One Nation, Under God

Training up a young bird dog

Raising a young bird dog is always a challenge. Balancing a pup’s enthusiasm with enough discipline to maintain a handle can be difficult, especially when there are too many birds.

That’s not typically a problem. But like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, I found myself peering out the windows at the cabin last week to see if the coast was clear.

It wasn’t.

There were sharptail grouse feeding under the boat parked outside. There were grouse on the split rail fence across the road. There were a couple of others balanced precariously in the very top of the pine tree next door. A pair of hen pheasants pecked at gravel behind the truck.

Dot would have to wait a bit before going outside. The temptation would be too great.

Telling her to stay, I stepped out the door to an explosion of wings. I’d only seen a couple dozen game birds, but at least 40 took flight.

When we arrived at the cabin the previous afternoon I took my eyes off Dot for only a few seconds before she was gone.

I called.

I whistled.

All to no avail.

I made a loop around the cabins and when I got back to ours Barb shouted that Dot was on the back patio.

With a bird.

She had caught a grouse and held it proudly in her mouth. The bird was quite alive, but no longer able to fly. I told her to drop it, which she eventually did with a bit of persuasion on my part.

A springer spaniel, Dot is a flushing dog, bred to make birds fly out of cover. With little cover around the cabins, she can flush dozens of birds in seconds. It’s hard to tell her “No, that’s not the way we do it.”

And it’s hard to get a handle on her when there are simply too many birds.

I peek out the window before letting Dot outside. If there are grouse and pheasants in the yard I wave my arms and holler at them. Most fly away and once Dot is out I can keep a handle on her although the scent is so strong her tail is but a blur.

It will be easier to go outside at the cabin once the summer crowds arrive and the birds move elsewhere.

I just hope we can find them next fall.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]

 

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