Being part of the hunting and shooting industry, I get to try the latest and greatest new guns every year. But when I’m not toting a gun for work, I’m usually carrying a vintage shotgun. My duck and pigeon gun turned 100 this year, and my&nbsp;&nbsp;isn’t far behind it.&nbsp; I have a safe full of old&nbsp;,&nbsp;,&nbsp;, and&nbsp;, and I’ll probably never get rid of them. Sure, I’m a sucker for patina, nice engraving, and all of the little things that make an old gun great. But what I love most about vintage shotguns is learning about where they came from, how they were made, and how they handle in the field.&nbsp;

Why Hunt With a Vintage Shotgun?

The marriage between dubstep and nerdery you never knew you needed! Learn a bit about Ruffed Grouse while bass-facing, if you want.

[Ruffed Grouse info paraphrased from the book Nonpasserines: waterfowl through cranes, by A.P. Sandilands (2005).]

Ruffing It

So what if my dog has a wiggle butt and flags a bit on point? It’s kinda cute and still gets meat to the frying pan. If that’s the case and your dog will efficiently hunt, locate plenty of birds for you and stand point, I would happily agree with you. More often than not, however, it will affect your hunt in some aspect as it’s a symptom of underlying holes in your bird&nbsp;. It could develop into, amongst other things, a restrictive search, blinked retrieves, self hunting, ripping birds, stealing points and retrieves—which not only limits productivity in the field, it guarantees relentless ribbing from your hunting buddies. In my last&nbsp;Project Upland&nbsp;article, we discussed some of the nuances of reading your bird&nbsp;&nbsp;and figuring out what they are trying to tell you. I referenced flagging as a specific undesirable action in a&nbsp;. Let’s delve into that a little bit deeper to gain some understanding.

Understanding and Flagging in a Bird Dog

Our bird dog training routine has been completely uprooted, though my dogs are thoroughly enjoying all the extra training. Unfortunately for many people, what would have been the start of training season with friends and professional trainers has now become a stay-at-home DIY situation. Nevertheless, we can take this extra time to get some excellent training drills put together and maybe even include the family in the routines. For starters, we will look at building up one of the most important commands in the&nbsp;&nbsp;world –&nbsp;“Whoa.”

Whoa Training on Your Home Staircase

The reverberation of a&nbsp;&nbsp;drumming during early mornings in spring forests is one of the most magical sounds. When you hear it, it starkly contrasts against all other sounds found in the springtime. Its unique nature provokes human curiosity and admiration. No doubt, that very same feeling we get today is what sparked&nbsp;&nbsp;to write a letter to his home in England in 1750, describing the unusual behavior of a bird he called the Ruffed Heath-Cock.

Ruffed Grouse Drumming – The Mysterious Noise of Northern Forests

Sit and stay is a tall order. I don’t know about you, but this is no easy task for me or my bird dogs. Many of us are now quarantined in our homes. I’m sitting here writing this article with four very patient&nbsp;&nbsp;huddled up beside me awaiting anything remotely training related. And so place training is one of the things that can be accomplished at home and even with some help from the kids. If you have ever been&nbsp;&nbsp;with a young or developmental&nbsp;, you know how stressful whining and barking can be. Instead of watching that sunrise with your favorite cup of joe, you find yourself wrestling your hunting dog to keep it quiet and still. It’s in those times we realize that we should have better prepared our dog to control its emotions. Blaine Carter from Merrymeeting Kennels has created a series of at home drills that helps eliminate the issue.&nbsp;

Place Training in Your Home

Setters are incredible dogs that offer a wide diversity of type, hunting tendencies, and coat colors. Although some may be harder or softer than others, and some pups may be slightly more hesitant to retrieve, there are two constants that remain regardless of breed or strain: their beauty and amazing companionship in the field and at home. Llewellin Setters have a bit of a complicated history.&nbsp;, a figure in the iconic book&nbsp;, is the father of the Llewellin Setter, dating back to their early years in England. Regardless of their past, there is a strong modern appreciation for Llewellin Setters today. Crystal Powell, the secretary for the National Llewellin Gun Dog Club () and co-owner of Sinking Fork Llewellins, and&nbsp;’ Kyle Warren have offered in-depth insights about this strain of English Setters and generously shared their knowledge of this impressive, eye-catching dog.

Llewellin Setter: Characteristics, Training, and Hunting Ability

You did your homework, picked the right hunting&nbsp;, and found the breeder who provided you with the genetic package you dreamt of. On the drive home it hits you.&nbsp;Have I&nbsp;?&nbsp;Now what? How do I start?&nbsp;You own the equivalent of a Ferrari but are unsure how to take it for its first spin without scratching it. Too often, folks are afraid to work with a little pup, and before they know it that cute little bundle of fur and teeth grows up and takes over their lives, chewing through slippers, trucks, spousal relationships, and every last thread of happiness. Before that happens, you need to answer the question,&nbsp;How do I start?&nbsp;&nbsp; You just start, and you start on day one.

Where to Start in Training with a Bird Dog Puppy

Dogs that have been trained to hold point until the handler arrives will do so partly due to it being cooperative. However, this is mostly due to the dog fearing that if it moves, the bird will fly away.&nbsp;Steadiness comes into play once the dog realizes the presence of its handler.&nbsp;Before initiating the steadiness process, you would have hopefully provided your dog with a hunting season filled with copious amounts of wild bird exposure.&nbsp; . These experiences bolster its drive to find game, its understanding of how to find and handle birds, and provide a foundation in steadiness before you start putting on the controls. I encourage every and all opportunities to get your dog on wild birds no matter where you are in your steadiness process. It introduces the dog to game, and the bird will teach the dog manners. This provides dogs with a deeper understanding that birds can’t be caught. This will strengthen your point and avoid the early-season dog imbalances that most hunters experience.&nbsp;

Understanding the Stages of Steady Training a Dog

If I were to ask you to honestly explain to me your expectations of&nbsp;whoa, what would your answer look like? Would you be okay with the three or four step California roll type whoa, utilizing more than a few commands while throwing in a few choice expletives? You know, the kind of whoa where you turn red while the dog sighs and rolls its eyes at you in that teenage “Are you done?” manner. I find that without guidance, this is the typical whoa we see with new clients. In this article I’d like to shed some light on why a solid whoa command is imperative to your training () and provide some simple non-traditional drills that you can add to your everyday routine.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Weaving Whoa Training Into Our Daily Routines

Depending on where in the world you’re hunting turkeys, you may be fortunate to see other remarkable wildlife while you sit and hammer on your box or&nbsp;. You may even have one or two curious predatory critters come into your calls, hoping for an easy meal.&nbsp; For many modern turkey species, their main predators are owls, coyotes, and cougars. But what if they were golden eagles, sabertooth tigers, or dire wolves? What about sitting on the edge of a clearing and watching&nbsp;, mammoths, and mastodons frolic in the early morning mist while you wait for a big old tom to come in?&nbsp; For the extinct California turkey,&nbsp;life, including the flora and fauna that surrounded them, looked very different from today.&nbsp;

The Extinct California Wild Turkey: Meleagris Californica

As each year passes, some of us find enough time to raise and finish our dream upland dog. It is an amazing opportunity to have your dog at the ready, all day long, just begging to be educated. Extra time, whether due to retirement or working from home, has inspired many of us to get out there every day and mold our pup into the finest hunting machine. Of course, spending lots of time with a dog can have some unintended consequences, like leaving the dog at home for work, family, friends, and other activities where the dog is left behind. For those who haven’t properly prepared for this change, don’t be surprised to come home and discover that your rebellious companion has destroyed its crate and chewed through four different pairs of your shoes while you were away. Worse, you may return to a panicked and shaking dog that didn’t know if you would ever return—a true sign of separation anxiety and not a behavioral problem. Was there something you missed or hadn’t prepared for? Absolutely.

Solving Separation Anxiety Issues with Dogs

Having dealt with so-called “fine” firearms for decades, the question “What exactly is a ‘best gun?’” comes up a lot. Explaining what a best gun is can be challenging because it’s more of a concept or ethos to building a gun, not something that follows a set of rules or criteria. As such, the term is used quite liberally, especially when it comes to shotguns. Moreover, best quality&nbsp;&nbsp;made by English gunmakers are rare by any measure, giving them an almost mythical status. This makes the term “best quality” even more abstract.

What Is An English “Best Gun?”

“Where were you last night?” These words strike fear in nearly all adolescent children. Is the parent simply curious? Was it an ambivalent conversation starter or a knowing and accusatory set up? The answer always lies within the subtle tones, expression, and body language of the parent. The same is true when thinking about the delivery of a&nbsp;. It is very important to be cognizant of how we present information to our dogs because they, too, are always studying what we are saying. Know that you can’t hide your emotions within a command, no matter how hard you try. Always try to remain clear, calm, consistent, and absolute when commanding.

How to Correctly Command Your Dog

My first-ever interaction with an English Springer Spaniel was when my wife, Emily, brought one home. When considering which&nbsp;&nbsp;our first hunting dog should be, we ultimately landed on the one with which Emily was most familiar. She grew up with Springers, and consequently, that is where we landed. At that time, we weren’t aware of the differences between bench and field bred dogs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, as our involvement in bird hunting deepened, so did our knowledge of the breed. Our first dog, Dixie, was most likely a bench bred dog. Bench bred dogs are those who are bred with the goal of placing in the show ring. I say most likely because she came from an inconspicuous farm litter but was physically more similar to a bench dog (we’ll get into that in a bit).&nbsp; As Dixie got older, we got on a list for a field bred Springer Spaniel. These dogs are bred with the rigors of field trials and hunt tests in mind; hence the term field bred. Our first field bred dog, Timber, died from a&nbsp;&nbsp;before her second birthday. At that point, we got Fern. Then, roughly a year later, Wild, who has the same mother as Timber, joined our family.&nbsp;

English Springer Spaniel: Breed Characteristics, Abilities, and History

It’s not quite U.S. domestic politics or&nbsp;, but raise the topic of “force fetch” or its euphemism, “trained retrieve,” and you’ll quickly discover that pointing dog folks have lots of feelings about it. You’ll generally find four camps: a camp of those who say they don’t need it because they don’t need their dog to retrieve but only help them find a downed bird; a “natural retrieve” camp of folks who abhor the idea and claim you don’t need to do it with a good bird dog; a camp of those who say you can’t finish a great bird dog without it and attribute to it all sorts of benefits for the handler/canine relationship; and finally a camp of those who are confused by the divide between the proponents and detractors and aren’t really sure what force fetch is. I’ll confess I’ve spent at least a little time in each of those camps before settling in as a converted proponent of force fetch, and though sometimes I need to check my evangelistic zeal and admit it might not be necessary nor even desirable for every pointing dog / handler combo, I can speak to the positive experience I’ve had with it in training Lincoln. Here I’ll make the proponent’s case for anyone who might be considering employing it with their&nbsp;.

Introduction to Force Fetch for Pointing Dogs

In order to make our content easier to access in more diverse ways, we have decided to create audio versions of our growing library of online written content.

New tracks tagged #Grouse