Gypsy, A Bird dog I knew...

I love dogs, I hope that is evident to people by now.  There are different dogs for specific tasks.    Selected Beagles are for chasing and hunting rabbits.  Many different breeds of coonhounds were developed to hunt raccoons, mink, and ermine and occasionally bear.  All of these breeds have distinctive  names, Walker Coonhounds, Redbone, Bluetick, Plot hounds to list a few.  Some are silent on the trail.  Some "Call the trail" with distinctive barks, the pitch and frequency change when a critter is treed.  One of my favorite books or stories growing up was about "The Voice of Bugle Ann".  I read this story almost fifty years ago.   You do have to realize I read many books in addition to schoolbooks.  I was a voracious reader.  I would read to the point of being almost antisocial until the book was completed.  One story I especially enjoyed reading growing up was about "Big Red" an Irish Setter.  An American, Jim Kjelgaard, wrote the 1945 novel.   I find it somewhat ironic I came to a town where the School mascot is the "Big Reds". 

When I first came to Milan, I was an avid hunter.   Habits and rituals you make or learn in your youth are hard to give up.  I have slowly given up the role as a nimrod.  I love watching a good birddog work up to locking on a point.  It is incredible to watch a pair of dogs when the second dog honors the first dog's point.  The interplay between handler and dog is a scene of poetry in motion.  Being out in the fall air with the majestic colors and social ribbing is a real pleasure. 

Birddog owners are very attached to their breed.   They rightly have a lot of time, emotion and pride wrapped up in their line.  The Irish Setter I am most familiar with is Gypsy.  One of our clients owned Gypsy.   They graciously would lend her to me for pheasant hunting season.   The first morning hunt, I realized I really did not understand what a "Field Trial Irish Setter" meant.  I watched this whirling red mass of hair strip a forty-acre field in about ninety seconds.   There were about six rooster pheasants cackling and a flailing their wings to a safer area.  Gypsy would stop pop her head up and look for me.  I was getting upset.  When I finally put it together, she was checking in with me and was waiting for me to give her directions.  I finally figured out why she was out three times the range of a shotgun.  Field trialing was done on horseback.   In my best day as a youth, I could not keep up with a horse at an extended trot.  This country boy finally worked out the cues from the clues she was giving me.  Once I figured out how to read her and understand her she was a dream to be in the field with.  Some of the roads near the hunting property I had written permission to hunt on had large volume of auto traffic.   I would have a slip leash with me, just in case she picked up a bird scent.  I never needed it; Gypsy was always in tune to what was going on. 

At the time, I was hunting with Gypsy I had a woman working for me that had dogs.  She has gone on and become a dog trainer.  She would mutter about why I could get a dog I only had for three to four weeks a year to work off leash.  When you think like the dog, it makes understanding of their concept of the right rewards system clear.  First dogs are looking for a leader.  You can be their alpha or you are allowing them to be your alpha.  Kids and dogs are looking for the limits of an invisible box.  They want to test the limits to find out what happens.   You must respond to the cues they are giving.  Once you establish the house no's they must be reinforced or disciplined.  I am using the word discipline as being defined as "teaching".  I do not advocate physical "push them through a knot hole" training.  It does not work well and it may cause a dog to be a fear biter.  If you are not specifically telling a dog no, you are telling them yes.  Consistency is what eventually gets them to the endpoint you are training to.   If you want them up on your dinner table eating and eliminating do not tell them no.  That is your right and choice if you will.  You see my point; some things are acceptable while others are not.  You get to decide in your own home.  If your dog is out in public, there are social "rules" people expect.  No biting and do not do things to my leg are two, which come to mind.

Being out with a dog and hunting companions is memorable.  The banter of friends about missing a shot is a real ribbing you have to endure.  The real distain is from your hunting dog bud.   You can imagine Gypsy as if she is a human caricature, standing there hands on her hips, foot a tapping the ground, looking toward heaven and hear her muttering.  "I got him to the bird; I did my part stayed on point.  The bird flushes he shoots and misses.  It is more than a dog can stand."

Most seasoned hunters realize bringing home the game is only part of hunting.  Being out on a crisp morning when the weeds crackle when you step on them and watching the sun wiggle its way up from slumber are two good memories.  Seeing the mauve highlights on banks of stagnant clouds slowly moving across the horizon with a shaft of sunlight spotlighting a Hickory tree in the soybean field are a visual treat.  Watching the steam rise off Gypsy's back after getting warmed up adds depth to a morning.  Watching an eight point Whitetail buck come within fifteen feet of you in an open field is a close encounter.  The buck is so close you can count his nostril hairs.  It is cold enough that each nostril is blowing cone shaped tornados as he stands there.   This buck stands there for about two minutes; to me it seemed as if time stood still.   He trundled off along the fencerow and became but a vapor memory.  Gypsy was close and watched the deer.  She did not make a move to chase it or trail it.  It is if she held deer in distain over her passion for birds.

I had the pleasure of chasing birds and dreams with Gypsy for six seasons.  She developed mammary tumors (breast cancer).  I did a complete mastectomy on her right mammary chain one year.  The tumors came back on the left chain and I removed the left chain the following year.  She went hunting for two more seasons.  She was thirteen when I put her to sleep.  Gypsy was one of the good ones.

For more information about a specific case, consult your veterinarian.                   
The outside of a pet is good for the inside of a human.