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And the Birds Whistled Bob-white
Quail hunting in the South has always been as common as sunburn. Due to the fertile soil, flat and rolling coastal plains that are cut by long rivers and dotted with lakes and ponds, made for a perfect farming. Mild winters with hot, humid summers meant crops grew for longer times of the year than just about any other part of the country. Cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco, peaches, sugar cane, watermelons, and indigo, the blue dye that comes from the plant, were staples. It didn't matter if the farming occurred on plantations several thousand acres big or on 50-acre tenant farms, one thing was for sure. Quail were abundant.
Amazing Facts about a dogs sense of smell
With regarding to sense of smell, our hunting dogs reign supreme. Scientists speculate that their olfactory senses can be 10,000 to 100,000 better than ours. For every single human scent receptor, our amazing canine companions boast 50. They have evolved to use a lot of their brain power the sense of smell. This remarkable ability makes our tail-wagging friends the best at detecting bomb threats, contrabands and game. Their scent receptors also adapt to different environments; thus, they can interpret various smells in a broad background. Even though most people prefer to domesticate the dogs, hunting and tracking are the exciting parts where a dog's sense of smell can be highly used. Dog hunting breeds have relied on this ability to track scents miles away. Here are some amazing facts about a dog's sense of smell:
Causes, Symptoms and Treatment - Parvo
Parvo in dogs refers to the Canine parvovirus, a highly contagious disease found among dogs that causes gastrointestinal illnesses in puppies and older animals. It is a febrile disease of the canines which is highly contagious, especially through contact with infected feces. The virus spreads to the dogs' gastrointestinal tracts and affects their health by deteriorating their intestines, stopping them from absorbing vital nutrients. As a result, dogs and puppies become extremely weak and dehydrated. Hunting breeds are especially affected due to their exposure to infected animals or other factors such as contaminated soil and water. Thus, they are more prone to be infected with the parvovirus. The illness, if not well looked after or controlled, can lead to the death of the dogs.
Understanding Bird Scent - Part 1 The Birds
In his book Best Way To Train Your Gun Dog, Hall of Fame Trainer Delmar Smith said: "No one's ever understood one thing about scent." Add this: Odor chemistry is complex and still poorly understood. (The Science of Smell, Iowa State University May 2004). Now we can understand why few, if any, have dared enter this research field of bird scent and pointing dogs.
Last Hunt
John Cole had been hunt master on Old Pine Plantation thirty years. Before that he had worked on other plantations in the quail belt, that land between Albany and Tallahassee where quail still thrived, thanks to Yankee old money, fire, and God's providence. He'd been born on one where his father before him had trained bird dogs and managed hunts for the owner and his guests, "folks with more money than good sense," his father used to say.
SportDOG® Brand UplandHunter® 1875
Technology has taken over the world these past few decades. It's impact on dog training has caused many handlers and trainers to gravitate towards GPS tracking collars. But for anyone running dogs inside of bell range, the SportDOG® 1875 fills an important gap. 'Complexity is the enemy of execution,' goes the saying, and that defines the SportDOG 1875.
End of a Friendship - by Tom Word
Ben and Sam were sharing an end-of-week dram of The Macallan in Ben's library-conference room when the subject, end of friendships, came up. It was a too-frequent subject on their minds these days, with COVID-19, the fast-approaching presidential election, BLM protests and riots, frequent threatening hurricanes and other impending disasters. Almost everyone seemed out-of-sorts. But Ben and Sam had in eight decades lived through many difficult times, and so had in their old souls a certain confidence that this too would pass. Their shared motto, kept to themselves, was, "Don't take anything, especially yourself, too seriously. Eventually, the pendulum will swing and the country will right itself a bit."
Money Order Scams - Tip #2
If you place a Classified ad on Gundog Central, as sure as the sun rises, you'll eventually be contacted by a scammer trying to get you to bite on a money order scam. It might sound frightening, but you have nothing to worry about if you know that to look for. I've been dealing with these scams on Gundog Central for over a decade now. These scams aren't isolated to Gundog Central but every classified website on the internet were members list items for sale. There will always be some lazy idiot out there trying to trick you out of your hard-earned money. Unfortunately, when someone does fall for these scams, it's not only the anonymous con artist that looks bad, but also the website where the transaction took place. I do everything I can to monitor, block and report these people to the right authorizes. That alone isn't enough, so I want to make sure everyone knows what to look out for and how to deal with these people
The Master Thief
Fred Freeze was a genius at training pointing dogs, of a certain sort. Very smart ones, the ones who understood what field trials were all about. Not necessarily the most athletic or naturally talented, but those that could be taught to leverage the talents of a brace mate. And none had been so well suited to Fred Freeze's methods as Candice, a pointer female who learned tricks from Fred like a circus performer.
SportDOG: Gear the way youd design it
My dentist, Doc Biehn, was a waterfowler and I always got to check it out when I got my teeth cleaned as a kid. I remember one visit when he handed me a new, Marlin Super Goose he extracted from his closet. I'd never seen anything like the 10 gauge, bolt action shotgun that took a 3.5 inch shell and came with a two-shell clip and full-choked 34-inch barrel. That beast weighed a whopping 10.5 pounds, making it a virtual shoulder-cannon for waterfowlers. I could barely lift the heavy artillery let alone work the bolt without significant muzzle rock. My amazement turned to confusion, and in the end I couldn't see how that firearm would replace my side-by-side or pump in the blind. The Super Goose must have been designed by someone who didn't hunt geese.
Midseason corrections
Next year's quail opener was set before the season ended. This year's was good, check that, it was really good, the best in recent history. There seemed to be birds everywhere we went, all of the dogs worked great, and that combination caused us to set the bar for next year very high. Ours was a reasonable goal, mostly because we had several months in which to prepare. And so we did.
The Great Debate: Pointing or Flushing Dogs for Quail
My wife said I winced when we pulled up to the only game in town. It was an old motel of a vintage that reminded me of the Golden Era of travel by car. Over the years families probably over-nighted here while on their way to any one of a number of the nearby wild quail Valhallas. No visible capital improvements had been done for a long time, at least I couldn't see any renovation. The 30-some-odd rooms looked sad while the adjoining restaurant and tavern was booming.
Shadow Oak Bo Remembered by Tom Word
I treasure many memories of Shadow Oak Bo, the first and clearest (I can watch it like a movie in mind's eye today) at Coney Lake in the Lee County All-Age when Bo was a first year. I was riding with Luke Weaver in his pickup, following in the course path. Bo had a pretty find just ahead and we both said, "Wow, that's a handsome setter." A couple minutes later he had another and got too close, bumping the bird. Luke stopped where we could watch Robin after judges and gallery moved on. Robin administered a stern correction with a rein to Bo's chest, and an instant after, Bo, undaunted, was licking Robin's hands, with tail wagging, happy as could be.
The Joy of Cover Dogs - By Tom Keer
Places in snow country are reported to have lots of words to describe the white, powdery flakes gracing their winter countryside. Maybe that's true, but at home in New England we have the same with stone walls. Scratch farmers in our country's earliest years had to clear rocks struck by the point of a moldboard plow. They'd hump the granite, soapstone, flint, and quartz to the field edges and toss 'em in a neighborly fashion. These low-to-the-ground structures were called dumped walls and they served no purpose other than to allow for more successful tilling.
