What’s better than a great find, flush and retrieve? Doing it with an audience and bragging rights on the line.
The birds aren’t flying, but something unavoidable, concrete and ineffable has been set in motion. Even a six-year-old feels it.
If you’re fortunate enough to have been taught how, you pour your sweat, and your tears, and your energy into the earth until the sides are square, and the bottom is flat.
Given enough time it happens to all of them. Dogs get sprayed by skunks, bird dogs a bit more often. Skunks live in nearly every part of the country and in all sorts of environments. Dogs have a way of seeking them out like laser guided missiles. It’s not a matter of if, but when, your dog will be sprayed.
If you recognize these symptoms, please, seek help immediately at your nearest skeet and trap range, dog hiking trail or tailwater. And remember, you’re not alone.
Can’t see her, but I could find her even without the GPS collar. She’s radiating bird vibes. It’s the only place in the willows with negative sound. And tension.
It had been a lackluster day for pheasant hunting in Montana. Tragically, after covering nearly a mazillion miles of normally productive cover we had seen exactly one rooster. A rooster far enough out we would have needed a .243 to take down, not the 12 gauge I was lugging.
Her head and neck were covered in feces. The color and consistency led me to believe it was human. In a panic I made several wild motions complimented with a few guttural utterances that let the dog know I didn’t want her anywhere near me or the truck.