The Upland Almanac – July 2019

30 The Upland Almanac | Autumn 2019

Section 799.2

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retrieve very well, because the act of running

down and seizing a bird runs counter to their

instinct–reinforced by training–to hold point.

Pointing dogs require ongoing, stringent training

to be effective. With spaniels and retrievers, one

can simply teach obedience to voice and whistle

commands, take the dog into cover, and start

hunting.

• • •
  Last autumn a man wanted to hunt with Jenny and me. He
  stopped at our house en route from upstate New York–where
  one of his two English springer spaniels had just earned a
  placement in a prestigious field trial–to his home in Ohio.
  He could hunt for only one day, and it turned out to be
  rainy. We tried his spaniels, one at a time, on
  woodcock. Each quartered back and forth
  through the dripping goldenrod and brambles
  beneath the dense crabapple and locust trees;
  each keenly explored the cover, turning
  instantly whenever her master shrilled two
  pips on his whistle. The dogs flushed several
  woodcock, but we did not manage to shoot any
  of them. When the rain stepped up, we retired
  to the house for lunch and to talk about dogs.
  By late afternoon, the rain had ended.
  The wind swung around to the north. Rents
  appeared in the clouds, and the slanting light gleamed on the
  rain-darkened treetrunks. I figured that the grouse, having
  sheltered in pines and hemlocks all day, would now be out
  feeding, filling their crops before nightfall. We had not hunted

with Jenny yet, and now was the time.

A covert just over the hill from home, a

hollow filled with brushy cutover woods. The

leaves lay sodden underfoot. My companion

followed his springer, I mine. Although the

dogs were of similar breeding, their hunting

techniques differed. My friend’s dog ran in the

hard, flat pattern that is rewarded in the field

trials, quartering sharply, almost mechanically,

her nose held high for body scent. By comparison, Jenny looked

slow. She flowed through the cover, her movements intense

but controlled. When quartering, she lacked the other dog’s

precision and snap: Instead, she coursed from one likely looking

patch of brush to another, her nose to the ground, sniffing over

the rocks, beneath the coils of grapevine, on

the tops of logs.

I saw her take scent: the momentary

pause, the lashing tail, the body low and feral

as she worked out the line and followed it

toward a grape tangle. I pipped on my own

whistle—a single blast–and she halted in a

quivering crouch.

Hastily I got into position, upslope from

the twisted vines. I gave a soft double-note on

the whistle, and into the tangle Jenny plunged.

The grouse clattered out, right to left and

angling uphill. At my shot, the bird crumpled. She was on it

Hunting is the real

occupation of my dog.

She knows

she is a hunter.

It is her life’s focus.

799.2

Continued on page 56

THE

HUNGRY TROUT RESORT

THE HUNGRY TROUT RESORT

Whiteface Mt. , NY 12997

(15 minutes from Lake Placid, and 2 hours north of Albany)

[email protected] • http://www.hungrytrout.com

presents

Upland Bird Package

Enjoy superb grouse and woodcock hunting on

thousands of acres of private, second-growth

Adirondack forests reserved only for our guests.

Includes:

• 3 Nights Lodging


• 3 Gourmet Dinners


• 3 Full Breakfasts


• 2 Full Day Guided Hunts

For shorter or longer stays and further information, call toll-free:

1-800-766-9137

$989

per person,

double occupancy

.

.

.