THE HOME OF QUALITY DRENTSCHE PATRIJSHONDEN
  • Two Gun Home
    • About Us
    • Our Philosophy
    • Our Drents >
      • Rainbow Bridge
    • What is a Drent?
    • Drent Rescue
    • Favorite Links
    • Contact Us
  • Puppy Plans 2020
    • Ember X Booker: Spring 2020
    • Powder X Cooper: summer 2020
    • Puppy Application
    • Previous Litters >
      • 2019 Two Gun Litter >
        • 2019 Feed Back
      • 2017 Two Gun Litter
  • Dutch Dog Blog
  • Two Gun Store
    • The Drent Book

How much "steady" do you need?

10/1/2019

 
Just so we are all on the same sheet of music, I found the classic graphic I believe most "pointer people" can agree on to define the various "levels" of steadiness.. The further to the right, the "higher" the level of steadiness.
Picture
Levels of steadiness
In the world of pointing dogs this can be quite the debate. In Real World hunting situations, with all of the people I have hunted with and all the different dogs I have had the opportunity to hunt over I have heard a lot of things, mostly yelling, cussing, copious whistle bleating and even witnessed a tantrum or two over dog performance for one thing or another. The one thing I never heard a peep over is a guy complaining his dog was too steady.. Let that soak in for a quick minute. Hell, I'm guilty of this. Please allow me to digress...it is my blog after all...In fact my first real bird dog from puppy is Paxson. I thought knew a lot about dog training already, read a half dozen books on Bird Dog training - man I got this, I thought. I was living in New Mexico at the time, and The Poof was about eighteen months old. He spent his first year and change living in Amstenrade, The Netherlands and had only seen a few pheasant and Grey Partridge when I took him out for walks in the South Limburger countryside.... Back to New Mexico. It was a banner year for Scaled quail, the coveys out on the mesa where epic - hundreds of birds, just in a single covey! It didn't take long and Paxson began to point naturally, doing an amazing job really. People have paid more to trainers and got less - just saying and since I thought I knew so much I allowed Paxson to be hunted with my dear friend's yellow Lab, Drake. I love Jim, and I really thought the world of Drake, but he was no pointing dog! True to type, he'd blaze on in and the quail would fly. Soon this became a competition for Paxson and turned into a behavior I have never been able to completely rein in. I learned I couldn't hunt him with another dog and so Paxson, despite being an amazing bird dog, has never had his talents showcased to anyone wanting to run their own dog during the same hunt.
So if I haven't lost you yet...I am talking about STEADINESS, a dog's ability to "hold point" until the boss says otherwise - really that is what it comes down to.

If you plan to do trials and reach high scores with many of the testing organizations, yes you need maximum steadiness. My favorite TV show host, Harley Jackson from American Gun Dog, took a lot of flack from this group over his dog's "lower level" of steadiness.

For hunting, I really think Steady to Shot is necessary. This keeps the dog on point, and safe through the first shot happening. The upside is, the dog can immediately begin recovery on the downed bird. The downside is - what if the covey didn't all go? Well, it'll be put up by the charging dog for sure.
Picture
Picture
Even in the markedly down season this year, I did have the opportunity to have a covey flush into another sitting covey. Having a higher level of control would have yielded many more opportunities to bag birds. As the situation unfolded, I had a dog set free by the gun shot chasing down a hit bird and ran right into a new tightly clustered covey - they launched up the steep slope and in turn the flushed birds flushed yet again - opportunity lost. Climbing down that steep and crumbling slope wasn't as easy as it could have been, if you are picking up what I am putting down.


So there is some personal preference involved, there is some practicality involved and well, to be honest, there are some bragging rights involved. In the early season I hunted with Booker, who when he is feeling it, can be steady all the way to fall. It was was super cool, and happened with a couple of witnesses, since we were "hunting" one of Washington's release sights. He stuck a solid clean point, I walked up, the bird flushed, I made the shot and it fell to mother Earth. I looked to my left, and there the old boy was still on point. He looked up at me and I told him, "fetch it up boy" and off he went. Perfect delivery to hand and then went right to his healing position at my left.
Picture

Comments are closed.

    Categories

    All
    Breeding Plans
    General News
    Hunting
    In The Kitchen
    Puppy Talk
    Reviews
    The Book
    Thinking Out Loud
    Training


    Two Gun

    I'm just a guy suffering with an infatuation with gundogs since childhood.  Fifty some years later this is what you get.

    Picture
    The Old Man

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    October 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

Location


Learn About Two Gun

- About Us
​
- Our Philosophy 
​- Our Drents
- The Dutch Dog Blog
​

An approved kennel of the Drentsche Patrijshond Club of North America

Picture

Contact Us

Picture
DMCA.com Protection Status
  • Two Gun Home
    • About Us
    • Our Philosophy
    • Our Drents >
      • Rainbow Bridge
    • What is a Drent?
    • Drent Rescue
    • Favorite Links
    • Contact Us
  • Puppy Plans 2020
    • Ember X Booker: Spring 2020
    • Powder X Cooper: summer 2020
    • Puppy Application
    • Previous Litters >
      • 2019 Two Gun Litter >
        • 2019 Feed Back
      • 2017 Two Gun Litter
  • Dutch Dog Blog
  • Two Gun Store
    • The Drent Book