Rules of the Road
Hunting over another Man’s Bird Dog
Robert Reed
Installment #1
On average, it takes three years and thousands of birds to ready a bird dog for top placement in
field trials. Birds can cost a trainer from $3 to $20 dollars a piece or the trainer can raise his own
birds. Either way, do the math! The dog you hunt behind - if near this caliber of a dog - is worth
thousands of dollars of the owner’s hard earned green. You’ll make no friends by being reckless
with a gun around such an animal. Likely, you’ll be invited to leave the field and never return to
hunt behind such a gifted animal. Worst case, you’ll get to buy a dog that can’t hunt and takes dirt
naps, for several thousand dollars. It really isn’t a joke. Bird dog trainers would rather watch you
shoot yourself than risk their dog. Safety is first, and is part of every aspect of the hunt.
A good bird dog needs to know only a few commands. Trainers of this caliber don’t waste their
efforts teaching a dog to roll over. They limit the scope, and they demand the dog respond with
excellence. The difference between a good bird dog and yours is that a good bird dog executes
those commands on cue - without hesitation or needing to hear the command more than once - with
grace, style and energy. These commands are typically “Whoa,” “Come,” “Stay,” and “No,” if you’re
dealing with a pointing dog. Other commands such as hup, fetch, heel, etc., are up to the trainer.
The point for you, as the guest hunting over this wonderful animal, is you will never issue a
command to the dog. In fact, when the dog is working in the field, you will not say a word to the dog.
You shouldn’t hear the handler say much to the dog when it is working. If you do, you can be sure
the dog has no clue what is being said and the trainer has even less of a clue. One of the best bird
dog training aids is a roll of duct tape, applied liberally to the mouth of the trainer.
See, the secret is that good bird dogs are actually idiots. They cannot understand complex
sentences, the King’s English, hell; they can barely handle more than a few syllables. You have to
repeatedly drill them over and over to get them to execute commands flawlessly. Ever program a
computer? It’s the same deal, one wrong symbol or letter, or in this case inflection of the voice and
nothing works right. On the positive side, they are crazy about birds… crazy idiots. If you get out of
the way and let the crazy idiots do their work, you will find birds. Remember, shut up and watch the
crazy idiots.
Let’s pretend you are lucky enough to be in a field that has birds and are hunting with a good bird
dog. The dog will move through the field at light speed and you might catch a glimpse of him from
time to time. The barrel of your gun is pointed in a safe direction and you hear the handler state the
dog is on point. You look at Fido. He’s a statue with tremors. His nose is pointed in a direction.
Guess what? His nose is pointed at the bird. Depending on wind conditions, moisture, etc., that
bird could be thirty yards away or so close it’s sipping the spit dripping from the dog’s mouth. It just
depends, and the only person who has a clue how close that bird is to the dog is the handler.
Now’s the time to get your butt close to the dog. I don’t advocate running with a loaded gun, unless
in a firefight. However, I do not advocate allowing the second coming of Christ to arrive before you
get near a dog on point. That bird really doesn’t want to sit under a dripping nose all day. Would
you? Move briskly, maintaining a safe distance from other hunters in your party and get on line with
the dog. That bird could pop, at no fault of the dog, and you would have a legitimate shot, in my
estimation. Other trainers may differ, but today you need only worry about me.
So, here’s this installments summary rules:
1. Safety
2. Shut up
3. Watch the crazy idiots
4. On point, get your butt up there (Safely)
Installment #2
Rules of the Road
Hunting over another Man’s Bird Dog
Fido is on point. You’ve safely moved on line and the bird has not flushed, the dog has remained
rock steady and now it’s time for the ballet. Too many hunters approach a pointed bird wrong. They
do this for the same reason high school football players tackle the wrong way; they watched
somebody do it on TV. If you watched a video clip of some guy walking up behind a dog on point and
straight past it to flush a bird, you learned it wrong. Here’s the simple reason it’s wrong: Birds run.
There’s more to it than that, but that’s all you really need to get into your head to do this right.
Fido burnt several hundred calories looking for that one stupid bird that will sit still long enough for
you to get your buns up on line. You lumber up behind the dog and make a beeline in the direction
of his nose. Any upland bird knows he has better chances on the ground in heavy cover than flying
through the hawk-laden sky. This bird does not want to fly, but will if it has to. You need to change
the calculation in this bird’s mind. You and the dog are going to convince this bird that the only safe
course of action is to take to the air. It is a bird after all. You approach from the side or swing wide
of the dog and circle ahead to pin the bird between you and the dog. This has the added advantage
of allowing the dog to actually see what in the world you are doing. He’s less likely to become
startled.
There are times when you have no choice but to approach from behind the dog. I can think of
grouse thickets that left me no choice. However, this situation is rare and should only be used as a
last resort. Another disadvantage of walking straight past a dog is you cannot see the dog. If the
dog breaks point and rushes in you are at a disadvantage if you want to correct the dog. You’ve
also created a very unsafe situation. The dog could end up in front of your barrel and you can’t see
him coming. Bad form. This is why I refer to the flush as a ballet. Several things must be done right,
for safety and to increase the chances of getting a clean shot at the flushed bird. And I mean
FLUSHED bird. Shooting a bird on the ground near a dog should be done only by the owner, and
only in very rare situations. Let the owner take that risk, not you. When moving around the pointing
dog, try to be as calm as possible. That’s not always easy, but it helps keep the dog calm as well.
Meanwhile, Fido has a job to do. His job is to not move, with only one caveat: if the bird does not
move. A good bird dog points on strong scent, is steady to flush, shot, and - my personal emphasis
– falling bird. There’s a lot of debate if this steadiness is necessary. Concern about lost game, etc.,
is usually the rationale. I don’t wish to downplay that, however, I’m more concerned about
developing a good bird dog. Did I mention good bird dogs are idiots? Know what happens when
you give an idiot an inch? Well, that’s the point. If you let Fido move out of point for any reason
other than you’ve told him, then he will start taking liberties that could prove dangerous. Since my
dogs are stupid, I play it safe. If they move out of point during the flush, shot or downing of a bird
without the “OK” command, they are corrected. If they rush in and flush a bird, that bird is not shot
and the dog is corrected. At any time during this process you hear the trainer yell “don’t shoot,”
then DON’T SHOOT. This is by far the hardest thing for the novice to grasp and execute, but it is the
quickest way to destroy weeks of hard training and will put the dog back to square one on the
training board. Think of it this way; would you like to go back to kindergarten and start again? This
assumes your teacher wasn’t a really good looking red head, and I’m not talking about a duck.
So everything has gone perfectly and the bird rises in the air. You’ve confirmed it is the right kind
or sex and you have an open shooting lane. Nobody is yelling for you to not shoot and the bird is in
your sight picture. Do the dog a favor, kill the bird. It’s OK if you miss, but it really is a nice reward
for Fido if you bring it down. You’ll feel pretty good too. During the flush, your shot or the falling of
the bird, you may hear the command “whoa.” That’s OK. It’s just the trainer knocking the rust out of
the dog’s head. Now the bird is down, what next?
Well, technically the dog is supposed to go pick it up. Since most folks don’t know the difference
between a hard-mouthed or soft mouthed dog, many novices will think a dog is mauling their pretty
bird on retrieve. Few actually do, and it is a flaw that can be fixed but the trainer needs to identify it
properly. That is not your job. If you are worried about your dead bird looking too dead, then you
need to ask yourself some questions. For instance, do you care how pretty this dead bird looks
when you load it into your game bag? Is it important to you that no feathers are missing? If you’ve
answered yes to either of these questions or are allergic to dog saliva, go get the bird yourself.
Make sure you tell the handler this before hand, because he’s going to send the dog for a retrieve.
As a guest, you should let him. If you don’t like the way the dog is handling the bird on retrieve,
fetch the next one yourself. However, do not attempt to stop the dog from “chewing” on the bird, or
expect the dog to bring the bird to you, ask the dog to bring it to you, etc. Let the dog do its job and
return the bird to the handler. The handler knows how to approach the dog on retrieve, get the dog
to drop the bird properly, the proper way to praise the dog for a good retrieve, the proper way to get
the dog in line if it is actually goofing off, etc. Just stay out of the way and watch the action. If the
dog was sent on retrieve and can’t find the bird, you can let the handler know you have a mark on
the bird. Do not go get it if the dog was sent to retrieve. That is up to the handler.
Here’s the second installments summary rules:
1. Birds run, approach the dog correctly
2. Shoot birds in the air
3. Obey, “Don’t Shoot”
4. Let the dog fetch or get it yourself.
The last item to cover is the “wild” flush. Wild, in this sense, is a bird flushed without the dog
pointing. Up to this, we’ve pretty much described the closing of the deal, how to behave around a
dog that points a bird. As we all know, hunting – specifically upland bird hunting – means you cover
a lot of ground. Sometimes the dog is hundreds of yards away. This is when the subject of wild
flush comes into play. What should the novice do, if the dog is several hundred yards away and a
bird pops up right next to you? This is my rule only; I say shoot the bird if you wish. If you do not,
just mark where the bird went down and let the handler know. If you choose to shoot, and hit the
bird, you are on your own. Don’t expect Fido to be commanded to your side and do the rest of the
job. That can happen, but I know my dogs. They want complete responsibility or they expect you to
police your own back yard. It’s your bird, not Fido’s. Therefore, you must clean up your own mess.
The flips side of this is if the dog is within about one hundred yards of you. As a dog handler, I’d
rather you let this one go. As a novice, you don’t have enough experience to tell if the dog is
actually working the bird. The handler may be able to tell, but it is better to play it safe. If there is
any doubt, don’t shoot and mark the bird. The dog can eventually be brought to bear and find this
bird. Patience, young Padawan.
After having been on several guided hunts and several hunts with guides, you may hear me shout,
“Take ‘em.” That’s code for “kill the bird.” This can happen on a wild flush or during a normal point,
flush, and shoot scenario. I’m not a guide. I train dogs and hunt, so I guess it’s just my Freudian slip
showing. I’m not perfect, so I don’t expect you to be. I am safe, so I expect you to be. Oh, by the
way, have fun hunting over these wonderful animals. I hope you get the bug, like me. It is an
awesome thing to witness… a bold, well-trained dog hunting, pointing, and retrieving the game you
have shot. If only the rest of life could be this simple and beautiful. Enjoy, many have never had
this experience and several pay thousands for it. And be safe, you’ll want to experience this again,
and again. You can’t do that when you are dead.
Here are da rules:
1. Safety
2. Shut up
3. Watch the crazy idiots
4. On point, get your butt up there (Safely)
5. Birds run, so approach the dog correctly
6. Shoot birds in the air
7. Obey, “Don’t Shoot”
8. Let the dog fetch or get it yourself
9. Dog Close? No shots on wild flush
10. Shot a wild flush? It’s your bird
11. Have Fun, Be Safe, and come again
-R.Reed
(c) COPYRIGHT 2005
Hunting over another Man’s Bird Dog
Robert Reed
Installment #1
On average, it takes three years and thousands of birds to ready a bird dog for top placement in
field trials. Birds can cost a trainer from $3 to $20 dollars a piece or the trainer can raise his own
birds. Either way, do the math! The dog you hunt behind - if near this caliber of a dog - is worth
thousands of dollars of the owner’s hard earned green. You’ll make no friends by being reckless
with a gun around such an animal. Likely, you’ll be invited to leave the field and never return to
hunt behind such a gifted animal. Worst case, you’ll get to buy a dog that can’t hunt and takes dirt
naps, for several thousand dollars. It really isn’t a joke. Bird dog trainers would rather watch you
shoot yourself than risk their dog. Safety is first, and is part of every aspect of the hunt.
A good bird dog needs to know only a few commands. Trainers of this caliber don’t waste their
efforts teaching a dog to roll over. They limit the scope, and they demand the dog respond with
excellence. The difference between a good bird dog and yours is that a good bird dog executes
those commands on cue - without hesitation or needing to hear the command more than once - with
grace, style and energy. These commands are typically “Whoa,” “Come,” “Stay,” and “No,” if you’re
dealing with a pointing dog. Other commands such as hup, fetch, heel, etc., are up to the trainer.
The point for you, as the guest hunting over this wonderful animal, is you will never issue a
command to the dog. In fact, when the dog is working in the field, you will not say a word to the dog.
You shouldn’t hear the handler say much to the dog when it is working. If you do, you can be sure
the dog has no clue what is being said and the trainer has even less of a clue. One of the best bird
dog training aids is a roll of duct tape, applied liberally to the mouth of the trainer.
See, the secret is that good bird dogs are actually idiots. They cannot understand complex
sentences, the King’s English, hell; they can barely handle more than a few syllables. You have to
repeatedly drill them over and over to get them to execute commands flawlessly. Ever program a
computer? It’s the same deal, one wrong symbol or letter, or in this case inflection of the voice and
nothing works right. On the positive side, they are crazy about birds… crazy idiots. If you get out of
the way and let the crazy idiots do their work, you will find birds. Remember, shut up and watch the
crazy idiots.
Let’s pretend you are lucky enough to be in a field that has birds and are hunting with a good bird
dog. The dog will move through the field at light speed and you might catch a glimpse of him from
time to time. The barrel of your gun is pointed in a safe direction and you hear the handler state the
dog is on point. You look at Fido. He’s a statue with tremors. His nose is pointed in a direction.
Guess what? His nose is pointed at the bird. Depending on wind conditions, moisture, etc., that
bird could be thirty yards away or so close it’s sipping the spit dripping from the dog’s mouth. It just
depends, and the only person who has a clue how close that bird is to the dog is the handler.
Now’s the time to get your butt close to the dog. I don’t advocate running with a loaded gun, unless
in a firefight. However, I do not advocate allowing the second coming of Christ to arrive before you
get near a dog on point. That bird really doesn’t want to sit under a dripping nose all day. Would
you? Move briskly, maintaining a safe distance from other hunters in your party and get on line with
the dog. That bird could pop, at no fault of the dog, and you would have a legitimate shot, in my
estimation. Other trainers may differ, but today you need only worry about me.
So, here’s this installments summary rules:
1. Safety
2. Shut up
3. Watch the crazy idiots
4. On point, get your butt up there (Safely)
Installment #2
Rules of the Road
Hunting over another Man’s Bird Dog
Fido is on point. You’ve safely moved on line and the bird has not flushed, the dog has remained
rock steady and now it’s time for the ballet. Too many hunters approach a pointed bird wrong. They
do this for the same reason high school football players tackle the wrong way; they watched
somebody do it on TV. If you watched a video clip of some guy walking up behind a dog on point and
straight past it to flush a bird, you learned it wrong. Here’s the simple reason it’s wrong: Birds run.
There’s more to it than that, but that’s all you really need to get into your head to do this right.
Fido burnt several hundred calories looking for that one stupid bird that will sit still long enough for
you to get your buns up on line. You lumber up behind the dog and make a beeline in the direction
of his nose. Any upland bird knows he has better chances on the ground in heavy cover than flying
through the hawk-laden sky. This bird does not want to fly, but will if it has to. You need to change
the calculation in this bird’s mind. You and the dog are going to convince this bird that the only safe
course of action is to take to the air. It is a bird after all. You approach from the side or swing wide
of the dog and circle ahead to pin the bird between you and the dog. This has the added advantage
of allowing the dog to actually see what in the world you are doing. He’s less likely to become
startled.
There are times when you have no choice but to approach from behind the dog. I can think of
grouse thickets that left me no choice. However, this situation is rare and should only be used as a
last resort. Another disadvantage of walking straight past a dog is you cannot see the dog. If the
dog breaks point and rushes in you are at a disadvantage if you want to correct the dog. You’ve
also created a very unsafe situation. The dog could end up in front of your barrel and you can’t see
him coming. Bad form. This is why I refer to the flush as a ballet. Several things must be done right,
for safety and to increase the chances of getting a clean shot at the flushed bird. And I mean
FLUSHED bird. Shooting a bird on the ground near a dog should be done only by the owner, and
only in very rare situations. Let the owner take that risk, not you. When moving around the pointing
dog, try to be as calm as possible. That’s not always easy, but it helps keep the dog calm as well.
Meanwhile, Fido has a job to do. His job is to not move, with only one caveat: if the bird does not
move. A good bird dog points on strong scent, is steady to flush, shot, and - my personal emphasis
– falling bird. There’s a lot of debate if this steadiness is necessary. Concern about lost game, etc.,
is usually the rationale. I don’t wish to downplay that, however, I’m more concerned about
developing a good bird dog. Did I mention good bird dogs are idiots? Know what happens when
you give an idiot an inch? Well, that’s the point. If you let Fido move out of point for any reason
other than you’ve told him, then he will start taking liberties that could prove dangerous. Since my
dogs are stupid, I play it safe. If they move out of point during the flush, shot or downing of a bird
without the “OK” command, they are corrected. If they rush in and flush a bird, that bird is not shot
and the dog is corrected. At any time during this process you hear the trainer yell “don’t shoot,”
then DON’T SHOOT. This is by far the hardest thing for the novice to grasp and execute, but it is the
quickest way to destroy weeks of hard training and will put the dog back to square one on the
training board. Think of it this way; would you like to go back to kindergarten and start again? This
assumes your teacher wasn’t a really good looking red head, and I’m not talking about a duck.
So everything has gone perfectly and the bird rises in the air. You’ve confirmed it is the right kind
or sex and you have an open shooting lane. Nobody is yelling for you to not shoot and the bird is in
your sight picture. Do the dog a favor, kill the bird. It’s OK if you miss, but it really is a nice reward
for Fido if you bring it down. You’ll feel pretty good too. During the flush, your shot or the falling of
the bird, you may hear the command “whoa.” That’s OK. It’s just the trainer knocking the rust out of
the dog’s head. Now the bird is down, what next?
Well, technically the dog is supposed to go pick it up. Since most folks don’t know the difference
between a hard-mouthed or soft mouthed dog, many novices will think a dog is mauling their pretty
bird on retrieve. Few actually do, and it is a flaw that can be fixed but the trainer needs to identify it
properly. That is not your job. If you are worried about your dead bird looking too dead, then you
need to ask yourself some questions. For instance, do you care how pretty this dead bird looks
when you load it into your game bag? Is it important to you that no feathers are missing? If you’ve
answered yes to either of these questions or are allergic to dog saliva, go get the bird yourself.
Make sure you tell the handler this before hand, because he’s going to send the dog for a retrieve.
As a guest, you should let him. If you don’t like the way the dog is handling the bird on retrieve,
fetch the next one yourself. However, do not attempt to stop the dog from “chewing” on the bird, or
expect the dog to bring the bird to you, ask the dog to bring it to you, etc. Let the dog do its job and
return the bird to the handler. The handler knows how to approach the dog on retrieve, get the dog
to drop the bird properly, the proper way to praise the dog for a good retrieve, the proper way to get
the dog in line if it is actually goofing off, etc. Just stay out of the way and watch the action. If the
dog was sent on retrieve and can’t find the bird, you can let the handler know you have a mark on
the bird. Do not go get it if the dog was sent to retrieve. That is up to the handler.
Here’s the second installments summary rules:
1. Birds run, approach the dog correctly
2. Shoot birds in the air
3. Obey, “Don’t Shoot”
4. Let the dog fetch or get it yourself.
The last item to cover is the “wild” flush. Wild, in this sense, is a bird flushed without the dog
pointing. Up to this, we’ve pretty much described the closing of the deal, how to behave around a
dog that points a bird. As we all know, hunting – specifically upland bird hunting – means you cover
a lot of ground. Sometimes the dog is hundreds of yards away. This is when the subject of wild
flush comes into play. What should the novice do, if the dog is several hundred yards away and a
bird pops up right next to you? This is my rule only; I say shoot the bird if you wish. If you do not,
just mark where the bird went down and let the handler know. If you choose to shoot, and hit the
bird, you are on your own. Don’t expect Fido to be commanded to your side and do the rest of the
job. That can happen, but I know my dogs. They want complete responsibility or they expect you to
police your own back yard. It’s your bird, not Fido’s. Therefore, you must clean up your own mess.
The flips side of this is if the dog is within about one hundred yards of you. As a dog handler, I’d
rather you let this one go. As a novice, you don’t have enough experience to tell if the dog is
actually working the bird. The handler may be able to tell, but it is better to play it safe. If there is
any doubt, don’t shoot and mark the bird. The dog can eventually be brought to bear and find this
bird. Patience, young Padawan.
After having been on several guided hunts and several hunts with guides, you may hear me shout,
“Take ‘em.” That’s code for “kill the bird.” This can happen on a wild flush or during a normal point,
flush, and shoot scenario. I’m not a guide. I train dogs and hunt, so I guess it’s just my Freudian slip
showing. I’m not perfect, so I don’t expect you to be. I am safe, so I expect you to be. Oh, by the
way, have fun hunting over these wonderful animals. I hope you get the bug, like me. It is an
awesome thing to witness… a bold, well-trained dog hunting, pointing, and retrieving the game you
have shot. If only the rest of life could be this simple and beautiful. Enjoy, many have never had
this experience and several pay thousands for it. And be safe, you’ll want to experience this again,
and again. You can’t do that when you are dead.
Here are da rules:
1. Safety
2. Shut up
3. Watch the crazy idiots
4. On point, get your butt up there (Safely)
5. Birds run, so approach the dog correctly
6. Shoot birds in the air
7. Obey, “Don’t Shoot”
8. Let the dog fetch or get it yourself
9. Dog Close? No shots on wild flush
10. Shot a wild flush? It’s your bird
11. Have Fun, Be Safe, and come again
-R.Reed
(c) COPYRIGHT 2005
RKP Cane Rods
989 348 2435
rkp@rkpcanerods.com
989 348 2435
rkp@rkpcanerods.com