Quote Originally Posted by RezDog View Post
You just need to throw the dog higher Tom!
Well, I'm sure we will get back to a picture is better than a thousand words BUT, this tripped an old memory which sounds weird, I know.
So I tried to train my first dog to hunt birds. It was a papered Springer Spaniel. Tried to keep him close and whistled for right and left. I felt like he was ready for his close up so I showcased him on a pheasant hunt with a couple of friends. We were at the beginning of a tall grass field along the Sacramento River. Guns loaded, I let Jackie off the leash....it looks good for about 2 minutes then he gets on a rabbit and rips through the field...the pheasants were launching every which way out of gun range. In fact we just stood there, I'm not sure we even moved. We get to the end of the pheasant free field and Jackie comes to heel again stub tail going crazy, tongue out, happy as hell. Listlessly we continue. Then the sound of a bird in a thorny patch. I whisper to Jack...hunt 'em up Jack. Jack looks up at me and is 'saying,' which one of us goes into the stickers first? Say it again, 'hunt 'em up Jack!' He gets more animated, wiggling around....saying, 'you go first.' Finally I get so pissed off that I pick him up the throw him into the sticker patch...He takes it well and gets on the bird with a yip. So yeah, I threw a dog higher.
He didn't do a lot of hunting after that...later watched him 500 or so yards away chasing a deer when we were mountain quail hunting together. Jackie lived a long and spoiled life with my ex and my kids.