Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

Dogs are Hunting Partners - Let's see 'em

My Mountain Pig. Pig the pug:

IMG_2669.jpg
IMG_2670.jpg

It blows my mind how much this guy likes to hike. He spent four days in the wilderness with me this past week--he's been asleep on the couch ever since.
 
My friend from Norfolk joined me this weekend, sadly the deer didn't play ball, but he brought his tracking dog with him, a Bavarian Mountain Hound,what a stunning looking dog.

IMG_20171006_180756377.jpg

IMG_20171006_180808773.jpg

Cheers

Richard
 
This is Roscoe. My wife got him for me during my last deployment. He truely is my best friend (don't tell her that). He has gotten me through some tough times and we've shared some great times.

20160123_081249.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20170101_084220.jpg
    20170101_084220.jpg
    61.2 KB · Views: 301
This is the family dog Daisy. I'm sure many dog owners have said this, but never in my life have I seen a dog with more personality (good and bad). We bought her as a cow dog for bringing dairy cows to the barn. She did alright as a pup but we sold the dairy when she was about a year old. Plus at 7 months she had her face kicked in by a horse, so she never got a lot of good experience. Her work is now occasionally pushing cows back while opening gates, as she is more of a pet than a work dog.

She is by no means a hunting dog, but she will tree a squirrel, catch and kill opossums, get her butt torn up by coons, tree opossum or coon come tell you she has it treed then run back to the tree and repeat until you kill it, and will retrieve a duck but only if it is still alive.

She sleeps at my brother's house at night, days out working with my dad, and routinely checks in with my grandma for something to eat or lay on the porch. Sadly because of how my grandma feeds her this will likely be the death of her, but you can't tell a 90 year old woman no. She is almost 9 years old now with age and heath are taking their toll of her. She aint as good as she once was, but she's as good once as she ever was.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0252.jpg
    IMG_0252.jpg
    129.9 KB · Views: 249
  • IMG_0400.JPG
    IMG_0400.JPG
    268.1 KB · Views: 252
  • IMG_3529.jpg
    IMG_3529.jpg
    83.1 KB · Views: 253
She's 6 months old and sassy as all get out. Took her out a few weeks ago to watch & learn from an experienced dog. She did great and lasted all day. About mile 7 or 8 she started to whine. Luckily we were only a 1/2 mile or so from the truck. No birds yet, but she's a keeper.

Greta Magoo, or Groot for short.

Greta1.jpg
 
This is Skia my 5 year old Lab. She is the daughter of my now retired 12 year old black lab. This was a cold day for us I snuck up on a group of swans wind not in my favor but we got it done. With over a 100 yard swim one way she definitely saved my skin and was rewarded with a few rib bones when we got back to town. My 7th swan to date love hunting them!

D75E36DB-.jpg
 
Our other pup isn't much for hunting, unless it's snacks or lizards, but she's been the best fishing partner you could ask for. Generally stands out of your backcast and doesn't mind it when you punch a dry fly into her head so long as you don't try to play her. She's almost 12, and starting to slow down quite a bit

gracie little blackfoot.jpg

gracie valley of the gods.jpg
 
We put this girl down in September she was 14 years old. My wife and I picked her up 2 weeks after we got married. I think every person/family gets that one special dog in there life some may be luckier than others but this girl was it. Everyone that ever spent time with her would say the same thing she was just a great dog. I am not sure how many hours we spent together hunting, training or just being a family but it was a lot. I am pretty sure she broke 1000 birds in her lift. She went down fast and made the decision for us, we all knew it was the right time. I cant tell you the last time I cried that much. My 12 year old would not leave her side and he came to the vet with me. He is pictured with her I was really proud of him. It was weird though. As I was driving home wiping the tears from my eyes they dried up and a sense of calm came over me. I knew we did right by her all the way to the end and I haven't cried a drop since then. I still think about her and I still call my other dog Maxx sometimes. It was our first x-mas as a family she wasn't around.

OaC9hMl.jpg


wq7qNu2.jpg


Here is our meat head. She is 6 years old. She is a great looking dog sweet as can be but driven to the point of driving you nuts most of the time. She makes for a great pheasant dog but a pain in a blind or specially in the house. It is amazing at 6 she hasn't slowed up at all. If there is something wrong a dog can/could have done she most likely has done it. Here is a special one.

For the first 6 months (before I was willing to put a bark collar on her) she would whine really bad. We got into the habit of putting her in the back of our SUV in the garage when we would sleep. We decided to take a nap one day. I put her in a fabric crate in the back of my wifes expedition. I get a good hours of sleep and I go out to check on her. I open the garage and see her sitting in the front seat, not good. As I open the door the smell hits me. She shit on the front seats and then walk it all around the car. I carried her by her neck, pretty sure her feat didn't hit the ground into the house crate and informed my wife not to go out there.

2 hours later I thought I did a bang up job getting the wives car cleaned. We got to dinner and take my truck, my wife makes me close up her car I told it would smell if it didn't air out. She goes to work the next day and opens the car door smell hits her. She goes into the house to get frabreeze. It falls on the ground explodes over her outfit. She changes grabs back up bottle and goes to town on the car. Sits down and looks, apparently I missed a spot of poo on the seat, outfit number 2 down. She gets change and goes back in the car, this time she makes as far has her seat belt and backing out the garage. She looks at her shoulder and there is a smear of shit on it, outfit 3 down. I am surprised we stayed married after that one.

3M1zUqo.jpg


iDlfxqW.jpg
 
Here's my girl Maggie. She doesn't sit still for two seconds, so she's not the world's greatest duck dog. But she has a drive like you wouldn't believe. She's a great adventure companion and does a really good job of curling up at the foot of our two person backpacking tent on backpacking trips. She's also a mighty fine passenger seat partner in the truck.

18739769_10158717013875510_5526902865393032324_n.jpg
 
Training starts in earnest this spring.

She's coming along fine so far. Drop isn't as much fun as playing keep away, but the hand of god helps remind her who's in charge.

7 months old and full of beans.

27750165_10215158413304362_960136818219903645_n.jpg
 
Good stuff. That looks like a pointers pointing to me, but I'm colored by my world view. So would these two be indicators in the act of indicating??:)

In the Aussie/kiwi dog world we do break up the terms indicate and point.

People are used to the front leg cocked, straight tail point of upland bird hunting as a "point".

Whereas indicating is any form of clear air scenting, changes in their body or movements etc. that indicates deer.

We train them to not lock up on point from when they first hit hot scent as the deer could be a ways ahead or moving and then you struggle to catch up. At the same time not all dogs point deer the same way they point birds. Mine is a great example. She does the classic point when bird hunting but is more an indicator for big game. And will become more rigid and slow in her movements when you're close. I prefer deer hunting with her as you need to have a stronger bond and level of understanding of your dogs idiosyncracies to be successful as opposed to bird hunting.

This trip we both shot stags over our pooches, definitely wouldn't have got mine without Ellie!
 
"....indicating is any form of clear air scenting, changes in their body or movements etc......."

Upland pointers will exhibit the similar behavior(s) - you can clearly tell when the head cocks high and forward, the gait becomes a smooth deliberate trot, and they hold back posture as they're advancing. My griffon/lab older girl is particularly fond of picking up scent and going into stalk mode... Very cool hunting ungulates and birds with the same dogs. All good stuff. Dogs, love 'em.
 
Last edited:
2B39B8C7-DFC2-40B4-AAD4-7EBBAFAEC705.jpg

This is about as close as my Setter gets to a hunting dog. She does love her stuffed squirrel though. Been my best bud for going on 10 years!
 
Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
110,813
Messages
1,935,396
Members
34,888
Latest member
Jack the bear
Back
Top