----- Original Message -----

From: Margaret Cotton

To: working-gundog@web.whc.net

Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 8:30 AM

Subject: [working-gundog] CJ humour 2002

Sent via working-gundog: working-gundog@discuss.dundee.net

I don't know if I mentioned this before, I don't read what I write.

A charming fellow showed up at the hunting camp this year with his English
pointers.  He brought a stack of bird dog trialing magazines for our
edification (the ones where the winners are pictured holding their dog's
tail up in the air).  The pointers were nice dogs although we didn't
understand why he arose before dawn each morning to run his dogs for a half
hour before we went hunting.

He was impressed with our dogs, they found a lot of birds, but they had a
pretty "close" search that wasn't up to his standards.  When he took his
nice 4 year old bitch out of the travel crate she was impressive, packaged
dynamite...  There were four collar changes required to hunt the dog in New
Brunswick bird covers.  First the dog was kheld tight while the regular
leather collae was removed.  Then the dog was fitted with a beeper collar
that had more programmed sound sequences than my laptop.  Above the beeper
collar was mounted a 1 mile range TriTronics super collar with short whip
antenna.  Above that was mounted another wide nylon collar bearing a bell.
The dog was now equipped to communicate with the owner.  The hunter then
strapped on his multi-function e-collar transmitter in a very elaborate
shoulder holster... he was not equipped to communicate with the dog.   The
bitch only weighed 40 pounds (50 pounds with collars installed) and was
unable to turn her head very well but that didn't matter to her, she was
only going one way.

We picked a very large bird cover for this dog and and she was launched
without ceremony (and launched was the appropriate word).  I turned up the
power on my hearing aids and listened carefully as the bell sounds deindled
to silence.  The dog's owner was really good, he announced that she had a
bird and started off in the direction of the beeper.  We worked through the
brush for about 500 meters and came on the dog locked into a beautiful three
point stance.  Very impressive... the owner asked what we thought of the dog
.. .that flushed the grouse... we missed.

The dog was launched again and she bored straight uphill and was out of
sound range in less than a minute.  She didn't come back after three or four
minutes so we assumed she had another bird.  We couldn't locate the beeper
until we had labored to the top of the hill (lots of sharp wild raspberries
encountered on the way).  She was down the other side of the hill at the
edge of the swamp. And she had a woodcock pinned.  We took no cjhances and
spread out and positioned ourselves before the bird flushed.  Success... we
all hit the bird... two 12 gauge and one 28 gauge does a number on a small
bird.  No problem with the retrieving, there was no need.  We collected a
woodcock wing for lead and pesticide analysis and then relaunched her.

She found another grouse, about 700 meters from the first bird, and one of
the crew managed to drop the bird with one shot.  Then back to the truck.
The dog was just getting warmed up and the next cover, a four or five acre
grouse "hole" wasn't a problem, she blew through it in about eight
seconds... we hadn't loaded the shotguns yet.  There were apparently no
birds in the next cover... about 800 acres of alders.
It was lunch time and the dog was just getting into gear... we were
exhausted.

The next morning we ran his 10 month old male... a western (big going) dog
from Oklahoma the owner said. This male was larger and the three collars
didn't bother him a bit.  I didn't get to shoot over the dog, couldn't get
to him in time.  But one of my hunting companions (a marathon runner by
avocation) managed to get three woodcock and a grouse over the dog.  The
dog's owner missed these birds... he's a high school gym teacher and in good
condition but he was hampered by the transmitter holster and the sweat
fogging his glasses.  The pointers were lovely animals and did a beautiful
job but it's an athlete's game.   A two hundred meter Drahthaar is about all
that I can handle.   I forgot my camera and was sorry that I didn't get any
pictures of the small three collar pointer in full battle dress... maybe
next year.