By definition, “dog days” are the sultry part of the summer, supposed to occur during the period that Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the sun — now often reckoned from July 3 to Aug. 11. This week’s Sportsman’s Corner is going to delve into dogs as many of us consider our canine companions to be a very important part of our lives. For this writer, there was always an Irish setter (and always named Judy) that doubled as the Roche family pet and bird dog in the fall. Those dogs did the things dogs do. They got sprayed by skunks, got mouthfuls of porcupine quills, ran away and caused family panic and cleaned the plates after dinner.
After the movie “Big Red” came out, the popularity of Irish setters skyrocketed and unfortunately the demand led to over-breeding and what once had been a breed of large slow-working bird dogs morphed into plank-sided show dogs with long flowing “feathers.” Those dogs were not bred to hunt and finding an Irish setter that was from good hunting line became difficult. My first dog after getting married was an Irish setter and Patty was a throwback who was big and could point woodcock with best of them.
If we look at how people in general treat dogs today as compared to 30 or 40 years ago, there is a big difference. Could you imagine taking your dog into a store? Buying a seat on the airplane for it to fly with you? Spending the kind of money that drives a huge industry providing specialty dog foods, toys, orthopedic beds, medical supplements and other “dog-friendly” products? One of the most popular vodkas on the market has a printed label that states it is “The vodka for dog people.” Don’t ask me how I know!
Being an upland hunting guide and passionate bird hunter has given me the opportunity to watch a lot of bird dogs in action. There have also been chances to interact at seminars with some of the best-known bird dog trainers of our time, like George Hickox, Delmer Smith and Rick Smith. My library includes no less than eight books on bird dog training, and I learn something new every year. As a high school teacher, there was a chance to compare how we educate students and train dogs. In my opinion, if we reversed the processes, I am convinced schools would be more effective. We would, however, have a lot of screwed-up dogs. The crux of the matter is that in dog training you are taught that you never give a command you are not prepared to enforce. Saying “Come!” when you cannot make the dog come is folly during training. So is telling a student that an outcome will follow his action when you know it will not. But that is getting us off the point.
Locally, it has been my pleasure to observe two excellent and knowledgeable dog trainers. Ray Ducharme of New Salem, when he was running his dog training business, was an excellent trainer of people because that is what the key really is, and he preached consistency. Pat Perry of Hedgerow Hunt Club in Royalston has a tremendous reputation he has earned over the years. There have been a number of bird hunters who have been referred by me to Pat and all were delighted with the results. For three French Brittanys now, Pat’s knowledge and excellent facilities have been the difference and helped me make good dogs better.
That process will be starting up now for Dinah and Laney as the wild birds hatched this spring are getting big enough to train on and the hard work, which begins with simple yard work and basic commands, can begin in earnest. Conditioning the dogs is a process that takes weeks. Just like any athlete, you can not expect a bird dog to hunt all day without a few weeks of graduated workouts. It would be like trying to run a marathon without any pre-training. With the technology available today, bird hunters can track their dogs on a handset and at the end of the day determine how much ground the dog covered. That reveals that often a bird dog’s day involves more than 10 miles of crashing through thick cover at high speed. My mentor, Gig Darey, taught me a lot about getting dogs ready and his string of Brittanys over the years were hard hunters as a result of his dedication to training and nutrition. He would gradually introduce a high energy dog food as the dogs began to get ready for the season. He also stressed training with live birds and then wild birds, when possible.
This hot weather makes it necessary to be smart in working your dog and we are doing more swimming and retrieving and basic “whoa” training coupled with retrieving. Soon, we will incorporate short runs outside the heat of the day and gradually get all of us into shape, or at least that is the plan! This writer also needs to continue my daily cardio workouts and do some more shooting so the dogs don’t get frustrated with me!
We all suffered a great loss this week with the passing of my brother-in-law, Paul Riendeau. Paul did his share of hunting and fishing in his younger days and loved fly fishing, especially for “kivers,” as he referred to panfish. He was always the life of the party and had many friends who enjoyed his sense of humor and zest for life. He will be missed by everyone who knew him.