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| Four year old Colby honoring Chara.'s point. |
Now
I have a confession to make, I enjoy hunting with a pile of dogs. I know, it
makes little sense. It’s difficult to keep track of them and there are only so
many birds to find. I run two a lot, three sometimes, and even have done four
fairly often. In the thick grouse woods, four is over the top and I can’t hope
to keep track of them by myself.
Three
bells ringing is all that I can hope keep track of, and you had better not be
distracting me. So far I have resisted the beeper collars.
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| Twelve year old Chara backing Colby. |
What
man’s heart doesn’t skip a beat when two or three dogs are all locked up on
point simultaneously? And if one bell falls silent and I’m a little vague on
where I heard it last, I guide another dog, or dogs, in the general direction
of where the missing bell last sang. In short order they always finds the missing dog pointing.
My
oldest wirehair, Chara, walks along sorting out scent, never in a hurry at this stage of her life. The
younger dogs race about, particularly the youngest, Georgia the German shorthair, all
of them covering many times the ground. Yet Chara points as many grouse as
either of the youngsters, often in areas that they have barreled right through.
What’s the story of the tortoise and the hare…slow and steady wins the race?
Of
course Georgia may find a bird sixty yards away that Chara never would have found.
That’s reason enough for me to keep up the insanity.
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| Can you find the third dog pointing that grouse?? |
