FEATHERS: UPLAND IN AMERICA If you’re looking for an insightful and heartwarming book dedicated to the uplands and the dogs we love, we…

HIGH-QUALITY sporting clays shotguns are about the most versatile firearm you can own. Outside of hunting season, they offer you a good excuse to head to the local clays course and sharpen your skills for fall. During hunting season these guns serve double-duty as field guns, and since you’ve spent the last seven months tracking and breaking clays, there’s a good chance you’ll be prepared when the actual feathers start to fly. If you’re looking for a good all-season shotgun that’s suitable for winning clay competitions and killing birds, then I have good news for you: The team at Caesar Guerini/ Fabarm is releasing a new over/under sporting gun that is durable enough and versatile enough to serve as your year-round gun. FABARM ELOS N2 RS SPORTING Just when you…

PHEASANT HUNTING after cold and snow have settled in for the winter is a radically different challenge than what you and your retriever experienced in the early season. Birds that escaped heavy pressure in October have learned a lot about survival. With instincts honed by successful escapes from the gangs of dogs and hunters that have been chasing them, even young birds may have taken on the wise characteristics of their older brethren. Where and how you hunt in December, and even into January in some states, takes a bit of extra planning and effort. Let’s look at the challenges and rewards. WHERE TO FIND THEM Studies by upland biologists have shown that a rooster pheasant, conditions permitting, will live out his life within a square mile of habitat. While…

DOGS, like humans, naturally use information they gather from their environment to shape their behavior in a manner that allows them to gain what they want and avoid what they don't want. Through such efforts, the dog becomes very good at recognizing consistent and predictable patterns. For example, our house dog, Duke, aspires to be my shadow; he would like to go everywhere I go. When I am home, he often follows me from room to room and is always game to go out the door with me when I leave the house. To get from our front room to the front door, one must descend a small flight of stairs to a landing. The landing allows access to the front door, the garage door, or a flight of stairs…

IT’S ALWAYS fascinated me how family history is so often the origin to the things we love doing. My family has told the story about Great Grandma Moore sharing a berry patch with a black bear many times over the years. Before bird dogs, I didn’t pay much attention to what the woods had to offer in the months of July and August. Like a jungle, they are hot, humid, and full of bugs. Blackberries change from green to red and then finally match the color of a ripe choke cherry. Blueberries are gone and ambitious foragers collect hazel nuts. That’s how I knew we were getting close and that’s when Ben McKean made the trip from Minnesota to visit me. We took his dog to the woods in preparation…

DOG TRAINERS are an interesting breed. Over the years, I have come to know many, many gun dog trainers, and among those I’ve met, many have really impressed me. Others have gone about their training in ways I don’t fully agree with but have produced some great dogs and in turn some very happy customers, nonetheless. Sadly, some have also proven to be outright untrustworthy, and as a result, have developed bad reputations that spread quickly in the small landscape that is gun dogs. Rare, however, is the dog trainer who isn’t pretty darn confident in their methodology. The individual who sets out to find a trainer should consider the process thoughtfully and should do their homework. As a client, especially one who is new to the game, this process…

Come December through February, the snow starts pummeling the states and conditions are brutally cold—but that is also prime time to hunt upland birds. Brave the bitterness and grab your dog, these tips will help you bag more birds in the late season. SATELLITE IMAGERY By the time December rolls around, birds have been hunted often and hard. This makes them wary and smart. Their habitat has also changed as they are now seeking hard to find food and shelter from the harsh weather conditions. In the late season, you’ll want to focus on thick cover such as cattail sloughs, thick native prairies, tree belts, patches of cheat grass on the mountain, south facing slopes where snow will burn off quicker, etc. Utilize onX Hunts satellite imagery to locate your…

THIS PHEASANT, kale, and gnocchi soup makes a nice meal during the colder months of the year. It’s creamy, hearty, and full of vegetable goodness in addition to making good use of leftover game meat. And with every other slurp, pillow-y gnocchi—Italian-style potato dumplings—make this soup irresistible. This is a “to taste” kind of recipe. I like heavy vegetables and little meat in soup, whereas you might like the opposite—add or subtract ingredients to your liking. Although store-bought gnocchi, either frozen or dried, will save you time, there’s nothing quite like the delicate, tenderness of homemade gnocchi. I’ve included my recipe if you’d like to try making this potato dumpling for yourself. The recipe will make more than you need—because if you’re going to go through with it, you might…

IF YOU’VE BEEN around bird dogs any length of time you’ve probably heard more than one piece of conflicting advice about training, handling, hunting, or bird dog behavior in general. It can be challenging to sift through these adages, separating archaic and inaccurate folklore from sayings that persist through time because they are simply time-tested and based in truth. Yet, to improve in any skill or craft we should always test these antiquated beliefs or assumptions in the light of new collective knowledge and insight. So, from a bird dog trainer’s perspective, let’s analyze some of these old adages and why they persist. Are they tried and true, thus persisting entirely on merit, or are they just lingering relics of folklore that we should be able to set aside and…

SCIENTISTS have proven that a dog’s sense of smell is thousands of times more sensitive than that of humans. Studies also indicate variations among breeds and individual animals. We could discuss the anatomy of the dog’s nose, but instead, I suggest we might be better served spending time reasoningn what “scent” is, how it seems to travel, what affects it, and how to use it. We can all agree that when certain dogs are on the ground, scenting conditions “seem to improve.” The question is was it the dog or was it the conditions? What part does the number of olfactory receptors play as compared to the individual dog’s attitude, ability, and inclination to focus; coupled with drive, experience, physical condition, etc. Compound those inherited or learned variables with the…