How good is your pointing grouse dog? Fair? Good?
Outstanding? What is the standard
you use to judge your dog? Your author
has had the good fortune to watch and shoot over many pointing breed grouse
dogs. Those include English setter,
English pointer, German shorthaired pointer, pointing griffon, Brittany and
many more. The training of these dogs
has been from minimal to the very best field trial dogs.
Now let’s back-up perhaps 150 years. In the 1800s, outdoor and gun dog writers
classified the ruffed grouse as unfit for sporting purposes. The bird’s desire to quickly flush made it
unfit for pointing dogs. Course
untrained dogs were used by the market shooters but that was the limit of
grouse shooting with dogs. It wasn’t
until some of the more trained dogs from the South made their way North before
it was discovered that pointing dogs could be trained to properly handle the
elusive ruffed grouse.
Today, as mentioned above, there are many
pointing breeds capable of handling the King of Gamebirds. Now, let’s get back to the opening sentence: How good
is your pointing dog on grouse? Most gun dog owners overrate their
dog(s). They want so badly to have a
good grouse dog that they make believe that their dog is good. I occasionally find myself in that group. One of my shorthairs will make a mess of a
grouse find and I’ll make an excuse for him.
The really good grouse dogs rarely make a mistake…and I truly mean the
really good dogs.
Here’s an example of someone who thought
he had a really good dog. Several years
ago, I received an email asking me if I had knowledge of a Brittany kennel in
Maine. The man wanted to buy a Brittany
puppy from this kennel. I called the
kennel and asked if their dam was a hunter.
The woman said that they didn’t hunt but I could call a buyer of one of
their pups who is an avid upland hunter.
I called the man who bought a pup three years earlier from this
kennel. He said he had the best grouse
dog in the State of Maine. He invited me
to come watch his dog work. That was fine because I was traveling his way the
following week. If I recall, it was the
second week in September. The dog owner
had a very nice grouse covert that he promised would hold grouse. And it did.
The dog had three grouse finds in about one hour. All three grouse were runners and flushed way
ahead of the dog and the dog owner.
After each flush, the dog owner would say “Wasn’t that great dog
work?” And, when we finished, he
said: “Have you ever seen anything that
good?” Well, I was very diplomatic and
told him he had a “nice” dog and I appreciated his time. However, that was lousy dog work.
The bottom line, the absolute standard,
for outstanding pointing dog work on ruffed grouse is whether the bird is there
when you, the hunter, gets to the dog.
Is the bird within range for a shot?
The number of faraway flushes made in front of the dog has no value to
the hunter.
Having established a standard for outstanding
grouse work, how many dogs can actually pin every grouse find and have it there
when you, the hunter, arrives? Very
few. In fact, I’ve only seen one. Her name was Long Gone Madison, an English
setter, and she was considered amongst the top five grouse dogs ever. I watched her pin nine grouse in one hour.
Now we know what the very best can
do. How about your dog? If your dog can pin 50% of their grouse
finds, then you have a very good grouse dog.
More than 50%, you have a true “brag dog” that can run with the
best. Pinning less than 50% will still
give you a good dog, however, if it’s say one in ten, then your dog is simply a
weekend hunter and you’re both out just for fun. And, just being out for a fun day with your
best friend is a beautiful thing.
Paul Fuller is host of the Bird Dogs Afield TV program. Paul’s website is www.birddogsafield.com.
