Afleveringen
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Gina Deem was a nursing student in Bozeman, Montana when she adopted her first hunting dog in 2014. At the time, she wasnât a hunter, but her then-boyfriend was. âHe said, âIf weâre going to get a dog, weâre going to get a bird dog. And that bird dogâs going to be a German Shorthair,ââ she recalls. Aware of how many dogs were in shelters, Deem wanted to adopt a bird dog.
Deem and her partner didnât have the funds to put down a deposit with a reputable GSP breeder. Plus, she figured theyâd be able to find a GSP up for adoption. She was right. Within days, she and her then-boyfriend picked up a Shorthair named Boone from a small shelter near Sand Point, Idaho. He had been surrendered after his former ownerâs health declined.
That fall, Deem took Boone hunting and watched him point his first rooster pheasant. Deem was hooked and soon developed a deep passion for bird dogs and upland hunting. After adopting several more GSPs and observing how many popped up at shelters in her region, she started Paws to Peak Rescue in 2018. Since then, sheâs rehomed over 130 bird dogs in Montana, Idaho, Utah, and beyond.
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So how English is the English setter? In some ways, the answer is ânot very much.â In terms of numbers, looks and working style the breed is now more American, more Italian, more international than it is English. However, the English setter is, and always will be, quintessentially English. Refined over time by brilliant, industrious people, the English setter, like the English language, is a practical, elegant, and highly adaptable product of a small island nation that conquered the world.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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For bird enthusiasts, hearing about the negative impacts of habitat loss on bobwhite quail isnât anything new. In fact, this issue have been largely blamed for North Americaâs shrinking bobwhite population. However, parasites may have a larger effect on wild quail than previously thought, especially in Texas and Oklahoma.
âSomething happened,â said Dr. Ron Kendall, the founder of Texas Tech's Wildlife Toxicology Lab. âWe saw innumerable quail in the summer of 2010. Conditions were perfect. But by that fall, the quail were gone.â That year, biologists, wildlife managers, researchers, and hunters rallied together and launched "Operation Idiopathic Decline."
The operation brought together multiple universities. Scientists explored the potential causes of the quail population crash. âWe looked at pesticides, environmental contaminants, viruses, bacteria, and parasites,â said Dr. Kendall. âLo and behold, we saw these parasitic worms called helminths in the birds.â
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For many of us in the northern snow-covered hills of the United States, hunting season is shortly coming to an endâif not already. Green rolling pastures have now been replaced by a tundra; the woodcock have all traveled down to warmer, worm-filled bayous; and the grouse are retreating to the treetops.
Now entering your home, you will likely be met by familiar eyes: your hunting dog staring back at you for a sign that you are gearing up for a hunt. As your dog realizes that you are settling in for the evening, you can see its disappointment. Soon it slinks to its bed in protest, curling into a ball with a dejected sigh, resigning to the fact that there has been a change in the routine. A feeling of guilt fills your soul as your dog was at its happiest pursuing birds for you, so, of course, you head to the cookie jar to let Olâ Red know just how sorry you are. Your once chiseled athlete has de-evolved into somewhat of a bratwurst shape.
Olâ Redânow more affectionately known as âMr. Weeble Wobbleââneeds more than a little attention to get back down to his fighting weight.
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I heard the jokes about water swatting American coots long before I became a licensed hunter. But when I finally took up waterfowl hunting, I discovered that the humor surrounding coots was actually a well-placed sentry guarding a well-kept secret: American coot is delicious.
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Youâve done your research, picked the ideal dog breed, selected a reputable breeder, and now have a much-anticipated date circled on your calendar. Your new puppy will soon arrive in your home, full of unbridled potential and the uncanny ability to create chaos wherever it goes.
The weeks before the new pup arrives are the best time to gather supplies, puppy-proof your home, make an early puppy training and socialization plan, andâperhaps most importantlyâget the whole family on board with the plan. This early preparation work will go a long way toward ensuring a successful transition into your home and building a solid foundation for your new bird dog.
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My first experience with Arizona quail occurred as a covey of about 30 Gambelâs quail raced across the public two-track road before us, sprinting to a pond to get water. Not believing our luck, I pulled the truck over. My father, James, and buddy, Kyle Hedges, helped me boot up three dogs.
While the process took about 20 minutes, we were confident that the birds would still be somewhere close. Based on our combined years of bobwhite quail hunting experience, we thought perhaps theyâd be in the thick brush surrounding the pond or down the draw below. Thirty minutes later, only one bird in the whole covey flushed. Thatâs when we realized that these critters were different.
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If you were to ask a bird or rabbit hunter in nineteenth century England which dog he would prefer to accompany him, the answer was often a Curly-Coated Retriever. That may surprise you, given the rarity of the Curly today. Hunters in the 1800s knew the Curly-Coat as a persevering, talented, hardy hunting dog who could handle both fur and feather in upland and waterfowl work. The Curly was also useful in a secondary role as a guard dog.
The Curly-Coated Retriever owes much of its early popularity to the simple fact that it was the first retriever breed to be developed. While the Wavy-Coat Retriever was being developed around the same time, most canine historians give a slight edge to the Curlyâs claim of being the oldest by a few years. In the nineteenth century, guns were increasingly more accurate and accessible and retrievers were the up-and-coming canine specialists. With more accurate guns, hunters could shoot birds from much longer distances. Shooting no longer required a pointing or setting dog to range far afield and hold a bird on point while the hunter hurried to get close enough for an accurate shot.
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Kansasâ reputation as a classic upland hunting state has long been known. Bobwhite quail hunting here is legendary during boom years and remains solid during average years. While pheasant hunting in Kansas has decreased over the last few years due to habitat loss, the state is still consistently among the top three to four states for roosters. Additionally, Kansas is the country's top greater prairie chicken state, providing great opportunities to harvest the charismatic grassland dweller.
A chance to harvest these three species on a single trip, maybe even on a single walk, makes Kansas a special place to hunt in the fall. Here are a few tips to help you plan your attempt at the Kansas Grand Slam.
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One hundred and fifty years ago, the people of Germany struggled to create a united nation out of a patchwork of tiny kingdoms, city-states, and fiefdoms. Around the same time, german hunters also struggled to create a national breed of short-haired pointing dog. Eventually, both goals were realized.
Today, Germany is a rich and united republic and the German Shorthaired Pointer sits in triumph as the most successful continental pointing breed in the world.
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The Kansas Flint Hills prairie rose 100 feet above the low-lying soybean field I was hunting. Each day, two groups of greater prairie-chickens screamed down from the grasslands and into the field to feed at unbelievable speeds. I had these birds dialed in; I knew exactly which electric pole they flew past every morning. I was set up well before dawn, ready to pass-shoot them.
The first group came in well in advance, but I was unprepared for how fast they were. I missed, wildly behind. I adjusted my swing on the next group, got lucky, and dropped a bird at the tail end of the group. Was it the bird I was shooting at? Probably not. But in any case, I had my first late season chicken.
That chicken hunting experience was more like pass-shooting waterfowl than upland bird hunting, but it was utterly unique and incredibly fun. Every upland hunter should try it. These tips will help you connect on a greater prairie-chicken during the late season.
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While people will always disagree about which breed is the âhandsomest and perhaps the most generous,â everyone agrees that trying to follow all the twists and turns of the setterâs creation story is more or less impossible. But that doesnât mean we canât learn something more about them by taking a look at some of the more interesting, and even surprising, stops along the way.
In 1872, Edward Lavarack, the father of the modern English setter answered the question by writing â⊠the setter is nothing more than the setting spaniel improved.â Ok, so setters are spaniels that, at some point were âimprovedâ to become setters. But what exactly is a setting spaniel, and what exactly were the âimprovementsâ that turned them into setters?
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When I started hunting waterfowl, diver ducks seemed like the most expensive birds to target. YouTube videos worsened this impression. Everyone seemed to be hunting from extravagant blinds while utilizing an infinite number of bluebill and redhead decoys. It was baffling! How was a hunter on a limited budget supposed to compete with that?
The truth is, small decoy spreads are very effective if you play your cards right and know your diver ducks. Letâs look at how we can decoy diver ducks on a budget.
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On a sunny day on the fall of 1990, I was aboard a train traveling through the beautiful countryside of northern Italy. As I watched the rich, green valley of the Po River pass by my window, I was reminded of an area where I hunt ruffed grouse near my home in Manitoba. I couldnât help wondering what kind of game could be hiding in the root crops and corn.
During one of the many unscheduled train stops in the middle of nowhere, for unknown reasons, I noticed a man walking in the field about 200 meters from the track. He was carrying what I assumed to be a shotgun and appeared to be following a hedgerow that angled toward us. Un cacciatore, I thought, a hunter!? As I pressed my nose against the window to get a better look, I could see that the hunter was not alone; he had a dog. It was fairly large, had an orange and white coat, and was about 50 meters to the hunterâs left, trotting along the other side of the hedgerow.
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In the southeast, by mid-December, most hunters turn their attention away from whitetail deer and solely focus on waterfowl hunting. Wood ducks and Canadian geese can be found anywhere thereâs water. Many folks decoy puddle ducks and divers on the coastal plains, and lakes offer great opportunities for mallards and teal. But there is one migratory bird that most waterfowlers rarely glimpse: the American woodcock.
Woodcock arrive in the South each fall under the cover of darkness. By sunrise, they are tucked away in dense cover. However, if you don't mind putting a few miles on your boots beside a good bird dog, hunting American woodcock in the southeast is a great way to get out of the blind and into the woods.
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Until the mid-1800s, no one set out to create a rough-haired breed from scratch by systematically crossing dogs with different coat types. But the idea of deliberate crosses had been around since at least 1825 when Freiherr (Baron) v. d. Borch wrote in Yearbook for Forest Men, Hunters and Friends of Hunting, âIt is noteworthy that crossing the pudel and the pointing dog would unite and maintain the excellent drive by the virtues of both types.â
In 1881, German hunters began systematically cross-breeding Pudels and Pointers. The Pudels used in the original crosses differed from the Poodles we have today. The German Pudel was a hunting breed known for its keen love of water, strong retrieving instinct, and sharpness on predators. The Germans eventually created a superb gun dog breed named the Pudelpointer.
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Nothing gets my blood flowing more than hunting upland birds in November and accidentally flushing a snowshoe hare. Each fall, early season snowshoe hare hunting catches me off guard. Seldom am I ready for those first wild flushes that mark the beginning of hare season.
Snowshoes are commonly found in the same places as ruffed grouse and spruce grouse. To top it off, they will test your shooting capabilities to their fullest. You think shooting a ruffed grouse busting through the alders is tough? Try hitting a snowshoe hare thatâs just as fast but sprints across the ground.
Increase the odds of adding a hare to your game bag before the snow comes with these tips.
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Project Uplandâs annual North American Upland Bird Hunting Survey ended earlier this year. What better way to share our data than by starting a brawl over the most popular bird dog breeds?
The hunting dog world is full of personal biases, and our survey results reflected our communityâs diverse preferences. When asked, âWhat type of hunting dogs do you own?,â 53.69% of respondents said pointing, 32.84% said versatile, 19.37% said retriever, 11.11% said spaniel, and 1% said hound.
Although pointing dogs have retained the #1 spot seven years in a row, the number of versatile dog owners has increased slightly and the number of spaniel and retriever owners have decreased slightly. We wonât let our dog breed snobbery enter the chat, but personally, weâre always happy to see pointing and versatile dogs in the number one and two spots, respectively.
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Late-season ringneck hunting isnât as glorious as opening weekend. Gone are the early seasonâs young, short-tailed roosters that make up most huntersâ game bags. Long marches across tall grasses or freshly cut crop fields no longer result in dozens of flushes and easy shots for walkers and blockers alike. Rarely do birds hold for solid points, allowing that classic upland experience to unfold for solo hunters.
Instead, birds have been pressured hard, and many of the naive young-of-the-year birds have been harvested. Birds abandoned short cover and crop fields due to winter weather conditions and holed up in thick grass, cattail sloughs, and woody windbreaks for protection. Additionally, due to heavy hunting pressure, roosters are prone to run from approaching hunters or flush too far away for an ethical shot.
This all sounds discouraging, right? Even so, my favorite time to hunt pheasants, besides the first two opening weeks, is the late season. While itâs not easy, pheasant hunting late in the year can be wildly successful.
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The Irish Setter, like many dog breeds, has a history filled with complex twists and turns that have shaped the dog we love today.
Irish Setters descend from the same rootstock that gave rise to all the setter breeds, but there is good reason to believe they may be the oldest of them all. The spaniels that became setting dogs were in Ireland since at least the 16th century. During this time, the landscape of the island was quite different from what it is today.
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