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The Wrong Foot  he saying has probably, officially, reached “ad nauseum” proportions, that it “takes birds to make a bird dog.” But it can also be those same birds that will unravel a bird dog… via the bird hunter. During the winter, it’s common practice to reflect on the season that’s just ended, perhaps sift through the hunting journal, and, while reliving the glorious moments, jot down those things our dog didn’t do so well. We come up with a training plan for the spring and summer and resolve to fix the bad habits and glitches in our partner. And we tackle them, too, one at a time. Creeping on point? Now he’s solid. Ignoring a back? He’s steady. Chasing a flushed bird or breaking at the shot? He waits for the command. Running wild with no care for who’s following him? By August, he’s hitting objectives, checking in, and holding point on young birds until we find him. Then we spend the last couple weeks getting the “stuff” ready, making plans for opening day and opening week, finishing up the final house duties so that come fall, everyone will know where to find us: chasing birds. Another popular saying – this one from the world of business – is that the success of a company, or of an individual, comes down to attitude and aptitude. Your dog’s got the aptitude – as do we, if we’ve practiced our shooting – that’s what we’ve been training so hard on. But it can be the attitude with which we chase those birds we’ve been waiting so long to chase that can render all of the valuable training from March to September moot. |
September/October
2007