An Old Bird Hunter’s Two-Cents. Toting a “stacked-barreled” 20 ga., this young lad practices for the up-coming turkey season. “Who’s up first?” requested the young game officer. The state game department was orchestrating a youth upland put-and-take hunting experience on facilities graciously donated by a private hunting preserve. An excited youngster stepped forward with his gun before him, barrel rightfully pointing straight up. The gun was a rustic, bolt-action, beast in the diminuative .410 caliber. Perhaps, noticing my stare before I redirected my gaze toward the top of my boots - “It wa ..read more

Warning: The following is satire and those that do not know what that means (or were born after the 1990’s) should avoid this Blog like avoiding reality. Oh, and that, just now, that was satire. Perhaps, with a hint of sarcasm? I believe I have mentioned somewhere on this website that I train gun dogs - upland (bird) dogs, to be specific. I had hoped that I had made that exhaustively clear? Oh, but the troubles I’ve seen. I hadn’t been in business a month before I began answering emails and phone calls dealing with a myriad of dog-related issues. From constipation to car chasing and car sickn ..read more

Warning: The following is satire and those that do not know what that means (or were born after the 1990’s) should avoid this Blog like avoiding reality. Oh, and that, just now, that was satire. Perhaps, with a hint of sarcasm. I believe I have mentioned somewhere on this website that I train gun dogs - upland (bird) dogs, to be specific. I had hoped that I had made that exhaustively clear? Oh, but the troubles I’ve seen. I hadn’t been in business a month before I began answering emails and phone calls dealing with a myriad of dog-related issues. From constipation to car chasing and car sickne ..read more

The Divisions. "FIELD TRIALS OF SPORTING DOGS AT HIGH POINT, NORTH CAROLINA" published in "Harper's Weekly" January 1887. Field trialing began in England and, after the smoke of its Civil War had cleared, made its way to the United States in the mid 1870’s. In a country vast and seemingly endless, pointing dog trials could cover tremendous tracts of land. Participants followed their rangy canines across the countryside on horseback. The breeds were mostly Setters and Pointers due to sport’s country of origin. American Field (AF) was the first managing organization for field trials in the Unit ..read more

There is a bit of regret and always a great respect for wildlife, once taken. Now, Shelley isn't your average nimrod. She has a few "tendencies" that are, well, let's call them "unusual". Among them, and most prominent, is the desire to hunt one weekend a year - a single day is generally preferable. In addition, due to her night-time work schedule, she insists that we hunt afternoons. Understandably, getting up before dawn when you had gone to bed just a few hours before is a chore! Many of us “real” hunters would scoff at such foolishness but I have been silenced by decades of Shelley's ..read more

05/15/2023 My buddy Jim White has an amazing outdoor resume that humbles me by any comparison. The one thing I have over him is a fair sense of hearing. Jim is deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other! All kidding aside, that statement falls just short of exaggeration. As we collected our gear from the truck, there came a single gobble off in the distance. Jim did not react. “Hey, I just heard a gobble,” I reported. "Really, which direction"? was Jim’s reply. I responded with an arm gesture pointing in the general direction while offering, "Somewhere over there, but it's a long wa ..read more

Page Four: Home is Where the “Bark” is. We are nearing the end of our initial two-week training period for Cooper - and me. As predicted, Cooper has been the perfect first retriever for my training practice and has been making very good progress; Cooper’s owners sufficiently blazing a trail. It has come to my notice that Cooper is a rather insecure pup and tends to bark at new or strange people, dogs, and such - even barked when startled by the pigeons flapping about in our coop. At (his) home, Cooper comes out barking, with hackles up, each time I pick him up. Some might misdiagnose this beha ..read more

Page Three: Super Cooper Like any athlete, dogs can have good days and bad. I’m not a golfer but I would give Cooper a “mulligan” for our last round. Putting it all behind us, we press on! You may recall that Cooper has a few quirks; his retrieve, being easily distracted, and possessing unpredictably explosive enthusiasm. Distraction, at this stage in life can be expected, in a way. Cooper isn’t a year old and, therefore, we have to consider all of the fantastic new things that constantly collide with his senses. This all sounds overwhelming to us and how would you ever address - and get past ..read more

Page Two: Cooper Capers We are continuing our journal on Cooper; the dog that made the cut as my first professional attempt at training an upland retriever (flushing) breed of dog. I have come to realize that these are not as much training “stages” as they are experiences. That is why I have not chronicled these blogs under Training and describe them as “pages”, not stages. When last we chatted, I believe I mentioned that Cooper’s owners had detailed and demonstrated some of the issues and antics associated with Coop. One important issue was his compliance to a return command; reliable retriev ..read more

Stage One: A Golden Opportunity Wait, did you say, “Upland Retriever”?! You read that right. Next, you’re thinking, “Since when”?! Well, it’s not such a stretch. I’ve hunted around several retrievers in upland and waterfowl settings. My setters had hunted in tandem with my buddy’s wonderful springer - heck, I had an uncle that bred and trained (black) Labs. So, I’ve been around retrievers as long as I can remember, I just preferred hunting with pointing dogs. Now, I’m not pretending to be an expert; not going so far as to claim that I can prepare retrievers for participating in organized testi ..read more