Innehållsförteckning för November 2025 från Gun Dog

I’M NOT ONE TO SHY AWAY from telling the truth about the ups and downs I have while training and hunting with my bird dogs. Things aren’t constant rainbows and butterflies like what is portrayed on social media. I think social media gives novice upland hunters a false sense of what it’s like training a bird dog. If one only went by what they saw on social, one would think training a bird dog is simple and easy. It’s not. Training our beloved flushers, pointers, and versatile breeds is rewarding beyond measure but takes patience and time. It can take months, even years, before you have a consistent bird finding dog that knows the commandments of bird hunting. A dog will eventually learn, with guidance, what cover holds birds, how…

MY FAMILY fell victim to the "Dalmatian Syndrome” epidemic after watching the popular Disney movie, 101 Dalmatians, in the form of a dalmatian puppy that my two sisters and I named Domino. He was surrounded by love but raised in a home lacking both structure and discipline. We defined “letting a puppy be a puppy,” a phrase I still hear often, and one that came at a real cost. Domino was a ball of black and white energy with unchanneled instinct. Two working parents with three young kids, the chaos became unmanageable. One Saturday morning, we watched from the porch as Domino rode in the back seat of a hatchback, “off to live in the country.” I was five years old and still remember seeing it all through my tears.…

WHEN IT COMES right down to it, the decision to hunt a flushing dog or a pointing dog is a point of preference. Just as some upland hunters prefer side-by-side guns and some prefer over/unders, there are those in the bird hunting space who simply prefer the look, feel, and experience of walking up to a dog on point, and those who’d rather read the body language of a quartering flusher, anticipating the explosive rise of a bird pushed up off the ground. Both pointers and flushers can perform in a range of situations, and both have been used, to positive and negative effect, in nearly all upland environments. In the end, however, certain attributes of flushing dogs allow them to excel in spaces where pointing dogs are at a…

SHARP-TAILED grouse are known for their dark, rich meat. The flavor is close to duck, and like duck, the meat can taste strong and livery to some. If you’ve had sharptail before and didn’t like it, ask yourself if you took care of them in the field. Nebraska hunters, for example, often chase sharpies in early September and forget that the birds stuffed in their vests are stewing away in the heat of lingering summer. Sharpies are dark-meat birds with a flavor profile that I could best describe as minerally and herbaceous, and poor care in the field will only make those flavors stronger. For the best-tasting sharp-tailed grouse, get the birds on ice as soon as possible after they hit the ground, and allow air flow between each bird…

EVERY YEAR at Smith Kennels, we watch a number of dogs grow and develop, gain confidence, work through stressors, and develop new behaviors that allow them to perform at a very proficient level. We are fortunate to watch them over successive years and seasons, observing behaviors morph over time. Typically, dogs come to Smith Kennels for three-month Formal Training Classes, returning periodically for Tune Ups. Daily classes are structured to set dogs up for success in whatever skills we are focused on. They are then sent back home with guidelines on how to maintain or practice that training. Our goal is to give owners all the necessary tools to reinforce the training we have put in place, to maintain the guardrails and structures that we have built, and then to…

IN TIME FOR the fall hunting seasons, we have information to share that can aid in your dog’s endurance and, in turn, his ability to find more birds day after day. The information relates to glycogen replenishment and is provided by my friend Dr. Arleigh Reynolds, retired Senior Scientist for Nestle Purina Pet Care. What we’ve learned from Arleigh can help your dog recover from a long day of exercise and be better prepared for more work the following day. REPLENISHING GLYCOGEN STORES When your dog is working hard during training, hunting, or competing, one of the fuels it is using is stored energy for muscles. This stored energy source is glycogen, and it is made up of glucose. Muscle and liver glycogen stores influence endurance. So, it is important…

THE SHOTGUN landscape is ever-changing, and one brand whose stock is rising is Spandau. The brand is based in Turkey and imports shotguns to the States via SDS Imports in Knoxville, and their newest offering—and first semiauto shotgun available in the U.S.—is the inertia-operated S2. Since Benelli’s patent expired on their inertia-operated system, a number of companies have offered inertia shotguns, but few are as affordable as the S2. MSRP for this shotgun starts at just $444, and a gun with a full camo dip costs just $557, making the S2 one of the least expensive autoloading shotguns on the market. The obvious question, then, is how well this gun will hold up over several seasons and hundreds or thousands of rounds. Turkish guns have a reputation for being “cheap,”…

ANY RETRIEVER owner with more than one hunting season under his or her belt understands the importance of the “come” or “here” command. It is important to be able to slow a hunt down by calling your dog to heel, or to call them away from a road, porquipine, or other danger. What’s just as important in developing a confident retriever is teaching it to go away. You want a retriever that enthusiastically works out in front of you without constantly looking over its shoulder to see if you approve. Even worse is a dog that never leaves your side because it has no prey drive or has been over-disciplined to the point it believes the only “safe” place is next to you. Further, getting your dog to go away…

DOGS ARE NOT silent creatures. In fact, it is not difficult to find K9s that are looking for something to bark about. Growling is also a commonly heard sound in the world of our dogs. These are not just sounds they make; they are a means of communication. Ironically, barking and growling are both thought of as problems by many callers requesting my assistance with their dogs. For a species highly dependent on sound as a form of communication, Homo sapiens as a whole are quite intolerant of the sounds of their four-legged companions. Not only are we intolerant of the sounds our dogs make, we also are quite illiterate as to the meaning of those sounds. In contrast, we are quick to conclude that our dogs know exactly what…