Jason is keeping an eye on his new puppy, Ace, a German Short Haired Pointer.
A versatile hunter and all-purpose gun dog, the German Short Haired Pointer possesses keen scenting power and high intelligence. The breed is proficient with many different types of game and sport, including trailing, retrieving, and pointing pheasant, quail, grouse, waterfowl, raccoons, possum, and even deer. A medium-sized breed, he has an aristocratic bearing and can be solid liver or liver and white in color.
The breed is streamlined yet powerful with strong hindquarters that make it able to move rapidly and turn quickly. It has moderately long flop ears set high on the head. Its muzzle is long, broad, and strong, allowing it to retrieve even heavy game. The dog's profile should be straight or strongly Roman nosed; any dished appearance to the profile is incorrect. The eyes are generally brown, with darker eyes being desirable; yellow or "bird of prey" eyes are a fault. The tail is commonly docked, although this is now prohibited in some countries. The correct location for docking for GSP is after the caudal vertebrae start to curl, leaving enough tail to let the dog communicate through tail wagging and movement. The docked tail should not be too long or too short but should balance the appearance of the head and body. The GSP tail is carried at a jaunty angle, not curled under. When the GSP is in classic point stance, the tail should be held straight out from the body forming a line with the pointing head and body. Like all German pointers, GSP have webbed feet.
Hale and Jason got Ace from a local man, Tom Bates, who raises German Short Haired Pointers. Tom also trains the dogs and raises quail. There are almost no wild coveys of quail in Mississippi, so if you want to hunt them, you have to raise them and set them out for the dogs to hunt. Tom buys about 1000 quail eggs every year and hatches them, feeding them to maturity. When you get ready to hunt, you tell Tom how many quail you want, and he goes into the coop with a net and catches them. The birds are put in a box and taken out to the hunting spot, a patch of woods, with an open field on either side - great for bird hunting. After putting the birds out, he comes back to pick up the hunters and the dogs. Then its off on the hunt. He put 8 birds out for us today. Jason is getting pretty good with that over and under 20 gauge.
Remember, this was a training session for Ace, so he had to stay on a lease and watch an older, experienced dog find the quail, point, and then retrieve the dead birds.
Whenever, we kill a bird and the older dog retrieves it, Ace gets a taste of hunting and gets to practice gently holding the bird in his mouth.
Was a great day for hunting and walking the woods.
In case Jason missed a bird,
I was there to scare it.
You know I couldn't talk about the woods without mentioning pigs. We found this pig trap. Tom told us about catching about 15 pigs in here one time. It works like a roach motel, they check in for the food, the heavy door drops, and they don't check out.
This is Tom's Mule that he uses to drive us from the parking area to the hunting area.
Here are the happy hunters and Ace.
After the hunt, we head back to Tom's place and watch him clean the birds. This is really civilized.
That's Beaudreaux watching Tom clean the birds. He gets the necks and gizzards, and sometimes a claw or two. We killed 6 of the 8 birds, not too bad.
Jason got his drivers permit the day before, so I make him drive us home.
He's not used to so much torque or the big knobby tires. He has to work pretty hard to drive the old jeep.
No comments:
Post a Comment