Aug / Sept 2007

What are Pointing Dog Trainers Doing… that retriever trainers should be?
by Jason Smith

heir dogs are sleek and stylish – they don’t so much run as float through the cover, like a breeze slithering through the honey-colored prairie or dense tangle of autumn-burnt ferns.

(Our dogs are blunt, brute, stocky, and hit cover like an irate water buffalo.)

They usually carry elegant names, to go along with the owner’s elegant guns and elegant clothing, all tied to an elegant tradition that leaves you sick of the word “elegant.”

(Our idea of “elegant” is mud and blood smeared on old Tank’s face after slogging through the muck for a fetch. Bonus points if you get sprayed when he shakes.)

They are questers, ranging far and wide in search of birds to point and hold for the meandering hunter, his gun broken over his shoulder until the moment when he dictates the bird is to be flushed.

(Oh come on, that’s how they hunt the uplands? We prefer ours to be lightning bolts, zapping pockets of cover while we scamper along, clutching the gun to the shattering point, praying that the frenetic enterprise culminates in a flurry of wings we’re never, ever ready for.)

And I know this may be tough to read – it’s almost tougher to write – but there are some things… gulp… that we amateur retriever trainers can learn from those who train pointing dogs.

A couple of pros can help us out: Rick Smith, of Team Huntsmith (www.huntsmith.com); and Travis Ruff, of Professional Gun Dogs (www.progundogs.com). We can’t hold their “pointing dog exclusivity” against them, either – both men train pointing dogs and retrievers

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